FC Chamber to announce county mini-grant winners

Good news is in the works for 12 tourism sites across Franklin County.

It was in December 2016 that Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Director Cassie Medley got a timely phone call from the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association – a call in which she found out the chamber would be receiving a $5,000 tourism grant.

“I actually had tears in my eyes,” Medley said. “We were starting to go over our budget for the next year, and I knew we needed an updated Chamber brochure.”

So the $5K came at the opportune moment – but the news gets better. Medley said only about $1,800 was needed to supply matching funds for a state-level grant for the brochure, so the Chamber was left with a large sum of money and plenty of options for what to do with it. Suggestions from the AMLA included, among other options, establishing self-guided tours of historical sites; installing signage; carrying out repairs or accessibility improvements to historic buildings; or creating mini-grants within the community – the latter of which is what Medley decided to do.

Five tourist sites across the county will each be given one of five $500 mini-grants, with a plethora of possibilities for what do with the funding.

Additionally, seven tourist sites have been selected to receive 1,000 postcards per site. Postcards are an often-requested item at the Chamber, Medley said, “and we have nothing to give them but a brochure.” In 2016 the Chamber had Watermelon Festival postcards printed. “They are beautiful, and people love them,” Medley said. Now, seven more sites across the county will be represented in postcards, with some to be made available at the site and some to be made available at the Chamber.

“That $5K will bring tourism dollars, so we will get our money back, and the sites will reap the benefits as well,” Medley said. “It came at the perfect time – especially with it being right before Christmas.”

Medley said the Chamber intends to announce grant recipients and postcard recipients at the Annual Partnership Awards Banquet, March 9. Medley said she thinks awardees will be overjoyed. “Most of these sites are like everyone else – they are on a tight budget,” she said. “So $500 can be used to update something they need or put with other funds to work on a project for the future … I think they will be overjoyed with it, just like we were with the money we received. We just wanted to pass it on.”