Saturday's article in the Marshall News Messenger painted a dark picture about the status of the Task Force review of the draft Tourism Plan provided by Destination Development. Things are going much better than what the article depicted. This article provides information that will put things in prospective.

As of this time the Steering Committee has expressed support for 50 of the 51 recommendations provided by Destination Development in the draft report. That translates to a 98% acceptance of the plan.

One recommendation is still under discussion and there is still a discussion of the budget numbers.

First let's put the budget issue in perspective. There is only one number in the budget that separates the Steering Committee and Destination Development. That number is related to funding for Marshall Festivals. Destination Development suggested a budget of $15,000 for Marshall Festivals in 2008. City Manager Frank Johnson has recommended that the number be increased to $29,500 and the money come from the money budgeted to pay for the Civic Center utilities. That is a difference of $15,000 on a budget of $679,000. That represents a difference of only 2%. Since this is only a distribution issue, it cannot be considered a significant issue.