The Okanogan County commissioners are considering two fund transfers for a total of almost $100,000, one to replenish the county’s reserve fund because the money wasn’t used for a vehicle purchase, and the other to go back into an account used for marketing and tourism promotions.
The commissioners are considering a supplemental appropriation of $40,000 from the vehicle reserve fund to the current expense reserve fund. The original vehicle budget was $80,000, but the commissioners wanted to provide only half that amount for vehicle purchases this year, according to Laleña Johns, clerk of the board.
The other transfer would put $55,620 back into the fund the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) draws on each year to make grants to nonprofits to market the county and promote tourism. That money had been awarded to the Okanogan County Fair to repair the grandstands at the fairgrounds, but the commissioners never approved the grandstand contract, said Johns.
Meanwhile, the contract to spend money on new bathrooms at the fairgrounds, an LTAC grant from 2015, had expired. LTAC had told the commissioners that if the grandstand project wasn’t approved, the committee would be willing to extend the bathroom contract so that the money could be used for the bathrooms, according to a member of the LTAC board.
The $55,620 will be available next year when LTAC awards tourism grants to nonprofits.
The commissioners will hold a public hearing about both fund transfers on Monday (June 26), starting at 11:30 a.m., in their hearing room in Okanogan.
