St. Charles commits hundreds of thousands to promoting the city

St. Charles aldermen on Tuesday re-upped funding for two of the organizations most responsible for bringing out-of-town dollars into local coffers. The money came after presentations indicating general tourism is up in the city.

Aldermen unanimously agreed to $526,500 for the Greater St. Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau. Alderman Rita Payleitner said the bureau addressed her concerns from a month ago that its estimated financial benefit to the city of $19 million a year seemed on the high side. Aldermen also questioned why the bureau also markets Campton Hills and Elburn events, which could be seen as competitors to St. Charles'.

The bureau's executive director, Lula Cassidy, explained including surrounding communities increases the bureau's outside funding, which is based on population served. Outside funding totaled $240,000 last year. Cassidy said the bulk of the tourists who attend events in Campton Hills and Elburn stay at St. Charles hotels.

"That's a plus for the city," Cassidy said. "Bottom line, we're in it to win it. We want to make St. Charles the ultimate leader in tourism moving into the future."

The Downtown St. Charles Partnership is both a fan and partner of that mission. It shares a roof with the convention and visitors bureau and gets funding from the city. Aldermen gave tentative approval for about $240,000 for the partnership. The total represents all the money netted by one of the city's downtown special service area taxing districts, making it one of the few local organizations to see all of its funding restored by the city. Funding for outside organizations was cut 10 percent in recent years to help keep the city's tax levy frozen.

The money the partnership receives from the city helps pay for six events: the Christmas and St. Patrick's Day celebrations, the fine-art show, jazz weekend, STC Live and the Chair-ity auction. Representatives from the partnership shared numbers showing attendance of just about all of the events is up since their last funding request.

The fine-art show alone brought 30,000 people to the city this year. That's up 76 percent from last year, making it even more popular than the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The parade is now at capacity with 80 entries this past year. It drew 19,250 spectators to the city, partnership officials said. Officials also said the recently completed Chair-ity auction netted $4,400 for public improvement projects.

Aldermen encouraged the convention and visitors bureau and the partnership to work together, especially once the latter names a new executive director.

"We just heard from the new (convention and visitors bureau) director," said Alderman William Turner. "I think they are much more open to synergies between the two organizations now. You're in the same building. I hope you're talking more than you used to."

Aldermen must take one more vote before the funding for the partnership is final.