May<\/a>, though, the lodgers tax committee announced that it was planning to significantly reduce funding from both the Mancos and Dolores chambers, starting in 2020.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are currently supporting several of the chambers of commerce, which rely almost exclusively on this money for their operational budget,\u201d said committee member Brian Bartlett at the meeting. He didn\u2019t feel this was the purpose of the lodgers tax funding, and thought the dollars could be used more directly for tourism purposes.<\/p>\n
Redirecting funds could raise $50,000 to $70,000 annually, Bartlett said. The money could potentially be used for feasibility studies, grant matches, and financing for a convention center.<\/p>\n
The cuts would also affect the Cortez Cultural Center and Galloping Goose Historical Society. Mesa Verde Country would face smaller cuts, according to Bartlett, since the organization\u2019s main mission of marketing tourism is more aligned with the purpose of lodgers tax revenues. And the Cortez Chamber of Commerce would not be affected by the cuts because it has its own lodgers tax.<\/p>\n
Goodell says this move is a mistake, and that the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center play a valuable role in bringing tourists into Montezuma County, and in guiding them to local restaurants, activities, and attractions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDurango is a huge tourist destination,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has a gigantic tourist base. And people everywhere have heard of it. People stay in Durango, they drive to Mesa Verde. Having a visitor center gives them a place to stop here.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also sponsor tourism-based activities and groups like Mancos Days, Mancos Brewfest, and the Mancos Trails Group, she added.<\/p>\n
The Visitor Center on Bauer Avenue is filled with historical and cultural tidbits about Mancos, from Creative District artwork to a map pinpointing novel settings of the town\u2019s own Louis L\u2019Amour. Brochures are available at a kiosk near the front door, in addition to being spread throughout town \u2013 the chamber operates three kiosks with posters and rack cards.<\/p>\n
If funding cuts come through, chamber would still be able to keep the building, Goodell said. But the Visitor Center requires staffing, and it won\u2019t be kept afloat by volunteers alone, she said.<\/p>\n
The tax committee had argued that the chamber was more involved with keeping tax dollars in town, as opposed to bringing \u201cheads to beds,\u201d Goodell said. But she pointed to the Mancos Cowboy Half-Marathon as one example of a chamber effort that drew in outsiders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost half the people coming are from outside of the area,\u201d Goodell said.<\/p>\n
Aside from the larger county impact, she said, the Chamber and Visitor Center help Mancos\u2019 economy by bringing in tax dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe depend on tourism as much as Cortez does,\u201d Goodell said. \u201cAnd we would like to see our lodgers tax dollars go toward supporting the tourism in Mancos, the tourism in Dolores, as well as the tourism in Montezuma County as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Center\u2019s staffing, operation dependent on tax<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5737,5736,5793,6033,5866,5735,5741,6064,5823],"tags":[28,83,109,237,29,1526,421],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-mancos","category-montezuma-county-commissioner","category-montezuma-county-government","category-news","category-newsletter","category-taxation-and-budget","category-tourism-and-leisure","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-montezuma-county-government","tag-newsletter","tag-taxation-and-budget","tag-tourism-and-leisure"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92935,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65701\/revisions\/92935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65701"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}