SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - South Padre Island’s Convention and Visitors Authority Board adopted a preliminary budget Thursday, upsetting some by a lack of funding for an annual sand castle event.
The “Masters of the Future” portion of Sand Castle Days in October teaches children and amateurs how to sculpt with sand, said Dan Quandt, executive director of the CVAB.
State law requires that money spent by the Convention and Visitors Bureau promote overnight stays at hotels, motels or condominiums on South Padre Island. Quandt said directors did not think the event met the requirement.
“The CVA is funded by the hotel-motel tax,” said Alderwoman JoAnn Evans. “Consequently it has to direct its spending to those areas that increase the number of people who stay overnight in our hotels. It has to concentrate on putting more heads in more beds.”
Other Sand Castle Days events were included in the proposed budget, Quandt said. However, funding may be cut from last year’s $70,000 to $50,000 this year, if approved by the Board of Aldermen.
The board also paid for two billboards—one between San Antonio and Austin and the other near Corpus Christi—to advertise Sand Castle Days. The signs were paid through the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s marketing funds.
Among other expenses, money for Sand Castle Days pays for food and housing costs for competitors while they are here, said Mary Kay Hancock, who coordinates South Padre Island’s special events.
Brochures, fliers and push cards are distributed to assorted outlets, including travel information centers and rest stops.
Ultimately, events like Sand Castle Days need to be able to create their own funding and revenue, Evans said.
“We [CVAB and the Board of Aldermen] are here to help them do that, to encourage them to do that,” Evans said. “One of the ways to accomplish this is to require them to get some funding from other sources.”
Evans admitted that the cut for the event looked deep.
“But it’s not as big as it appears,” she said. “The CVAB is allotting $15,000 of its advertising money to promote Sand Castle Days. That’s in addition to the $50,000 they’re providing in direct funding.”
However, she believes that funding should be restored for the Masters of the Future.
“That’s a family event,” she said. “It gets the whole family, including the children, involved. And that’s an important part of our future growth.”
Alderwoman Tara Rios Ybarra said she agreed the event needed funding.
“I was very sad to see that [removed from the proposed budget],” Rios Ybarra said at a Board of Aldermen meeting Wednesday.
Evans said the event needs to grow and more events of this kind are needed—but the private sector should help.
“Businesses need to be more proactive. Restaurants need to run specials directly tied to the events—for example, a sand castle hamburger special, or something like that,” Evans said. “When everybody pulls together it isn’t hard to move the wagon. Every business benefits from these events, and every business should be willing to help promote them—not necessarily in direct funding, but some sort of support.”
One of the founders of Sand Castle Days, sculptor Amazing Walter McDonald said the town took over management of the event years ago.
“Interesting,” he said when told of the budget cuts. “But it’s no skin off my nose, because I’m now just one of many competitors in the event. Paying the expenses is somebody else’s responsibility, not mine.”
To become final, the Convention and Visitors Authority Board’s budget needs approval from the town’s Board of Aldermen.
