Visitor's council makes changes

The Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) met in Rawlins on March 10 at the Best Western Hotel for their regularly scheduled meeting.

All board members were present in person except the Baggs and Hanna representatives. Weather had prevented them coming in person, and they joined the meeting by Zoom.

The Board approved 36 vouchers between February 21, 2020 and March 10, 2021 totaling $27,387.47 for payment.

After the financial summary was approved, the board approved the municipality distributions. Nine checks with a total of $2,610.46 were distributed to municipalities and the county treasurer.

The lodging tax collection was substantially higher over last year coming in at $26,104.59. In 2020 lodging tax collected was $19,027.37. This year’s figure beat 2019’s total of $22,020.07 indicating the 2021 tourism year is starting to recover from damage caused by COVID-19.

Carbon County had a huge increase from the year before and even the year before that. This year the county collected $11,255.85 in lodging tax versus $5,844.94 in 2020 and $4,295.53 in 2019.

Rawlins increased from last year, but has not hit the numbers it had in 2019. For 2021, the town collected $12,660.51 beating 2020’s $11,045.44, but coming under $16,710.81 for 2019.

Saratoga beat last year figures $1,678.54 to $1,551.26. It is interesting that in 2019 the lodging tax collected was $313.25. There were several heavy snow storms that hit in late February and mid March during 2019 that could have impacted some events in the town for that time frame.

The Valley did well in general. Riverside collected $167.41 compared to none in 2020. Encampment collected $138.49 versus $75.30 in 2020.

Elk Mountain improved from 2020’s figure of $71.01 to $121.66 in 2021.

Two towns did go down.

Medicine Bow collected $23.26 compared to 2020’s $193.95 and Sinclair collected $2.86 this year versus last year’s collection of $97.24.

Leslie Jefferson, CEO of the CCVC, said Madden print drops for marketing starting June 6 include the Official Sturgis Publication, Group Tour Magazine May and American Road Magazine.

For online marketing, Bandwangon businesses include Snowy Mountain Brewery, Firewater, Buck’s, Turnbuckle and The Grinds. Under radio, Jefferson said she was following up with WPM and iHeart for renewals. She said NRG Omaha live and streaming is scheduled for mid-April, and is finalizing Rocky Mountain News Network for voice and music.

Upslope Media has been contracted for cinema ads in 71 screens across Wyoming.

The next order of business were bylaw changes approved by the Board.

Article VIII – Officers and employees, Section 1. Officers to read: The Board at its regular July meeting shall elect from its voting membership four officers. The four officers shall consist of a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer. Each officer shall serve a one year term. Each officer may be re-elected. Any officer of the Board may be removed from that office by a motion and a unanimous vote of the remaining members of the Board. A vacancy in any office may be filled by the remaining members of the Board for the unexpired portion of that term of office.

Article IX–Meetings, Section 8. Absenteeism to read: Board members who are absent from three consecutive regular meetings or a total of 50 percent of the regular meeting in a fiscal year shall be discussed in an executive session of the Board. Recommendations resulting from such a session will be forwarded to the Party appointing the member under question.

The Board approved the following changes to the Annual Advertising and Event Advertising and Marketing Grants. No entity nor organization will qualify for an annual advertising and event advertising and marketing grants in the same fiscal year. The Board approved the removal of the three year limitation for event and marketing grants.

Local Government Liability Pool renewal was approved.

The CCVC will sponsor a table at the Tablescaping event to be held at the 2021 Carbon County Fair and Rodeo.

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on April 14 in Elk Mountain.