Explore Altoona decertification resolution tabled after agency representative addresses Blair Township supervisors

Mark Ickes, representing the county’s Tourism Promotion Agency Explore Altoona, spoke to the Blair Township Board of Supervisors on March 11, urging the board not to act on a county-led resolution to decertify the agency without additional public input.

Ickes told supervisors that the commissioners’ move to decommission Explore Altoona stems from a difference of opinion about how to spend hotel bed tax revenues and cited concerns he said had been raised: a lack of specific plans or research supporting the change, limited input from hotels that generate the tax money, and the absence of a strategic financial analysis for the proposed reorganization. He said twelve of 18 municipalities had not voted on the county sample resolution, according to his report to the board.

Chairman Paul Amigh said he opposed taking formal action without evidence that a public meeting had occurred and indicated he would consider the matter after such a meeting. Following discussion, the board voted unanimously to table the resolution to decertify Explore Altoona.

The supervisors did not adopt the county-supplied sample resolution and asked the clerk to await documentation of a formal public meeting before considering municipal action; no vote tally by individual member was recorded beyond the unanimous result and the matter will return to the board when county-level public process or further documentation is available.