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Supervisors, chamber to form alliance
By Mike Bollin ger • Staff Writer
WARM SPRINGS - The Bath County Board of Supervisors and the Bath County Chamber of Commerce board of directors began to lay the groundwork June 25 for what they hope will be an organized effort for the tourism industry in the county.
"To promote tourism is to create jobs," said supervisors' chairman Jon Trees. "My main interest in this is to create jobs for the people of Bath County. I wish we had some smaller, cleaner industries that paid higher wages than tourism, but tourism is what we've got right now."
Supervisors have talked about adding 2 percent to the county's occupancy tax, and Trees said State Sen. Creigh Deeds wants to see a plan in place for tourism promotion before he will sponsor the necessary legislation. Bath currently has an occupancy tax of 2 percent, and under state law any amount charged over 2 percent must be used for tourism.
"I think Sen. Deeds is looking for an agreement between the governing body and the chamber, and this is a first step in the right direction," Trees said.
County administrator Bonnie Johnson said the Virginia Association of Counties would help move such a bill through the legislature, and that it needs to be prepared by no later than Thanksgiving.
Chamber of commerce outgoing president Pete Minetree said traditionally, tourism in Bath County has been linked to The Homestead. More recently, Minetree said, another aspect of tourism has become important. "It is characterized by the thousands who come each year to visit and enjoy the pristine beauty of our streams, lakes, forests mountains and valleys. Many are campers, many others stay in our inns, cabins and lodges. But without exception, all contribute to the businesses of the county," he said.
Minetree said the time has come to create a formal program that will allow public policy to determine the direction of the county's tourism efforts. "Whether engaged in businesses directly involved in tourism or in service businesses that contribute indirectly to tourism, every family is touched in one way or another by our visitors," he said.
Minetree said the focus must be on what is best for the majority of people in the county and not just a few. He also said the two boards need to concentrate on issues that will have the greatest impact on the county's future and not those that provide short-term solutions to current topics.
"The sole litmus test for allocating tourism resources must always be the healthy growth and vitality of tourism and our diverse business community," Minetree said. "Properly directed and managed, the tourism program is the engine that will allow our community to have an increasingly higher standard of living, growing school attendance, affordable housing and growth that is controlled by local taxpayers."
Supervisor Carol Hardbarger said she believes it is "imperative" the two groups work together. "I think whatever differences exist can be resolved. We should not all think the same way," she said.
Hardbarger said Bath could take advantage of people coming here to stay at The Homestead by marketing arts, crafts and other local products. "There are lots of things Bath County can do to grow businesses and cottage industries. We are not going to get a business that employs 400 people to move into Bath County. The transportation is not affordable," she said. "But, it is possible to grow tourism to employ Allegheny Highlands people. If you have a living wage, people will want to come."
Supervisor Percy Nowlin said the greatest need in Bath is to create jobs and with the state of the economy, there could not be a better time for a tourism effort to begin. "Tourism in Bath County can be a tremendous source of jobs. Our driving force is tourism, and we need to do all we can," Nowlin said.
Johnson said she believed the two boards working together would make the effort stronger by having one another's ideas to pull from.
Several members of the chamber board added their observations. John Young cautioned that moving the tourism program forward would create needs in other areas. "As we drive tourism, other entities will need to be strengthened as well and the initiative to support tourism needs to be there. We need the community to grow, and we need to support local businesses because that is part of what supports tourism," Young said.
Jonah Windham said he believed there is a common misconception about tourism. "The day tourist is just as important to the county as those who spend the night. We must be careful to give them something back," he said.
Windham said the county's efforts must be planned properly, and he has been in places where lodging tax revenue has been misspent.
Barbara Buhr said she has operated a business strictly supported by tourists for 13 years. "I bring in a considerable amount of funds selling products to tourists, and I would love some support from the community for my business and some of the events I put on," she said.
Buhr is skeptical about adding 2 percent to the occupancy tax. She suggested adding 1 percent and moving a little more slowly.
"I hope we can be successful with this partnership. The chamber now is the tourism engine for Bath County," Susan Plecker added.
"If the business community was interested in a 1 percent increase in the occupancy tax, would you stand behind that?" John Cowden asked supervisors.
Trees replied he felt the county should ask for a 2 or 3 percent increase in the tax when the time comes. "How often are Sen. Deeds, Del. (Jim) Shuler and the governor going to entertain requests from Bath County?" Trees wondered.
Trees also said he would like to see a committee created with representation from the two boards, Johnson, and possible at-large representation from the community. The committee, Trees said, would report to supervisors and the chamber board, have an annual budget process and make suggestions throughout the year, for example, on what advertising to do and which markets to target.
Hardbarger said should the tourism efforts eventually lead to some type of major event in the county, care would have to be taken to make sure the sheriff's office could handle the influx of people. Nowlin agreed. "We would need to plan ahead so we would have the infrastructure we need," he said.
Nowlin said for every $1 spent on tourism, about $5 ends up returning to the community. In order to create jobs and do business, Nowlin said, some money will have to be spent.
"There has been a lot of dependence in the past on The Homestead to do it all. A member of our board is part of The Homestead, and they are behind our efforts to bring people to Bath County," Windham said.
Minetree said there would be a learning curve for all involved as the project begins to move forward. "I like what I have seen from the board (of supervisors) both collectively and individually. I think the next step is to have a memorandum of understanding signed at the next (supervisors') meeting and create a standing committee chaired by a member of the board of supervisors with the day-to-day operations handled by the chamber as the executive agent for tourism," Minetree said.
Trees said he would request the matter be placed on the supervisors' July meeting agenda to allow the board time to review a memorandum of understanding.
"What we're proposing here has never been done in Bath County before, and this can be a very exciting thing for the county. My main concern is the people in Bath County having trouble getting good jobs," Trees said.
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