Eloy groups make funding pitches
City Council meeting packed
By TANNER CLINCH | Eloy Enterprise
ELOY — The council chambers at Eloy City Hall were packed Monday night with members of all manner of non-profit organizations awaiting their chance to pitch to the City Council why they should receive funding for the next year as the council irons out the details in the city’s 2016-17 annual budget.
First up was the Director of Operations for the Sunland Visitor Center, Cynthia Yates. The visitor center keeps track and disseminates information for tourists and Arizonans visiting the area, from local restaurants to RV parks, along with other attractions in the county such as Biosphere 2 and the new zipline near Oracle.
The center is asking the city for $12,000, approximately half of its annual budget. Despite being the only visitor center in the area sanctioned by the Arizona Office of Tourism, that funding has dried up, Yates explains.
Tourists spent approximately $20.9 billion throughout the state in 2014 which lead to over $2 billion in tax revenue, according to the Arizona Office of tourism.
Yates said the center will use the money on an ad campaign in the upper midwest and Canada to attract more winter visitors vital to the county.
