— — For the second year following a decade in hiatus, a City of Tonawanda tradition mixing public employees, business people and the general public will again be held at Fireman’s Park.

Viewed as a networking opportunity and all around good time, the Tonawanda City Officials Outing will take place from noon to 10 p.m. Wednesday at 318 Two Mile Creek Road.

Tickets are $30 to attend the event complete with live music, all-day lunch, a steak dinner, beer and pop, and proceeds benefit a bevy of programs geared toward kids in the community. Anyone interested in attending may purchase their tickets by the end of business Tuesday at the clerk’s office at Tonawanda City Hall, 200 Niagara Street.

“What we look forward to is all the city workers — we solicited all the local businesses — to mix with (the public),” Frontier Police Club President Timothy Stuart said, promoting the business networking potential of the renewed event. The club sponsors the event and member officers personally contribute to the fundraising effort out of their own paychecks.

What for decades before had involved city officials cooking and catering to members of the public each year just after Labor Day will now be catered by the Knights of Columbus to give public figures a chance to mingle.

Except for City Court Judge Mark Saltarelli, who first suggested restoring the event and who will arrive at the park at 5 a.m. to start cooking chowder for guests.

 “The only thing is I said I’ll cook the chowder because I’m kind of particular about that,” Saltarelli said. “When I was younger, as a defense attorney, I attended the outing all the time. It brought together all the people who did business in the community and all the officials. When it stopped there was something missing at the end of the year.”

“I was approached by Judge Saltarelli last year,” Stuart said. “He wanted to revive this concept, bring it back.”

Last year’s return event netted more than $2,000 for the many youth groups that have come to rely on funding through the club contributed from a small portion of each officer’s paycheck, “kind of like a union dues sort of thing,” Stuart said.

So in addition to all the lively discussions, food and entertainment is the fact that the event is a vital annual fundraiser for some 20 different youth services, from athletic organizations like little league to post prom parties and the annual youth fishing derby.

Saltarelli said there had been some resistance to the idea of bringing back the old tradition, mainly because of the amount of work involved. Along with the catering arrangement, Stuart said the police club will no longer use an outside promoter to solicit business advertisements, as had previously been the case.

Ticket sales, combined with the money donated by the city’s officers from their paychecks, will round out the funds and Stuart said he hopes to go slightly above last year’s attendance of 150 tickets sold.

Of the promoter relationship of old, he said tax reporting was a hassle and that “there were always questions” when telephone solicitors would call to garner support or contributions for the party.

“It was well attended last year by some retirees from the police department. It was a nice place to meet in an informal setting, just a lot of good conversation, that’s what comes out of it,” Stuart said. “People with businesses can network there. I’ve been with the police for 19 years but there are a lot of new officers in the department. It’s a good way to see some new faces.”