Rawlins adds representative

It has been several months since the Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) has met in person but, on January 20, the board met at Firewater Public House in Saratoga.

In addition to the board members meeting face-to-face, the city of Rawlins sent Mary-Pat Whitfield to be their representative. The city has not had a representative since June 30, 2018. Whitfield has been a resident of Rawlins for 42 years and has worked with museums in the city.

CCVC Medicine Bow representative Sharon Kahl resigned from the board because she was elected to the Medicine Bow town council. Elected officials are not allowed to represent towns according to the bylaws of the CCVC. Kahl had served for several years on the board.

Grant presentations that were done in person included: Tale of Two Cities by Mother Mountain Anglers; Wyoming Weed and Pest Control Spring Workshop by Carbon County Weed and Pest; Wyoming Open Pool Tournament by Saratoga Lions Club; Summerfest by the Rawlins Downtown District Association and Frozen Fore-Carbon County Winter Golf Classic by the Saratoga Historical and Cultural Society.

Other grant applications submitted, but not in person, were Mountain Man Rendezvous; Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering; Summerfest; Festival of the Arts and Little Snake River Valley Visitors Center.

Once all the grants had been presented, the board voted on them.

Monthly CCVC information requests had most lead sources down from the month before with the exception of Travel Guides Free, which went from 367 requests in November to 543 for December.

As was expecting Lodging Tax Revenue was down for this time period from the year before. In 2019, revenue from the lodging tax was $31,026.78 while 2020 came in at $26,656.39. It was better than two years prior which had revenue come in at $24,146.01.

Carbon County lodging tax revenue took a hit, coming in at $3,478.10 compared to this time last year with revenue collected in 2019 at $5,770.73. Rawlins had the largest loss, collecting $19,579,579.58 down from $22,547.89. There were some municipalities that saw growth. Saratoga increased from the 2019 figure of $1,061.87 to $1,644.89 and Medicine Bow collected $324.13 this year compared to $190.76 the year before. Dixon also did well, collecting $817.95 this year versus the 2019 figure of $329.35.

Leslie Jefferson, the CEO of CCVC, said over the month she attended the Wyoming of Tourism (WOT) virtual meeting on the COVID-19 Relief Bill and attended a Wyoming State Industry-WOT meeting.

The board approved Chamber of Commerce memberships for Rawlins and the Platte Valley.

The next scheduled meeting will be at 10 a.m. on February 17 in Rawlins.