Niagara Falls Tightrope Walker Asked To Pay For Extra Police Costs

When Nik Wallenda crossed the Niagara Falls via tightrope last month, the event was momentous due to two facts. First, Wallenda was the first to attempt crossing the falls since 1896. More importantly, he was the first person to achieve the feat, in front of over 125,000 people and on the television. The event was expected to cost the performer and his family 1.3 million dollars—a nearly unachievable amount. Thanks to ABC’s involvement, the costs were way down for the Wallenda family. As it turns out, it still might not be cheap enough.

There’s plenty of planning that must go into any event where multiple thousands of people show up. Police must be paid overtime to deal with crowd control, other safety measures must be initiated, and we really can’t forget the firemen on hand for any “just in case” scenario. Nik Wallenda and his crew did not forget the costs for all of these public services and even paid up, but now Niagara is saying the man did not pay up enough.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster says the agreement between Wallenda and the city stated Wallenda would cover all safety costs related to the big event. According to The Seattle Times while Wallenda has already given the city $17,500, Dyster says he owes another $25,500. However, Wallenda and his lawyer have already shelled out $200,000 to the state of N.Y. and he says he is paid up with the city of Niagara Falls, stating any costs related to extraneous happenings at the event are not his brunt to bear.

It seems to me Wallenda did a lot of positive things for Niagara Falls tourism, and maybe this should be a time for the city to let bygones be bygones. Still, if Wallenda does have promised debts to pay, he should honor them—despite it really being sucky to have to cover costs for something that was done simply for the exhilaration of achieving for mankind and to offer a thrilling viewing experience for the crowd.