The regular monthly meeting of the Franklin County Tourism Bureau was held Thursday evening. Roger Cook presided over the hour long business meeting.
Cook spent a good deal of time discussing dwindling finances of the group. The tourism board is funded through the Resort & Bed Tax. These are funds that are generated from visitors to Franklin County resorts, such as Rend Lake. Also, a fee is charged for overnight stays that goes into the tourism coffers. However, West City and West Frankfort have opted out of the fund electing to keep those same generated funds. They can do this because they are Home Rule communities.
A demonstrably lower return has so far been the case on such funds generated at this point in 2013 the board was informed. This was especially true at Rend Lake, according to Cook, due to lower visitor rates. He did point out that we are moving into the busy part of the season for the Rend Lake area. However, he cautioned he could not see how it would be busy enough to match even last years tax generated. Taken in total, the Franklin County Tourism Board is expected once again to have to dip into their reserve fund. In the past two years, substantial money has been withdrawn from the fund to supply projects in the County with needed revenue. Expenses are expected to play a major part in upcoming meetings of the board. The board also discussed lack of due process regarding some improper past practices, and ways to insure that it could not be repeated.
Rick Litton,the designated IT liaison with the board , presented as well. He has been contracted to upgrade the tourism board’s Franklin County web presence. Litton walked board members through the attractive new site, and explained its potential. Board members responded with a vote of confidence to move forward with plans to upgrade the online web site.
A nominating group was appointed by vice president Cook for selection of officers at the June meeting. Objection was made to one of the three nominating committee members picked because she was already an officer, possibly up for re-election. she was replaced on the committee.
Newly installed Sesser Mayor Jason Ashmore also stopped by the meeting to greet the board members. Ashmore promised his support and help to the group in any way. He also said he looked very forward working with the tourism board.
The group will meet the third Thursdays of each month. Currently the board meetings are held only at the museum on West Main Street, in Benton. Meeting time has been changed to 5:30pm and these meetings are open to the public.
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