Brandy Tuttle from the Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation (HCEDC) addressed the commission about becoming a sponsor for a gift basket that will be used for a Hope Instagram page launch giveaway.  Tuttle said HCEDC, Hope Parks and Tourism, Hope Downtown Network, and the Hope Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce have all been working together on the social media account and will be launching it soon. The commission voted to use “Experience Hope” as the tagline for a logo SWARK.Today is working on. Tuttle said the entities believe a giveaway basket will help drum up interest in the Instagram page and asked the commission to donate $300 for specific goodies. The motion was made, voted on, and approved to donate the funds for the launch giveaway basket. 

Runt Kidd from Hope Parks, Recreation, and Tourism addressed the commission about the parks’ groomer/dragger, a piece of equipment needed for maintaining the ballfields. The one Hope Parks now owns has broken after nine years of use so the parks department requested that the commission buy another.  Kidd also reported that 102 teams are signed up for the Watermelon Festival Tournaments, which are a huge Tourism draw for Hope.  Plans are to play games on eight fields for the three days. The fields are supposed to be groomed every other game, so Kidd said the new groomer/dragger is needed as soon as possible. The price of the equipment is $21,161.02, which includes delivery. The commission voted to approve the purchase. Anyone interested in any of these tournaments can call the park office at 870-777-7500 for more info.  

Also in reference to the Watermelon Festival, Tourism Secretary/Parks Director Summer Chambers asked the commission members their preferences on tournaments and prizes. In years past, Tourism sponsored  $1,000 for each softball division, $500 for the cornhole tournament, and $1,200 for soccer. Chambers asked if the commission wanted to have cornhole again and if they wanted to continue those amounts for prizes. The commission said they would leave it up to staff about facilitating the cornhole tourney, but voted to approve the same prize amounts as last year for each division in each sport. Chambers said she would survey the usual contestants to see if there was any interest in having another cornhole tournament this year. Last year, there were almost 30 teams, and they played a 16-hour day.   

Chambers updated the commission about the Viewpoint television show segment that will feature Hope. She said the production company notified EDC Director Anna Powell that the segment will air in August, and said it will only give 24 to 48 hours notice. Therefore, planning to market media coverage or any kind of watch party might be problematic. She also shared that the raw footage from the show could be bought for $950 or Tourism could email them a hard drive to receive the footage. The commission voted to buy a hard drive to send to Viewpoint to receive the raw footage, and said that Powell and Chambers could plan for marketing as they saw fit. 

Chambers updated commission members on Sparks Fly in July and said the show went well and many guests had compliments on the event. She said more specific statistics will be available soon.