“I’m confused,” Allan Hale said as he shook his head in disbelief.
The Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce president spoke after Dodge County supervisors rejected a grant application for a new Business Hall of Fame in the Historic Visitors Center.
“My definition of a tourist attraction is somewhere people come to visit,” Hale said late Wednesday morning during the regular meeting of the Dodge County Board of Supervisors.
The grant application was one of two recommended by the Fremont and Dodge County Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board.
Supervisors approved the other request -- a $16,000 grant for locker rooms at Sidner Ice Arena. The approved grant is half of the project cost of $32,000.
But a motion to approve $7,500 for the Business Hall of Fame failed by a 2-5 vote. Only Supervisor Leo Thietje and county board chairman Bob Missel voted for the grant application.
Several supervisors questioned whether a Business Hall of Fame in the building owned by the Chamber of Commerce Foundation of the Fremont Area qualifies as a tourist attraction.
Hale said the Business Hall of Fame is one more aspect of the Historic Visitors Center that can draw attention to the building.
The CVB recently moved back into the Historic Visitors Center. The county’s tourism agency originally was housed in the visitors center until it moved out in July 2006, but after hiring MainStreet of Fremont to oversee the agency’s day-to-day operations, the CVB has moved back.
Paul Marsh was one of the outspoken supervisors opposing the grant.
“I have a real problem with this,” Marsh said. “More so with what other (grant) requests could come in the future. Plus, there were two members of the (advisory) board that had an issue with this.”
When the CVB advisory board considered the request in August, Ron Powers and Bruce Eveland questioned the application, but the vote to recommend a $7,500 grant for the Business Hall of Fame was unanimous.
In the grant application, the Chamber requested the full $30,000 for the hall of fame, but an advisory board grant committee recommended $15,000 before a compromise whittled the recommendation down to $7,500.
“This is a slippery slope,” Marsh said. “You’re funding this because you’re inside (the Historic Visitors Center). I don’t see this as something that’s going to bring more people into Fremont. I see this as a local issue, not a tourism issue.”
Hale defended the request.
“I don’t think it’s our job to dictate what’s a tourist attraction,” Hale said. “I’m having an issue with you not seeing this as a tourist attraction. We have had people from 37 states and 10 countries come through. It sounds like a tourist attraction to me.”
Supervisor Lon Stand had another issue with the request.
“I’m not saying that this project isn’t worthy,” said Strand. “But I would be afraid to fund this if something more worthy comes in down the road.”
Marsh, who chairs the county board’s finance committee, said the CVB has about $165,000 in its visitor improvement fund, from which grants are given. Each month, between $5,000 and $9,000 are added to that fund depending on how many people stay in Dodge County hotels that month. About $70,000 is generated each year for the visitor improvement fund.
Advisory board member Melissa Powell said they had concerns about the grant application until they went to the Historic Visitors Center and talked with Hale to understand the project.
Currently, any grant request and any expenses for the CVB must be approved by the county board because the CVB was created by a county ordinance and its funding filters through the county treasurer’s office.
Supervisors discussed possibly allowing members of the advisory board to approve grants up to $10,000 without needing county board approval. Thietje asked that a resolution stating that be presented at their Oct. 22 meeting.
Print This Story
Email This Story
