Why is the transition of the Visitors Center being done in the shadows?
THIS ARTICLE IS COMMENTARY AND PUBLISHED IN OUR EDITORIAL SECTION.
By Randy Arrington, publisher
We won’t rehash the history of the “Tourism Wars”. We won’t try to point fingers at who’s right and who’s wrong. Most people by this point know there’s an elite group of cabin owners who haven’t gotten along with the Chamber for some time. The cabin owners have been successful in gaining greater influence over the county’s lodging tax funds in recent years, and now it seems they are going to be successful in their long-held plan to take over control of the Visitors Center.
And that’s our area of focus here, the upcoming July 1 transition of the Luray-Page County Visitors Center. Although we believe the negatives far outweigh the benefits of moving the Center and transferring operations from the Chamber to the county, we want to focus here on the process itself — how decisions were made, how it was presented to the public, and a failure to be prepared for the transition.
Let’s start with Monday night’s board of supervisors meeting. While the agenda included an update on the projects underway in the Economic Development and Tourism office, that report did not include a single mention of the Visitors Center transition. Why was that not at the top of the priority list for that office to report to the board, seeing the transition was only 13 days away… and just 17 days before thousands of visitors will flood Downtown Luray? Instead, the lengthy report contained an explanation of economic development and placed the blame on supervisors for a lack of progress for not providing better direction.
“It’s more than creating jobs…what is the growth we want ? If you tell me what those are…not knowing those goals from this board makes it difficult…knowing that would be helpful,” said Nina Fox, director of Economic Development and Tourism. “The two areas we focus on are agriculture and tourism…agriculture is fantastic, but it is not a job creator and it’s not a revenue generator for us. The two areas we’re concentrating on are not real job creators.”
Even if the director was instructed to not include information about the Visitors Center in open session…why? Why has the public been kept in the dark? What’s the purpose or advantage? A lease negotiation with Judy K. might qualify for a closed session, but why can’t the public be told that the new location for the Luray-Page County Visitors Center (if it’s still called that) will be in the bottom floor of the brick building on the corner of Business 211 and Business 340 (Main and Broad). The small office will be accessed from the back of the building (below the outfitters) and a small parking lot — but be careful the owner may be watching on her cameras in Colorado and have visitors towed if they linger too long.
Less than two weeks away, there has been no public announcements on the transition, and the director even declined to comment on direct questions from the media. Why?
During the fall of 2023, we heard several candidates for local public office talk about transparency in government. The transition of the Visitors Center has been anything but transparent. The board of supervisors have held at least two closed sessions to discuss the issue. Why?
Job listings have been posted seeking a part-time employee for the Center, but has a hire been made? What is the justification for the move? What are the benefits to the county? Are there financial benefits? Why not tell us?
Silence only fuels suspicion. It makes the rumor of “spite” seem to ring true as a motivation. Why weren’t the key stakeholders all brought together to discuss the logistics of the transition back in February when this all started? Why did that still not happen in the last 30 days?
The reason for bringing in other stakeholders to the discussion is because it helps mitigate the ripple effects of our decisions. The Daughter of the Stars Farmers Market is now looking to relocate due to the closure of the Visitors Center at the depot. The Luray Council went into closed session last week to discuss potential ways to “help” the Chamber and the Luray Downtown Initiative, who occupy the Town-owned depot. There has even been some discussion of the Town keeping the current Visitors Center open to promote Luray. That would also address the issue of having staff on site when various community organizations use the depot’s conference room for meetings.
The members of the board of supervisors must have a good reason why they are seemingly backing such an unpopular decision. So, please tell us what those reasons are? Surely, they are not handing over an additional year-round responsibility to a department that they already tasked with numerous directives on Monday night. Wouldn’t that simply pull their efforts away from the larger goal of creating jobs?
Regardless of the reasoning behind the decision… Why is this being done in the shadows? We are often judged by how we go about the tasks of life, more so than what we accomplish.
For more information about the Page County Economic Development and Tourism office,
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Luray should do its own thing. Not many come to Page County to visit Stanley or Shenandoah.
If the Town takes over the Depot and runs its own VC, the rest of the county will be at a disadvantage because the Town will obviously promote itself. That was the advantage of having the Chamber run the VC. If there are two visitors centers less than two blocks apart, the county VC will quickly become irrelevant.
I’m pretty sure this has to do with government funding for tourism that the county is trying to get and keep the towns hands out of it when they get it,it’s all about MONEY,millions of dollars in funding for tourism is available now through Virginia government grants
Luray is not the only town in Page County. Stanley and Shenandoah help finance Page County, too. The citizens of Stanley and Shenandoah pay the same taxes as the people of Luray. Although no longer true, for decades the largest employers in Page County were in Shenandoah. What if Shenandoah had said back then that “Shenandoah should do its own thing,” after all, Luray does not do anything to help Shenandoah (or Stanley) anyway. It is exactly this type of attitude shown by Ron Mexico that hurts Page County so the towns cannot work together for the betterment of the whole county. Page County does not need and can do without that type of attitude.
You’ve changed my mind. Stanley and Shenandoah should help pay for a multimillion dollar VC to be built in Luray. Tourists will be driving at nascar speeds to see Stanley and Shenandoah.
Luray is not the only town in Page County. Stanley and Shenandoah help finance Page County, too. The citizens of Stanley and Shenandoah pay the same taxes as the people of Luray. Although no longer true, for decades the largest employers in Page County were in Shenandoah. What if Shenandoah had said back then that “Shenandoah should do its own thing,” after all, Luray does not do anything to help Shenandoah (or Stanley) anyway. It is exactly this type of attitude shown by Ron Mexico that hurts Page County so the towns cannot work together for the betterment of the whole county. Page County does not need and can do without Ron Mexico’s type of attitude.
