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QUINCY — Riverfront Development Corp. has agreed to form a new marketing committee consisting of three members and local marketing experts. The purpose is to raise public awareness and fundraise for the Riverfront Master Plan.
The committee would give companies time to work on the basics of their projects and secure small commitments from public taxing bodies that could garner breakthrough support from private donors.
Preliminary ideas include rubber duck races on the Mississippi River, participants purchasing ducks with their names on them to support the riverfront, information booths at festivals and local events, and Quincy art. This included coordinating with center activities and providing commemorative plaques and mementos to individuals. Donors. The committee will meet for the first time in a week.
Company officials were perplexed after the City Council rescinded a $200,000 tax increase to fund the project in district funds.
The company has frequently advertised that a successful riverfront that attracts tourists will “raise all boats in Quincy.” The master plan was approved by City Council at the start.
“This is more of a symbolic defunding (on the part of the city)…The fact that they said yes first should be viewed as a positive,” said Jason Parrott, assistant director of planning and development. explained. “Either way, they're going to have to vote (on our side's use of the funds). (Even if the funds were earmarked for us) they're going to have to go back and say, 'This is the exact use of the funds. ’ I would have had to say.”
Adams County Board members who attended the meeting heard through the media that the TIF funds were rescinded because city officials perceived the county's support was insufficient.
Transportation, Buildings and Technology Committee Chairman Dave Bellis said the committee never canceled the $200,000 grant for the riverfront. The money was originally earmarked for a shelved power line project, but “we just haven't gotten it back yet,” Bellis said.
He resolved to place the reallocation of funds for the proposed Event Plaza project on the agenda for the next board meeting.
Members expressed concern that “mixed” support from the City Council could cause private donors to question the health of the project's public-private partnership. Parrott's response is that the city's dedication of staff time, including his own and that of Planning and Development Director Chuck Bevelhimer, to the project is a sign of enduring support. It was something.
Councilman Rick Ehrhart's concern is that TIF funds from the city could be used elsewhere in the ongoing budgeting process, and that TIF surplus funds for the next budget cycle would not account for the riverfront. There was a possibility that it would be spent on. A project of the size of the riverfront requires periodic allocations from the TIF District in order to complete a full master plan. The idea of using bonds to raise money through annual TIF allocations was also floated, but that idea was rejected until a more concrete plan could be prepared.
Members heard that the Event Plaza project is in the request for quotation stage with a local engineering firm. Engineering funding will primarily come from a $50,000 grant to him.
