Logo Selected for Prowers County Lodging Tax Panel

Panel Board Members Myrna DuVall, Brad Semmens and Judy Douglass and winners Shayla Brown and Cristina Hernandez

Cristina Hernandez, a Parkview Elementary School fifth-grader and Shayla Brown, a seventh grade student in Wiley, are the co-winners of the logo that will be used by the Prowers County Lodging Panel. Each student received $200 in the shared award.

Cristina’s Entry to Use a Puzzle Picture for the Logo

Panel members decided that after several years of existence, the organization could be better served using a logo which best embodies Prowers County as a symbol. The contest was open to all county residents with the majority of entries coming from elementary school students. The Panel decided that two of the entries could be combined; one as in a puzzle with multiple pieces and the other as a description of the rural aspects of the county. The emblem will be scripted on top with, “Prowers Lodging Tax” and the bottom will read, “Where Pieces Come Together”. Carla Scranton, Tax Panel office manager said the logo will be formatted and ready to go in several weeks.

Board members voted to approve $300 to be used to help finance the Lamar Chamber of Commerce website which pays $600 annually for the service. Board members also discussed an idea submitted by KVAY News Director Corey Allen Forgue, of researching the requirements needed to have the city or county form a semi-pro baseball league which would be affiliated with the Pecos League, an amalgam of 12 teams which play about 70 games in three southwestern states between May and July. Forgue said Trinidad has a team in the league, as well as Raton and Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Scranton noted the Panel received a $6,954 payment from the state based on motel taxes which gives the Panel a balance of $60,341 as they move into 2013. Although payments will not be made until later next year, the panel awarded $4,672 to the annual Snow Goose Festival and $11,000 to help fund marketing expenses for next year’s Sand and Sage Concert. The next Lodging Tax Panel meeting will be January 15 at the Rodeway Inn Cow Palace.

By Russ Baldwin