More than $190,000 of funding was approved for community organizations that address human service needs and organizations that drive tourism on Monday, Nov. 28, at the Snoqualmie city council meeting.
The council unanimously approved the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee’s recommendation of $63,638 for funding of community services that promote tourism and the recommended allocation of $136,000 to human service community organizations.
Joan Pliego, public information officer for the city of Snoqualmie, said the process to allocate lodging tax funds starts with applications from organizations that contribute the marketing of tourism to Snoqualmie. All of the funding is generated from the lodging tax collected throughout the year at hotels such as the Salish Lodge.
“Every year we call for people to apply for lodging tax funds, taxes are imposed on guests of the Salish Lodge,” she said. “And those taxes come back to the city for allocation to other services. Any companies or groups that feel they provide services that bring tourists to the city, can fill out an application to be considered by the committee.”
This year the Lodging Tax Committee received requests that totaled more than $100,000, significantly more money than the funds the committee had available to allocate.
The criteria on which the organization were judged included how they would bring tourism to Snoqualmie. Pliego used the Northwest Railway museum as an example of the criteria.
“The museum’s funding is for the overall marketing of the museum and its offerings,” she said. “If it goes to salary it’s because that person would be … dedicated to marketing.”
The organizations to be funded for 2017 include:
• The Northwest Railway Museum with $24,500;
• Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Visitor Information Center with $10,000;
• City’s tourism brochure with $10,000;
City’s map and guide with $8,360;
• Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Snoqualmie Falls Park Host Program with $8,160;
• Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum’s Lost Towns of Snoqualmie Valley exhibit with $1,318; and
• Snoqualmie’s membership to Visit Seattle with $1,300.
The recommendations amounted to $63,638 of the $67,457 available to the committee to allocate. Pliego said they try to reserve some funds in case of mid-year funding requests and budget constraints.
“After fall distributions at the end of 2017, we will have almost $4,000 left in reserve which is a very small amount, because there is the option of some organizations making a mid-year request, and some of those are much more than $4,000,” she said. “This year the funds available were lower because a part of the lodge will be closed for remodeling in 2017.”
Also approved by the city council was the allocation of funds for community human service groups. The Human Services Committee reviewed the applications for funding and recommended the city allocate a total of $136,000 to those organizations.
Groups funded were:
• Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank with $29,250;
• Encompass with $28,000;
• Mount Si Senior Center with $20,000;
• Valley Renewal Center with $15,000;
• Friends of Youth for $15,000;
• Snoqualmie Valley Community Network for $11,000;
• St. Vincent De Paul with $10,000;
• Two Rivers School with $5,000;
• Sno Valley Indoor Playground with $1,000;
• Fall City Community Food Pantry with $1,000 and
• Sno Valley Pet Food Bank with $750.
Originally, Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank was only recommended to receive $27,250 and the Mount Si Food Bank was recommend to receive $2,000. However, council members suggested that, due to an “outstanding matter” with the Mount Si Food Bank, the $2,000 be allocated to Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank.
