The Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission approved one grant request and tabled another Wednesday.

Mark Knecht, president of Chautauqua-Wawasee, asked for a $500 contribution from the Commission for Chautauqua-Wawasee to advertise in the Indiana Travel Guide.

Knecht said the travel guide goes to 75,000 people in Chicago, 30,000 people in Cincinnati, Ohio, 20,000 in Columbus, Ohio, and 30,000 people in St. Louis, Mo., among other places.

He said he hopes the travel guide will help bring people to Indiana and Kosciusko County.

He said the publication will be published starting March 1. The advertisement will cost $2,500, but Knecht asked for $500 from the Commission.

The Commission approved the $500 grant for the travel guide advertisement.

Knecht also asked for a $500 publicity grant to help advertise for the Purdue Glee Club, who will perform at Wawasee High School on April 22. Knecht said the Glee Club has had to cancel their event the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the Glee Club, Knecht said the Purdue Glee Club will do some advertising and Chautauqua-Wawasee will do some. He said Chautauqua-Wawasee is planning on putting out some flyers in the county, doing some advertising on Twitter and Instagram and put out news releases to area newspapers. He believes the Wawasee radio station will put something about the event out on its radio station.

Commission member David Gustafson asked for specifics on how the money will be spent outside of the county. Knecht said the money is going to be spent inside the county by the work Chautauqua-Wawasee does distributing flyers and such. Knecht said they are not planning on running any ads in Fort Wayne and their advertisements will be primarily through Facebook and press releases. The flyers will distributed mainly through Kosciusko?County.

Gustafson suggested tabling the decision on the funds because the way the money needs to be spent outside the county. He suggested the decision be tabled until Knecht can come back with a more specific plan on how Chautauqua-Wawasee will advertise outside of Kosciusko County.

In other business, the Commission:

• Approved Kathy Ray as president, Mark Skibowski as vice president, Gustafson as secretary and Ron Robinson as treasurer.

Ray, Skibowski, Jessica Harmon and Jessica Hartman were sworn in.

• Heard from Kosciusko County Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell.

She recognized former Commission members Tammy Kratzer and Jo Paczkowski and said they are both hard working. She said they needed to recognize Paczkowski was on the Commission for 11 years and Kratzer was on the Commission for six years, which is “a long time and a lot of hours.”

Mitchell said the changes in the Council appointments to the Commission was due to the Indiana Code that requires there to be hoteliers and people involved in tourism to be on the Commission.

Mitchell thanked the Commission members for their willingness to serve on the Commission and how she appreciates their time and efforts. She said she hopes it will be a successful Commission.