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Pointing the way
The city is nearly ready to start installing signs around the town to direct visitors to specific areas of town that have historic, art or recreational facilities as part of a joint project with the Missouri Department of Transportation. The signs are being paid for with money from the city's guest tax that I.M.P.A.C.T. Nevada Tourism has been accumulating for several year with the intention of doing a large project.
With the design for the signs in place, the tourism board decided Wednesday to forego any more changes and install them as quickly as possible.
Brent Coursey told the board that the city has already gone all summer without them and they need to be installed as soon possible.
"What decisions have been made, have been made," Coursey said.
Glenda Crowder, tourism coordinator, told the board that she will making a tour of Nevada on Aug. 5 with a Missouri Department of Transportation representative, to determine where signs will be placed.
These signs are designed to provide directional arrows to venues listed on the signs and to have generic icons on the bottom of each designating the types of activities available at the destination to which the signs are directing travelers. The icons will be representative figures like a fisherman or a ball player.
The state requires that the town be divided into specific districts, in Nevada's case, recreation, historic and arts. For a destination to be specifically named on one of the signs, it must meet the criteria for the district in which it is located.
Several of the board members said that it would look impressive to have Crowder College listed on the wayfinding signs as well as Cottey College, but there's a problem -- Crowder College is located in a recreation district but is not a recreation destination.
"If we put Cottey on a sign, what about Crowder College?" Crowder asked.
"They (Cottey) are in an art-entertainment district. They have an auditorium. All of the discussion has been about the zones and how entities fit into a zone. Crowder is not recreation," Meisenheimer said, adding that they have a baseball team in Neosho, but not here.
"If we put Crowder on a sign be prepared to get repercussions if we don't put Nevada High School on a sign," Jason Meisenheimer said.
Crowder said that Nevada High School faces the same issue as Crowder in terms of the rules and cannot be on a sign because it does not fit the criteria for the recreation district where it is located.
However, there will be a sign at Austin and Chestnut directing travelers north on Chestnut to the recreational facilities at the high school.
Crowder told the board that the Osage Prairie YMCA had asked to have the YMCA icon placed on the sign at Austin and Ash.
"That opens the door to everyone wanting to do it," Coursey said, adding that the YMCA is a private, paid organization.
Judy Rogers reminded the board that they had already approved the wording on the signs and that changing it would require the board vote to rescind their prior action.
"We need to go back to MoDOT for a clear-cut definition of what is allowed," Rogers said.
Nevada will be the smallest community in Missouri to have these types of wayfinding signs, that are seen in places like Kansas City, Columbia and Joplin. This will be a pilot project and MoDOT developed a special contract for use with smaller communities. The signs will be installed and maintained by the city.
Crowder said Thursday afternoon that she thinks the signs will be installed this fall.
One of the projects that was approved to receive a tourism grant for this was for a National Baseball Congress World Series qualifying tournament at Champion Diamonds. That tournament was relocated to Springfield and that left that grant unused.
Wednesday night Nevada Griffons board member Betty Ann Woody asked the tourism board if they would consider re-allocating some or all of the money for that tournament to the Nevada Griffons.
She told the board the Griffons summer schedule was set before the tournament was moved to Springfield by the NBC and the date changed. This prevented the Griffons from playing in a qualifying tournament, making it more difficult for them to qualify for the World Series, which is the goal of the program.
Major League Baseball scouts attend the World Series held in Wichita, Kan., looking for prospects to draft for Major League teams. Several former Griffons have been drafted after being seen playing in the World Series.
After discussing the issue the board decided that because they were not expecting the request they needed a little time to check on how large the grant was and to make a final decision by the end of the day on July 28 on how to proceed.
In a related matter the board decided to look into holding a reception to recognize the 10 year anniversary of Champion Diamonds and to recognize their impact on tourism in Nevada. According to Crowder, Champion Diamonds attendance increased by 25 percent in 2007 and by another 20 percent this summer.
They also gave their blessing to a person who is interested in starting a Vernon County Bike Ride and Race, and decided to try to hold a hospitality school to train employees how to treat visitors to the community.