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Promotion dollars allocated [American News, Aberdeen, S.D. :: ]
[July 29, 2014]

Promotion dollars allocated [American News, Aberdeen, S.D. :: ]


(Aberdeen American News (SD) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 29--Absolutely!Aberdeen is one of three organizations set to receive no funding from the city of Aberdeen in 2015 if the promotion fund recommendations continue as drafted Monday.



Absolutely!Aberdeen is one of five economic development and promotion groups in Aberdeen. The group's executive director, Julie Johnson, resigned Friday. Mayor Mike Levsen said Sunday that he alerted the rest of the council that changes would be taking place with Absolutely!Aberdeen and funding shouldn't be considered at this time.

Absolutely!Aberdeen asked for $48,000, an amount equal to 12 percent of the group's operating budget.


No funding is presently set aside for Aspire, which asked for $10,000, or the Snow Queen Festival, which asked for $25,000. No representative from the Snow Queen Festival appeared to present the group's request, which was $20,000 in 2013. According to the city's promotion fund history, the festival historically hasn't received city funding.

Aspire was seeking funds to expand its job-training program. The agency provides support services for people with developmental disabilities.

According to informationin a spreadsheet presented Monday, which detailed the funding recommendations from each council member, two council members recommended full funding and two recommended partial funding for Aspire. The rest recommended no funding.

Other development groups Funding for the four remaining development groups -- the Aberdeen Downtown Association, Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Aberdeen Development Corp. -- stayed pretty consistent with the groups' requests. The Chamber, which made three requests, is slated to receive $15,000 for the city's membership out of $15,450; $5,000 of $10,000 requested for Chamber Share the Spirit; and $100,000 of $117,000 for city marketing. The CVB's request dropped from $423,500 to $421,000; ADA's funding is listed at $100,000 of $115,000; and the development corporation is slated for $100,000 of the $100,000 requested.

During the brief discussion held about funding recommendations, council member David Bunsness explained his funding recommendation of $125,000 for the downtown association and said the increase was for pigeon abatement.

"They're a huge issue and need to be taken care of," he said.

Chamber marketing funds received support from many of the council members, with the exception of Mark Remily, who recommended cutting funding in half, and Jennifer Slaight-Hansen, who recommended no marketing funding for the chamber. Slaight-Hansen also recommended $300,000 for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In a phone interview following the City Council meeting, Slaight-Hansen said her funding recommendations were not a comment on the quality of work performed by either group. She feels both do a great job, but she also feels funding set aside for marketing shouldn't just be available for non-profit groups like the chamber and the CVB. However, she said, state law only allows the distribution of promotion funds to non-profit groups.

"I did it to continue to make my statement about how the process is wrong," Slaight-Hansen said.

Boys and Girls Club A new addition to the promotion fund list was a $100,000 contribution to the Boys and Girls Club capital campaign. This extra item was in addition to the club request of $30,000, which received a $15,000 allocation. Mike Herman, executive director for the Boys and Girls Club, presented information to the City Council on Monday about the campaign. The campaign goal is to raise about $4.8 million for a new 28,000-square-foot building.

Herman said construction is slated to start in 2015 if the capital campaign goes well and 2016 if it doesn't move forward as planned. About $2 million has been raised so far. Herman asked the council for a multi-year commitment of $1 million.

In all, the funding requests to local agencies totaled $1,030,700 and the estimated promotion fund revenue for 2015 is $988,100. Original requests were $1,251,050.

Asked by the council how the recommended agency funding would work considering funding allocations are $42,600 above projected promotion fund revenue, City Manager Lynn Lander said there is a projected $18,000 carryover from 2014 and the numbers provide a good starting point for the city's budget process.

"You'll have plenty of opportunities to adjust the allocations during the budget process," Lander said.

Other recommended agency funding is as follows: -- Sertoma Club: $36,100 (requested $100,000) -- Aberdeen Arts Council: $25,000 (requested $35,000) -- Aberdeen Community Theater: $30,000 (requested $40,000) -- Dacotah Prairie Museum: $$12,000 (requested $16,000) -- Wylie Park Fireworks: $5,100 (requested $7,600) -- Presentation College: $15,000 (requested $25,000) -- Northern State University Foundation: $15,000 (requested $25,000) -- RSVP: $2,000 (requested $6,000) -- Foster Grandparents: $2,000 (requested $3,000) -- The Training Place: $10,000 (requested $25,000) -- Volunteers of America: $2,000 (requested $8,000) -- Aberdeen Community Concert: $2,000 (requested $4,000) -- Storybook Land festival: $2,000 (requested $4,000) -- Hub Area Habitat for Humanity: $5,000 (requested $27,000) -- Aberdeen Housing Authority: $5,000 (requested $25,000) -- Website maintenance: $6,500 (requested $6,500) Follow @ElisaSand_aan on Twitter ___ (c)2014 the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) Visit the American News (Aberdeen, S.D.) at www.aberdeennews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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