The payroll of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau increased by $20,950 after its board of directors approved pay raises for the bureau’s six employees.
The board approved the raises Thursday after a 30-minute executive session to discuss employee evaluations and pay increases.
VCVB is funded by a 1 percent sales tax on hotel room rentals and food and alcoholic beverages sold in Warren County. The tax is expected to bring in about $1.18 million when the bureau’s fiscal year ends Dec. 31. It is projected to raise about $1.18 in 2015.
Board president Lori Burke said the raises were determined during a meeting of the board’s personnel committee and executive director Bill Seratt, and were based on employee evaluations and job descriptions.
“We have a wonderful team here,” she said. “Bill has put together a super team. They have stepped up our marketing efforts and they’re marketing Vicksburg to tourists better than it has been marketed before. They’re going after different audiences to market Vicksburg and doing a lot on social media to promote tourism here.”
Group services representative Ashley Gatian received the highest raise totaling $9,000, from $31,000 to $40,000, while communications director Laura Beth Strickland received a $3,000 raise moving her salary from $40,000 to $43,000, and travel counselor Pat Strange’s pay was increased by $2,950, from $29,500 to $32,450.
Visitors service officer Leah Sullivan, administrative assistant Debra Ellis and Seratt each received $2,000 raises. Sullivan’s pay increased from $37,500 to $39,500, Ellis’ from $54,000 to $56,000, and Seratt’s from $98,000 to $100,000. The raises increased the VCVB’s total payroll from $290,000 in fiscal 2014 to $310,950 for fiscal 2015.
In another matter, the board tabled action to close the bureau’s visitor center at the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Depot on Levee Street until January. The center, which opened in 2012 after the depot was opened, shares space on the first floor of the depot with the Old Depot Museum.
It is one of three visitor information centers operated by VCVB. Another is at the Vicksburg National Military Park and a third is at the Mississippi State Welcome Center off Interstate 20.
The board discussed the center after board member Lamar Roberts said he was concerned about the lack of activity there.
“It’s a total waste of time,” Roberts said. “The reason I say that is that last year, there were right at 400 and something and this year (so far) there were just over 100 this month. Today, there wasn’t anybody.”
Roberts, who owns the old Depot Museum, said closing the center “would free up 36 man hours to use somewhere else.”
He said the bureau could put the rack of brochures about local attractions in the museum, adding, “we give information to the people who come in, just like the guide. If there’s something we can’t answer, we can send them upstairs (to the VCVB office on the Depot’s second floor).”
He said many of the visitors to the museum tell him they picked up brochures at one of the other visitor centers.
Member Bess Averett suggested the board delay action.
“I definitely think it’s something we should look into and look at, but I’d kind of like little more discussion about it,” she said.
In other action, the board:
• Learned the hospitality tax receipts for October totaled $86,415.46, up $5,092.10 from the $81,323.36 received in October 2013. Hospitality tax reimbursements from the state run two months behind, so the money received in October represented taxes collected in August.
In a related matter, the October hotel occupancy rate was 56.1 percent, up 4.7 percent from October 2013, and the average daily rate, the average hotel room rate, for October was $82.59, up $4.50 from October 2013.
• Received an update on events at the Vicksburg Convention Center.