ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
After slashing its funding to the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau Monday, Salem City Council decided Tuesday how to promote its own city through a locally funded visitors center.
During a budget session, Council agreed to allocate $50,000 toward a visitors center in the Salem Civic Center that would promote not only activities at the civic center and the football and baseball stadiums, but the entire city.
Civic Center Carey Harveycutter had proposed the plan, which Council had kept in mind after listening to a proposal by Salem merchants to create a visitors center within walking distance of downtown Salem's historic district.And they were keeping in mind a previous request from Civic Center Manager Carey Harveycutter to create a visitors center at the civic center.
In the end, Council went with Harveycutter and agreed to give him up to $50,000 to create a center that would .gave? under what auspice flipo flop
And to appease members of the Salem Merchants Association, Council said it would appoint a citizens advisory committee to study a future site for a more central visitors center - one closer to the downtown historic district.
Currently, the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce on North College Avenue acts as an information center for visitors and it sends packets of information to newcomers.
"We don't have a good place right now" for a separate visitors center, said Mayor Jim Taliaferro. "But if I hear [other council members] right, we're inclined to get something going at the civic center."
Salem officials have expressed their dissatisfaction with the promotion the city has received from the Roanoke Valley visitors bureau. Harveycutter, who represents the city on the bureau's board of directors, recommended that City Council significantly reduce its annual contribution of $25,000 to the bureau.
They did just that Monday night, cutting all but $5,000 - $4,000 of which will go to promote the Miss Virginia Pageant.
Council members said they wanted to use remaining funds to promote the city's tourism.
Taliaferro noted that Salem has done a good job of promoting its industrial opportunities and its niche as the valley's sports mecca.
"What we didn't tell anybody is what we really have - the rest of the city," he said.
Council, city staff and Salem merchants brainstormed over possible locations of a future visitors center. Council members have not yet spelled out what role of the visitors center in the Civic Center will serve once the future facility is created.
Sally Nunley, president of the Salem Merchants Association, suggested a vacant building across from the Farmers Market in the heart of downtown.
David Robbins, president of the Salem Historical Society and member of the merchants association, suggest the historic Brown house, where the Salem Museum currently operates.
With an addition to the house, a visitors center could be added to the basement, Robbins suggested.
Most people at the meeting to the Brown house as a visitors center location.
The advisory committee, which Taliaferro will appoint, will recommend whether that's feasible.
Taliaferro, who will resign in July after serving more than 22 years as Salem's mayor, appointed himself to the committee.
"Come July 1, I'm going fishing," he said. "I want to get something started somewhere."
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