General Information

Government Type

County

Entity

Emery County

Public Body

Emery County Travel Bureau

Notice Information

Add Notice to Calendar

Notice Title

Nov 2023 Travel Minutes

Notice Tags

Tourism

Notice Type(s)

Meeting

Event Start Date & Time

November 14, 2023 03:30 PM

Event End Date & Time

November 14, 2022 05:00 PM

Event Deadline Date & Time

11/14/23 05:30 PM

Description/Agenda

Meeting Minutes Emery County Travel Bureau November 14 , 2023 3:30 PM Castle Dale, Utah In attendance: Lacy Hardman, Terri Bennett, Danny Van Wagoner, Camie Bell, AnnDee Mead, Amanda Leonard, Keven Jensen, Belinda Peacock, Peggy Farnsworth, Larry Johansen, Maria Sykes, Ren Hatt, Drew Sparfke, Nathan Martinez, Janet Smoak, Mike Thurston, Robin Hunt Conducting and Welcome: Chairman Keven Jensen 1. Approval of Minutes: October 2023. Motion made by Larry, seconded by Terri, approved. 2. Discuss/Approve/Deny: Events Plan 2024. Approaching the end of the year and in efforts toward transparency, we will be aiming for an RPF (request for proposal) to be ready in February. Will be bringing it up in the next commission meeting. Amanda's contract is ending and needs to be updated to more accurately reflect her position and responsibilities. Discussion regarding using some measurable quantities to clarify the importance of her work to the community. Presentation by Amanda and AnnDee about the new proposed system for event applications. Based on the number of events that we currently support and how many participants are involved, and considering the budget, we've created a break-down to allot 'up-to' certain amounts of monetary support. Support will be dependent upon projected numbers of visitors, marketing plans, out of state promotion plans, as well as post-event reports. Special consideration will be given to Green River events. Amanda plans to help event organizers understand what is required of them and have clear communication before, during, and after the application process. This should help hold the event holders more accountable as well as have a more efficient way to measure the cost and return of sponsorship. A system will be put in place to ensure that if event holders fail to submit post-event reports, they will not receive funding for future events. Discussion on if it might be more meaningful for certain groups to attend travel board meetings to report on the event after, instead of coming to seek approval beforehand. Motion to approve event planning for 2024 made by Ren, seconded by Larry. Role call showed attendees in favor. Motion passed. 3.Discuss/Approve/Deny: Moving forward with Rebrand-Life Energized. We have completed a year-long 'soft launch' which has gone really well so far. We are ready to move forward, if everyone is in agreement to start finalizing, obtaining brand kits, changing visitor guides, and websites. When the branding of 'The Swell' took place we had a contract with Hub which included maintenance for up to 5 years which would qualify the contract for aid in finalizing rebranding. An advantage to this is that The Hub is already an approved vendor for the county, saving the step of needing an RFP, therefore we would be free to just move forward with our plans. We also wouldn't have to start completely over with maps, guides, and visitor panels- but instead we would be able to do touch ups where needed. Also, having worked with Hub previously, they have acquired an understanding of the area, as well as our vision and sentiment, and have demonstrated a good working relationship with us. Using Hub to build off of what we already have would also be a money saver in the process. Motion made to approve moving forward with the rebrand as discussed by Ren, seconded by Lacy, role call showed attendees in agreement. Motion passed. 4. Discuss/Approve/Deny: Green River Event Supplies. Review of the topic of Green River obtaining some event supplies, spoken of in last month's meeting. A new bid is around $12,000. As we approach the end of the year and budgets are being worked on, the travel director would like to use some of the leftover funds to go toward this effort. Their needs include tables, chairs, canopies, etc. They have a secure place to store these supplies, possibly in the EMS building or maybe in the old firehouse. The amount will be somewhere between $5,000-$12,000. We would like to use this effort to help utilize our end-of-the-year budget efficiently. Purchases will be made by Green River and reported back to the board. Discussion on keeping inventory and safeguarding this investment. Motion to approve up to $12,000 for Green River event supplies made by Larry, seconded by Lacy, role call showed attendees in agreement. Motion passed. 5.Discuss/Approve/Deny: 2024 Meeting Schedule and Cancellation of December meeting. With the holidays and business coming up, looking to decide whether or not to meet in December, as well as setting dates and times for travel board meetings in 2024. Ren mentioned the possibility of keeping the date set for the December meeting, while maintaining the possibility of canceling the day before if nobody has any pressing matters to discuss. We will continue on with the second Tuesday at 3:30 next year, at least until summertime. Motion to approve 2024 meeting schedule and waiting till the day before to make final decision on December meeting made by Lacy, seconded by Larry. All in favor, motion passed. 6. Discuss Reports of the Following: a. Event Coordinator:The Veterans Day program was recently supported by the Travel Bureau, it's always a great program for the community. Registration for Millsite on Ice is now open. 48 entries registered in the first three days so we're hoping to keep that momentum going for a great turnout and event this year. Boys basketball tournament rings have been ordered, tournament will take place December 8-9th, girl's tournament will be the weekend of the 1-2nd with various swag for prizes that will have our logo. Outlaw Days in Green River went well, saw a fair amount of shooters. Lots of attendees for the dinner, looking forward to new supplies to improve the event. Having a hard time finding a venue to fit the growing events, and looking forward to the possibility of an event center in the future. This year brought a lot of shooters/visitors from Colorado and some from Arizona. Continued support from the county in the off season would be greatly appreciated. b. Marketing: Claim for the billboards and installation of YESCO billboards has been processed and we are looking forward to getting those up in January. The contract will run the billboards from January to January and we need to submit the design in December. We are