Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board on Wednesday delayed action to recommend an increase for Tucumcari Convention Center fees until its next meeting Oct. 6, when a more concrete proposal is likely.
Board Chairman Matt Bednorz said he was inclined to have the board recommend a raise for convention center fees after checking prices of other convention centers in the region.
He said Clovis’ convention center charges between $800 to $2,200 a day, and Santa Rosa’s charges $750. Bednorz said the Tucumcari Convention Center charges only between $400 and $500.
He advocated a $600 charge for non-commercial uses and $800 for commercial rentals.
Bednorz also noted the New Mexico Route 66 Museum occupies one wing of the Tucumcari facility, preventing its use on busy weekends. He also expressed concern about those who rent the Del Norte Community Center on the city’s north side bringing alcohol to gatherings, exposing the city to liability.
Bednorz said the city needs “to run the convention center as a business. We can’t give stuff away. We can’t.”
Convention center manager Loy McSpadden said when he was hired several years ago, the facility’s daily costs were between $1,400 and $1,700 a day.
City liaison Todd Duplantis agreed fees charged for the convention center are “too cheap,” but he advocated a tiered pricing structure for the facility that depends on what rooms or services are used.
City manager Mark Martinez agreed the convention center’s pricing structure needs change but pushed back on a few ideas, including charging $15 an hour for bartenders and $35 an hour for security guards. He deemed those prices as too high.
“I agree with change,” Martinez said. “I don’t want too drastic of a change and discourage people” from using the facility.
Martinez said he would consult with McSpadden on the facility’s daily costs and try to propose a new fee structure by the board’s next meeting. Bednorz said he hoped higher fees for the convention center would be in place before the end of the year.
In other business:
• The board talked to Carlos Medina, who reported he had pared down 30 hours of footage shot in Tucumcari to 38 minutes for a travelogue short film.
Medina hoped to have the film picked up by the CW Network, which would require him to return to Tucumcari for necessary reshoots.
He said the rights to the footage he shot would be owned by the City of Tucumcari, and he would offer to edit segments down to 30 seconds to up to 2 minutes for promotional uses.
The city commission in April approved $15,000 in lodgers tax funds to Medina to produce “Aventuras Encantandas,” or “Enchanted Adventures.”
• Connie Loveland, Tucumcari MainStreet executive director, said copy recently had been received for the forthcoming Tucumcari visitors guide being designed by the Alamogordo-based Leighton Moon firm.
Loveland said Leighton Moon recently finished its work of a tourism rack card — designed to look like a passport — for the city’s four museums.
She also said New Mexico True, which is part of the state’s tourism department, was scheduled to do a photo shoot in Tucumcari on Sept. 17-18.
• Speaking about MainStreet activities, Loveland said it and the chamber had begun planning the Very Merry Tucumcari festivities.