Museum director on VCVB boardRoberts earlier questioned tourism figures

Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 4, 2003

[09/04/03] A museum owner who openly questioned figures touted by the VCVB this summer is now a member of the tourism board.

Lamar Roberts, director of Vicksburg Battlefield Museum, was named a director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau by the Warren County Board of Supervisors after his nomination by District 5 Supervisor Richard George.

“He has been in a tourist-oriented business for a number of years,” George said of his decision to choose Roberts. “He has expressed an interest in serving for the past several years, and when the opportunity came up we were able to oblige.”

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Roberts succeeds Ann Morris whose resignation, effective Monday, from the board was accepted by supervisors at the board’s meeting Tuesday. Roberts will serve until the end of Morris’ term, which will be July 2006.

“Everybody is supposed to have an agenda, and I guess the main thing is I have an interest in Vicksburg and tourism in Vicksburg,” Roberts said. “My agenda is to get more people to come to Vicksburg and get as many as possible to the attractions.”

In a letter to the editor earlier this summer, Roberts indicated VCVB chairman Eric Biedenharn Jr. was drawing incorrect conclusions from numbers that showed increased vehicle counts on newly marked red and blue tour routes through the city.

Roberts said there were other explanations for the increases and, in any event, the signs weren’t increasing visitation at in-city venues.

Biedenharn devised the red and blue routes to guide vehicles through the city and past antebellum tour homes and museums as they entered or left the area’s main attraction the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Roberts, a retired industrial manager, is a frequent letter writer. He founded the Gray and Blue Naval Museum more than 20 years ago in a small building on Clay Street. He later moved it to a building in the 1100 block of Washington Street and relocated into a new ironclad-themed building adjacent to Battlefield Inn this year. The name was changed, and The Vanishing Glory, a multimedia presentation detailing events during the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg, was incorporated into the museum’s offerings.

Morris was first appointed to the board in 1988 by then District 5 Supervisor Jack Sturgis and was reappointed in 2002 by George.

The bureau board is made up of 11 members. Five are appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Vicksburg and five are appointed by county supervisors. The boards alternate appointing the 11th member of the board. VCVB directors serve staggered, four-year terms and hire an executive director to allocate about $1 million annually for local tourism promotion.

Morris said the reason she decided to retire was she felt that 15 years on the board was long enough. “But, I will always be in support of the board and the bureau,” she said.

At the time Morris was appointed, she and her late husband, Jim Morris, owned and operated The Toy Soldier Museum.

Roberts is also a member of the board of directors of Beauvoir, the last home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Roberts said he does not plan to deal in personalities when he takes his seat on the board for the first time later this month.

He also said the move of the museum in May to the present location near the eastern edge of town is not meant to slight downtown Vicksburg.

“We can be a better ambassador for Vicksburg out here,” Roberts said, explaining the museum is attracting more visitors whom he and his staff can then direct to the attractions downtown.

One of the methods Roberts and Battlefield Inn owner Warner Byrum are using to encourage visitors to see more of Vicksburg is the Deduct-A-Buck Program. Visitors can pick up the Deduct-A-Buck cards at visitor welcome centers, State Welcome Centers and other participants. When presented at other participants, the visitor gets a $1 discount on admission fees.

“Last month more than 25 percent of the people who came to the museum had the cards and left here going downtown,” he said.

He also said he and Byrum offer special incentives to tour operators that send more than one busload of visitors to the city. The first night at the motel for the first bus is free and the first bus gets free admission to the museum.

“These people who come here are our greatest asset, and we need to look at these people not as intruders but as visitors and we need to treat them as visitors, and welcome them as visitors,” Roberts said.

The VCVB, created by local and private legislation, gets its money from a 1 percent added sales tax at restaurants, bars and hotels. A search is under way for a director to replace 18-year executive Lenore Barkley, who retired Sept. 1.