04/25/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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snould be maintained, as it would allow this group to be in a position to continue the operation of the Tourism and Convention ,Bureau. He noted this source of money would help the Tourist and Convention Bureau to keep the rooms filled, which in effect would keep the money flowing into the Room Tax Fund. - Don r'1cNei 1, Chamber of Commerce Touri stand Conventi on Bureau, noted that the 25 percent woul d be a bare mi nimum to do the jOb of keeping the Tourist and Convention Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce in business. He said encouraging conventions into Eugene was a very competitive business. Penny D. Carpenter, 1242 East 19th Avenue, spoke as a member of the management and staff of the Valley River Inn, indicating the support of the Chamber of Commerce Tourist and Convention Bureau. She reiterated the nature of competitiveness in the convention business, and felt an auditorium would bring more business to the Eugene community. She said Eugene had poor airport facilities for connections for people coming into conventions and that the Tourist and Convention Bureau needed all the support it could get to lure conventions to the Eugene area. The Bureau had been work- ing very closely with the various motel and hotel industries in the area to help bring groups to town. She noted the past performance of the group had been tremendous and its value had been in generating more and more business, which in turn generated more room tax funds, and she endorsed the 25 percent allocation for tourism. e Glenn Mason, 1980 West 24th Avenue, spoke as a representative of the Historic Review Board. He noted it was hard to review the long-range goals and distinguishing between the split of 25 percent for recreational and cultural and 25 percent for tourism as the Historic Review Board felt it was tied to both. The group's major concern was its individual needs and that it might not be funded in the future. He noted that within the long- range goals as proposed, the Historic Review Board wondered where it fit into those goals. He stressed that financial assistance for the group was very important and without any assistance it could adversely affect the Historic Review Board. He referred to a document and letters that had been received supporting the Room Tax Allocation funding for the Historic Review Board. Jim Williams, 1438 West 4th Avenue, said he was very much in favor of the development of an auditorium for the Eugene area. He noted that much of the funding from the Room Tax Allocations had come to help the local theater and arts program groups in the area and had brought broad recognition to the community through those groups. If the present funding were not continued, it might reduce the money available to the local theater and arts groups, while a building was being developed for such groups to perform in. He said the theater and arts groups needed to be kept alive during this interim period with allocation from the Room Tax funds, and asked Council to give some serious consideration for keeping the theater and arts groups alive. He noted that by having these groups in the area, it added quality to the use of the auditorium and asked the City Council to require the Budget Committee to look for options for alternative funding. e 331 4/25/77 --14