Henry County officials — and leaders in the cities and towns in the county — want to revitalize the county’s efforts to attract tourists.
To that end, the City Council Monday approved a $12,000 contribution toward hiring a tourism director for the county.
Erin Knackstedt, county administrator and acting head of the newly-revived county tourism bureau, addressed the council Monday.
Knackstedt said county leaders want to revive the tourism bureau that was dissolved five years ago — but with a more effective organization.
She said the tourism bureau has already obtained a state grant and is seeking federal funds as well. The next step, she said, is hiring a full-time tourism director.
The tourism bureau wants to raise $75,000, much of which would go to pay salary and benefits for the director. The Henry County Board has already allocated $25,000, and Knackstedt she hopes for state and federal grant funds to provide another $25,000.
The rest would come from the county’s cities and towns. Kewanee’s $12,000 contribution is the largest being sought from any community in the county, and Knackstedt said, “We really want that impact to be felt in Kewanee.”
“You guys are paying the lion’s share” of the $25,000 being sought from the towns and cities, she said, but City Manager Gary Bradley pointed out that “The $12,000 is less than half of the original ask” that had been sought from Kewanee.
Councilman Steve Faber, who was the only member of the council who voted against the $12,000 tourism contribution, asked, “What guarantee do we have that it isn’t going to turn out like it did before?”
Knackstedt said the main reason the previous tourism bureau failed was that the director didn’t maintain close contact with leaders in the communities in Henry County. That will change in the revitalized tourism bureau, she said.
“The main thing we want the tourism bureau to do is work for our member communities,” Knackstedt said, adding that the bureau would “market our assets in a way they have not been marketed before.”
To that end, she said, it will be important for the new tourism director to maintain close relationships with leaders in all of the county’s communities — including Kewanee’s City Council.
Knackstedt also said Geneseo officials previously had little to do with the tourism efforts for Henry County, but that has changed.
Geneseo is “now a player in this new arrangement than they were under the old arrangement,” said Bradley, who is president of the county tourism board.
