WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (2/22/12) – At a meeting of the Providence Tourism Commission Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 15, members spent most of their meeting discussing plans for a tentative schedule of activities to be held as part of a daylong “Spring Fling” event.
Providence Chamber of Commerce President Sue Loux presented a sample flier for the April 21 event, which has yet to be officially named. Chamber members had previously discussed several ideas for a name of the event, but as of Wednesday’s meeting hadn’t selected one from the list.
Loux asked the Tourism Commission, which generates its revenue from a three percent city tax on food and lodging, to share the cost of the event with the Chamber equally. The Tourism Commission agreed to the request for sponsorship.
Along with the “spring fling,” which will consist of food booths, performers Garcia and Scott, and possibly other bands, the event will also include a Girl Scouts fun run and walk. Representatives for the Girl Scouts came to the meeting to ask the commission to sponsor the race, and told the commission the race would be promoted outside the area on various runners’ groups’ websites.
Tourism commission members during the meeting also said a library art show is tentatively planned on the same day, and that a local citizen who wasn’t named during the meeting has expressed interest in organizing a gun show to be held at the former Carhartt building. However, the facility is apparently the only site large enough within Providence for such an event, and commission members said that they had been told the building could be sold before April 21. Currently, Webster County owns the building, but commission chairman Ben Leonard said during the meeting that he’d been told someone had expressed interest in buying it from the county. Webster County Judge Executive Jim Townsend, when asked about the comment, told The J-E that Webster County Fiscal Court would likely declare the building as surplus property and accept sealed bids to sell it at an upcoming meeting.
Other topics discussed during the Providence Tourism Commission meeting included:
•The annual Fourth of July celebration. Tourism commission members agreed to a request from Providence Fire Chief Brad Curry to help sponsor the fireworks show, as long as an effort to collect donations on the city’s behalf was made;
•Art designs for uptown Providence. The commission reviewed a set of photos provided by George Steedly for possible commission as an art design on one or more of the refurbished city buildings uptown; and
•Establishment of a tax identification number for the tourism commission account. Tourism Commission Treasurer Carol Hill said right now, she has to go through the city to get a check written to pay the commission’s bills, and that without direct access to the account, the commission doesn’t have detailed records immediately available regarding who is making deposits. The commission agreed to look into setting up its own tax identification number so that it could better monitor the funds directly. Hill provided a report of the commission’s account that indicated the tourism fund has approximately $155,000 as of Feb. 1.
Dennis Beard
Journal Enterprise
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