I agree with “Make up your Mind” who wrote, “A great county has a shared vision and works together to make everyone’s lives better.” That is the type of attitude needed by all of Page County.
Great job on this important editorial, Randy! More questions need to be asked and definitely more honest answers provided for the benefit of the entire Luray Page area concerning directions and plans for your future and the best plans for a lucrative tourism business for all of Page County! The Luray-Page Chamber and all of their amazing, gracious staff and Chamber Ambassadors served very well in their great purposes without self interest, greed or a lust of power. I was very honored and proud to have been an associate member with a non profit organization, and to have had the honor to have served as an Ambassador of the Chamber and their great staff, while living in that beautiful and magnificent area with so much potential.
Great editorial. I also understand that staff have been let go at the visitors center. Meanwhile a part time position has been aoproved for the Econ dev and tourism dept. so no benefits for the new employee. And there is no economic development plan. The one on the county website is from almost 15 years ago. Would any of the supervisors run their businesses like this?
Cameras in the back parking lot?! Lmao the publisher wrote this has absolutely no idea what is really going on. In fact, it’s no ones business until a decision has been made. Settle down everyone…
I received a notice to not use that parking lot for drop-off for the dance studio, as did many other parents. Some had their cars towed. A neighbor on my street ran an adjacent business and was asked by the property owner to report cars parking in the lot from the dance studio. Some were towed. He told me that if she checked her cameras on her monitors at her home in Colorado and saw that people were using her parking lot and not doing business with one of her tenants, she would have them towed. Because I received a notice, and was almost towed once, I believed his story.
Cameras in the back parking lot?! Lmao the publisher wrote this has absolutely no idea what is really going on. In fact, it’s no ones business until a decision has been made. Settle down everyone. Perhaps interviewing more people in either building may have provided more information and answer some of those “why”s.
And you supplied absolutely no information about what is “really going on”. So, I ask you, given your claim to know more than the author about this, what is “really going on”?
If any of this is paid for with tax money or will have control over spending of tax money, it certainly IS our business to know what is going on. Waiting until a decision is made is like Pelosi’s famous quote “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”. That is a sure sign of underhanded dealing and hiding the truth until it is too late.
I think Rebecca works for the tourism and econ development office of the county and is sticking up for her boss
Or perhaps the director could have simply addressed those questions in public….as public servants are expected to do. Silence only fuels the type of backlash that you are seeing now….and that’s the whole point…..it’s more about how things are being done, more than what’s being done.
I see with your reply, Rebecca, that you are a believer like our former Speaker of the House that “we have to pass it so that you can find out what is in it”. You seem to like to be govern by a dictator saying “it’s no one’s business until a decision has been made.” The last I heard, the United States (including Page County) is still a democratic republic where an informed citizenry has a voice in their own government and it certainly is MY business (and yours) before a decision is made because I certainly have a voice in any decision my government makes. One of the problems with the government today is “closed sessions” decision-making. Governing should be out of the shadows and into the light of open and transparent information to the citizens.
The county leadership (and locals in general) need to figure out what they want. The BOS and towns certainly love all the TOT money. They even recently doubled taxes on visitors, depending on increased future tourist revenue to pay for schools and staff raises. But it may not come with the current attitude about tourism.
When you talk to most locals, they consider visitors an annoyance. Plus the county does very little to make hospitality investors feel welcome. Little to no tax money is spent creating better infrastructure/services to make visitors and investors welcome. We could make this a fun, great place to visit…where people spend money…and leave. It’d keep the area beautiful.
A great county has a shared vision and works together to make everyone’s lives better.
This Chamber of Commerce vs JD Cave/Nina Fox debacle is just another nail in the coffin. Once the county ceases to handle advertising professionally, people will forget about Page County. Plenty of other gorgeous places surrounding us who actually appreciate visitors.
One day, locals and their leaders will realize no one wants to come here and spend money they money here anymore. Big budget holes from bad decisions (landfill, two schools, Project Clover, employment lawsuits, sheriff overspending, new jail fever) will be paid for by people who live here. Then locals can just go back to complaining about each other again. Crabs in a barrel.
The county leadership (and locals in general) need to figure out what they want. The BOS and towns certainly love all the TOT money. They even recently doubled taxes on visitors, depending on increased future tourist revenue to pay for schools and staff raises. But it may not come with the current attitude about tourism.
When you talk to most locals, they consider visitors an annoyance. Plus the county does very little to make hospitality investors feel welcome. Little to no tax money is spent creating better infrastructure/services to make visitors and investors welcome. We could make this a fun, great place to visit…where people spend money…and leave. It’d keep the area beautiful.
A great county has a shared vision and works together to make everyone’s lives better.
This Chamber of Commerce vs JD Cave/Nina Fox debacle is just another nail in the coffin. Once the county ceases to handle advertising professionally, people will forget about Page County. Plenty of other gorgeous places surrounding us who actually appreciate visitors.
One day, locals and their leaders will realize no one wants to come here and spend money they money here anymore. Big budget holes from bad decisions (landfill, two schools, Project Clover, employment lawsuits, sheriff overspending, new jail fever) will be paid for by people who live here. Then locals can just go back to complaining about each other again. Crabs in a barrel.
If the campgrounds become more powerful you can forget “tourists who come then leave.” It will be illegal immigrants being taken in year round with the federal government reimbursing the campground owners, and illegals stealing from Walmart. That’s what we’re headed towards. Don’t come to me crying and hopping around on piss soaked hind legs when it happens.