Lodging Panel Funds Snow Goose Festival

The 13^th Annual High Plains Snow Goose Festival received a $9,000 donation from the Prowers County Lodging Tax Panel, about $1,000 less than they had requested, during the Panel’s monthly meeting this past Tuesday, October 21.  The Festival was the only item on the donation agenda.

Shawna Hodge, Lamar’s Main Street Director, told the Panel some new advertising areas will be explored, “We had a good response from tv commercials from Comcast Spotlight, and we’re putting some advertising out into other areas of the state.” Hodge said the farther away visitors come to the event, the more likely they are to use local motels.  “Unfortunately, we don’t get a great response from local residents to the event, but they don’t need to rent motel rooms in town either,” she added.

Vincent Gearhart, who is organizing this year’s event, said most of the activities for the February event have been moved to the Rodeway Cow Palace Inn. “We’ll still have some activities downtown at the Shore Art Center, for example, but we won’t be using the Lamar High School as a base of operations,” he explained. Gearhart added, “We’ll miss all the assistance we had through the years from Linda Groat and John Koshak from the Parks and Wildlife Department, but we’re keeping in touch with John for some help and the Department will still be involved with the Festival.

The Festival runs February 20-22, 2015 and features opportunities for wildlife and birding enthusiasts to view an assortment of migratory and local fowl in southeast Colorado. History oriented tours and arts and craft displays are offered and this year’s featured speaker is Jim Pfitzer, a birder and entertainer who will perform a one play, “Aldo Leopold, A Standard of Change”.

The Panel approved the Granada Kiosk panels which will be set up outside the Amache Museum along Highway 50 in the town. The two panels measure four feet by four feet and list annual events throughout Prowers County and southeast Colorado and the other panel details available area motels.

The next Lodging Tax Panel meeting is set for November 18.

By Russ Baldwin