[10/25/02]The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2003 for the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau was amended Thursday to raise money to participate in a proposed regional advertising campaign.

In September, the VCVB hosted a meeting at which Coopwood Communications of Cleveland, at the request of Mayor Laurence Leyens, proposed a four-month, regional advertising campaign designed to attract more visitors to Vicksburg from nearby cities in Mississippi and Louisiana. After the presentation, the Community Alliance decided to assume the leadership role in possible planning and execution of the project that is projected to cost about $250,000. At the time, Eric Biedenharn, chairman of the VCVB board proposed the bureau put up $50,000 to match $50,000 proposed by the City of Vicksburg. The remainder would be raised from private sources. Biedenharn also proposed the bureau set aside an additional $30,000 in case it was decided to extend the ad campaign.

Officials of the alliance decided to invite other advertising agencies, in addition to Coopwood, to make proposals for campaigns similar to what Coopwood had proposed.

At the VCVB board’s Thursday meeting, Biedenharn said a committee from the alliance is working on the request for proposals and it should be ready to send to prospective ad agencies in November.

Responding to a request for a report, board member Cheryl Comans said the finance committee had met with Executive Director Lenore Barkley to see if they could come up with a way to change the 2003 budget to allocate $50,000 for the bureau’s contribution to the ad campaign.

“We already have $21,000 in contingency (fund),” she said.

Comans said additional funds could be allocated by moving $3,000 allocated for research, $25,000 from the print advertising allocation and $20,000 from the allocation for modifications to the Bureau’s Internet Web site. That would raise $69,000, still $11,000 short of Biedenharn’s proposed $80,000.

The VCVB board decided to make the changes to allocate $50,000 for the proposed advertising program and leave $19,000 in the contingency fund.

“If we don’t use it, the money will still be in the bureau’s coffers and we can reallocate it,” Biedenharn said.

In other action, the board:

Decided to drop as soon as possible five billboards it now leases and keep seven others to keep the 2003 budget within the $55,000 allocated to outdoor advertising.

Approved moving about $17,000 in salary allocations saved due to the loss of Al Elmore as assistant director and Lisa Nosser in sales from the staff to outdoor advertising and authorize Barkley to get prices on a billboard near Delta, La., and make as good a deal as possible.

Heard a report from Barkley that the October check from the Mississippi Tax Commission was for $59,649.19, which is up $646 compared to October 2001. The money comes from a special 1 percent sales tax added to bar and restaurant tabs and rents for hotel, motel and bed and breakfast rooms.