$30,000 for Arlington Fly-In

Published 10:16 pm Thursday, March 5, 2009

ARLINGTON — The Arlington Fly-In recently was served the biggest slice of the city’s tourism-fund pie.

The annual air show, scheduled for July 8-12, tops the list of nonprofit organizations receiving money from the city’s 2009 hotel-motel tax fund. The third largest recreational aviation event in the nation, the Fly-In attracts about 60,000 people, many who spend money in Arlington.

City officials began collecting a 2 percent hotel-motel tax in 2005. State law requires that revenue from the lodging tax be used only for tourism promotion. This year the Fly-In is set to receive $30,000, primarily for advertising. The tax fund has grown every year since 2006 when the city allocated a total of $29,000 for tourism projects. This year the fund had $150,000 available.

The city’s hotel-motel tax committee, which must include a local hotel owner and representatives of organizations that receive funding, makes recommendations to the City Council for distribution of the tax fund. Currently the committee includes Medallion Hotel owner and committee chairwoman MaryAnn Monty, hotel manager Amber Armstrong, Arlington Fly-In director Barbara Tolbert, Arlington Arts Council president Sarah Arney and Councilwoman Sally Lien.

The committee also allocated tourism dollars to the city to pay for a visitor information kiosk at Legion Park, advertising for summer recreation events and promotion of events at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center. Arlington-Smokey Point Chamber of Commerce and its affiliate, the Downtown Arlington Business Association, received funding for its visitor information center and marketing of downtown events. Others awarded tax revenue included the Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Association, Arlington School District and the Snohomish County Fall Farm Festival.

Not all organizations get what they ask for.

Arlington Arts Council did not receive its funding request to hang banners painted by local artists on light standards throughout the city. The idea, the council argued, was that the banners would make a trip to Arlington more memorable, encouraging tourists to come back again and spend a night.

“It’s hard to turn any organization down,” chairwoman Monty said. “The Fly-In is a given. Other ideas may not fit the criteria for funding.”

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427, gfiege@heraldnet.com.