ELLIJAY, Ga. – A special called meeting of Gilmer’s Board of Commissioners saw the official motion and approval of a change in the Hotel/Motel Tax from five percent to eight percent and included tourism product development (TPD) Projects.

The meeting saw the continued discussion of the topic that was brought up last year after Gilmer Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer responded to Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson’s request for information. Grimmer had already provided information to the cities at their request and delivered similar to the BOC.

In December 2021, Grimmer said that going above five percent in the tax opens up tourism product development (TPD) options. Grimmer explained that this fund could be used to build or improve things like river access, signage, parking lots, public bathrooms, and other projects. Gilmer is currently 100 percent marketing and does not use any of the funds for tangible or “brick-and-mortar” improvements.

With this approval, certain areas have to be listed for general guidance on projects for the county to pursue. The board stated that the project list can change from year to year, but the county is to disclose the general ideas where they will use the TPD options to fund. They noted that approval in the county’s meeting is for the resolution to be sent for approval in state legislation. In fact, Post Commissioner Hubert Parker’s motion for approval included submitting the request to Speaker David Ralston.

These stated projects were labeled as Parks, Trails, and Recreation facilities. Though throughout the meeting, the board’s exploration of projects lead to additional funding for the pool and wayfinding signage. Additionally, 18% of the funds collected must be used for the TPD projects.

Recently, the county’s pool project has failed to see real progress as bids for the project have not received any  submissions. The board discussed that some questions to those interested said the addition of a diving well had some affect on their decisions. The diving well would increase project costs and liability costs for the county. Brief discussions still saw interest from board members to pursue the diving well if possible.

Additionally, in the special meeting’s Citizens Wishing to Speak section, the board heard a presentation from Robert Ferguson about his recent attendance of the Gilmer Chamber’s “Leadership Gilmer” course. Robert said that part of the course was to find a project to work on to improve the county. He went on to add that his project that he worked on with a group of people in the course was wayfinding signage. Providing handouts and extra documentation, Robert noted the abundance of signage in Ellijay for different things including a large portion of real estate signage. He also noted a lack of signage for visitors to utilize in increasing tourism guidance.

The addition of more wayfinding signage would help visitors quickly navigate to sites like local businesses, vineyards, the downtown area, and even historic places like the Tabor House. Though not a part of this same project, it is something the Chamber has noted as helpful and important for those unfamiliar with our county. Having inspected signage on their own, the Chamber recently updated signage on the Highway 515 Welcome Center and main office in the last year.

These two projects were a current focus for the Board of Commissioners with TPD, but they also discussed future possible projects briefly. Ultimately, with the project list updated annually, they elected to focus on the 2022 projects and push discussion for 2023 to a later date. Additionally, sending the resolution to state legislation requires the current project list and County Attorney David Clark noted that this change would not be finalized and implemented until Georgia’s Governor signs the bill into law. This could occur in May or later.

After signing, Clark said there is a notification period as well. If the signing is delay, the change could occur as late as September of 2022.

Grimmer also returned to speak at the Special Meeting offering information. She noted that TPD funding could have doubled in 2021 according to projections. She reasserted to the BOC that the Gilmer Chamber was a point of information on the subject with no financial interest as the increase would lower the Chambers percentage received in order to balance out to the same collection.

It was noted that while the Parks, Trails, and Recreation facilities denoted as projects are considerations and the county is not bound to complete projects in all the areas. However, they cannot work on projects outside of those areas until added to the list during the annual discussions.