Backers of July’s four-day country music festival at Deseret Peak Complex have asked the Tooele County Commission for more tourism tax money for a concert in 2015.
The agenda for tonight’s county commission meeting includes a vote on a $460,000 request from Country Explosion.
That request has been reviewed by the county’s Tourism Advisory Board, but the group hasn’t given the commission a clear decision.
“I understand the advisory board was split between ‘yes, with conditions,’ and ‘no’ on the Country Explosion request,” said Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne.
Country Explosion received $400,000 last year from the county’s tourism tax fund to pay for marketing to draw people from outside the county to the event.
Country Explosion paid Tooele County $60,000 for exclusive use of Deseret Peak Complex for the four-day festival that was held July 17-20.
Promoters claimed afterward the event had a cumulative attendance of 54,234 people with 47,292 visitors from outside the county.
Mike Deaver, a consultant and spokesperson for the producers of Country Explosion, estimated that spending by out-of-county visitors may have been as high as $67.50 per day in an interview with the Transcript-Bulletin in August.
However, while the county’s contract with Country Explosion’s producers required a $10,000 damage deposit, county officials placed the actual damages at $63,000 after the event.
“We used the $10,000 to pay the deductible for our insurance and then our insurance company fronted us $53,000,” said Isaac Astill, Tooele County director of facilities management. “Our insurance company will then go after Country Explosion’s insurance company to recover the $53,000.”
The insurance money has been used to make repairs to the baseball field where the Country Explosion stage was placed, according to Astill.
“There was a lot of damage to that field and we want to make sure it is ready for ball games this spring,” he said.
In addition to the bill for damages, the county may also be on the hook for around $100,000 for the parking lot built across SR-112 from Deseret Peak Complex, according to Astill.
“Country Explosion was supposed to pay for the parking lot,” he said. “But last I talked to Staker Parsons, who did the work, Country Explosion had not paid the bill yet. Because the work they did was for improvements on land the county owns, they are looking to us to pay the bill.”
That’s not all the unpaid bills Country Explosion has yet to pay the county.
The Tooele County Sheriff’s Office billed Country Explosion $32,000 for security personnel and $4,800 for dispatch services, according to Sheriff Frank Park.
In September, Park told the Transcript-Bulletin that he is not sure when Country Explosion will pay the bill for his department’s services.
“They paid the bill for our services at the 2013 Country Explosion at Miller Motorsports Park in January 2014,” he said.
The county has not seen a payment for the 2014 services, according to Tooele County Auditor Mike Jensen.
The commissioners are also waiting for a satisfactory accounting of the $400,000 the county provided to Country Explosion for marketing July’s festival, according to Milne.
Records filed with the Utah Department of Commerce list Darren Brady as the manager and registered agent for Country Explosion, L.L.C., formerly known as Ghost Riders of the Purple Sage. Country Explosion is based in Duchesne, according to state records.
Calls to Brady to gather information for this story have not been returned.
The tourism tax fund receives revenue from a tax on food purchased in restaurants and lodging in motels and hotels.
State code restricts the use of the funds to establishing and promoting recreation, tourism, film production and conventions. No more than one third of the hotel and motel tourism tax revenue may used for constructing, maintaining or operating a facility.
A 2014 state auditor’s report supports the state code requirement that the tourism tax advisory board is to advise the county commission on the best use of tourism tax revenue by providing the county commission with a priority listing for proposed expenditures.
However, final approval of expenses is the responsibility of the county commission.
Tonight’s county commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. in room 321 of the Tooele County Building.