South Central Reporter

City of Centralia Tourism Commission met April 17.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

I. CALL TO ORDER- Nix – Coleman, Chair: Meeting called to order at 5:00PM.

II. ROLL CALL

______ Jessiycka Nix Coleman

__ X__ Mary Davis

______ Shannon Cooney

______ Rob Jackson

__ X__ Rachel Wallace

__ X__ Greg Sutton

__ X__ Kelsie Smith

__ X__ Terri Finn

__ X__ Tom Walsh

Ex-Officio Members

______ William Smith, City Manager

__ X__ Marcus Holland, Chamber of Commerce Director

__ X__ Advisory Staff -Derek Sherman, Economic Development Director

Others Present: None

III. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION – Marcus Holland of the Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce asked if we had any clarification on if the city would be willing to shift it’s sponsorship from a Balloon to utilize for marketing. The city would have it’s tourism logo on all marketing, and Marcus does not need an additional Balloon Sponsor and he believes he could get another Balloon Sponsor if deemed necessary. Sherman stated that he has brought it up, but that it would be a decision made by the Mayor.

IV. MINUTES – A motion was made to approve both the minutes as presented: 1st Sutton 2nd Finn. With all present voting yes in favor and none opposed.

March 21st, 2023

V. TREASURER’S REPORT – Walsh: A motion was made to approve the treasurer’s report as presented: 1st Wallace 2nd Finn. With all present voting yes in favor and none opposed.

VI. ONGOING BUSINESS

1. Website Data

i. Sherman provided the update on the website data. Sherman provided Google Analytics data, which showcased the obvious that our home page has the most traffic. However, upcoming events like Locust Street Fair were doing well due to the leadup of the event. Another interesting data point was that we only had people on the landing page for 1 minute, and our return visitors were low. Sutton commented that 1 minute is good by the industry standards, so he said we should break it down by length of visit.

2. Social Media Data

i. Sherman stated that it appears our social media bounced back from the winter slump to our normal range. Our posts with the largest reach were the Wamac Egg Hunt, Central City Circus, and the Centralia Farmer’s Market. It appears that things for people to do and family activities seem to be the posts that yield us the most reach/interaction.

3. LSF Booth

i. Sherman updated that he thinks we are ready to go, and we are prepared to print out the business cards that the marketing subcommittee approved. Additionally, we seem to not have much on the item acquisition for the Centralia Made section to display, but we will continue to work on it. Shannon did help Sherman to start getting a sign up sheet set up online, but it does charge the city a fee, so it may be worth doing on special occasions. Davis updated the committee on donations to give out: Straith’s Jewelry & Country Bob’s have provided gift baskets and Kelsie said Klotheer will try to get a basek together too.

4. Subcommittee Updates

i. Marketing

1. Wallace mentioned the importance of acquiring photos from Locust Street Fair that had people in them and doing activities. Smith said to check with Hodges that he understands the types of photos we are looking for from the event. Sherman said that he would confirm with Hodges before Locust Street. Wallace said that they are still working on getting some advertisement ideas on consistent events, but that is still a process. Wallace state that Shannon and herself will be going to other downtowns like Belleville to determine how these other communities got their marketing cohesive & everyone to pull in the same direction. Sherman did want to update the Tourism Commission that he is working on a draft visitor’s guide similar to Effingham County’s that was provided at the previous meeting.

ii. Programming

1. Sutton had no updates other than continuing to work on making sure our resources are being utilized with intent to get us the most effective results. Sutton said they will have another Programming Subcommittee meeting soon, and they would still like to have a meeting with Hodges to discuss priorities for photos.

iii. Celebrate Centralia

1. Sherman stated that Jackson was heading up this subcommittee, but he was not able to attend this evening. Sherman said he has organized a downtown event space layout, is working on a list of schools to reach out to for the art show and starting to review the vendor list from previous years. Also, Sherman mentioned that he thinks a Country Bob BBQ cookoff could be an interesting component for the event to expand to in future years.

