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http://www.lincolndailynews.com/images/121914PICS/cow%20in%20the%20corn%20sculpt%20004.jpgLast act of Tourism Board:
Support to bring President Abraham Lincoln funeral car to Lincoln for a week
 

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[December 22, 2014]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday, the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County's Board of Directors met for the last time.

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.]

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Unified organization to be called Logan County Alliance
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