Business owners express tourism discontent

Several business owners expressed dissatisfaction with the city’s tourism marketer during the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board meeting Wednesday, and the representative of a Colorado firm said she’d be willing to take over those duties if the city declined to renew the marketer’s contact in the coming weeks.

The discontent went public during the meeting when Loni Monahan, director of the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum, mentioned during public comments that new billboards touting the museum had increased visitor numbers there by one-third. The city’s finance director, Rachelle Arias, also said during her regular report that motel tax revenue was at or slightly below projections.

Gar Engman of TeePee Curios, Yvette Peacock of Del’s Restaurant and David Brenner of Roadrunner Lodge, also former board chairman, all expressed disaffection with the Albuquerque-based Sunny505 marketing firm. Peacock said Sunny505 had “done zero to help our business.”

Board members in previous meetings also criticized the firm’s billboard designs for being unclear in touting Tucumcari.

Sunny505 soon will finish the second year of its contract with the city for $50,000 a year. City manager Britt Lusk said the deal is up for renewal in April.

Nancy Barlow of Barlow Advertising & Design in Denver, invited to the meeting by board Chairman Larry Smith, told the board during public comments she has stayed in Tucumcari 70 nights since 2011 and continues to do marketing work for Route 66 businesses in the city. Her firm submitted an ultimately unsuccessful bid two years ago when the city requested proposals for marketing services and, in response to a question from board vice president and secretary Al Patel, said she would be willing to submit a new proposal if the city declines to renew Sunny505’s contract.

Barlow added she “has no problem” working with New Mexico True, the marketing arm of the state’s tourism department, that has worked closely with Sunny505.

Lusk, who acknowledged being taken aback by Barlow’s presence during the meeting, cautioned board members not to violate procurement rules and that discussing matters with a potential contractor might be “unethical.”

Lusk repeated his warning at Thursday’s Tucumcari City Commission meeting, again calling Barlow’s visit “unethical” and saying it could result in an unfair bias toward Barlow’s firm.

“No one told Sunny505 they were not being considered for renewal,” Lusk told the commission.

In addition, he said, failure to abide by contract terms could result in “fewer quality proposals” in future requests for services.

Lusk also cautioned decision makers not be swayed by “inaccurate” posts on Facebook that have been critical of Sunny 505.

Under questioning Wednesday by Smith, however, Lusk said a vote in February to not renew Sunny505’s contract would give the city time to request new proposals, select one and “not miss a beat” with summer marketing efforts. Lusk also advised the board to offer any future contractor a two- to three-year contract, not a one-year deal.

Because Smith will be out of town much of next month, he asked the board’s regular meeting to be set for 10 a.m. Feb. 3. The board likely will make a recommendation on the future of Sunny505’s pact at that time. The city commission would make the final decision on whether to renew it.

In other business:

• Monahan asked for support from the board for a future request to the lodgers tax executive board of about $15,000 to cover the cost of painting reflective green dinosaur footprints on First Street from Interstate 40 to the museum.

She said Sandbar Construction of Albuquerque could do the job in about two days, and it would require “minimal” maintenance for three to five years.

Tucumcari City Commissioner Todd Duplantis pointed out Mesalands Community College owns and runs the dinosaur museum and perhaps should assume those costs for the footprints. Lusk disagreed, saying: “It is a tourism initiative to bring people into town.”

Monahan said Mesalands already has invested heavily to improve the museum, and the college wants it to be self-supportive. She also said future billboards will inform travelers to “follow the footprints” to the museum.

In response to a question from Patel, Monahan said Mesalands is “amenable” to covering about $3,500 in maintenance costs for the project. Several board members also verbally gave their support for her request to the executive board.

• Arias gave a breakdown on the likely financial effects on the board’s promotions and executive sides splitting the operations cost of Tucumcari Convention Center operations.

She said the executive side would go into deficits ranging from $48,000 to $140,000, depending on which split is adopted. However, when the refinanced debt for the convention center is retired in June 2021, the promotions side would have an additional $150,000 to spend, and the executive side still would hold a positive fiscal balance.

Lusk recommended the board pay off the convention center debt on the current schedule, then reallocate its operations costs. Patel, who advocated the reallocation in previous meetings so the promotions division would have more money to publicize events, indicated he was amenable to waiting until July 2021 to make that change.

• Richard Talley, former owner of Motel Safari, has rebooted social-media accounts for VisitTucumcariNM.com after being frustrated by months of inactivity there. Businesses and museums in town are being encouraged to post content on social media he can share.

• Sunny505 representative Dezaree Vega-Garcia spoke during a regular teleconference with the board early in the meeting detailed spring campaigns for Tucumcari and Quay County tourism, including on the Pandora music-streaming service, advertising in New Mexico Magazine and ROUTE Magazine, email marketing, and ads on Facebook and other social media. Vega-Garcia was not on the phone when audience and board members discussed the firm’s contract.

• Carmen Runyan, executive director of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, demonstrated an interactive Google Map that shows mural sites in the city. She said the map could be programmed to show other sites of interest

• Patel said he is trying to create three new events for Tucumcari in 2020 that would draw tourists. He said he eventually wants one significant event for each month of the year and would ask for assistance from the board’s executive side.

QCS correspondent Steve Hansen contributed to this report.