By: Jennifer Britt
The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Convention Visitor’s Bureau board members and the Tucker County Commission met to discuss the need for a financial partnership that would benefit everyone in the county. Commission President, Mike Rosenau, started the meeting by saying, “The law was created to give the CVB 50 percent of the hotel/motel tax money coming in from the county and the municipalities without any control from the County Commission. This is the only entity in the county that tax money is collected that does not come before us. That is one of my concerns about this law.” The law the Rosenau is referring to is the §7-18-1. Hotel occupancy tax.
Rosenau asked Director of the CVB, Jessica Waldo, how much tax monies the municipalities provided. At first Waldo stated that she budgeted $140,000 (for Davis) plus $15,000 (for Thomas) for a total amount of $155,000. Rosenau said, “So roughly $155,000, that is what the municipalities have brought to the CVB that the county has nothing in and that fifty percent goes directly to the municipalities.”
Rosenau asked how much did they receive from the county. Waldo stated that she had budgeted $530,000 for this year. Waldo went on to explain that last year the total was $544,000 and the year before was $620,000. Rosenau said, “That is roughly $685,000, and with us we have needs in our county too. And when I look at $685,000 roughly coming into the CVB, and I appreciate tourism and I appreciate all the effort, but I question when we have ambulance service in our county that is in dire need and the fire departments the same way. They are taking care of not only Tucker County residents but also the million plus guests. To me, CVB should be a part of funding those agencies.” To which no one from the CVB board responded.
Commissioner Fred Davis added by saying, “The thing is with the taxes and stuff they have been wanting to do this for years in Charleston to help out the emergency services just like the EMS and fire departments. We spent roughly about $32,000 to purchase a piece of equipment to go out in the woods to get the bicyclers and lost hikers. There is a lot of different things besides ambulances that would help out.”
CVB board member and General Manager of Canaan Valley Resort, Matthew Baker, explained that the value of growth could not be ignored as well. Baker said, “The value of growing, the value of continuing to draw folks to this area, there is a value to that and it is hard to put a dollar value on that.” Rosenau responded by saying, “Do you think the Commission would ever not want that growth?” Baker in turn said, “You can say you do not but what about the next commissioner and the commissioner after that.” Davis added, “They would have to help you out because tourist are paying the bills.” Baker said, “I am not saying you do not, I believe you when you say you do.” Rosenau said, “You would be crazy not to. But the point is the state already mandated you (the CVB) get 50 percent of it (hotel/motel tax) regardless. I do not like the state regulating what the county can do with their funds.”
Waldo explained that the tax was charged and the CVB was created as a way to keep generating funds. Waldo said, “Our sole purpose is to advertise the areas of tourism designations to continue the growth. We have to follow specific guidelines to adhere to those at the CVB accreditation process to be sure we continue to advertise the area as a tourism destination and in turn increasing our hotel/motel tax.” Waldo explained that advertising brought in the businesses that kept the area going during the downfall of when businesses went bankrupt and the CVB helped in bringing restaurants to Thomas and Davis, Timberline Ski Resort, and several other entities. Waldo said, “The bill was designed so we are governed by our tourism partners so our board is made up with a majority of tourism partners. We do diverse our board to try and include others, but the opportunity for those that are collecting the tax and are providing a service to the visitor to be able to govern the funds that are generated by the tourism. So that is our opportunity to look at how those things are spent and how we can assist them.”
Rosenau stated the issue he saw with the board members of the CVB being made up of major shareholders of the big businesses in Canaan. He said, “We have a board that governs the money. If I owned a knife sharpening business and I voted to add county money to advertise my knife sharpening business it would be an ethical violation. You vote on the boards to advertise for your business free of charge and it is not an ethical violation. I have an issue with that. That is tax payers money any way you look at it. So, your board members are benefiting from that, not necessarily in money wise but in kind payment. That is one of the issues I have. If it were state regulated you just could not do that. There is no state agency that can do that with the exception of the CVB because it is really not a state agency.
The legislature said here is 50 percent of whatever is collected in your county and you promote tourism. It does not matter who is on your board. It does not matter if they benefit from it because it is not covered by ethics. That is one of the issues that I have.”
