Tourism Council submits business plan to regain operation of Outdoor Center
Members of the Presque Isle County Tourism Council have submitted a business plan to the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners in an attempt to regain operation of the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center. The group had managed the camp until the county board approved a motion January 26 to remove them as managers. The Tourism Council has been involved with the camp since the county took it over from the Department of Natural Resources. The facility overlooks Ocqueoc Lake in northern Ocqueoc Township. Tourism council chairman Tom Sobeck believes his board has taken the appropriate steps to try and get it back.
?IT IS the desire of the Tourism Council that the board of commissioners consider the plan and allow the (Tourism) Council to resume control of the OOC,? stated Sobeck in a press release. The county board voted unanimously to remove the Tourism Council as managers of the county-owned park, because there have been questions about the way the money appropriated to the park had been handled. The county was to seek bids from others grups or organizations in running the camp.
Two issues, which include financial policies and procedures for the Outdoor Center, dominated a meeting Monday of the Tourism Council. Sobeck views the submission of the plan to the county as positive. ?The Tourism Council is excited to be considered anew as the operator of the OOC and is anxious to resume efforts to promote the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center and Presque Isle County as a destination of preference for all visitors,? said Sobeck. ?From youth groups to family reunions and weddings, the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center provides unique opportunities to successfully bring people into our area and promote the many natural resources that
SOBECK ADDED that the Tourism Council?s intent is to maintain its status as a positive influence on tourism in the county. ?We are eager to continue in our efforts to promote the tourism industry in Presque Isle County and northeastern Michigan.? Attending the meeting was District 5 commissioner Stephen Lang. Sobeck said they had a good dialogue with the commissioner during the meeting. ?It was a positive meeting,? said Sobeck. ?We presented an operating plan to the board. They are going to review that plan and hopefully take it up again in the near future.?
A committee of the board consisting of board members Blake Gingrich, Kris Sorgenfrei, as well as Kammie Dennis and Mark Schuler, prepared the plan. They started working on it following the last meeting with Lang and county board chairman Allan Bruder, January 15. According to Sobeck, it arrived at the courthouse the day the county board voted to sever ties with the Tourism Council regarding this issue. An additional item discussed at the meeting was Tourism Council?s need to be more proactive with the media.