Friday, November 21, 2003
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Friday, November 21, 2003 |
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Tourism board to focus efforts on promoting PTC Venues to be self-supporting in 2004 budgets By J. FRANK LYNCH The Peachtree City Tourism Association intends to live up to its name, using most of the hotel-motel tax revenue that once went to the city’s Development Authority to promote the community and its wealth of amenities as a destination. Eventually, the association will take on some of the city’s most high-profile annual events — like the Fourth of July parade — and seek corporate sponsors to pay for them, freeing up Peachtree City’s tight general fund budget. That ambitious vision — spelled out in the two-week-old Tourism Association’s first budget — was expected to get full City Council endorsement Thursday night. The council was also expected to approve a lease agreement with the tourism board, which grants it the right to manage the Fred Brown Jr. Amphitheater and Peachtree City Tennis Center starting Dec. 1. The DAPC’s financial troubles eventually forced it to give up management of the city-owned facilities. But the 2004 budgets adopted Wednesday by the tourism board shows each as independent and self-sustaining. The amphitheater will receive no guest tax revenue next year in its $1.417 million budget, instead betting on bringing in more than $1 million from ticket sales alone. Another $220,000 comes from the amphitheater’s loyal corporate sponsors, all of whom have re-upped for next season, said director Donna Romeo. The $942,928 budgeted in 2004 for the Tennis Center does include a $100,000 cushion in hotel-motel revenue, but if known revenues meet projections, the facility is shown turning a $70,000 profit at the end of 2004. Senior tennis pro and acting manager Sean Ferreira said there’s more cause for optimism because income from tournament sponsorships has yet to be negotiated. Both Ferreira and Romeo discounted the loss of the motel-hotel tax contribution, pointing out that the facilities lived without those funds last year. The City Council allocated $265,090 to the DAPC in 2003, with expectations that $50,000 would go toward amphitheater operations and another $50,000 to economic development efforts. The balance, $155,000, was intended to supplement the Tennis Center. Instead, DAPC lumped the entire amount into the development budget, and drew from it to pay salaries and legal fees. Under the Tourism Association’s plan, the balance of the funds will be used to create a new city logo and slogan, consolidate welcome center services now spread among several groups in town, organize and promote annual sports tournaments, and produce a plethora of new city festivals that could become annual events. “We have to promote tourism,” said City Manager Bernard McMullen, who serves on the tourism board along with councilmen Steve Rapson and Murray Weed, City Finance Director Paul Salvatore and Recreation Commission Chairman David Ring. “This authority is not going to focus just on these two facilities,” said Rapson, who was elected chairman of the board last week. If the Tourism Association’s application for tax-exempt status comes through, it will create a whole new source of revenue that will relieve Peachtree City’s cash-strapped general fund. “It saves the city money by removing tourism-related items imbedded in the budget,” said Rapson. Weed, vice-chairman, suggested the organization will help the city move beyond buildout. “This is a natural end in the life of Peachtree City,” said Weed. “Now we have a boad that can go out and get private money to do these things, like the All-Children’s Playground or the Dog Park. It’s a natural evolution; it’s the right thing to do.”
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