Visit Dubois director urges ordinance update to comply with House Bill 1210; county attorney to draft ordinance

Whitney Lubbers, executive director of Visit Dubois County Tourism Commission, briefed the commissioners on House Bill 1210 and the need to update the county’s tourism ordinance to ensure proper city representation and align with changes to tax structure and governance. Lubbers said the ordinance should be updated by July 1, 2026 or as close to that date as possible.

Lubbers described the current seven-member board’s appointment makeup and presented recommended changes that would shift one appointment to Huntingburg so the board composition would read: County Commissioners 2 appointments; County Council 1 appointment; City of Jasper 3 appointments; City of Huntingburg 1 appointment. She also noted that party-affiliation language had been removed from the uniform code; commissioners discussed retaining party-affiliation language for appointments and agreed by consensus to keep it. Lubbers suggested moving an existing member from a County Council appointment to a City of Huntingburg appointment and said commissioners and council members will work on reorganizing appointments.

County Attorney Greg Schnarr was asked to draft a new ordinance for the next meeting. No ordinance text was presented at this meeting and no formal ordinance vote occurred.