KCCVB Executive Director Jill Boggs, far left, shows off the Best Visitor Guide award.

KOSCIUSKO — The Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission approved two grant requests during the meeting held Wednesday, March 13.

Alan Tio, CEO of KEDco, requested a $25,000 grant to fund a content creation project with Issue Media Group for the remainder of 2019. A pilot project with the company was recently completed, resulting in six published articles for $12,000. Tio is hoping to keep the content creation momentum going by combining the resources of KEDco, KCCRVC and other possible sponsors.

The ultimate goal of the content is to highlight the “best-kept secrets” of the area. The hope is that the articles will attract both tourists and talent to the area. To continue past the pilot project costs $50,000 for the remainder of 2019. Tio hoped that the commission would provide $25,000.

Commissioners expressed concern over the price and not having a contract outlining how many articles they would actually receive. There were also concerns regarding the fact that Issue Media is a new company established in 2018.

Because of these concerns, the commissioners agreed to fund only $15,000 of the requested amount with the agreement that the Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau be directly involved with the process.

Moving forward, if the agreement proves to be beneficial, the KCCVB could include this cost in their yearly budget under marketing costs.

Darin Lursen, program director of the Syracuse Parks Department, was present to request a $2,000 grant for the annual Tour de Lakes. He noted that the event, scheduled for July 20, has been growing steadily with 370 participants in 2018. The commission approved the grant as requested.

KCCVB Executive Director Jill Boggs was excited to announce the bureau was awarded the Best Visitor Guide honors at the 2019 Indiana Tourism Association’s annual Indiana Tourism Conference. She brought the plaque to the meeting to show commissioners.

Boggs also noted that the KCCVB is fully aware of issues with their website and that they are trying to work on some of the bigger technical problems. They hope to make progress on this before the next meeting.

The next meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 8.