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Douglas County committee recommends about $5.0 million in visitor-improvement grants; board to decide July 8
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Summary
The Douglas County Community Services Committee reviewed preliminary recommendations from the countyvisitor promotion council for 85 grant awards totaling $5,002,374 from the Visitor Improvement Fund. The Board of Commissioners will consider final approval at its July 8 meeting; no vote occurred at the public session.
The Douglas County Community Services Committee reviewed preliminary recommendations to award $5,002,374 from the countyVisitor Improvement Fund at a public meeting; the Board of Commissioners is scheduled to consider final approval at its July 8 meeting.
The recommendations were prepared by the seven-member Visitors Promotion Council and county staff after a competitive application cycle. Catherine Hall, county staff who administers the program, said the fund is authorized by state statute: "The Nebraska Visitors Development Act allows for the county to collect a hotel occupancy tax and create a county visitor improvement fund," and that Douglas County may collect a 5 percent hotel tax with 2 percent available for improvement funds.
Why it matters: the Visitor Improvement Fund is paid by hotel occupancy taxes and is intended to help attract visitors and support county attractions. Committee chair Todd Simon and visitors council members told the committee the program is used both to sustain established signature events and to seed newer organizations. Todd Simon summarized the committee's workload and budget constraints: "We had something like 88 or 89 applications, requesting $9,000,000. We our mandate was to we only had $5,000,000 to allocate," and the panel met several times and invited applicant presentations before producing recommendations.
Key facts and process details: committee members said the reviewers pared roughly 88to89 applications down to 85 recommended awards totaling $5,002,374. Individual recommended awards range from about $1,500 to $273,000. The council described a multi-step process: spring application opening, committee review in open meetings, applicant presentations and follow-up questions, and then forwarding recommendations to the board for final action. Commissioner Jim Kavanaugh told the meeting the recommendations were "recommended because they were on agenda to this morning for approval, but we ran out of time," and the board therefore deferred action to the July 8 public meeting.
Recipients and examples: several grant recipients and prospective recipients described how they would use funds. Mayor Don Grocer of Ralston said the city's Fourth of July events draw large crowds and credited the recommended award with helping expand fireworks and family activities: "We have over 40 to 60,000 people come to our independence day parade... This year we've added about an extra $5,000 to $10,000 to our fireworks display. Part of that is because of the grant." Jose Francisco Garcia, curator and fiscal agent for the South Omaha Museum of Immigrant History, described collaborative exhibits and multiple funding sources. The Durham Museum said the funds support traveling exhibitions endorsed by national partners; Lindsay (Omaha Sports Commission) reported event metrics for one sporting event: "we had nearly 2,900 people come in from out of town... That's a 70% uptick in out of town guests." Cindy Hansel of the Douglas County Historical Society described tours at the General Crook House and the site's role in attracting out-of-town tour groups.
Discussion points and next steps: Committee members and applicants discussed fairness across categories, the growing number of applicants since the pandemic, and the difficulty of satisfying all requests with limited funds. Several speakers, including Omaha Public Schools and other applicants, asked the county to consider improved data collection and ROI metrics for future cycles; Commissioner Kavanaugh and staff said the committee will hold a virtual hearing later in the summer to solicit policy suggestions on future grant cycles. No formal vote on the recommendations occurred at this meeting; the board will consider the visitors council's recommended awards at its July 8 public meeting.
Ending: The Douglas County Visitor Improvement Fund draws from hotel occupancy tax revenue and is intended to support visitor attractions and events across the county. The Board of Commissioners will take final action on the recommendations at the July 8 meeting; members of the public and applicants were told they may speak at that session.
