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Committee awards $1,000 to downtown fall festival and adopts 85% hotel-motel funding guideline
Summary
The committee approved a $1,000 grant to the downtown fall festival and set a guideline to make 85% of the hotel-motel fund balance (as of the October 1 balance) available for distribution in the coming year; members discussed statutory requirements for hotel-motel expenditures and the need for an application process.
The Effingham County Tax and Finance Committee approved a $1,000 grant to the downtown fall festival and adopted a guideline to make up to 85% of the hotel‑motel fund balance (calculated as of October 1) available for distribution during the next year.
Riley Frommer, representing the Downtown F&M Business Group, described the festival as a one-day, family event scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4 that will include a first-time downtown 5K, a brunch, a children’s activity area and live music. “My ask is around a thousand dollars,” Frommer said, adding that last year the event drew “around a thousand” people and that organizers hope to attract more this year with the 5K and expanded marketing.
Committee members discussed the proper funding source and statutory requirements for hotel‑motel funds, including that those funds are intended to drive economic spending and are commonly justified by evidence of overnight stays. A committee member noted that the treasurer reports hotel‑motel receipts are largely from unincorporated-area lodging such as Airbnb and Anthony Acres. The treasurer and other members said applicants must show either actual overnight-stay numbers or a reasonable likelihood that an event will produce overnight stays; the transcript records that the committee will expect better statistical support next year.
The committee also heard that Visit Effingham (the city tourism organization) had pledged $500 and the local chamber had verbally committed $500 toward the festival. Frommer said the group is marketing beyond the county, including a roughly 50‑mile radius and some ads toward the St. Louis area, and that organizers will use a planned cell‑phone–based visitor-tracking tool the city is developing to provide better attendance and visitation data in the future.
On the hotel‑motel fund guideline, a motion to allocate 85% of the fund (as of an October 1 balance) for distribution over the next 12 months was moved by Sandy Rich and seconded by Jeremy Daeters. Committee members later amended the motion to make the 85% figure a guideline rather than a fixed requirement so staff would retain discretion while using the guideline to inform the next year’s budget. The amended guideline passed by voice vote.
Nut graf: The committee provided immediate, modest support to a community festival while setting a new distribution guideline for the hotel‑motel fund intended to balance event support and fund sustainability; members asked for clearer applications and post‑event visitation data to justify future awards.
Ending: Committee members asked staff to develop clearer application materials and reporting expectations for hotel‑motel grants and to use the city’s upcoming visitation-tracking data to provide better metrics for future grant requests.
