The mood was anything but festive at the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board meeting Monday, especially when they broached the subject of funding upcoming city festivals.
At the center of the dispute was how much to fund the Market Street Festival and Juneteenth festival. Last year, Market Street received $20,000 from the CVB, and Juneteenth received $16,000, but with less money in the coffers, the CVB is now tasked with either finding more revenue to allocate to the events or offering less funding than in the past.
Board member Dewitt Hicks started the debate and was quickly joined by Bernard Buckhalter, who criticized a festival grant subcommittee comprised of board members. Buckhalter said the committee had failed its only task — to find available revenue for festival grants.
Buckhalter said since the subcommittee had failed to do so, he wanted the entire board to examine the issue and find the funding. But Executive Director Nancy Carpenter said with less money available, the grants have to be smaller.
“Our grant funding budget for this year was $100,000,” Carpenter said. “We had $26,050 (in debt) carried over from the previous year. That left us $73,750. The board voted to fund the (Dream 365 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration) with a grant of $15,000. We are left with $58,750 to fund numerous events — everyone left gets a percentage of this.”
Buckhalter made a motion the board should fund what was affordable to the festivals and seek additional money if available.
“The whole board needs to look at this and see where we can find some money,” Buckhalter said. “I think we can find some. The money we are giving them is money they are giving us from the restaurant tax.”
Board member Mark Castleberry said Buckhalter’s motion was “dangerous.”
“We are not the only source of funding for these festivals,” Castleberry said. “There are other avenues they should be looking at. We need to quit carrying this cross. We are not the sole source of funding.”
Buckhalter’s motion to give what the CVB could afford and seek more money as a board passed 4-3.
Carpenter recommended funding the Market Street Festival at $11,700 and giving $9,000 to the Juneteenth festival.
Juneteenth: Thanks but no thanks
But Lowndes County Supervisor Leroy Brooks, who is the festival organizer for Juneteenth, said the suggested amount would not be sufficient.
“I appreciate it, but I will not accept it,” Brooks said. “If this is all you are willing to give to Juneteenth, I say thank you and I refuse it. It is not enough money for us. And to tell us to wait and see — we can’t plan like that. It’s not a good way for us to do business. We will decline this and cancel the Juneteenth festival.”
The board later voted 5-4 to allocate $14,000 for Brooks’ festival — $2,000 less than last year. Castleberry, Bart Wise, George Swales and Rissa Lawrence voted against the measure.
Even with the decrease in Juneteenth’s funding, Brooks said he still looks for it to be successful.
“I’m happy with the $14,000 because there is no way we could have operated with the proposed $9,000,” Brooks said. “We received $16,000 last year but we requested $15,000 this year, so it’s only a $1000 decrease in what we asked for. We will have to make some cuts, but we think Juneteenth will still be a success this year.”
According to Brooks, approximately 14,000 people attended the festival over a two-day period last year.
Market Street: Slashing the bottom line
The Market Street Festival was allocated $15,000 by the board, which is $5,000 less than requested. On Tuesday, Main Street Columbus Director and Market Street organizer Amber Brislin said she was appreciative of the CVB’s financial commitment.
“Honestly, I am very appreciative of the $15,000,” Brislin said. “But I am a little disappointed we didn’t get $20,000 like last year. This is going to come straight off the bottom line. We will just seek additional support from our sponsors to make up for it. I’m not going to take anything away from the festival. It’s imperative that we grow and improve the festival each year. 2012 marks the 17th anniversary for Market Street Festival. We have gotten where we are because of constant growth and improvement and because of the continued support of the community, volunteers and sponsors. I wish the board set a cap on the grants. It’s difficult to plan efficiently when we don’t know how much money we are going to receive from year to year. It’s almost impossible, but we make it work.”
Brislin said she felt the event deserved more funding because of the results of an economic impact study conducted during last year’s festival by the Mississippi State University extension service. The CVB board requested that the survey be performed.
Brislin said the survey was important because it substantiates the return on investment to all those that give time, resources and financial support to Market Street.
According to the study, 34,000 visitors spent an estimated $7.32 million with local merchants on various goods and services in Columbus during the festival. Visitors from outside the city made up approximately $3.66 million of that amount.
“We have proven that the investment of taxpayer dollars through the CVB grant are very deserved because of the significant reinvestment the festival has on our community,” Brislin said.
Carpenter said that although the festival was successful, the “enormous numbers do not reflect in our receipts.”
Dollars and sense
After the motions passed to allocate funding for the festivals at amounts higher than what was recommended but lower than previous years, board treasurer Wise cautioned the board on its spending.
“In 2008, (the CVB) had over one million in unencumbered cash,” Wise said. “Today, we have $100,030 (in unencumbered cash) and $700,000 in debt. If you think we need to keep spending, we will end up with zero in unencumbered cash, and we still have the debt, and we still won’t be able to fund these (festival) grants. These are some good grants, but we have to stand up at some point and balance the budget. Last year we were $170,000 in the red.”
Board chairman Swales also voiced his concerns about overspending.
“I don’t know where we are going to squeeze this money,” he said. “If there is no grant money left, we are killing the festivals in Artesia and Caledonia.”
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