Committee studies tourism grants for living history, other events

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Herald

Osage Indians, Civil War re-enactors, German troops, German POWs, American troops from World War II and other aspects of U.S. history could be a part of Bushwhacker Days this year.

Terry Ramsey, Bushwhacker Museum director, told the member of IMPACT Tourism Thursday night the she would like to bring a living history exhibit to Nevada as a new event for Bushwhacker Days this year.

"This will be a new venue for the sesquicentennial," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said that her goal is for people to be able to take a walk through American history.

"I would like to build on this and use it at another time of the year, say on Friday at Octoberfest," she said.

Ramsey told the committee that they are requesting a $3,000 grant with the organizers providing the remaining $2,000. The money will go for paying mileage of the re-enactors, meals, additional portable toilets and designing and purchasing between one and three Nevada/Vernon County Sesquicentennial flags, depending on the cost.

"How big it gets, is how much money I can get. I would like to turn it into an annual event," she said.

This was one of the 13 grant proposals the members of IMPACT Nevada Tourism,,spent two hours listening to and evaluating Thursday night, following a new set of procedures

The 13 grant applications ranged from $250 to $5000. However, the committee only has $16,750 to give out in grants this time and $27,645 in proposals.

The new procedures were instituted during the last week by the city to ensure that the committee follows all applicable city regulations as well as the Missouri Sunshine Law.

Under the new rules each grant applicant was given five minutes to tell the committee about their project, how many people would spend at least one night in town, and what other impacts it would have on the community.

The committee members then took five minutes to ask questions and without any further discussion each member evaluated the proposal on a scoresheet and gave a recommended grant amount.

The original plan was for Julie Stumpff, city clerk, to collect the scoresheets, total them and calculate an average from the various recommended grant amounts for each proposal and then submit them to the city council Feb. 15 for consideration.

However, Russ Kemm and other committee members insisted that they needed another meeting to adjust the grant amounts up or down to fit within the $16,750 available before they could make a recommendation to the city council.

So, the committee will take another crack at the grants during their regular monthly meeting Feb. 15, at 7:30 a.m., in the Bushwhacker Museum. The meeting is open to the public.

Among the 13 applicants, two have received grants in the past and 11 are new, with several of those applications representing events that will go on with or without the grants and have the potential of becoming regular events drawing large crowds to Nevada.

The Nevada Griffons and Champion Diamonds requested a $2,500 grant to cover the prizes for the winning teams at the third annual Southwest Missouri Tournament of Champions baseball tournament, July 2-4. The total cost of the tournament is in excess of $6,000. This is a qualifying tournament for the National Baseball Congress World Series held in Wichita, Kan., each August. The teams that play in the tournament are made up of college baseball players who hope to play professional baseball. This year eight teams are expected to participate.

Judy Knowles requested a $2,000 grant to purchase flags and bunting for the Remember 2000 project, which has the goal of putting flags on all of the light poles along Austin Boulevard and bunting on the Austin overpass.

The Nevada Baseball Club requested a $1,250 grant to cover half of the $2,500 cost of the Nevada Griffons annual Parents Weekend, June 24-26.

The Nevada Neptunes are planning on hosting the Tri-State Conference Invitational Swim Meet July 23 at Walton Pool which could attract about 500 swimmers between the ages of 5 and 18. The Neptunes requested a $500 grant to cover 50 percent of the $1,000 total cost of the event. George Hold, who is coordinating the meet for the Neptunes told the committee that this could grow in the future to a two-day meet.

Main Street Nevada applied for a $750 grant to cover 50-percent of the $1,500 cost of hosting one of two Main Street Basic Training sessions to be held in Missouri this year. The event, which is set for April 26-27, will attract about 75 people from across Missouri. Many of the participants will be staying at least one night.

The Nevada Eagles Lodge will be hosting two statewide events this year that will draw about 500 participants each.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles Missouri State Convention will be held in Nevada June 24-26. Larry Scism, Nevada Eagles president, told the committee that this is the smallest town to ever host the state convention, which is expected to have about 500 people attend. Scism told the committee that the Eagles were asking for a $2,000 grant to cover a portion of the $17,000 cost of the event.

The Nevada Eagles will also be hosting the First State F.O.E. Golf Tournament in Nevada. Scism told the committee that they expect about 450 participants from all over Missouri. Because of the size of the tournament, Scism said, the Eagles have reserved not the Nevada municipal golf course, but the one in El Dorado Springs, and are talking to Fort Scott, Kan. about using their course, with the final day of the tournament to be held in Nevada. They may also need the course at Lamar to accommodate the number of players.

Scism said that he will attend the National Eagles Convention this summer and he will try to lock the tournament into Nevada for the next five years.

The Nevada Raceway will be hosting the Show-Me Labor Day Late Model Special race with a $10,000 purse on Sept. 3, as well as full schedule of other races.

Tina Scism told the committee she is requesting a $5,000 grant to cover some of the estimated $25,000 total cost of the event. Scism said that this sanctioned event is being put together by Show Me Productions, which is headed by Ken Esry.

The Nevada Amateur Radio Club requested a $250 grant of the total $750 needed to promote Hamfest 2005 Amateur Radio & Electronic Fleamarket to be held May 21 at the Nevada Community Center.

This will be the seventh year for the event to be held in Nevada and is expected to attract about 75 people from Kansas City, Springfield and Tulsa areas.

Nevada Public Safety requested a $4,895 grant to purchase an E-911 simulator to train dispatchers as to use for education programs is area schools to teach children how to make a 911 call. Norman Turner said that the only simulators in this area are in Kansas City and Warrensburg.

They plan to offer training for dispatchers this spring with or without the simulator. "Training for dispatchers is hard to come by," Turner told the committee.

The Bushwhacker Quilt Guild requested a $300 grant to help pay for new quilt frames for the annual Bushwhacker Quilt Show. The total cost of building the new frames will be $1,000 plus donated labor.

The Sesquicentennial-Bushwhacker Days Committee would like to have a higher quality of entertainment for Bushwhacker Days this year because it is also the Nevada-Vernon County Sesquicentennial. To cover part of the additional $5,000 to $8,000 to bring in Ty England and other big-name acts, they requested a $5,000 one-time grant.

Kathi Wysong told the committee that the chamber plans to start an advertising campaign on May 1 this year and cover a wider area with radio ads to attract more people to attend Bushwhacker Days.