RIDGEWAY – After approving its FY 2024-25 budget of $627,411, at its regular June 13 Ridgeway town council meeting, councilmembers unanimously approved awarding $10,000 of its Hospitality Tax revenue to the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber president Dillon Pullen came before council requesting the funds, saying it would be used to promote tourism in Ridgeway.
In a prepared statement, Pullen broke his request down.
He said $1,500 would cover in-house production costs of promotional materials, i.e. printing flyers, ordering promotional cards, banners, etc.
Another $2,500 would go to promoting tourism in general in Fairfield County, Pullen said, noting that these funds would be used along with funds awarded to the Chamber by the Town of Winnsboro to promote Fairfield County through targeted print and digital advertisements.
Pullen said $5,000 of the $10,000 Ridgeway award would be spent promoting Ridgeway events and the merchants of Ridgeway through print and digital advertisements, and that $1,000 would be used to cover any additional and/or unbudgeted expenses that might arise during the fiscal year.
The award is $3,000 more than the $7,000 Ridgeway awarded last year.
Asked by Councilman Dan Martin how much funding the Chamber receives from other towns in Fairfield, Pullen said the Town of Winnsboro has voted to give the Chamber $7,000 for tourism for the coming year. Pullen told The Voice that his request to the County was $190,000+, but he said the County had not yet finalized its budget, so he was not sure what its award to the Chamber would be.
According to Winnsboro Town Manager Jason Taylor, the Town of Winnsboro had already voted to award over $41,000 to the Chamber for the upcoming FY 2024-25 budget year.
During public comment, Randy Bright addressed Ridgeway council members, encouraging them to weigh their options, asking what it is the Chamber can do to promote the Town that the Town can’t do for itself and at less cost. Bright said he was not suggesting eliminating paying for the Chamber’s promotion, but to find ways to control expense to initiate more ‘bang for the buck.’
Mayor Rick Johnson suggested that, since the Town had not budgeted for the $10,000 award to the Chamber, the funds could be taken from the Town’s hospitality tax revenue. Council agreed, voting 5-0 to do so.
In other business, Mayor Johnson noted that minutes were not available from at least two previous meetings, and that he worked with Interim Administrator Clay Killian to re-create minutes from those two meetings.
Following an executive session called to discuss two things: 1) Discussion of legal matter regarding a zoning issue with [Fairfield County] Attorney Tommy Morgan and 2) Discussion of personnel issue for possible employment of part-time town clerk, council voted in public to hire Morgan to handle the zoning issue.
