Tourism news

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Friday morning to consider four funding requests. The first was from Rensselaer Art Walk to help with their phase 2 scheduled for this summer. The plan is to have three to five mural artists chosen by Cameron Moberg spend the week from June 28 to July 4 doing an additional ten murals, five large and five smaller, for the mural walk. The week would be much like mural week 2019 but better organized and structured. Last year was a first year and a lot a decisions were made as necessary. One of the concerns expressed by the Commission was if insurance for the murals was possible. That issue will be investigated. The budget for the project is $30,000 and the ask from the Tourism Commission was $10,000, which was granted.

If you want to know more about phase 2 of the mural project, there is a meet and greet event at eMbers on February 13 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. The public is welcome to attend.

Demolition has knocked down the wall had the Rensselaer Indiana mural done by Cobre. It was one of the two murals that Rensselaer lost in the Town Mall fire.

The second request was for support for the International Woman's Day event scheduled for March 8 at eMbers. It will feature three speakers in the morning and a boutique market in the afternoon. (The complete schedule is available on the eMbers website here. Click "Live at Embers" and scroll down.)

This will be the events second year and this year they are reaching out to interest people from DeMotte. Their biggest expense is marketing and this year it will include a banner that will be hung over College Avenue. They asked for $2000, which is down from last year, and they received it.

Next up was DeMotte Little League, which is trying to put lights on their Field-of-Dreams ball fields. Installing lights is expensive and the request to the Commission was for $30,000 and that is for phase 1, which will install a transformer and light two of the fields with lights that were salvaged from the Kankakee Valley High School when they replaced their football field. (See here for last month's discussion with DeMotte Little League.)

Lighting will significantly enhance the usefulness of the fields. Last year they began having games in the fall, but because the days are getting short, it limits how many games can be played. In addition, without lights the fields are not desirable for many tournaments. The commission reminded DeMotte Little League several times that the Tourism Commission likes tournaments because they draw in tourists who then spend money at local businesses. Their request was granted. In the past it probably would not have been because most of the budget was meant to support events and festivals but this year priorities have changed and there is much less money for events and festivals and more for physical improvements that can help attract visitors and keep people entertained locally.

The last of the requests was from the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. They asked for $5000, which was less than the $7500 that they had received last year. This year the festival will have  a circus act on Saturday. There were questions about the best time to have the 5K, which competes with a very popular 5K in Valparaiso. The request for $5,000 was granted.

The last item the Commission heard was a presentation from two ladies representing the Indiana Office of Tourism and Sports Indiana.
They explained what they did and stressed that they are a resource. One thing that they do is facilitate networking so communities can see what other communities are doing and what works and what does not work. They suggested that the County needs to figure out what it can specialize in and build from that. They also noted that sometimes tournaments are hosted that break even but are worthwhile because they fill hotels and increase local spending.

Clearing away the debris from the Town Mall fire continues. It seems that this part of the building did not have a basement.

Finally, a picture of the windows of the east end of the bowling alley, what was the drive-up window when this part of the building was a bank or later a credit union.