Oct. 15 will be the final day of operation for the High Point Visitors Center after 11 years of operation. The Kimball County Commissioners elected to close the tourism facility.
On Monday evening at a special Visitors Center meeting, Kimball County Commissioner Rich Flores explained “due to budget constraints in LB 34, thank your Governor for that ... we really had to tighten our belts.”
LB 34 is the recetly passed measure to reduce Nebraska property taxes.
According to Flores, “The consensus throughout the state, in many counties, is that we should hang onto as much money as we can for now because of the impact we will probably see in the years to come.”
He continued, “One of the things we regrettably had to do was make a decision on the Visitors Center and that was to close the Visitors Center Oct. 15.”
Meetings of the Visitors Center committee will continue on a monthly basis. The lodging tax also will continue in the county.
“We have been working on economic development for a while, and it looks like it is getting off the ground,” Flores said. “It will entail economic development and tourism. Talking to the county attorney, it will fall within the rules and regulations to use tourism for the lodging tax.”
Vendors will be contacted, as soon possible to retrieve their items that have been sold at the center’s gift shop.