CITY OF TONAWANDA, NY - Canal Fest leaders discussed Wednesday night how to cope with a City of Tonawanda resolution that will shut the festival's rides and games down an hour early this year.

Canal Fest Corporation members were informed recently that the City of Tonawanda's common council voted to shut down the festival on their side of the canal at 10:00pm each of the festival's eight nights.

They say its for safety reasons.

"From about 10 o'clock on, we have an element coming into our city that creates a lot of problems," said City of Tonawanda Mayor Ron Pilozzi. "We want this to be a family-friendly event, which it should be."

"It cuts back on the member organizations that do stay open," said Canal Fest President Larry Denef. "It takes one more hour out of their available time to make money, and this is time that most organizations make their money to operate for the whole year."

Denef said there is also concern the carnival ride operator may not return next year.

But Tonawanda's Mayor says there will be no compromise on the resolution.