No decisions have been made as to the future of Visit Emporia, specifically who will oversee the organization and its operations, however, several concepts are being considered at this time.
The main concept under consideration is to convert the organization into a city department with an advisory board that would assist with marketing plans for the community made up of several local organizations according to City Manager Trey Cocking.
As Cocking mentioned, that list would potentially include Emporia Main Street and The Chamber of Commerce who both submitted proposals to the city for the Visit contract recently. Those proposals were considered by the Emporia City Commission during its April 16th meeting, where no decision was made. Visit Emporia, previously known as the Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been overseen by the chamber for the entirety of its existence.
KVOE News spoke with Emporia Main Street Director Casey Woods following Wednesday’s meeting to get his thoughts on the concept. Woods says he believes a collaborative approach can be beneficial for the community so long as the right experts are placed in the right areas.
Chamber Board Chair Lisa Kirmer says if Visit is not to remain with the Chamber, they want to stay involved and believe the best course of action would be to have Visit housed at a “neutral location” and not with one entity or another.
As part of Wednesday’s meeting, Emporia Mayor Erren Harter and Commissioner Becky Smith were selected as commission liaisons to help facilitate additional conversations on the subject. An exact date for the next round of discussions has not been set yet, however, Cocking expects said conversations may take place within the next week with more consideration by city commissioners by next month.
In other city business on Wednesday, commissioners also discussed the proposed restructuring of the RDA, details of which are available here. Commissioners also discussed adding new cameras and streaming equipment to City Conference Room 1AB to stream the commission’s study sessions which it has not previously done before. According to Cocking, changes in open meeting acts require that if an entity streams a portion of its meetings, such as how the city currently streams its action sessions, it must stream the entirety of the meeting including the study portion.
Commissioners stated they were in favor of adding the cameras, noting it would be costly, however, the alternative option would be to cease streaming altogether, which they felt would be a disservice to the community.
In action business Wednesday, commissioners awarded the contract for the city’s 2025 concrete street repair project to Quality Built Construction LLC, for a total of $317,749.11. The commission also approved granting a franchise to IdeaTek Telecom, LLC for a period of 10 years.
The Emporia City Commission will next convene on Wednesday, May 21 at 11 am inside of the Municipal Courtroom at White Auditorium.