VII. NEW BUSINESS

1. Trolley Update

i. Sherman said he is still waiting for word from East Peoria, but otherwise he has no updates. Davis suggested maybe writing reviews on the trolley and other events to help promote Centralia. Sherman said that makes sense and he has noticed other tourism organizations have quotes from reviews on their website.

2. Upcoming Events

i. Summer Market

1. The Commissioners suggested having Destination Downstate do a social media takeover for the event and that the Tourism Commission should focus on promotion for Summer Market. Sherman asked if we would like to consider a booth at Summer Market, so he thought we might have a conversation about that at the next meeting.

ii. Juneteenth

1. Sherman mentioned that it will be coming up as well and didn’t know if we wanted to have a presence at the event. Davis again suggested that maybe we focus on doing more social media posts rather than having a booth.

iii. 4th of July Parade & Carnival

1. Sherman mentioned that American Legion puts on the Carnival and the Veteran’s Affairs Committee hosts the parade. Normally, Tourism has the trolley in the parade, but wanted to see if we would like to do that again. Additionally, the American Legion needs some funds to make up the difference of $10,000 for the fireworks as the costs went up more than they expected from last year.

iv. Farmer’s Market

1. Sherman said it is a regularly scheduled event for us to help promote and it is in the same spot as previous years. Sherman mentioned that a community member mentioned doing a Fix’It day like in Canada to occur around the Farmer’s Market to keep people in the community longer and attract more people to our city. Additionally, Sherman mentioned that his wife informed him of a Night Market that Urbana, IL does as the Champaign, IL Farmer’s Market is huge, and they couldn’t compete. The Night Market is very similar to a Farmer’s Market just that it occurs in the evenings. Sherman stated it is a longer-term goal, but he believes it would be impactful. The Commissioners all thought this was a good idea, and Davis asked if there was someone interested in being the market master for it. Sherman replied that yes there is someone interested in running it for us. Finally, Sherman updated the Commission on attempting to get a pricing structure around people to utilize our foldable picnic tables at downtown events, so that the city does not go in the whole on overtime or having to constantly replace the tables. The initial calculation is high due to overtime costs, but we can determine an appropriate cost calculation in the future. Davis asked if we could just leave some down there, and Sherman said that it would have to be the old-style picnic tables as they are less likely to steal them rather than the foldable tables that are easily moved.

VIII. DISCUSSION

1. Sherman updated the Tourism Commission on the city’s award of the DCEO Tourism Attractions & Festivals grant. The City was awarded under the attractions section and will be receiving $37,500 with a match of $37,500 to create a Walking Tour for the Centralia Historic Commercial District that is listed on the National Parks Service’s National Registry of Historic Places. The Walking Tour will have plaques identifying the properties on the registry, and a scannable QR code nearby that visitors can scan to read about architectural significance, cultural significance/historical uses, and current use/business it is now. Additionally, we are hoping to have audio recording, so that the attraction is ADA accessible. Finally, there will be bistro/café lighting hung across the 100 & 200 Blocks of Broadway to allow extended hours for people to enjoy the attraction. The goal is to have the attraction completed by Celebrate Centralia, but we will see how quickly the state moves the grant along.

2. Upcoming Agenda Items

i. Sutton mentioned having more geographic focus on the data analysis to determine where we should be focusing our marketing and continue to drive interest to those things. Sherman mentioned that he can’t give direct access to Commissioners, but that any of the Commissioners were willing to come to my office could have access to the data in his office.

IX. ADJOURNMENT - A motion was made to adjourn the meeting: 1st Walsh 2nd Finn. With all present voting yes in favor and none opposed.

https://cityofcentralia.org/vertical/sites/%7BFC680FE7-BE5C-4903-A103-67AF5EF51655%7D/uploads/4_-_April_18_2023_Minutes.pdf