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NEVADA COUNTY — Nevada County’s chambers of commerce will submit a proposal to attract tourists in a collaborative effort in the near future, heeding county supervisors’ demands.
The supervisors didn’t give them any choice Tuesday, voting unanimously to put $115,000 of tourism money on the table for the coming budget year, while throwing open the doors for proposals to spend it.
In past years, tourism money has been given to the county’s several chambers with few hoops to jump through, but Truckee-area Supervisor Ted Owens and others questioned how effective that system has been in attracting tourists to the entire county.
The competition for the money was “an irritant to the board every year,” Owens said, calling for more accountability on how the money is used.
The board tabled an idea to create a separate, countywide visitors council for tourism and another proposal to create a Nevada County Chamber of Commerce made up of the Rough and Ready, Penn Valley and South County chambers.
Instead, supervisors created a five-member committee to recommend how to spend the $115,000 for fiscal year 2009-10; three of the committee members are affiliated with the chambers.
One of them is Susan George of the Rough and Ready Area Chamber.
“We intended to work as a team, which you have advocated for some time,” George told supervisors. The other chamber affiliates on the committee are Eric Sams of the South County Chamber and Karen Marinovich with the Nevada City Chamber.
Proposals to get part or all of the $115,000 are due July 31. Committee members said they hope to pass their recommendations to the board in August, with the money being awarded Sept. 1.
Supervisors expressed their hope for making the awards by August.
The proposals must provide benefits to tourism countywide, provide a way to measure results, and have the ability to attract more dollars through grants or self-sustaining efforts, according to county documents.
The supervisors didn’t give them any choice Tuesday, voting unanimously to put $115,000 of tourism money on the table for the coming budget year, while throwing open the doors for proposals to spend it.
In past years, tourism money has been given to the county’s several chambers with few hoops to jump through, but Truckee-area Supervisor Ted Owens and others questioned how effective that system has been in attracting tourists to the entire county.
The competition for the money was “an irritant to the board every year,” Owens said, calling for more accountability on how the money is used.
The board tabled an idea to create a separate, countywide visitors council for tourism and another proposal to create a Nevada County Chamber of Commerce made up of the Rough and Ready, Penn Valley and South County chambers.
Instead, supervisors created a five-member committee to recommend how to spend the $115,000 for fiscal year 2009-10; three of the committee members are affiliated with the chambers.
One of them is Susan George of the Rough and Ready Area Chamber.
“We intended to work as a team, which you have advocated for some time,” George told supervisors. The other chamber affiliates on the committee are Eric Sams of the South County Chamber and Karen Marinovich with the Nevada City Chamber.
Proposals to get part or all of the $115,000 are due July 31. Committee members said they hope to pass their recommendations to the board in August, with the money being awarded Sept. 1.
Supervisors expressed their hope for making the awards by August.
The proposals must provide benefits to tourism countywide, provide a way to measure results, and have the ability to attract more dollars through grants or self-sustaining efforts, according to county documents.
