Overton County Commissioners voted Monday night to join a tourism partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Livingston, and the Main Street Program.
The partnership would allocate city and county hotel/motel tax revenue to the chamber, which would use the funds solely for tourism efforts. County Executive Steven Barlow said the partnership would boost tourism and potentially grow the county’s general fund.
“That is outside money coming in locally, so that is what we call free money, flowing from visitors that are coming in here shopping and spending time at the lake and things like that,” Barlow said.”
After many questions, Chamber Director Zach Stephens addressed a provision in the agreement requiring the city and county to contribute a combined $75,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue each year. Stephens said the chamber would dip into reserve funds if the hotel/motel tax falls below $75,000.
“Right now, between the city and county, you all collect about $92,000 a year,” Stephens said. “If we ever dipped below that, then the city and county would make up that difference through the reserved funds.”
Stephens said the city and county would provide a percentage of reserves to make up the difference, should there be one. Stephens said the partnership would have an estimated $200,000 in reserve funds to start, as the county has only allocated an estimated $21,000 a year to the chamber in previous years. He added that if the county lost half of its visitor spending, the current reserves would fulfill the agreement for at least five years.
Stephens said that the chamber will still pursue additional tourism grants to further the parnterships efforts. Stephens said the state is for the local partnership.
“So we work with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development in putting all this together, and they are very supportive of this,” Stephens said. “In fact, they have awarded well over probably $150,000 in grant funding this year alone because they see the potential and they want to make sure this happens.”
During the public comment period, Resident Scott Deatherage questioned the county’s decision to join the partnership
“You basically signed on forever, unless you give six months advance notice, and come up with some extraordinary circumstance to get out of it,” Deatherage said. “I hope it works out, but forever’s a long time. And I don’t like the idea, even though state statute might call for it, of you as elected people with a fiduciary responsibility to us, I appreciate the way you all handled the tax dollars. I don’t like the idea that you turned it all over to another group like that.”
The commission approved to sign the memorandum of understanding with a 12-3 vote. Phillip Talley, Geraldine Walker, and Shane Walker voted against the idea.
In other business, the commission approved surplus and donated several vehicles from the Sheriff’s Department.