City of Oconto wants planned Tourism Commission to control 8% room tax revenue

OCONTO – Oconto Common Council Member Riley Sowle, a Tourism Committee member, is growing tourism from the pumpkin patch to the river.
How big was the largest pumpkin at the Fall Harvest? According to pumpkin-grower Sowle, it weighed a whopping 624 pounds.

The second-heaviest pumpkin at the Oconto Chamber of Commerce’s fall event wasn’t almost as impressive at 542 pounds, and easily outweighed last year’s biggest pumpkin at 494 pounds, Sowle said at an Oconto Committee of the Whole meeting Oct. 8.

Besides a guess the weight contest, the event featured a pumpkin carving contest, a guess the candy corn quantity contest, pumpkin bowling, a plinko board with prizes for winners and bouncers for the kids, according to the Chamber of Commerce. Over 125 vendors participated, occupying about 200 spots for booths, and entertaining about 2,000 festival attendees.

The success of the event piqued the City of Oconto’s interest in creating a Tourism Commission, which would be empowered by the law to take action related to tourism in the city.

More contests could be on the calendar in the future, if Sowle has his way, though they won’t all involve pumpkins. The City of Oconto has big plans for a new Tourism Commission, which will control revenue from the 8% room tax.

“With larger amounts of money, it’s something you want to control. You want a set budget,” City Administrator Brittney Burruel said. At a previous Commission of the Whole meeting, council members discussed hiring a tourism director, but this wasn’t mentioned Oct. 8.

The city plans to celebrate the holidays with a pickle-dropping event Dec. 31, Sowle said. High school students are designing or creating the pickle, he said. The Tourism Committee, which is different from the proposed Tourism Commission, is planning to send every resident two publications a year in 2025 containing a calendar of upcoming events, Sowle said. It’s also working on constructing a covered kiosk near the QuikTrip where visitors can access tourism information about Oconto. Other plans include a new tourism center and a river boat.

The idea for the twice-a-year Oconto events mailing stems from a lack of contributors to the “Oconto Tourism” Facebook page. The Tourism Committee hasn’t had a budget to pay someone to take photos at events and activities and upload them to Facebook. The Chamber of Commerce said it hired LY Photography to take photos of the Fall Harvest.

The new Tourism Commission will have authority to allocate up to 70% of Room Tax collections on tourism promotion and other municipal development likely to generate overnight stays in Oconto, according to the ordinance.

A majority of Committee of the Whole members supported an ordinance related to the creation of a Tourism Commission, which would allocate 70% of funds collected through the 8% room tax to promote Oconto tourism. Council Members Darrell Anderson and Dan Zoeller opposed the ordinance at a Committee of the Whole meeting Oct. 8 after discussion about how large of an expenditure the Tourism Commission should be allowed to make without City Council approval.

By a four to two vote, they had earlier opposed a version of the ordinance that allowed the Tourism Commission to spend as much as $10,000 on a single purchase without having to seek the Common Council’s approval. Dee Donlevy and Riley Sowle supported the ordinance with the $10,000 clause, while the other four Committee of the Whole members opposed it. These include Anderson, Zoeller, Bob LeBreck and Lori Stenstrup.

“We have entrusted $32,000 to this committee in the best interests of the city, now we’re getting hung up on $10,000? I’m not understanding that. I’m not understanding why this is a sticking point,” Donlevy said.

But Mayor Cliff Martin said, “I’m not comfortable with the $10,000 myself.”

By omitting the $10,000 clause, the ordinance gained majority support.

In revisiting the Tourism Commission ordinance at the Oct. 15 City Council meeting, the discussion over how much latitude the commission should have in spending without the council’s approval continued.

City Council members expressed concern about allowing a new board to write checks for up to $10,000 without the council’s approval, and they discussed changing the number to $5,000 or $3,000.

Council member Zoeller suggested the $3,000 figure. “I think it’s easier to up it, but if it starts at a higher number, it’s harder to lower it,” he said.

Sowle said $5,000 “was a nice meet-in-the-middle number,” and noted costs have gone up. “For Water Fest, just to get a band to play, you’re already over that $3,000. It’s like $3,500 to $4,000 – just to book a band.”

Stenstrup said she was fine with either $3,000 or $5,000, rather than $10,000. Without knowing who is going to be on the Commission, “we have no tracking” to go on, she said. “It is going to be a whole, brand new venture from Day 1. You’re going to have your two council people, but everyone else is going to be new, so we need a little bit of room to test out the waters before we just let them spend money.”

At its Oct. 15 meeting, the council passed, by a vote of four to two, the ordinance with the $3,000 spending limit before council approval is required. Council members LeBreck, Anderson, Stenstrup and Zoeller voted in favor and Donlevy and Sowle opposed this action item.

The Tourism Commission’s purpose is to give the city direct control of the revenue from the 8% room tax, which TEDCO has been collecting.

The mayor will appoint five members to the Tourism Commission, including three citizens and two Common Council members, according to the ordinance. The mayor can be one of the two Common Council members. One appointed member shall represent the Oconto hotel and motel industry, according to the ordinance.

Besides the five appointed members, the Commission may add two advisory members, including one from the Chamber of Commerce and one from a tourism entity, the ordinance said.

The members will have expenses reimbursed but won’t receive compensation for their service, which includes attending monthly meetings, the ordinance said.

With passage of the ordinance, the new Tourism Commission is expected to take over the task of collecting and allocating funds from the 8% Room Tax from TEDCO. The City Council passed an ordinance to collect an 8% room tax late last year, said Brittney Burruel, city administrator for the City of Oconto.

“The Tourism Commission would, by State Statute, be responsible for controlling the room tax revenue,” she said. TEDCOR currently is collecting the funds from the tax.

While the City Council has a Tourism Committee in existence with eight members who meet monthly, this committee isn’t directly involved in collecting room tax revenue. The committee has discussed a photo contest for its Oconto Tourism Facebook page, but this hasn’t yet caught on.

A recent visit to the Facebook page showed a post by Tourism Committee member Riley Sowle describing the photo contest and prizes valued at $50 said:

“The Oconto Tourism Facebook page is here...keep a lookout for the upcoming photo contests! ($50 value prize packages)

If you’re interested in a page highlighting local events, please consider following/sharing - Oconto Tourism.”

Photos were scarce on the page when a reporter checked it several times in September and October. Several posts dated back to 2022 and 2023.

While the Tourism Committee said finding volunteers to take photos of events and post them to Facebook isn’t working well, the Oconto Police Department’s cameras are capturing a different kind of activity in Oconto.

A member of the Oconto Police Department who was present at the Committee of the Whole meeting said a stolen vehicle was recovered thanks to the camera system, which takes photos of license plates.

“The camera we have in town actually caught two stolen cars, and one of them was recovered in Oconto Falls. It was a great victory for us,” the police officer said. She said the department issued 10 ordinance violations and had 445 calls for service in the most recent period.

The city is working to improve the audio system used in council chambers, so remote viewers can hear better what’s been said at council meetings, Burruel said.

With the property assessment role complete, The Board of Review is scheduled to meet Nov. 15.