Juneteenth: The show will go on
A lack of funding from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau will not keep Juneteenth from being held for a 17th consecutive year, festival co-founder and Lowndes County supervisor Leroy Brooks said Tuesday.
No funding, no Juneteenth
The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors needed just 10 minutes to discuss and vote down a proposal to fund this year’s Juneteenth Festival as a quality of life event in a special meeting Monday afternoon.
CVB reaches no decision on Juneteenth grant
Juneteenth festival organizers will have to wait another month to find out if they will receive their request for an $8,000 quality of life grant from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Our view: Pass out the paper bags
It took an awfully long time for the New Orleans Saints to find anything approaching success. In fact, the franchise went 20 years before posting
CVB hires Hemphill as new board attorney
Chris Hemphill has been hired as the board attorney by the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Trustees
Support grows for state tourism board
A pair of bills moving through the state’s legislature could mean big things for the state’s tourism industry.
House Bill 935 and Senate Bill 2565 have passed through the respective chambers unanimously and a general tourism bill shouldn’t be far behind.
CVB’s festival grant meeting canceled
A special meeting of the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Festival Grants Committee scheduled for today has been canceled. According to committee member Bernard Buckhalter, the meeting was canceled because committee chairman Mark Castleberry would not be able to attend.
CVB, festival organizers remain at impasse
The debate over the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau’s festival grant guidelines continued Tuesday with a special meeting with festival organizers.
But the only decision to come out of the meeting was to schedule yet another meeting.
CVB festival funding debate set for tonight
The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau’s festival grants committee will meet with festival organizers tonight to discuss festival grant guidelines put in place August 2012.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the CVB board room.
Our view: CVB Board continued lack of resolve would be laughable if it weren’t so disheartening
The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau held its regular meeting Monday and, as almost always seems to be the case, it created more questions than it answered.
The big issue before the board was the propriety of allowing the elected officials who appoint the board members to solicit funds for festivals they operate.
CVB backs down: Board tables motion to change festival funding bylaw
The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau tabled a motion that would have eliminated elected officials from receiving festival grant funding during its Monday meeting.
The motion, made by Leon Ellis, would have closed the door on any elected official being part of a festival or quality of life committee.
Organizers to ask CVB for more band money
After a contentious showdown Dec. 17, District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks will once again be on the agenda at today’s meeting of the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau’s board of trustees. Brooks, who said he submitted a letter to the board and festival grants committee chairman Mark Castleberry, said he will not personally appear before the board.
Columbus lands big soccer tournaments
Two of Mississippi’s largest youth soccer tournaments are coming to the Columbus Soccer Complex.
Officials with Columbus-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Department won bids against other soccer complexes in the state to host the 2013 Coaches Cup Tournament and the 2014 Presidents Cup Tournament.
Latimer resigns as CVB attorney
Chris Latimer, the board attorney for the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, has resigned.
Neighborhood festival or campaign event?
Welcome to the Friendly City, the historic haven nestled along the banks of the Tombigbee River where the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau has a deal for you when it comes to festival grants, especially if you happen to be a county supervisor or city councilman.
Our view: It’s time to get politicians out of the festival business
Near the end of Monday’s Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board meeting Monday, District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks approached the podium to address the board.
Patting his right suit pocket, Brooks told the board that he would not speak from the text he prepared. Instead, he spoke off the cuff.
In retrospect, sticking to the prepared text probably would have been a better idea.
The message Brooks did deliver was a regrettable hodge-podge — at times racially-charged, at times conciliatory and at times conspiratorial.
Brooks to protest funding process at CVB meeting
Festival grant funding has been a contentious issue between Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board members for most of 2012.
Today’s meeting, the last one of the year, looks to be more of the same.
Our view: A refreshing change of direction…
Monday’s meeting of the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau was a circumspect affair. The board did its business at a brisk pace, adjourning in about an hour. There were no wild allegations, no shouting matches, no flagrant flaunting of any rules.
City disputes CVB’s resolution on hotel tax usage
A resolution passed by the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors is being criticized by some Columbus city officials. The CVB Board on Monday voted to ask the city to stop placing the funds from a two-percent hotel tax into the city’s general fund and to start using the money to “promote tourism by expanding the Trotter Convention Center.”
Funding, open meeting debate dominate CVB meeting
Festival organizers seeking grant money from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau will have a new set of guidelines in 2013. The CVB Board of Directors voted in two separate motions to define quality of life events versus tourism events.