Brother, can you spare a whole bunch of dimes?
Organizers of festival grants appealed to the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors Monday for festival grant money to help their events.
The board heard requests from organizers of three community festivals, whose requests totaled $46,000.
However, before doing so, the board wrangled over whether they had any grant guidelines in effect.
At the December meeting, the board voted to send new grant guidelines back to the subcommittee that drafted them. CVB members approved the guidelines at a special-called meeting earlier in December.
Subcommittee members are Mark Castleberry, Harvey Myrick, Rissa Lawrence and Bernard Buckhalter.
The subcommittee members each spoke Monday and said they met and agreed to operate under the old guidelines until the new fiscal year. They will try to complete the new guidelines before Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, but use the intervening time to educate festival organizers on the changes.
Board members voted to follow that plan.
The revised guidelines required stricter financial accounting, a minimum of two days of events, no money for entertainment, a requirement to use CVB logos and expertise for marketing and that the event reach beyond the county to bring in tourists.
The CVB board set this fiscal year’s grant budget at $100,000. Last fiscal year, the board approved $154,500 in grants. Further, the board has paid $47,250 this year in carryover costs to fund last year’s grant requests and new grant requests.
That leaves about $52,750 to pay for all other festivals for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2012.
Presenters included the following:
- Chuck Cook spoke on behalf of Grillin’ on the River. This event takes place at Riverwalk and includes 70 teams in a cook-off. The festival’s total budget is $32,830, and Cook requested $6,000 from the CVB board. Member Harvey Myrick, who was on the festival board, announced he has resigned; he excused himself from the meeting during the festival discussion. Last fiscal year, the festival received a $6,000 grant.
- Amber Brislin, executive director of Main Street Columbus, Inc., spoke on behalf of Market Street Festival. This event has been ranked a Top 20 event in the Southeast for 2012, she said. Activities will include concerts, arts and crafts vendors, children’s programs and a 5K run. She expects 34,000 visitors and an economic impact of $7.32 million, with half of that as new money from outside the county. The total budget is $183,720, and Brislin requested $25,000 from the CVB board. Last fiscal year, the festival received a $20,000 grant.
- Cindy Lawrence and District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks spoke on behalf of Juneteenth. This three-day festival at Sim Scott Community Center will include gospel and blues concerts and children’s activities to commemorate the June 19, 1865, anniversary of Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s arrival in Galveston, Texas, to announce the Civil War had ended and slaves were free. The festival’s total budget is $23,100, and the two requested $15,000 from the CVB board. Last fiscal year, the festival received a $16,000 grant.
Board policy is to hear presentations one month and vote on funding them the following month. Board President George Swales thanked the presenters and said they would get their answers next month.
The grants funded 11 events last fiscal year. So far this year, only one festival has received funding — MLK Dream 365 was approved for $15,000 in November.
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