Members of the Marshall County Tourism Commission will hold a public meeting on Thursday, June 13th at 2pm in the second floor conference room of the County Courthouse.
The brief agenda for the meeting will include old and new agenda items, miscellaneous items, and comments from the public.
The new committee also heard from County Auditor Angie Birchmire, who explained that 80 counties in Indiana collect lodging taxes. The tax is collected monthly through the state from hotels, motels and vacation rentals on online marketplaces such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Priceline and HomeToGo. The funds are then sent to counties, whose tourism commissions submit invoices to receive the funds.
The board accepted the county auditor’s recommendation to hold Fund 7704 and manage the money through its own bank account rather than having the county write checks.
The committee met last week and hired Sean Srisi as their attorney, who will continue to try to obtain additional documents from the former tourism board. The attorney recommended forming a new nonprofit corporation that would be a 501C6, rather than trying to buy the old corporation.
Surrisi will also help draft bylaws and articles of incorporation for the June 13 meeting.
During the discussion, it was noted that the former Tourism Board and Corporation had $342,000 in a bank account in January, but that account has now been closed and it is unclear where the money is or how it was spent.
