Washington County staff told a standing committee meeting that the county has printed 5,000 history calendars paid for from an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation and plans to distribute them at upcoming fairs and through county offices. The same presentation described a package of videos and a proposal to expand the county tourism website with a new "doing business" section to showcase local employers and help with business recruitment.

Why it matters: The county framed the calendar, video work and a proposed web expansion as marketing tools intended to boost tourism and highlight local employers, which the presenter said could support broader economic development goals.

County staff said the calendars grew out of collaboration among the tourism office, the county historian and local historians. "We have enough that we will be giving them out at the fairs," the presenter said. The presenter also told the committee that the calendar printing cost fit within ARPA funds allocated for marketing; the calendar had originally been intended to help the county's 250th-committee fundraising but staff opted to print and distribute the calendars directly after local sellers asked for a cut of sales.

The tourism presentation included short videos featuring area businesses and nonprofits; two finished videos mentioned in the meeting were of Adirondack Scenic (a local maker/creative business) and Fort Hudson Health System. Andy Cruickshank, chief executive officer at Fort Hudson Health System, appears in one clip saying, "When I think of Fort Hudson, I think of community." Another on-camera speaker, Jalen Cutright, identified himself as a creative design intern at Adirondack Studios and said the county allowed him to "build a family, to build a life for myself, but have an incredibly rewarding professional career." Committee members said they had received positive early reaction to the videos.

Looking ahead, the presenter said she will propose in the 2026 budget a $30,000–$50,000 contract to set up a business-facing section on the tourism website and to deliver ongoing content. She said her preferred funding source is occupancy-tax revenue but noted the county does not yet know future occupancy-tax takings and offered alternatives: using the occupancy tax fund balance or reallocating remaining ARPA dollars. "I don't wanna make a lot of plans to spend a lot of money," the presenter said, describing the proposal as a modest initial build to be scaled if occupancy-tax revenues materialize.

Short-term rental registration and tax-collection software (Deckard) was discussed briefly. Staff said Deckard implementation is moving slower than hoped and that the state had not clearly communicated new short-term rental rules to hosts on booking platforms. Staff said they plan an educational event for short-term rental operators in early October to walk through tax collection and registration questions, depending on software readiness.

No formal committee vote or binding funding decision on the website proposal was recorded at the meeting. Committee members asked follow-up questions and encouraged staff to continue outreach and to use board members for chamber contacts; staff said they will include the web proposal in the upcoming budget discussion.

The meeting included no other formal actions on tourism spending; staff said printed calendars would be held back to ensure stock for fairs and that leftover copies would be distributed afterward.