Over the past several months, dark clouds have loomed over the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau.
We’ve taken the board to task on multiple occasions, questioning their transparency, the manner in which they selected their director and the lack of a clearly articulated mission.
Now, with a complete board and a full-time director, perhaps the clouds have begun to part.
The new board promises to be more open to the communities the CVB serves and acquires its tax dollars from.
Though we tend to readily identify the CVB with attracting visitors, the CVB should mean much more than tourism. It means quality of life for those trying to decide if they want to call Lowndes County home as well as for those who already do. If it succeeds at that mission it will become a powerful economic engine that will lift all boats.
The CVB should be independent of other governmental and quasi-governmental organizations (Read: The Link and Lowndes Board of Supervisors). And there’s no reason it shouldn’t be; it gets its operating funds directly from the people it serves, by way of a 2-percent restaurant tax.
In the recent past the CVB was promoting and producing a steady stream of culturally enriching events that generated a steady stream of national attention. Celebrations of the lives of baseball broadcast pioneer Red Barber, boxer Henry Armstrong, baseball great Sam Hairston and the national broadcast from here of Michael Feldman’s “Whad’Ya Know?” program on Public Radio are a few that immediately come to mind. Not only did these events generate publicity we couldn’t have bought, they enriched the lives of residents here. They made us proud and they broadened our horizons.
Does today’s CVB have that vision? We hope so.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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