HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County commissioners are again asking municipal leaders for votes in support of decertifying Explore Altoona as the county’s tourism promotion agency.

The proposal, which surfaced in September and was put on hold in November, is tied to what Commissioners Dave Kessling and Amy Webster are describing as a vision for the county’s future based on the development of outdoor recreational assets.

Both commissioners have expressed their interest in seeing the county’s bed tax revenue, currently routed to Explore Altoona and used for marketing, to be routed to Blair Alliance for Business and Economic Development and used for asset development and marketing.

Kessling stressed during Thursday’s weekly commissioners meeting that this isn’t an attempt to stop marketing the county, but to market the county and to develop recreational assets.

“We can’t continue to do what we’re doing — which is taking (bed) tax dollars and using them for marketing and marketing only — while our population continues to decrease,” Kessling said.

As an alternative, he and Webster are seeking support for decertifying Explore Altoona, an action that requires favorable votes by municipal leaders representing at least 65% of the county’s population. Letters went out earlier this week.

Webster, during Thursday’s meeting, encouraged county residents to speak to their municipal leaders about supporting the decertification, a decision that rests with commissioners.

“(The municipalities) are not the ones responsible for certifying or decertifying the TPA,” Webster said. “Their vote only allows the commissioners to move to the next step in the process, and ultimately, the commissioners will be the ones making this decision.”

Explore Altoona, which relies on the bed tax to cover its operational and marketing expenses, has been on record against decertification since it publicly surfaced during a commissioners meeting in September.

Local hotels that collect the bed tax from their patrons are among those supporting the agency, which has a long history of marketing efforts generating what was identified in 2022 as travel and tourism spending of $371 million in Blair County.

Kessling, however, whose campaign for commissioner stretched into every municipality in Blair County, holds a different opinion on Explore Altoona’s success and its refusal to consider an operational change.

“Speaking for myself, I’m very frustrated because they seem to want to stay where they’re at, even though it’s not showing any fruit in my opinion,” Kessling said.

Kessling and Webster offered similar sentiments in a recent letter to Explore Altoona Board of Director Jodi Cessna, indicating that recent efforts to reach a resolution without decertification had failed and that it was time to move on.

In response, Cessna told the Mirror that Explore Altoona had offered “a viable path for advancing outdoor recreation goals by enhancing collaboration with the county and the economic development agency.”

Kessling, however, said it didn’t address the county’s vision for the future.

“In my opinion and my opinion only, we wasted several months because a group of people sat down and had numerous discussions over this, only to find out that (Explore Altoona) had no intention of ever looking at our vision … which is very frustrating to us because (Explore Altoona) is almost fully funded by the county (bed tax), but yet they don’t want to hear what the county has to say about what our vision is.”

Explore Altoona has maintained that the county’s bed tax revenue is to be used for marketing the county and that commissioners should find other funding sources for asset development.

Kessling and Webster also spoke this week of recognizing rail trail developments in other locations, including neighboring Cambria and Centre counties, that were pursued and achieved with the help of state and federal grants.

While Blair County applied for a $7.2 million grant to build out the proposed Horseshoe Curve Trail Network, Kessling said its request was recently denied, in part because the county lacked the capacity and funding to carry out the maintenance and promotion of a nationally recognized trail system.

“There are literally hundreds, if not millions of dollars out there (for outdoor recreational development),” Kessling said. “Others are taking advantage of this and we are not.”

If the municipalities provide sufficient votes to decertify Explore Altoona, Kessling said commissioners will move forward with convening a public hearing and consider comments in favor and against.

“Only after that will the board of commissioners take a vote,” Kessling said.

Commissioner Laura Burke last year recused herself from discussion and votes on this matter due to a conflict of interest.