Prowers Lodging Panel Helps Fund Local Retail Map

The Prowers County Lodging Tax Panel approved a $1,000 request from Lamar Partnership Incorporated to help finance the printing of a shopping directory map for Lamar.  The 11 by 17 inch color-coded map provides a guide to retail outlets within the city.  Restaurants, media outlets, fuel and convenience stores, entertainment, schools, medical facilities and other categories are identified by a group color and are then displayed on a street map.  Shawna Hodge, Executive Director for LPI, told the panel the maps will also be available on the organization’s website at www.mainstreetlamar.com and will be updated every three months for the hard copy map, and as changes occur for the website.  “We’ll distribute the maps free of charge at various locations throughout the city, such as motels, restaurants or, municipal buildings,” Hodge explained. 

The panel also approved $240 for a portion of the cost of maintaining the Lamar Chamber website each year.  The website is dedicated to marketing information for Lamar and Prowers County.  Panel members will take a second look at a proposal to erect an electronic information sign on the Prowers County Courthouse lawn next year.  The sign was offered to the county by owner, Brad Semmens.  Some citizens have voiced their concern that an electronic sign on the west lawn would negate the historic aspect of the courthouse itself, and not blend with plans to develop an historic theme to the stores along Main Street in Lamar. 

There was a brief discussion on an attempt next year, to initiate legislation which would allow the quarterly lodging tax to be paid directly to the county instead of the state treasurer’s office.  County Commissioner, Wendy Buxton-Andrade, said she had learned from a recent CCI meeting, that other counties are moving forward with a similar idea to present to the legislature next spring.  The Lodging Panel has requested more definitive information from the state on how the 1.9% lodging tax is paid to them, but although the payments are made, there is no accounting for which quarter they are matched with, or if the payments are partial or in full.  Buxton-Andrade said she would continue to gather information on the proposal.  The next meeting for the Lodging Tax Panel will be Tuesday, January 21.By Russ Baldwin