Visitors Committee Approves Grant Request and Reimbursement

SIDNEY--The Cheyenne County Visitors Committee met in the late afternoon on July 3, and among items on the agenda were discussions on a Promotional Grant Request and a Grant Reimbursement report.

After approving the current agenda and minutes from the June 5 meeting, the committee reviewed information from the Financial Reports. It was reported that tax revenue from lodging was up 46.5% in April to the prior year, bringing the fiscal year's numbers up 6% year to date, and projected to be down just 1.9% at year's end. Cheyenne County Tourism Director Kendra Mitchell said that she and others have been questioning the accuracy of the state's numbers, and added that she would not be surprised if adjustments were made over the next few months.

"We'll see how this all falls out," said Mitchell.

Next, the committee briefly spoke about an upcoming WNTC Meeting in Potter on September 19. Part of the presentation will show a new package of plug-ins for the Visitors Committee website, with one of the features being the ability to compile calendars from multiple sources to build a master calendar for the website. The committee members in attendance will be looking at other upgrades and new products that they can use and can fit into their budget.

Kayla Wells, representing the Dalton Community Shepards, spoke to the group about a grant request for the upcoming 2024 Dalton Fall Festival. Wells said the group anticipates a Fall Festival similar to last year's event. In case of inclement weather, the group has prepared contingency plans to move the kid's outdoor activities into the Leyton High School gym. They briefly discussed the costs of printing and mailing flyers and clarified the rules on postage expenses being deducted. Last year, the group received a $3,000 grant and was reimbursed $2308.15 after all the accounting was completed. The Visitors Committee approved the $3,000 grant request for the 2024 event.

Next was a grant reimbursement report concerning the Nebraska Extension office for the CEC Conference. Jamie Bright went over the details, which showed the attendees at the conference spent an average of $200 on lodging, $90 on meals, $35 on beverages, and $30 on shopping. Of the attendees, 18 had been to Sidney before, while 7 had not. All attendees said they would probably return to Sidney, and all other ratings asked for were in the "good" to "very good" category. One thing that Bright found out is that many Sidney businesses do not have updated hours of operation listed through Google, and some attendees tried to visit stores that were closed. Overall, the event was successful, and the committee approved their grant reimbursement request of $1000.

Other items discussed included moving the August meeting to July 31, to help accommodate the PNCC Rodeo and Potter Days Committee with getting their grant requests in on time. Kendra Mitchell said that she and Sidney Economic Development Director Brandy Stone will be attending a training session for Placer.ai. Placer.ai is an artificial intelligence data location tool that scans phones and sends back information to subscribers for marketing purposes. A brief discussion of Placer.ai was held, with most of the members being unsure or having a basic understanding of the product and its use. Mitchell will have a password to access the system and will be responsible for gathering the data for the Visitors Committee.

A discussion was also held about the Nebraska Tourism ad designs to be submitted and the group agreed that the ads should promote specific events, like Gold Rush Days, rather than a generic "visit Sidney" message. These ads will be for next year's publications, so the committee has until October to finalize design and content plans. Two of the three new billboards going up on Route 80 have been delivered, with the final billboard for Potter being scheduled to be picked up by Chief Sign Company and installed shortly. The committee also approved a change to their Facebook page from "Visit Sidney" to "Visit Sidney/Cheyenne County NE".