CVB board President and General Manager of Timberline Mountain Ski Resort, Tom Price, said, “The CVB really promotes Tucker County tourism, we do not promote Canaan Valley Resort or Timberline Mountain specifically.” Baker said, “As far as the ethics issue, I sit on the board, and I obviously do not own but I manage (Canaan Valley Resort) and in your words I benefit from that but no decision at least for the short time I have been on the board says that you are not promoting Canaan Valley enough and that my vote counts towards promoting Canaan Valley more.”
Rosenau raised the question if the board voted to keep Waldo every year. Waldo stated that they conduct employee evaluations every year. Rosenau said, “Does your vote hire Jessica every year? So, the way I look at it just from my talk to the ethics committee her influence on you would to be give you good recognition in the advertisement, because you are her employer. I am not criticizing anybody. I am saying we talked about that law, and these are the reasons that I have myself for looking that the County Commission should mandate how the funds are spent.”
Price said, “I can absolutely understand looking in from the outside how it could look that way. We all know sitting on the inside that is not how any of us look at it. We are also a really small county so people have lots of hats and we all joined the board to give back to the county the same way you ran for County Commissioner. If I ran for County Commissioner would it be unethical to continue my job as running the ski area?”
Rosenau explained that the commissioners have to sign a business clause when they took office and Waldo stated the board members did the same and signed a standard of conduct form and agreed to send the Commission a copy of the form.
Waldo went on to explain that when using the words Canaan Valley or Blackwater Falls was for the benefit of marketing the area with key search words. Words like hiking and biking are also used.
Price said, “What we can do better as a CVB is explain the positive impacts of all tourism and the heart of where those tourism dollars are going and how they can affect the community because we are going to have about two and a half million dollars’ worth of payroll and I know some of that is going to be down here in Parsons. This is one of the many reasons we try to employee people locally as much as we possibly can. We really do want to be a positive piece of the community as a tourism member.
Maybe as a CVB we need to help spread the word. When we, as a CVB, advertise the tourism of Tucker County it is so that those businesses can grow and so that those dollars can work their way back into the community. If tourism does not keep going or stagnates then progress cannot happen.”
Both parties agreed to work together to find a solution for the necessary funding the county as a whole needs. One suggestion from Waldo was the CVB could possibly fund needed equipment, repairs, or other projects the county may need freeing up county money for emergency services.
CVB board member, Kevin White, mentioned that anyone can go on the CVB website to add county events. White said, “When our tourist are searching Tucker County or searching hiking it comes up Blackwater Falls and the event calendars come up they see hey if I go hiking the week of September 27 they see Parsons is having a fair going on, or Leaf Peepers is going on in Davis. That is a tool that is out there. It is a good tool that reaches out to the whole county not just a particular part of the county.”
White also explained how important the construction of a new visitors center is by saying, “I would like everyone to know how important building a new tourism center is to tourism in our county and what we are trying to operate out of now. God bless the rent that we get because it is a great deal. It really is, but the facility is very inadequate. It is not visitor friendly. It is not handicap accessible. They are running all the offices basically out of one little tiny office space. We do not even have a bathroom for the people coming in to use the facility, or to get a rack card. I want people to understand why we need a new tourism center.”
Rosenau mentioned that an agreement could be discussed in depth at a later time about the possibility of using the four acres beside Station 2 in Davis. Waldo agreed to consider the property and wishes to walk the land and see if it matched the needs of a new center.
Rosenau recapped the meeting by saying, “What I am taking from this meeting today is that we are all here to benefit the citizens. That is the main thing. They are the people that live here daily. They are the ones that pay the bills with the exception of the hotel/motel tax. It is the betterment of Tucker County as a whole and I think we can agree on that. I like the point that you brought up if the money we have budgeted trying to make Camp Kidd safe, the money we have budgeted trying to improve our courthouse, and if you (the CVB) can contribute to that then we can contribute more hotel/motel money to EMS.”
It was agreed that a quarterly work session meeting was needed in order to continue to communicate better. No date was set for the next meeting.
