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City administrator discusses grant allocation

July 30th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

Cumberland City officials announced last week the names of 17 organizations that will receive allocations from  $36,000 in grant funding made possible by the hotel/motel accommodation tax. The list of recipients and their grant amounts were approved by the mayor and City Council at Tuesday’s virtual meeting- with the  Allegany County Museum securing the largest portion with a $3,800 grant. Each year, a portion of the hotel/motel accommodation tax collected by Allegany County is distributed to the city of Cumberland. City officials subsequently make a portion available to nonprofits located within the Cumberland city limits that help attract visitors to the area. City Administrator Jeff Rhodes announced the organizations that will be sharing the funding…

 

3 Responses to “City administrator discusses grant allocation”

  1. July 30, 2020 at 7:20 am, Ken said:

    How can the city (and county) rationalize that the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization contributes to the Hotel/Motel fund enough to deserve $715 is beyond me. Yes, Taylor can count people on the canal and claim they visit his Confederate Cemetery, but does this money really drive tourist to our area? Do people travel far enough distances to need a hotel/motel accommodation just to view the monuments this klan erects? Nope, not one bit! I doubt this money that Taylor’s Klan receives every year attracts more than two people to travel further than Hancock. So many other well deserving organizations that could have used that $715 of government money.

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    • July 30, 2020 at 9:33 am, Jay said:

      I can’t disagree with you Ken, but the reality is that these numbers in the aggregate make very little difference to the organizations. The amounts are pathetically small.

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      • July 30, 2020 at 12:05 pm, Ken said:

        Jay I agree with you on the amounts. However considering the funding source is only an 8% tax per occupancy night within the city and then that gets divided almost 50/50 among the city and county that doesn’t leave a huge amount to divvy up among the non-profits that create the occupancy nights. The city does the best job at returning the money to the organizations that create events and attractions for occupancy nights, the county keeps the money entirely and then shovels their 50% out to pet organizations like the train and Taylor.

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