looking to create a working group to decide on billboard content. If you are not able to be a part of the group, but you have ideas, please feel free to share! c. Museums: We have a new person on the museum team, Peggy. Peggy has been wonderful and is working so well with Belinda and Nancy, we are lucky to have her. The museum recently hosted the EmCo Paranormal Con, which was a great event. They included a few new events which all seems to go over really well. There were around 400 visitors during the two day event and a lot of fun was had. Looking forward to growing the event in the future and welcoming any help or input to do so. October saw 286 visitors on regular days with 420 added for the paranormal con. No newspaper article has been done but lots of pictures were taken and could still be used to do so. JWP Museum had a great month, saw 1366 visitors which is down a bit from last year, but the whole year has had slightly lower numbers... possibly from the 'dying down' or the pandemic travel surges. Income is up, and we are working on turning around the slow time of year to increase visitation. Going to try getting involved with the Get Out Pass to entice visitorship from around the state. Continuing to talk about expanding programs to keep busy during off seasons. Very proud of the recent hall of fame event which brought a lot of multi-stay visitors. Discussion about seasonal attractions vs local seasonal attractions, and how to market to a generic flow of travelers. Building presence and relationships with radio in Moab, as well as a new website in the works, and media marketing, should help bridge the gap to travelers. This year we are going to close to the public for a few weeks over the winter to focus on internal upkeep and cosmetic repairs. d. State Parks: Drew is the new manager at Goblin Valley. They are coming out of their busy season with some different events, but this year even November has had consistent visitors and campers with good weather. Aiming for consistent use and finishing up some projects. Green River State Park has had their campground closed working on a new lift station for the sewer line this last week. The new campground is all ready to go, but they won't have power till May. Recently held a one-man-scramble on the golf course, which was a fairly small event. Other tournaments and events are pretty much done till next year. e. Trail's: Jurassic National Monument contracted trail work is complete. Many trails have been widened and improved. The quarry has been closed for the season. Hoping for some new panels and bones to be on display when the quarry opens back up in the spring. November 13-14 to do some maintenance on the Lone Man Trail area. EA on Little Cedar Mountain is still being worked on. Working hard on getting SITLA/BLM land exchanges completed. Cameras have been used but have also been stolen. This is costing a lot of money and help in listening and watching out is requested to try to mitigate and put an end to the issue. Myron reported a new recreation lead, Zack Gardener. Discussion about the development of non-motorized trails on each side of the mountain. Please encourage locals to apply for seasonal jobs. Forest Plan Revision is wrapping up public comment, public comments are due by November 16th. Ferron Box had a crew making a new log fence and relocated the old fence to guide visitors to help ensure the ancient artifacts. Question posed from the commissioner especially toward the Green River board members asking for feelings regarding Long Street in Green River and the division in opinions. Folks from Green River responded that this has been a long running issue that hasn't seen much agreement. It's almost always been ruled as a public easement, but the land-owner and those sympathetic to that side hold a belief that the public cannot access public land through the private property. An agreement needs to be reached. f. Grants: AnnDee has been working with the state to straighten out our marketing and UOT co-op grants. Like us, they've had quite a bit of turnover, so it's been challenging to get things figured out. The big grant we applied for last year to pay for the vista works contract should be able to be redirected toward our rebrand as long as we follow the guidelines of the grants. Some other expenses from this year fell under the grant like the Road Trippin videos, billboards, and Utopia TV. We do need to close out two grants that we now have access to, so those will be taken care of shortly. As far as outdoor rec, fig/OHV-R grants... one for trail counters has been submitted and ready for close out, as well as equipment grant for trailer, cab enclosure, and wench that was passed previously will finalize that grant and it will be closed out in December. That should bring us up to date and current on grants. The $50,000 for the trails truck has been matched on a grant to also purchase a new mini excavator and trailer. We've found two trucks to lease which will be better for everyone. The mini excavator will be purchased in January which will close out that grant. As far as grants administered by us, the Swell Trails grants and backcountry horsemen grants, are wrapping up. We plan on putting the same amount of money last year toward this year to continue that program and will be on a future agenda. g. Financials: Looking at some graphs illustrating TRT monthly incomes compared back to the year 2017. We are slightly under on numbers from October last year and up from 2021. Same with TRCC, there are months that we are above and months that we are below prior years. We are trying to brainstorm and pinpoint what might cause fluctuations. Overall, TRCC is almost even, just slightly under last year's numbers. Adjourn - Thank you for coming! Next meeting tentatively scheduled for December 12 For more information about this and future Travel Board meetings please contact travel@emery.utah.gov

Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)

NOTICE OF SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals needing special accommodations (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) during this meeting should notify (435) 381-2600.

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Meeting Information

Meeting Location

75 East Main Street
Castle Dale, Ut, UT 84513
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Contact Name

Tina Carter

Contact Email

travel@emery.utah.gov

Contact Phone

(435)381-2600

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

January 10, 2024 11:11 PM

Notice Last Edited On

January 10, 2024 11:11 PM

Deadline Date

November 14, 2023 05:30 PM

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