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Study offers insights into local tourism

Tourism is the 14th largest industry in Huntington County, bringing in millions of dollars and keeping tax rates low for all county residents, Tina Bobilya told members of the Huntington Common Council during their meeting on Tuesday, March 10.

Bobilya, executive director of the Huntington County Visitors and Convention Bureau, said the figures came from a study conducted by and the Indiana Office of Tourism Development. Her agency and Huntington County Economic Development split the $2,500 cost of pulling out figures for Huntington County.

The study, which Bobilya previously presented to the Huntington County Commissioners, considered a tourist to be someone who traveled at least 50 miles to reach Huntington County or had an overnight stay in the county.

That group spent $18 million in Huntington County in 2013, she said. Of that amount, she added, 69 cents of every dollar stayed in Huntington County.

Tourism supported the equivalent of 339 full-time jobs in the county, she said, with an average annual paycheck of $24,000 per job.

In addition, she said, $3.8 million in federal, state and local tax revenue is generated by tourism. Without that tax income, she said, every Huntington County household would need to pay $162 more a year in taxes.

This is the first study of tourism in Huntington County, Bobilya said.

“We now have a face on tourism in the county,” she told council members.

In other business, council members approved two business-related items.

Huntington Sheet Metal was granted a 10-year tax abatement on a new piece of machinery, and a parcel along CR 200N owned by T.D. Wall was rezoned from residential to business.

Huntington Sheet Metal President Dan Drummond said the new computer controlled stamping press will lead to the creation of at least three new jobs. Property taxes on the new equipment will be forgiven the first year and will be phased in over 10 years. The full amount of taxes will be paid beginning with the 11th year.

The rezoning of the T.D. Wall property was given a favorable recommendation by the Huntington Plan Commission on Feb. 26. The new B-2 zoning allows for commercial use of the property.

Several residents of Orchard Lane and Orchard Ridge asked the council to consider repaving or repairing their streets, which they say are riddled with potholes, large cracks and drainage issues. Mayor Brooks Fetters directed the group to Anthony Goodnight, the city’s director of public works and engineering services, to discuss the issue.