The city’s visitors’ center will have Saturday hours after the Snyder Chamber of Commerce board of directors agreed to pay for stagging during Monday’s meeting.
The chamber will pay Historic Scurry County, Inc., (HSC) members $10 per hour beginning Jan. 1, to staff the visitors’ center at the chamber office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. As many as two HSC members may work each Saturday.
Michelle Bird’s $4,000 request for hotel occupancy tax (HOT) funds for Snyder Trade Days was tabled.
Her request was $3,000 last year, and chamber president Jeff Knowles said that documentation submitted by Bird stated the additional request was because of higher advertising costs and that she also stated she is trying to get more out-of-town visitors to Snyder for the event.
Board members requested additional financial information before they vote.
The chamber staff and board members said they also plan to remind HOT fund recipients to submit their profit and loss reports soon after a event takes place to help in subsequent requests.
Josh Ortegon, events coordinator, said that he believed this year’s White Buffalo Days event had a slight increase in attendance and that he feels the chamber is on the right track on how the event is being coordinated.
“I feel we had a lot more to do for them,” Ortegon said. “We heard around that it was a really good Buffalo Days, that people liked it so I’m hoping that if we keep doing what we’re doing and keep bringing in the separate entities, Science Spectrum, Lagniappe Productions and all that and keep it interesting, I’m hoping that slowly we’ll build it back up again. We are talking about possibly revamping it up again and trying something new because I feel if it’s something new, people will want to go to it.”
Executive Director Linda Molina said downtown merchants said they had a good day.
“The merchants on the square, all of them, said it was very profitable for them,” Molina said. “They are all willing to help and they are all wanting to do vendors of their own, which I encourage.”
Ortegon added that he believes that if oil prices go up, more people will be able to help fund the event and that would make it possible to have bigger events for the children.
“I would love to bring in huge stuff for the kids, a walk-through maze, a petting zoo,” Ortegon said. “So I think once the economy picks back up, we can start doing more, but until then we are going to have to improvise and find cheaper alternatives, which is what we are doing now. But I think slowly we will start building it back up.”
Administrative Assistant Sandra Salinas said about 100 runners and walkers participated in the White Buffalo Stampede, which she said is lower than past years. She said she thinks it was due to several other 5K runs falling closely before and after White Buffalo Days.
Board members and the staff said they are still looking at options to redo the landscaping and side walk area in front of the chamber office, but that any projects will not begin until next year.
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