County Lodging Panel Seeks New Board Members

Original Concept Submitted for Lodging Panel Logo

No event funding requests were presented to the Prowers County Lodging Tax Panel during their monthly meeting, Tuesday, January 15, although funds were appropriated from their 2013 budget for the annual concert at the Sand and Sage Fair, the annual Snow Goose Festival and payment for the Lamar Chamber of Commerce website in the amount of $7,672 and Tourism Marketing amounting to $8,300. That leaves a balance of $44,190 to start the 2013 year. Payments to the Lodging Panel from the state for the final quarter of 2012 have yet to be paid. 

Prowers County Commissioner Wendy Buxton-Andrade will be the liaison to the Panel for 2013. She informed panel members that CCI, Colorado Counties Incorporated will begin to ask the state legislature for specifics on how, when and in what amounts, funding from lodging taxes is paid to the panel. She said Prowers County has been joined by other similar lodging panels in Colorado that have also been stymied in their requests for funding information from the state. 

A brief vote was held for the panel’s organization for the new year. There are no changes in the line up as Pat Palmer returns at president, Myrna duVall as vice-president, Judy Douglass as secretary and Brad Semmens as treasurer. Two vacancies are open on the panel. The positions will be advertised by the county. Terms are three years long, the panel meets monthly and members must reside in Prowers County and have some professional affiliation with the tourism industry. Panel by-laws require a nine member board. 

Panel members decided on the final appearance of the logo representing the organization. A selection was chosen this past December, and is a combination of two suggestions. The one remaining choice was to have the logo depicted as a picture puzzle and the panel opted to have fewer puzzle sections incorporated into the design. Now that the selection has been made, artwork will be finished on the design for future use.

Carla Scranton, panel office manager, submitted a breakdown on the number of requests made to the panel since its inception in 2006. The total funding is $505,909.05 for 139 approved requests. The sum includes salary, operation costs and office supplies. The half million dollars plus, was generated by the 1.9% lodging tax paid mostly by travelers who used any of the motels in Prowers County since the panel was begun. Baseball affiliated requests came to $77,050 which includes Babe Ruth and Cal Ripkin World Series. Requests to promote various rodeo events amounted to $98,000. Marketing costs for the PCDI billboard promotion were $42,200 and promotion and tourism expenses for SECORHT, Southeast Colorado Regional Heritage Tourism, were $45,000.

By Russ Baldwin