Grants Pass council renews Visit Grants Pass contract, raises winter welcome-center hours to 30

The Grants Pass City Council voted May 6 to authorize the city manager to enter into a revised funding agreement with the Josephine County Visitors Association (doing business as Visit Grants Pass) that adds downtown welcome-center operations to Visit Grants Passresponsibilities. The vote follows a prolonged presentation by staff, detailed contract redlines from the city attorney and more than an hour of public testimony largely in favor of renewing the contract.

Dana Pierce, the cityeconomic development manager, told the council the agreement formalizes collaboration on tourism duties and lodging-tax-funded marketing and would extend the contractterm. Pierce said the FY27 tourism-promotion budget includes $735,300 for the program, funded by 28% of the city's lodging tax revenue, and that transferring downtown welcome-center staffing to Visit Grants Pass is expected to save the city about $45,000 by…