Peoria Standard

City of Chillicothe Marketing Tourism Commission met July 11.

Here is the minutes provided by the Commission:

Members Present: Patty Pierson, Nick Mc Million, Joe Harper, Kevin Yates, Kaci Geier and Amanda Beadles, Nathenia Zich

Members Absent: Amanda Oedewaldt, Tiffany Moore, Dan Colwell, Paresh Patel, Shirley Loser, Nancie Cassidy, Michele Pollack,

Others Present: Mayor Don White, Director Parker

The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.

Mayor White gave the financial report he highlighted a few items; we get funded through the Hotel Motel Tax, our Revenue is at 38% which was money collected for the bill board and we have spent 30% of our budget so far to date. Overall we are doing ok with our budget.

Director Parker shared with the committee information from the advertisement group that works directly with City Link. This company creates the ads that you see on the sides or front or all over the city buses. She shared some mock up photo’s Kelly had given her showing how a Chillicothe Ad could look on a bus. Since Kelly use to work for Adams outdoor she already had the billboard information and used that for the mock ups. Director Parker stated again this is just information she is sharing as we talk about options for advertising.

Kacie from the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau asked the committee to give her another month to work with Rachael to create that list of options along with cost for the various forms of advertisements for the committee to review. Kacie said that the PACVB is working with their partners (which the City is a Partner) to build up the social media and creating a landing page where people can be directed to see what’s going on in Chillicothe a place where everyone can direct their information/advertisements to and this might be a better tourism piece than the billboards, bus ads or commercials? The Mayor asked if all 10 companies had been signed up for membership that she contacted, Kacie stated that she has 2 slots left and she is working on filling those. She also stated that if any of the business has an interest in recording a 30 second video the cost is $100.00. If anyone business is interested they can contact her. She also passed out the new PACVB coupon books that do have a number of Chillicothe businesses in it this time.

Discussion took place in regards to CGI and the representative they sent to Chillicothe to solicit the businesses to advertise along with the City’s free Ad. A number of the businesses were discouraged by the cost associated with their advertisement options. The Mayor stated he received several calls from business owners asking if this company was for real or not. Director Parker stated that even though the city authorized them to come into town the City is in no way asking for the businesses to participate, it is up to each individual business if they choose to participate or not. It does not hurt or help the city if you decided to go with them or not.

Updates:

Brian Fox Ellis: Kevin reported the date is confirmed and that is all he knows. The historical society has the next step for this event. The date is November 11th.

Murals: Director Parker said that she had not received any addresses from anyone in regards to properties that you feel would be a great one to target for the mural. Joe Harper stated that he got some information in regards to Wall Dogs and feels we should reach out to them to come to Chillicothe. Director Parker said that she did make that contact and put the City’s name on some list that their website had where you could list your city as an interested city for their program and they would contact you if you made the list. Mayor White mention the possibility of using a canvas instead of painting on the actual wall, which might be a better option. Once we have the list of walls, then we decide on what the city wants as far as a theme throughout the city, each building has its own theme tied to the history of that building or whatever, then we find the painters. Right now we work on the list of properties.

Downtown Thursday: The Mayor asked if anyone heard of any complaints with the open container ordinance. No one heard any complaints and all commented on how well attended the event was.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 4:27 p.m.

http://www.cityofchillicotheil.com/M%20%20T%20%20Minutes%207%2011%2018.pdf