Tourism doesn’t want to share

Creating City Hall in Tourism Building would be disruptive

Staff Reports

Jefferson’s Tourism Board is weighing in on a new City Hall by preparing a resolution opposing a reconfiguration of the building claiming it would impact the Board’s ability to rent the building.

“If you remember, several, several months ago, Melissa [Boyd, City Secretary] proposed some ideas for reconstruction of this part of the building to make a City Hall and still have some sort of event center and add-on for Tourism,” said Tourism Board president Colleen Taylor. 

Taylor recommended the board consider passing a resolution indicating that the Tourism Board recommend the City build a new area off the end of the building instead of altering the inside of the existing building.

Taylor and board member B.W. Brooks felt the City had the money to build new instead, but their concern was the impact to the use of the building both short and long-term.

“They have a budget setback for it,” said Taylor. Brooks echoed Taylor in saying he believed it would be more cost effective to build new. The City had budgeted $310,000 for building and construction in the 2024-25 budget.

Taylor asked if the board would “talk about it and say ‘yes that would be a better idea and leave all this alone’.” 

The four-members of the board who were present voted to approve a resolution opposing reconfiguring the building. Those present were Taylor, Brooks, Anna Bode and Sharon Goolsby. Three members were absent.

The resolution will be presented at the August City Council meeting.

The use of the building is one of several options the City is considering as a replacement for City Hall, which they had to move out of almost 3-years ago due to structural concerns.

In other business, the board approved a $500 grant to the Marion County Chamber of Commerce to help support their upcoming “Round table of Local Hosts” conference for local lodging and tourism related businesses to share ideas about how to succeed and grow their businesses. The event is set for August 27 at the Jeffersonian Institute.

Taylor also updated the board on Hotel Tax Occupancy numbers from last month. She indicated the final report wasn’t ready, but that revenue was up 8.25% for the year compared with last year. She said they have spent approximately 73.88% of their budget so far.

Lastly, a new commercial has been filmed and will be available online soon and “A Day in Jefferson” was to be filmed on July 17 for a social media post by the Subaru dealer in Shreveport.

“Every year they pick a place, put a family in a new Subaru, and film the day,” said Taylor. “This year they chose Jefferson!” An article in Weekender Magazine will also showcase the event.