Tourism Bureau discusses signage, billboards, sub-grant request and other topics

[May 19, 2017]  LINCOLN - At the Monday evening meeting of the Logan County Tourism Bureau, five members of the board were on hand: Kevin Bateman, Emily Davenport, Cindy Fleshman, Gail Apel-Sasse, Shawn Taylor and Marilyn Wheat. Absent for the evening was Kenna Shaffer, Steve Parrott, and Kathy Horn. With the election of Ron Keller to a seat on the Lincoln City Council, he is no longer a member of the Tourism Board, dropping their total number of board members to nine.

Also on hand for the meeting were interim Tourism Director Chris Wibben and Administrative Assistant/Office manager Morgan Gleason, Kari Adams of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, Geoff Ladd representing the Mill on 66 as well as the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, and Tom McLaughlin of the Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College.

Tom McLaughlin

Sasse said that McLaughlin was on hand as a candidate to replace Ron Keller on the Tourism Board. McLaughlin offered a few words about himself and his interest in serving on the Tourism Board. Sasse explained that the Board would vote on McLaughlin later in the evening then if approved, present McLaughlin to the Lincoln City Council for their approval as well.

Sasse said that McLaughlin would sit in on the meeting Monday evening, but would have to leave early due to another engagement. Later in the evening, the board approved McLaughlin as a new member by unanimous vote.

Kari Adams

Adams was on hand to speak about a request for a sub-grant for promotion of the Lincoln Balloon Festival. Adams said the chamber was seeking $5,000 and would focus their advertising efforts on television and social media and would be using the grant funding to reach outside the 50-mile radius of Lincoln for promoting the festival.

Adams also offered a run-down of some of the features being added to this year’s festival. The festival will incorporate crafting and home based business markets, using Latham and possibly Scully Parks in the downtown area.

Adams said that Latham will have up-scale crafters, and that several have signed up to be on hand balloon festival weekend. The crafters will be in Latham Park, and local home based businesses will be offered the opportunity to set up stands in Scully Park.

Adams also spoke about a new attraction Gigi’s Playhouse that will be making the national unveiling of their mobile program at the balloon festival. She explained that the program reaches out to special needs and persons with disabilities with fund and educational opportunities, geared just to them.

A part of the plan for the weekend is to have handicap accessible balloons and tethered rides during the day at the airport. She said there would also be other opportunities at the airport such as the petting zoo and vendors during that time. Adams explained that the day time events will be just for playhouse participants and will be geared to give those special needs people the true festival experience without having to deal with the large crowds.

After Adams left the meeting, Bateman said he was concerned about giving the festival $5,000, and would not support that vote. Wheat agreed. Bateman said he had been told that vendors from last year still have not all been paid, so he would like to know what is going on there. Taylor said he’d be interested in knowing how much the festival was given last year, and Fleshman said she was pretty sure they were given only $3,000. Staff is supposed to look into that, and get back to the board.

Geoff Ladd representing the Mill on Route 66

Ladd said that the bureau had granted the Mill $600 for promoting the grand opening. He has compiled all the paperwork and submitted it to Wibben. In total, he spent $625.00 for promotion, but said the Mill would pick up the difference between the expenses and the grant.

Wibben said that the Bureau has a key to the Mill, courtesy of Ladd, and has been able to offer travelers the opportunity to go to the new museum when it is not normal operating hours.

Ladd, representing the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway

Ladd shared some ideas for promoting tourism in Lincoln, as a representative of the Route 66 Scenic Byway. He said that along the interstate at Bloomington there are signs at the first exit coming from the north of Bloomington and at the first exit coming from the south, indicating the city has Route 66 attractions. After getting off on the respective exits, there is signage at regular intervals leading motorists to the attractions. Ladd said that Lincoln has inadequate signage on the interstate, and he thinks they should pursue getting signs at the far north exit and the far south exit, as well as signage leading motorists to the Route 66 attractions.

He said that prior to Bill Hoagland’s illness and subsequent absence from the bureau, he and Ladd had begun working on applications for the signs along the interstate. He would like to go forward with that with Wibben.

Ladd said that right now, the signage could point the way to the Railsplitter Wagon, Lincoln Heritage Museum, and Postville Courthouse. He said perhaps after a couple of years, when sufficient data has been gathered, the Mill would qualify to be added to the signs as well.

Ladd also noted that there is signage now, but it doesn’t mention the downtown Lincoln area, and it is at the center exit instead of on the north and south ends of town. He suggested that the city should want signage to lead to the downtown area, especially now that the new Route 66 signage has been installed.

Billboards

Ladd said that Mid-American Billboard has approached the Mill with the offer of a very large billboard at Atlanta. He said the billboard will be available on July 1st. The company, Ladd said offered him a really good deal on the rental of the billboard, but it is not feasible for the Mill at this time. However, he felt like the sign could benefit Lincoln and Logan County tourism. He shared price quotes and other information with the Tourism Board.

Sasse said it was a good idea, and the bureau should appoint a committee to investigate it further. Later in the evening, looking at the budget for the coming year, it was noted that there isn’t enough money in the budget for an additional billboard. However, Fleshman said that the state grant gives an exception for Billboards, and money from the grant may be applied to the billboard expense. She said that for this year ending soon, no money had been applied to the state grant for billboards, but in the new year that could change if the board wished.

Again, the matter will be investigated, but the bureau decided they were interested in seeing what they could do to obtain the larger sign.

The group also talked about the very small billboard in the Elkhart area. The sign on the billboard is a vinyl product, has been damaged by wind and needs to be replaced. The sign contained the “Destination Logan County” style logo and artwork provided by DCC Marketing. Sasse said she did not want to see the sign replaced with something similar, she wants to go with something new.

DCC Marketing

Gleason reported that the bureau staff is having issues with DCC Marketing concerning the tourism website. She said that DCC Marketing appears to have control over the website. She has contacted them, but they have not responded.

The next meeting of the Logan County Tourism Bureau will be Monday June 19th at 4:45 p.m.

[Nila Smith]