Commissioners turn down proposed tourism advertising

Pulaski County Commissioners are not looking at making Pulaski County great again anytime soon as they rejected a tourism initiative.
The commissioners again approached the idea of spending $22,000 on commercials and advertising that promote tourism to Pulaski County. The idea was presented to the commissioners during a Feb. 6 meeting by Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer. As part of the proposal the commercials would air for 10 weeks on different channels in the Chicago area and southern Lake County. At the time the proposal was presented to the commissioners, they balked at the amount of money that would be spent. 
At the commissioners’ meeting on Feb. 21, Origer informed the commissioners that there is a Pulaski County tourism page online along with government pages, an economic development page, a human services page and a chamber of commerce page. 
Origer quoted one of the business owners that responded back to his request. In the email, the person said the commissioners are correct that people go online to look at different things but “something has to give them the idea of Pulaski County and that would be the TV ads. People in Chicago do not just Google Pulaski County as a place for a vacation. They need something that says ‘Hey check us out.’”  
Origer doesn’t want to spend this much money every year but this is the first time in a long time that Pulaski County is being considered as a tourism attraction. Some individuals have but not the different organizations. 
There is funding in the budget this year to spend $22,000 on the commercials. 
Commissioner Jerry Locke complained that the commercial does not include the Power From the Past. Origer said when the commercial was made it was not under his direction. He said the commercial is to direct people to the website. 
Locke questioned if the youth could get involved such as through the schools. He suggested that the youth could talk to local businesses and create videos.   
Origer questioned what would the county do with those videos as opposed to the professional video that has already been created. 
John Kocher, who was in the audience during the meeting, reminded the commissioners that the youth don’t have the money but their parents and grandparents. “But you want to get Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa down here to utilize some areas where they might want to spend some money. You hate to spend $20,000 in advertising but believe me, it does work.” 
Origer reminded the commissioners that both the county council and the Pulaski County Community Development Commission agreed on the budget and the amount of spending that could happen regarding the commercials. 
Commissioner Bud Krohn Jr. said promoting the river is good but he questioned if a tree falls in the river who is liable — the farmer? Origer questioned what that has to do with tourism. 
Commissioner president Kenny Becker made a motion to spend about half the funds on the commercials depending on the deal that Origer could work out. His motion died for a lack of a second. 
No further action was taken by the commissioners regarding the commercials.