Jamestown  (CSi)  The Jamestown Tourism, Grant/Executive Board meeting was held Tuesday at at the Holiday Inn Express, Meeting Room.

Those in attendance included:  Tourism Director, Searle Swedlund, Board President, Matthew Woods, and Board Members Frank Balak, Tena Lawrence, and Paulette Ritter.

Ex Officio Member Pam Phillips, representing the Jamestown City Council.

GRANT BOARD MEETING

Funding requests were heard from:

Jamestown Area Mountain Bikers, improvements

Jamestown Area Mountain Bikers, new project match request

Stutsman County Museum, sidewalk

The Stutsman County Parks, and  Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation, Trail Builders Group, represented by Bill Steinmetz originally requested $5,616 in a match for the Island Trail and Sno-Dog Groomer.  The new trail is part of a larger plan to develop a series of trails at the reservoir, and include the acquisition of a snow groomer and accessories for the trail systems and replacement of trail bridges and trail markers.

After shifting items between that request and a later request for Bike Trail Improvements, the Board granted $3,162, which will cover the 75 – percent match required in the grant requested for the project through the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District.

If the grant is not received from Garrison Diversion the request for the remaining 25 percent can come back to the Grant/Executive Board for the next step.

 

Another grant request from  the Stutsman County Parks, and  Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation, Trail Builders Group was for $9,300 for Bike Trail Improvements. Those include trail markers, a new trail kiosk, a new self propelled brush mower, and purchase and installation of donation boxes.  The funding of those items and those moved from the previous request, had the difference added and approved for a total request granted of $10,700.

The trails were originally developed for local traffic.  They receive more and more state and regional attention. Tourism indicated that consideration must be given to how they are improved to attract and engage visitors.  The board grant the full amount of $9,300.

 

With the Stutsman County Memorial Museum sidewalk, Board President, Don Nelson and Treasurer Alden Kollman  requested $3,500  to remove and replace the sidewalks on the west and south sides of the museum.

The application said the museum officials have applied for $4,000 from Stutsman County, Historic Mill levy but it’s not guaranteed at this time.

The Tourism Grant/Executive board approved the full request, plus $500 for a total of $4,000.  The additional $500 approved was to fund historical imprints to be a part of the sidewalk.

It was stated that the museum rarely requests  dollars for deferred maintenance. The recommendation stated that the museum continues to support a strong membership, based on fundraising efforts.

 

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

No Conflict of Interest was stated.

 

Financial Report – Given by Searle Swedlund, who said that  through  May 2019 the Hospitality Tax Funds amounted to $66,439.57, compared to $65,544.25 through May of 2018.

With The proposed 2020 Tourism Budget, review, he projects an increase in the Hospitality Tax funds of 3.5 percent over the projected 2019 final figure.

 

Tourism Report – Searle Swedlund said the National Buffalo Museum reported an increase in visitors in May this year.

 

Ex-Officio Report, Pam Phillips reported that the City of Jamestown is continuing with the process of filling potholes, adding anyone seeing potholes that have not been filled should call City Hall, indicating the location.  She also reported that the 2020 city budget meetings will continue in July and August, with the final budget due in October this year.  She pointed out a major funding item is for an aerial latter truck for the city fire department, and the means to come up with the funding.

 

OLD BUSINESS

Review Hockey Day North Dakota held earlier this year, on the University of Jamestown campus, and address the previous grant to support the event by Jamestown Tourism.

With the event, Kent Sortland said some of the costs were covered by in-kind donations, including from Newman Signs, and Orriginals.  He pointed out television coverage of the event that gave additional publicity, and attracted tourists.

Swedlund pointed out that Tourism previously approved a grant for the event of $6,500, with 30-percent earmarked for advertising for the event, under the Grant Allocations guidelines..

After discussion of options, the Tourism Grant Board unanimously approved, staying, the $6,500 grant for a reimbursement to the Hockey Day in North Dakota, organization.

 

 

2018 Financial Review – Frank Balak & Amanda Thrift along with Tourism Visitor Experience Manager Allison Limke performed the review in May this year.

Frank Balak reported that the review of the documents presented corresponded with the review findings, including balance sheets, profit and loss figures, and budgets presented.  They indicated in their report that the process of the review and the report was good practice for Tourism, crating security and transparency for the accounting processes of the office.