Fort Smith A&P approves new grant application process
by August 25, 2009 9:07 pm 74 views
After approving a grant funding process requiring applicants to substantiate “their economic impact through hotel room nights,” the Fort Smith Advertising & Promotion Commission approved a $9,000 funding request without such substantiation.
The decisions were made during the commission’s monthly meeting held Tuesday (Aug. 25).
The newly approved “Tourism Grant Policy & Application Guidelines” is an attempt to formalize the process so the grants — often used to help groups offset the cost to rent space in the Fort Smith Convention Center — are used to support new projects or events that boost overnight stays in Fort Smith hotels. Claude Legris, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, pointed to a sentence in the new application that best describes the goal: “Maximum funding level will be based on anticipated bed taxes generated from total number of realized/occupied room nights determined from previous substantiated event history.”
Following the commission’s approval of the new application, the commission considered funding a $9,000 grant to pay for convention center rental for an Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 Amerikids Gymnastics event. Amerikids, an organization based in Papillion, Neb., is expected to bring 900 athletes and their families (estimated at 2.5 people per athlete) to Fort Smith. Ramona Moon, a sales agent for the Holiday Inn City Center and former director of sales for the Fort Smith CVB, said the organization has been successful in Omaha and Des Moines. However, neither Moon nor Legris’ staff had info about the hotel rooms used in those cities.
Citing their desire to help a new project get started in Fort Smith and the strength of the Amerikids reputation in Omaha and Des Moines, the commission voted unanimously to approve the $9,000 grant request.
In other business, Legris said he is traveling to Hot Springs and Pine Bluff this week as part of the effort to investigate merging the city’s convention center and tourism marketing operations.
The commission formed the investigation committee Aug. 4, and asked Legris to conduct gather information on how convention center and tourism operations are handled in Arkansas cities comparable to Fort Smith. The primary purpose of considering the merger is to address a looming funding financial shortfall with the convention center.
The city’s portion of the state’s tourism turnback funds are set to expire in 2010. The city received around $1.8 million annually from the turnback program. Between 2001 and 2007, the city collected $13.23 million in turnback funds, with $4.36 million of that used to help pay down the 1997 sales and use tax bond debt. Proceeds from turnback funds between 2008 and 2010 are estimated at $4.47 million.