The Durant Tourism Economic Development Authority (DTEDA) in a recent meeting approved a proposal with the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce to manage the Discover Durant Fall Concert series.
During the first motion to approve it, the motion died and after more discussion, there was another vote and it failed to pass because board member Danny Sherrer voted no, Chamber CEO Kara Byrd abstained and board member Kara Kuykendall also abstained. Jim Thorpe and vice chairman Debbie Anthony voted for it.
Sherrer left the meeting after the vote because he said he had a prior commitment and after more discussion, the board decided to vote on the proposal again and it passed this time because Kuykendall voted for it instead of abstaining.
In the original proposal, the tourism authority would have paid the Chamber of Commerce $50,000 to manage the concerts and the price was questioned by board members. Thorpe suggested $25,000 and Sherrer said he thought that was still too much.
The proposal also states the chamber would be seeking outside sponsorships and that money would remain with the chamber.
“Another issue is if you should raise any sponsorships, that would remain with the chamber instead of going back to the tourism committee to help offset costs for us,” Sherrer said. “I have a problem with that.”
Byrd said, “One of the reasons that we were looking at doing outside sponsorships is because the fee that’s put in here is for us to manage it. One of the things that we wanted to do is we wanted to really take Market Square and create a safe place. So, in the past this is not to downplay anything that has been done previous to us. This really has been a parking lot where we have a stage. We wanted to really transform that space, make it a place where people want to be at. We were looking at bringing in somebody who has a mechanical bull, bringing in different food trucks, bringing in different decorations, giving opportunities for photo opps. There were a lot of things that we were planning to do and those cost money on top of the management that we were looking at doing. So, that was the reason that we put that into place.”
Also, Byrd said the chamber wants to be good community partners.
“We want to bring collaboration to see what this city can be,” Byrd said. “I’ve sat and watched for 10 years the opportunities our community is having, so I want you to look at this not as the chamber being greedy or trying to take advantage, that’s not our part at all. We do understand that this is quite an undertaking to put on four separate concerts in a series. There are many moving parts. We are also out of time to really do anything … We are very close to time. I would like to know what do you think is a fair price for us to do this? I’m here to have an open discussion with you guys.”
Byrd emphasised that the concert series is about bringing tourism to Durant and to “put heads in beds” by getting visitors to spend the night here.
“Whenever you create an experience for people, people will come to the experience,” Byrd said. “They’re looking for experiences. So, all of the things that we’re adding just adds to their experience and will make them want to come back week after week after week. It creates that fear of missing out. If people see all of this interaction and the things that are happening, then they go, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t miss the next one.’ So, hopefully, it draws more tourism week after week after week.”
The concerts are scheduled for September and October at Market Square and it was discussed by the board that they are running out of time.
“We did as a board recommend we do this fall concert series and then as a board, all of us together failed to plan and manage and that is what has put us in this situation right now so that we were looking at this contract for $50,000,” Kuykendall said. “It’s one contract and no other bids. That was a failing on us.”
Byrd said the board did not have to accept the bid.
“We will not hold anything against this authority to say we we’ve advised we don’t want to do this,” Byrd said. “We want to look for something else. I am willing to work with you guys in whichever way we need to be because the chamber wants to be a good community partner.”
Byrd said there should be deeper conversations next year and Thorpe said, it is ridiculous without a plan.
Anthony said this should have been planned out.
“We should have done a better job of foreseeing what was coming and we failed to do that,” Anthony said.
The board ultimately approved the proposal for $25,000 and also will allow the chamber to seek sponsors with all board members voting yes except Byrd abstained.
Curtis Armor, who is a chamber board member and also served as the board president, expressed frustration.
“The job of this body isn’t to put heads in beds, it’s to create sales tax for the City of Durant,” Armor said. “Sales tax for the City of Durant. This function is something that adds significant sales tax to the City of Durant. You put 900 people on Market Square on a Thursday night, you add a sales tax to the City of Durant.
“This body has missed the goal on this over and over and over and it’s frustrating to the taxpayer and revenue. I’ve watched these funds not be used to actually bring long-lasting tourism to our downtown and as we talked about it before, there’s plenty of reasons we should be doing everything in our power to turn downtown as a destination and I can’t get anybody on the same page. Everybody’s fighting for their own little piece of the pie.”
Armor said the tourism authority has not done what it should be doing.
“I’m sorry, but that’s the truth and there’s a lot of people in this community that feels just like I do … and I wish tourism could get on board and do the things we need to do to make long-lasting permanent improvements to our streets because we’re not.”
Kuykendall, in a message after the meeting, said she had been advised on other boards she has served on that an abstain vote is neither a no or a yes, so it should have passed with her abstaining.
“The attorney said that was inaccurate, so that’s the reason for the revote,” Kuykendall said.
She addressed concerns about the chamber having the only proposal.
“I expressed last week that I felt like that contract should have been sent out for bid and that it wasn’t a great look that the chamber was the only contract reviewed because there should have been other options,” Kuykendall said. “That was a board lack of planning.
“I have been working with a law firm out of Tulsa to draft our new contract information for the grant program, so I’m really hopeful that will be fixed soon.“ Byrd also addressed an issue in a prior meeting when the terms of the contract were not revealed publicly.
“I missed our last meeting and I do apologize for that,” Byrd said. “It was under advisement that we not give out our scope of work. We were told that it was proprietary information for us, intellectual property. So, we trusted that information. Since then, we have been told that it is included in open records and so we have sent that out to the people that requested it.”