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EDITORIAL: Marketing study could help make full use of ag facility [Kerrville Daily Times, Texas :: ]
[March 18, 2014]

EDITORIAL: Marketing study could help make full use of ag facility [Kerrville Daily Times, Texas :: ]


(Kerrville Daily Times (TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 18--Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser hasn't exactly been winning friends among his colleagues or possibly with local participants in the stock show or 4-H program.

For the past several months, Moser has been the lone holdout among commissioners to the efforts to continue renovations at the Hill Country Youth Event Center, a project that began before his tenure on the court. Moser has objected to the demolition of the existing exhibit hall and construction of a new building, instead suggesting renovations of the current facility would be sufficient for the existing needs.



Moser may be right. The existing facility, which is more than 50 years old, isn't used as much as commissioners would like and brings very little revenue back into the county.

Working with Schreiner University's business classes, Moser is seeking a marketing and facility analysis of the exhibit hall, which would yield a lot of good information about how to bring more events to the center.


Finding new ways to market and promote this wonderful community asset is a good step in the right direction, and the county also needs to begin considering a plan to make use of the River Star Arts and Event Park, previously home to the annual Texas Arts and Crafts show.

But Moser may also be missing the bigger point. The youth event center wasn't built to make money for the county. It was built on land donated to the county to serve the young people of this county and to provide a place for agriculture-related activities.

The site is home to what is the fifth-largest stock show in the state and hosts numerous other events throughout the year, including the Kerrfest rodeo, the annual pecan show and local swap meets. A new, bigger facility would be able to bring in similar and even bigger events, including more gun and knife shows, dog shows and more.

The new show barn, which opened last year, has already shown that improvements do draw more events with several new activities taking place there on a regular basis.

Kerr County does need to find a better way to get more use out of the entire event center complex, but doing so means there needs to be a complete facility to market.

___ (c)2014 the Kerrville Daily Times (Kerrville, Texas) Visit the Kerrville Daily Times (Kerrville, Texas) at www.dailytimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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