Fans gather around at the corner of the balcony for birds-eye view of home plate during the championship game of the 2015 12U Inaugural Winter Indoor Fastpitch Tournament at the Northwest Sports Hub.
In April, hoteliers in Centralia and Chehalis will begin collecting a $2 per room fee to fund a sports commission with a stated goal of marketing and bringing more sporting events to the area.
Todd Chaput, chairman of the Lewis County Public Facilities District, said the tourism promotion area, which allows the creation of the sports commission, likely won’t see any of the funds for at least two months after the fee is collected by motels and hotels in the area because of some lag time.
The tourism promotion area money will be available starting in the summer.
In order to keep the process moving forward, the PFD, which oversees the Northwest Sports Hub, has to create a formal sports commission with 13 members. Four of those members will be at-large members, including one from the Northwest Sports Hub. The other representatives will be from the PFD, the Pacific Athletic Club and Centralia College. There will also be two representatives each from the Chehalis and Centralia parks departments and the school districts, along with two hotel representatives from both cities.
The creation of the formal Sports Commission Board sub-committee was postponed to the Feb. 2 meeting, as was the PFD board officer elections and the appointment of a new PFD member to replace Bobby Jackson, who stepped down from his position after being elected as a Lewis County commissioner.
At the Wednesday meeting of the PFD, Chaput provided an update from the Association of Washington State Public Facilities Districts, which has selected counsel to lead the legislative agenda for the districts statewide. A bill will be entered into both the state House and Senate in an attempt to secure bipartisan support. The bill, if passed, would allow PFDs to use local sales and use tax proceeds to repay bonds issued for construction, as well as expansion, rehabilitation and improvement of regional centers. If approved, it would extend the authorization of two local sales and use taxes for regional centers from up to 25 years to up to 40 years, assuming the bonds had not yet been retired.
The bill would allow the local PFD to finish projects it has not been able to fund at the Northwest Sports Hub.
The board also discussed creating a payment schedule to repay .09 (distressed county funds) back the county.
