Meeting on July 20 to discuss the fate of Occoquan Visitor’s Center

Discover Prince William & Manassas has plans to close the Occoquan Visitor’s Center on August 2, and will be meeting to talk about it on July 20.

The organization – also known as the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – who is responsible for tourism in the county, consider the visitor’s center to be a low return on investment, according to their Executive Director Ann Marie Maher.

“The CVB’s Visitor Center was identified as an area with a low return on investment in relation to other CVB programs,” said Maher.

Funding changes for Discover Prince William & Manassas

According to Maher, Discover Prince William & Manassas had made a fiscal year 2016 budget request for $1,346,845 but the organization only received county funding in the amount of $1,162,782.

Additionally, the organization used to receive $87,000 per year from the City of Manassas, but their funding from the city has now dropped to $65,000, according to city spokeswoman Patty Prince.

“Prior to this [year] we had given them $87,000 per year, and this year we gave them $65,000…this is 50% of our TOT (Transit Occupancy Tax) funds…what we’re asking them to do is promote us for our special events, shopping and dining in historic downtown [Manassas] and bring in bus tours. We’re asking them to more narrowly focus than they have been,” said Prince.

Prince also stated that the funds from the city had never been based on TOT funds before, and this was the cause for the shift in funding.

Occoquan district Supervisor Mike May stated that Discover Prince William & Manassas may be closing the Occoquan Visitor’s Center as a way to continue their sports marketing initiative that the county is no longer funding.

“That’s interesting because the CVB received the exact same amount of TOT revenue for operating this year that they got last year. And in the budget documents it states that operations will remain the same. Now the CVB did get a one time grant of additional TOT money to do some sports marketing initiatives, so that grant was only available in [fiscal year 2015]…what I think that the CVB has decided is the marketing initiative is valuable and they want to continue it. And in trying to find the revenue to continue it, they have tried to find reductions in other areas and one of those areas is the closure of the visitor’s center,” said May.

Elected officials, residents voice concerns on the closure

May expressed concerns about the closure of the visitor’s center.

“I am concerned about it. I think that the Occoquan Visitor’s Center is an asset to the entire county – not just the Occoquan community. I think it provides a personal touch, and it’s one of the best ways to market the community and small town image that Occoquan and some of our other small towns in Prince William present to visitors,” said May.

May stated that he had reached out to Discover Prince William & Manassas through the County Executive Melissa Peacor, to work with the organization to come up with an alternative.

“If nothing else, I think that the quick timing of the decision is problematic, because it did not give the community or the stakeholders an opportunity to thoroughly explore alternatives that we might be able to come up with. At the minimum, I would like to see the CVB keep it open for a time, so we can continue to talk through these things and see about a public-private partnership,” said May.

Maher stated that the budget for the organization, and potential cuts, had been discussed for several months.

“The [board] reviewed budget revisions presented during public meetings on February 23, March 23 and April 20 where the CVB Board discussed estimated FY16 revenues and the best use of these funds.  The CVB met with the Mayor and Town Manager of the Town of Occoquan on May 21 to discuss the visitor center closure…although there were no funds allocated to sustain the center operation in the CVB’s FY16 budget beginning July 1, a decision was made by the CVB to extend funding through August 2, 2015 in an effort to work with the town in developing a transition plan,” said Maher.

According to May, he has heard concerns from several of his constituents in Occoquan about the visitor’s center closing.

“I think people are concerned about it and from my perspective, and a lot of my constituent’s perspective, they like it…and it adds that personal touch that you don’t get from a website or a brochure…but even setting that aside, I think the bigger concern is the rapid nature of the decision, in the fact that the stakeholders were never really given a venue to express concerns and let the CVB know how important the visitor’s center is to them,” May commented.

What happens next?

The board of directors for Discover Prince William & Manassas will meet on July 20 to talk about options for the Occoquan Visitor’s Center.

“At the CVB Board of Directors regularly scheduled meeting on July 20, the CVB Board will discuss concerns posed by the Town of Occoquan, Supervisor May and others impacted by the CVB Board’s FY16 budget,” said Maher.

May stated that he would be attending the meeting, and urged residents with an opinion to go to the meeting and speak.