Visitors council talks tax

The Carbon County Visitor Council met at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at the Hanna Town Hall for their monthly meeting. It was the first time the board has met in person since February. The monthly meetings for March, April, and May had been done by teleconferencing.

Encampment representative John Farr put forth an amendment to the agenda asking to discuss improving the sign at the Riverside Information Center. The amendment was approved.

In attendance was John Farr, Danny Burau from Saratoga, Marilyn Godfrey from Riverside, Mike Armstrong from Hanna, Casey Shinkle from Carbon County, Leslie Jefferson the CCVC CEO and Kristy Kennedy CCVC office manager. Julie Webb, representative for Elk Mountain was on the phone.

All members wore masks and practiced social distancing.

The minutes from the May 15 meeting were approved.

Financials were approved for the month of May.

The board looked at the lodging tax received. This tax runs behind a month, so the figures were actually for April. It was notable that taxes were down from the year before.

Lodging Properties in Carbon County, outside of any municipal districts, in 2019 collected was $5,355.90 and 2020 the collection was $2,322.89. Rawlins collected $26,606.13 for 2019 and $9,853.61 this year. Saratoga collected $2,254.88 in 2019 and $410.84 for 2020. Elk Mountain collected $112.84 in 2019 and $9.39 in 2020.

Although most municipalities took a serious hit in lodging taxes collected, two towns did better. Medicine Bow collected $43.04 in 2019 and collected $160.40 2020 and Encampment received $47.78 in 2019 and $232.43 in 2020.

The board approved the disbursement of monies to the municipalities. A town is given 10 percent of the lodging tax collected in their municipality. The towns can spend the funds how they see fit, although CCVC hopes it will be used for tourism.

Kennedy went over the Grant Final reports and the board approved them.

The statistics report (monthly visitors, information requests, video views) was covered. The top states of individuals requesting information on Carbon County from the internet were California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri.

Viewers going to the video sites was higher than April. In April 10,635 people looked at videos dealing with Carbon County tourism. This month it was up to 13,782. The top site visited was Get Your Fishing On with 8,462 and Battle Pass with 1,463 hits. The board was encouraged by the rise of interest in the county.

The CEO’s report was given, and the board discussed the future design of working through the adopted Strategic Initiatives.

The proposal from Herman Global (Visit USA Parks) to promote Carbon County tourism was not approved. The 2020/2021 budget was approved in its third reading. The final budget hearing will be at the meeting in July. CCVC will be accepting bids for the refurbishing of the Riverside Visitor Center signs.

Then next meeting will be at 10 a.m. on July 15 at the Best Western Cottontree Inn in Rawlins.