The Riverton City Council approved $81,000 in Tourism Asset Development grants for 13 local organizations during a regular meeting Tuesday.
The funding comes from the Wind River Visitors Council, which serves as Fremont County’s lodging tax board.
“WRVC has established the TAD program to support Fremont County communities to individually promote their towns and cities,” Riverton city staff said in a memo to the council this week. “The TAD program receives 25 percent of the total annual revenue generated by the lodging tax within Fremont County, and funds are allocated to towns and cities based on the percentage breakdown of where lodging tax revenues were generated during the previous year.”
Previously, the Riverton Chamber of Commerce was responsible for distributing the local TAD funds, but the city council “chose to assume control” of the program last month, establishing a new promotion subcommittee to receive TAD grant applications and recommend awards to the entire council, the staff memo said.
Riverton City Councilmember Mike Bailey presented the subcommittee recommendations during Tuesday’s meeting, including:
-$35,000 for the Riverton Chamber of Commerce, which requested about $58,300
-$10,000 for the Riverton Rendezvous Committee, which requested $13,000
-$6,000 for Riverton Raiders, which requested $10,000
-$6,000 for the Riverton Youth Soccer Association, which requested $10,000
-$5,000 for the Wind River Hotel and Casino, which requested $15,000
-$5,000 for the Rendezvous City Beef Roundup, which requested $5,000
-$5,000 for the Fremont Air Service Team, which requested $10,000
-$3,500 for the Rocky Mountain Rebels Car Club Summer Show, which requested $6,000
-$2,000 for the Riverton Downtowners, which requested $8,240
-$1,500 for the 1838 Rendezvous Association, which requested about $4,000
-$1,000 for Riverton AutoCross, which requested $1,000
-$500 for the Riverton Branch Library, which requested $1,000
-$500 for the RMCC Winter Show, which requested $600
Bailey noted that more than $155,000 in funding requests came in, and the TAD account is only expected to accrue about $86,530 this year, “so not everybody is getting what they asked for.”
The balance of about $5,530 in unobligated TAD funds will serve as a “new opportunity fund for future possible use throughout the year for something that’s unexpected that we don’t know of yet,” he added.
For more information, call the City of Riverton at 856-2227.