The Hotel/Motel Tax Board met Monday evening to determine the final recommendations on projects and funding levels to be presented to the Webster City City Council. The recommendations will be made to the council on Monday, July 17 at 5:30 p.m. The board will be recommending a total of $78,687.71 in grant monies.

“One of the things that I want to say in general is I think half of the goal of this board is to fund projects that put heads in beds,” said board member Linda Conaway. “My own personal opinion is we really only have one project that I believe will do that.”

The board recommended that the Avenue of Flags receive $4,000. The money will cover the request for the flag trailer storage and building. Their original request was for $9,000 in funding for the Avenue of Flags building and structure improvement and work on the Graceland Cemetery stage. The board decided not to fully fund the request due to lack of information about the cost to rehab the stage and who was responsible for the upkeep of the stage.

“I agree the stage is very important and something needs to be done,” said board member Kristin Williams, “but there hasn’t been any research as to what needs to be done. No quotes.”

The Boone Valley Izaak Walton League requested $7,355 for a trap range expansion. The board moved to recommend the council fully fund the request.

“I like the idea of the range being Iowa Central’s home range,” said Williams. “The downside of course is that’s only once a year and it would probably not have overnight guests, and it is somewhat outside of Webster City’s traditional city limits.”

“Everyone I’ve talked to says the high school trap thing is really starting to catch on,” said Sowle. “The way I see it, they provided $10,000 of their own. They’ve got good funding coming in, so they are making an attempt on their own.”

The City of Webster City, ISU Extension and Hamilton County Conservation requested $1,212.71 for the Boone River Cleanup. The board recommended they receive the full amount requested.

“The numbers he gave were very impressive of people coming to the community to use the river,” said Williams.

“I think it’s important that we take care of our share of the river,” said Conaway.

Hamilton County Exposition requested $8,000 for the Grand River Rodeo. The board moved to not only fully fund their request, but add $2,000 to the total request. Therefore, the board will be recommending that Hamilton Exposition receive $10,000.

“I’ve had conversations with some city employees as well that would like to see actually if we would fund them an extra amount so that they’re breaking even,” said Sowle. “We’ve seen that they’ve estimated their ticket sales low. Their total income was $7,000. They asked for $8,000. If we gave them ten thousand dollars then this event would be awash no matter what.”

“This project assures us that people will be spending the night,” said Conaway.

Williams agreed with Conaway’s sentiments.

Legacy Learning Boone River Valley requested $23,140 for content development, marketing, branding, economic development and advertising.

Sowle was not on board with granting the full amount. Part of the requested monies were designated to go to a building for economic development. Due to the large amount of projects within the grant, Sowle did not think LLBRV was at a point where they were ready to focus on so many areas.

“They’re coming back for funds for classes and advertising for classes,” said Sowle. “I believe that they’re not ready to take on a bigger project.”

Williams agreed that there needed to be more focus on one area of the request so that LLBRV could work on efforts to become sustainable in the future.

“I’d like to see improvement in the initial goals of offering these classes,” said Williams. “Increasing the efficiency of the classes and increasing the enrollment of students to a point where they can at least break even annually.”

Sowle also mentioned nearly half of LLBRV courses were held at Briggs Woods and the campground. Therefore putting more people at the cabins than hotels and motels in the area.

“My issue is if we’re funding something that over half of their classes are going to be out of town, could they be going to Enhance Hamilton County and getting their advertising and stuff like that from them instead of us?”

After much discussion, the board recommended that LLBRV receive $5,020. According to Sowle, this will cover half of their advertising costs.

“I feel like if we’re only going to have half the classes in town, we should only advertise for half of it,” said Sowle. “The reason I’m taking out the marketing and branding is because we did that in 2013.”

“I think that the organizations that come year after year after year need to eventually stand on their own two feet, look for other sources and generate income internally,” said Williams. “I think pulling back would be a move in the right direction.”

The Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce requested $23,100 for a tourism marketing plan.

“This is another organization that we fund each year, which I think it’s important we do because it promotes Webster City” said Conaway.

Webster City City Manager Daniel Ortiz-Hernandez chimed in about the important part the chamber plays in bringing people to Webster City.

“As an outsider coming into the community, the chamber is the first entity I look towards to try and get information from the community,” said Ortiz-Hernandez. “They’re usually the first group that visitors go to to try get information.”

The board moved to recommend the chamber receive the full amount of $23,100.

The Webster City Community Theatre requested $5,825 for advertising. The board moved to recommend the theatre receive $3,000.

The theatre’s request was not fully funded because the board determined the theatre needs to make more of an effort to work towards becoming sustainable.

“It’s a great thing for the community, but I think that the ones that are receiving funds annually probably need to slowly have their own funds available,” said Williams.

Sowle explained that the theatre should start applying for grants concerning the arts.

“Maybe if we don’t fully fund them, we’ll let them know that they need to start seeking out other grants as well,” Sowle said.

The Wilson Brewer Historic Park Committee requested $50,000 in funding to help restore the log cabins located at the park. The board recommended the Wilson Brewer Historic Park Committee receive $25,000.

Williams noted the historical value the park brings to the community but questioned the merit the project would have in bringing people outside of the community to the park.

“It’s really cool to us as Webster City citizens, but every town has a founder. Every town has a story. What makes ours different and what will bring people in?”

Conaway agreed with Williams.

“I think it’s a worthy project,” Conaway said. “I think their fundraising will be very successful.”

Kyle Swon and Keri Rojas were absent from the meeting.