Heritage Council ends year in the black for the first time

By BRENT SHRUM Western News Editor

The Kootenai Heritage Council's revenues surpassed expenditures last year for the first time since the opening of the Memorial Center in December 2002.

KHC board president Paul Rumelhart attributed the rise in fortunes to increased attendance of events at the center along with a rise in membership and the sale of advertising in event programs.

"Everyone who uses the center is generating more income for their organization than they ever have before," Rumelhart said.

Selling program advertising was a struggle at first, said KHC employee Shanda Jennings, but it's started to take off.

"Now I have people calling me saying, 'I want to advertise in the program,'" she said.

Under Jennings' promotion, income from membership has risen from $14,500 in 2005 to $21,000 in 2006. That's offset by an increase in utility costs from around $12,000 when the center was built to more than $22,000 last year. The overall budget for the center is about $100,000 per year.

In addition to hosting performances, annual banquets for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Rifle Association and the Libby Area Chamber of Commerce, and traditional local events like the Nordicfest craft show, the Irish Fair and the gun show, "it's becoming a wedding chapel," Rumelhart noted.

In 2006, the Memorial Center hosted eight weddings "and a few funerals," he said.

Those events bring a lot of money into the local economy, Rumelhart noted. One recent wedding resulted in 40 motel rooms being booked, he said.

"The groom is usually from out of town, and he brings his entourage with him, and all those people usually stay here at least two nights," Rumelhart said.

The center was in use for 130 days last year, not counting set-up and rehearsals.

"It's definitely increased, definitely," said KHC board member Debi Davidson.

In booking events like the Canadian Tenors show last year, the council is "trying to raise the bar as to the quality of the performances that are offered to the community," Rumelhart said.

The KHC is looking to further promote the Memorial Center as a convention center. In the planning stages for 2008 are a garden show in the spring and a sportsmen's event in the fall, Davidson said.

"With the opening of the 18-hole golf course, we're hoping to attract some small business conventions," she added.