The Cass County Board of Supervisors today (Thursday) approved a revised request for the commitment of $25,000 from the Local Option Sales Tax in support of an Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s application to Vision Iowa for a Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant. The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department had originally sought $40,000 to help secure a $360,000 grant for proposed improvements and further development of the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, and the Pellet Wildlife Refuge Park, but Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring removed $15,000 from the request after the decision was made to eliminate the Pellet Park from the plan.

Herring said he might have pushed too hard to have the Pellet Wildlife Refuge included in the plan, when it was obvious not all the parties involved felt it was necessary at this time. Last week, the Board asked Herring to come up with some figures with regard to how proposed improvements to the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, would benefit the county as a whole, and not just Atlantic.

He came up with some numbers that the Board liked, including estimates that the proposed campsite improvements at the Schildberg Rec Area would increase the Local Option Sales Tax revenues by a conservative one-percent, or $6,300 per year, based on a six-month, May through October season. He said 20 camping pads fully used at $15 per night, would generate $300 per day over 180 potential days in the season. Overall, if there were overall 90 days with 50-percent usage, that $300 would turn into $27,000 of gross income.

Herring said based on national statistics, where visitors spend $289 per day for food, entertainment, gasoline and so on, while camping, at least $180,000 would be injected into the local economy. The International Convention and Visitor’s Bureau projects that money will roll over in the local economy, 3 ½ times, or $630,000.

During discussion, Supervisors Frank Waters and Mark Wedemeyer, who were previously opposed to committing $40,000 toward securing the CAT Grant, said the new data swayed them enough to allow a $10,000 commitment, but in the end, a motion for $25,000 was approved by a vote of 3-to-2, with Schelling, McFadden and Rieken in favor, Wedemeyer and Waters opposed. Both men said they were NOT opposed to the project, just the amount of financial commitment from the County, in light of a desire to reduce the debt and focus on bridges and roads.

In other business, the Cass County Board of Supervisors set $9.00 per hour as the rate of compensation for precinct election officials. Previously those persons had been paid the ongoing minimum wage of $7.25/hour. Precinct officials typically put in 15-to 18-hour days during the day of elections.