Alva Review-Courier -

The Alva Tourism Tax Committee met Wednesday, Sept. 20. Chairman Melinda Barton opened the meeting with members Scott Kline, Terri Parsons and Angelica Brady present. Sadie Bier was absent.

The last meeting was held in July because no event requests were received for August. After approving those meeting minutes, the committee looked at financial reports for June, July and August. Each of those was approved.

Salt Fork June Jam

Dr. Kay Decker presented information about the Salt Fork June Jam and the Art on the Salt Fork Show and Sale to be held June 21-22 of next year. She said the June Jam was last held in 2021. It was not scheduled in 2023 because they expected the Nescatunga Arts Festival to be held downtown in June. Instead that was moved to the NWOSU campus. Decker said she doesn’t know the plans for that event in 2024, but she did not want to wait to find out. It is usually held the first weekend in June.

Plans for Friday, June 21, from 4 to 9 p.m. will include a vendor and art show at the Graceful Arts Gallery and the Runnymede. Dallas Meyer of Hooker will be teaching a workshop at Graceful Arts that evening, and her work will be displayed at the gallery all month.

The Saturday all day event will feature a vendor and art show around the square, a quilt show I the courthouse lobby, food trucks in the east parking lot of the courthouse and live music on the courthouse stage. The theme is the Western Heritage of the Cherokee Outlet area. The feature band is known as “Oklahoma Swing” with members formerly with the Byron Berline Band out of Gutherie.

Decker said the food trucks will be there by invitation and must show they have a sales tax permit and are health department certified. To help fund the event, Graceful Arts and Freedom West have applied for a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council for $4,000. They requested $4,000 in tourism tax money to pay for the musicians. Decker noted the band will be spending the night in Alva.

Brady made a motion, seconded by Parsons, to provide up to $4,000 for the event. The motion passed by unanimous vote.

Ranger Rodeo

Dr. David Pecha spoke on behalf of the Ranger Rodeo. He said NWOSU Rodeo Coach Stockton Graves “exploded his knee” in a rodeo competition and had surgery the day before. That’s why he couldn’t be present.

The Ranger Rodeo is set for Oct. 26-28 at the Woods County Fairgrounds. They asked for $15,000 in tourism tax, the same as last year. This amount pays for the stock contractor for the three day event.

Pecha said they expect around 750 to 800 contestants for the college rodeo. Since Northwestern Oklahoma State University is centrally located in the college rodeo circuit, they usually attract more contestants than the outlying rodeos.

As usual, NWOSU rodeo team members will be downtown on Wednesday to familiarize elementary students with some of the elements of rodeo. The Ranger Rodeo will also feature a tournament of champions with some former NWOSU rodeo stars.

Asked how many students are on the NWOSU rodeo team, Pecha said he didn’t know but usually there are 90 to 110.

Parsons told Pecha that the tourism tax committee voted to require events to apply for funding at least 90 days prior to the event. Pecha said they are now aware of this and will make future applications earlier.

Parsons moved to provide up to $15,000 for the event, seconded by Brady, and the motion passed unanimously.