September 2nd City Council CVB Vote

I wanted to share my thoughts and reasons regarding my affirmative vote to begin the defunding process of the current CVB. Since March of this year I have studied hundreds of pages of documents generated by the legal system involving the CVB, City of Buckhannon and 11 plaintiffs, newspaper articles going back several years and the proposals submitted by both CVB's to council on August 13th. I was unable to attend the special council meeting held on August 30th but did listen to the complete proceedings thanks to Rich Clemens. At the end of the special meeting Mayor Davidson said the topic of CVB funding should not be taken lightly and council members should consider carefully, the entire matter.

I should note that the current CVB has serverd this community for over 20 years and has over that period of time grown in scope. As many in our community, I have been involved in several CVB endeavors including the wedding give-a-way and photography of Upshur County, Holly River State Park, Fiddlers Mill and Pringle Tree, all of which was donated for the benefit of our community.

However the highly publicized legal events of the last two years cannot be overlooked as those events have given cause to examine the current CVB more closely. There are concerns with performance issues as cited by council members and my observations that include the lack of promotional material for Buckhannon in travel stops between Pittsburgh and Buckhannon, ineffective regional networking, singular focus on event promotion, questionable business practices and poor Internet presence to name a few.

While my personal review of the issues has provided a foundation for my vote, my conversations with the citizens of Buckhannon have provided a clear mandate that change is needed. I frequent local restaurants, auctions, neighborhood gatherings, dinner parties, church functions and almost every time I am asked "What are we going to do about this CVB mess?" It is universal, that our community is demanding change. These are the people that elected me to office and I share their concern.

Now the bigger question is have we gone from the frying pan into the fire? Will the new CVB be any better in performance than the old CVB? I believe Buckhannon is ready for a new chapter in our history and I hope it is one of reconciliation, working together, moving forward and most importantly, healing.