Dauphin County to offer tourism grants

The Dauphin County Department of Community and Economic Development is preparing a $50,000 grant program for tourism-related projects throughout the county, said Dan Robinson, the department's director.

Funds will come from the county's share of a 2 percent tax on hotel rooms, which took effect

About $1.4 million of the hotel tax revenue, or 70 percent, is funding construction of a new sports and entertainment arena in Derry Township.

The county is receiving 20 percent of the total tax take, or about $200,000 a year. Half of that is going to the county economic development agency. The other half goes to the Pennsylvania Capital Region's Vacation Bureau.

The state law that authorized the tax said revenues should be used to boost tourism, and Robinson stressed that his agency spent the money appropriately in 2000.

This year, the agency spent $100,000 on marketing, advertising and businessdevelopment activities, Robinson said. The spending paid for, among other things, brochures, postcards and a part-time intern.

Next year, the department has specific plans for half of the money. Robinson plans to announce the $50,000 tourism' grant program in the first week of October. "The criteria's being developed," he said.

The grant program is one of several activities that have engaged the department since its founding in February, shortly after two new Republican county commissioners took power in Dauphin County.

It also gave $5 1,000 to Harrisburg's Downtown Improvement District and helped identify new sites for the state's Keystone Opportunity Zone program.

The tourism grants will be capped at $2,000, ensuring that at least 25 are made, Robinson said. Applications will be due in November and the money doled out by March.

To get funding, municipalities and nonprofits must demonstrate their projects benefit the community by promoting tourism.

"We want to make sure it's a grant application, not just a phone call, 'Can you help us out?... Robinson said, adding the department already has five organizations in mind for funding.

The only one he named was the Ned Smith Center for Nature & Art, a wildlife education and research center in Millersburg.

'A step into serenity'

A native of Millersburg, Ned Smith was a staff illustrator for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and a free-lance artist famed for his paintings of wildlife. In 1983, he created Pennsylvania's first-ever duck stamp. Born in 1919, he died of a heart attack in 1985.

The 7-year-old center named after Smith is trying to raise its profile and entice more people into the rural northern half of Dauphin County.

"It's a beautiful step into serenity," said Tim Whelan, the center's executive director since November 1998 and the first person to hold the post on a full-time basis.

He cited the area's mountains and the Susquehanna River as the main draw. The center maintains 12 miles of trails on land along the Wiconisco Creek.

Currently housed in the Daniel Miller home in downtown Millersburg, the Ned Smith center hosts about 10,000 visitors a year. Its annual budget of $300,000 comes from sales of merchandise, memberships and private donations.

The center is building a new, larger facility that will cost about $6 million, Whelan said. At 30,000 square feet and located south of Millersburg, it will be 20 times bigger than the Miller house, named after the town's founder. Groundbreaking is expected to occur as early as next spring.

About 40 percent of the center's visitors attend the annual Ned Smith Wildlife Festival in July. The two-day event features demonstrations of wilderness skills, an art program for kids and seminars on the center's research into the saw whet owl, the small brown bird featured on the state's conservation license plates.

"We are finding that they are a common species around here," Whelan said.

Whelan hopes a $2,000 grant from the county can supplement the center's $8,000 marketing budget and increase the number of annual visitors.

"To go from 10,000 to 15,000 would be a real nice boost for us and would be a real nice boost for Millersburg."