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 It was in December of 2013 that the newly organized Tourism Board
met for the first time at the Brickyard. This was a board organized
after the city of Lincoln took over the management of tourism
delegated Hotel/Motel Taxes raised in the city of Lincoln. At the
first meeting officers were elected, and the directors began
re-organizing and re-defining the identity of the Bureau. Fittingly,
the Bureau's last Board of Directors meeting was held at the
Brickyard also.
Also going on at the same time a year ago, was the creation of a new
unified organization that would pull together the Lincoln/Logan
County Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Lincoln and Tourism into one
entity.
With the Logan County Alliance (LCA) now in place and prepared to
take over the three organizations at the beginning of the year, the
Tourism Bureau's Board of Directors is no longer needed.
According to the Tourism Board's chairman, and newly appointed
chairman of the Logan County Alliance, the new organization will
have a Hospitality Council. He told members of the Tourism Board on
Tuesday that they would be welcome to volunteer to be a part of that
Council.
 There were several items on the Tourism meeting agenda on Tuesday.
O’Donohue told the board that even so, there was only a couple of
items that he wanted this board to act on, and everything else he
said would be rolled over to the LCA.
The main topic he wanted to have the current Tourism Board address,
was that of the funeral car that is scheduled to be in Lincoln in
commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the assignation of
President Abraham Lincoln.
In the weeks after the assassination of the President, his body was
transported from Washington D.C. to Springfield via train. That
trained passed through the city of Lincoln.
In 2015, a national event is being planned in which a replica of the
funeral car will travel the same route as the original. The car
though will be transported most of the time by truck and will have a
variety of stops along the route. The plan is for the car to arrive
in Springfield in the first week of May.
In Springfield, there are events being planned to commemorate the
anniversary including a reenactment of the funeral procession from
the Springfield Train Station, through the city to Oak Ridge
Cemetery, where Lincoln was buried.
This week O’Donohue and Tourism director Sarah Wallick shared with
the board that there is a committee in Lincoln that is working
toward bringing the car to the city for a week-long stay.
O’Donohue said that the plan is to have the car arrive in Lincoln by
truck by April 24th. The funeral car will be unloaded and set up for
public viewing until the time that it is put on the railroad tracks,
where it will make the final stint of its journey into Springfield
by rail.
O’Donohue said right now, there are several small groups who are
working on different programs revolving around the funeral car being
in Lincoln. He said that what needs to be done is to pull all those
groups together and turn this into one well-organized event for the
city of Lincoln. The tourism component of the LCA, he said is the
organization that should be leading this effort for the community.
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He said this is a great opportunity to put Lincoln and Logan
County in the national spotlight. To date, the National Funeral
Train Coalition has agreed to the weeklong visit in Lincoln.
They have also said that while in Lincoln, the car will be open
for public tours, something O’Donohue believes is not being
offered anywhere else along the route.
The Tourism Board was asked to commit now to bringing the train
to Lincoln because time is running out on putting together a
well-organized event. In order to have the funeral car stay for
a week, the Tourism Bureau needs to make some financial
commitments before the end of the year. Wallick explained that
there was an initial payment to the coalition, and the Bureau, i.e.
LCA, would be responsible for paying for hotel stays and meals for
the crew that accompanies the train.
The Tourism Board talked about how to designate a dollar amount to
invest in this venture. O’Donohue said that to bring the train to
town, create a large event, and advertise it, was going to take a
lot of dollars. He suggested that the Board authorize LCA executive
Director Andi Hake and Wallick to spend as needed in order to assure
everything was taken care of.
Andy Anderson said he was very much in favor of the funeral car
coming to Lincoln, but he had reservations about giving authority
for spending without setting a specific dollar amount.
The group considered a proposal that it would take $10,000 to get
the ball rolling on the project. Board members wondered whether that
would be an all-inclusive number or would more money be needed down
the line.
 O’Donohue said he didn’t want the decision made by the Tourism Board
to tie the hands of the LCA. He said this was such an important
opportunity for Lincoln and Logan County that he wanted the planners
of the project to have sufficient funds to do a good job.
In the end, the group made a motion to allocate an initial $10,000
for the project, with the stipulation that more funds should be
allocated as needed at a later date.
[Nila Smith]
[Lincoln, Illinois
proudly claims identity as the first community named for Abraham
Lincoln before he became President. Each year the community observes
its christening by its later to become famous namesake by way of a
re-enactment. Abraham Lincoln poured the juice of a watermelon onto
the ground he had surveyed some years earlier, and where in not so
many years into the future, his funeral train would stop. A
watermelon memorial marks the spot today at the historic Lincoln
Depot.]
Related Article
Unified organization to be called Logan County
Alliance
Hake offers city
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