ThisWeek CW 10/13/2011
The Canal Winchester Area Convention and Visitors Bureau may soon be under the purview of the new Destination: Canal Winchester organization.
The Old Town committee Oct. 10 unanimously approved a recommendation that would move oversight of the CVB from the Canal Winchester Chamber of Commerce to Destination: Canal Winchester, an organization whose mission is to promote tourism and historic preservation to maximize the city’s economic well-being.
City council will hear the legislation at its Oct. 17 meeting.
The CVB organization, which is funded through the city’s bed tax, provides grants to other local organizations for events that draw visitors to Canal Winchester. The chamber receives a large percentage of grant money from the CVB, and committee members want to shift the oversight to eliminate the conflict of interest.
“The grant money the convention and visitors bureau gives out is to draw people to Canal Winchester, and so Destination: Canal Winchester seems like the right place for that to exist since that’s their mission,” Mayor Michael Ebert said.
The recommended legislation going to council requests that it be voted on as an emergency, which allows it to be approved with only one reading. According to Ebert, this is necessary because grant applications for the next year have already been received by the CVB and need to be processed by the beginning of the year, under the proper authority.
Miscommunication threatened to stall the Old Town committee’s recommendation, though.
Committee member Marilyn Rush-Ekelberry said that chamber president Kim Rankin told her she was unaware of the move happening.
“Last week I was approached by (Rankin) and she said she didn’t know anything about (the move),” Ekelberry said. “She’s the secretary of the (CVB) and didn’t know about this and is very upset.”
Ekelberry said that she asked Destination: Canal Winchester executive director Bruce Jarvis if the CVB would still dovetail with the work of the chamber, and he said that was the intention.
“I think this needs to be resolved, because (Rankin) doesn’t understand that,” Ekelberry said.
Ebert said that the move has been discussed at the last two Destination: Canal Winchester meetings at which, according to Ebert, Rankin was not present.
Committee member Bobbi Mershon said that she didn’t feel this miscommunication should hold up moving the legislation forward to council.
“I think we should move this forward to council but give (Jarvis) a heads up that it’s an issue,” Mershon said. “This move seems like the best solution because the chamber uses a lot of convention and visitor bureau grant money and Destination: Canal Winchester doesn’t, so it gets away from the conflict of interest there.”
Rankin did not return messages seeking comment by ThisWeek’s press time.