Archived News

Jackson tourism agency considers director hire

jacksonJackson County’s getting closer to having a director in place to handle the day-to-day needs of its tourism agency with the deadline to apply for the job closing last week.

The Jackson County Tourism Development Authority has been struggling lately with a growing workload that’s just too big for a volunteer board to handle. But at the same time, the board didn’t want to hire a permanent position until it had some more time to gauge needs and hammer out just how they’d want the position to work. 

So, they opted to look for a contracted worker instead to do the job for a one-year term, giving the TDA the chance to re-evaluate after seeing the position work in practice. 

“We aren’t hiring a director at this time,” said Robert Jumper, chairman of the TDA board. “We’re contracting with an individual to do duties that are similar to a director’s duties.”

The next step will be to sort through the applications and decide who will be best for the job. At this point, Jumper couldn’t give an estimate of when such a decision might be made but said the TDA will at least discuss any progress at its August meeting. 

It’s also uncertain how much the contracted director would get paid. The 2015-16 TDA budget carries a $75,000 line item for the paycheck, but Jumper said that number is just a placeholder. 

Related Items

“We compared with other counties and came up with a reserve,” he said. “There’s been no discussion as to how much we will be paying (for) this contracted service labor, but we wanted to reserve an amount within the budget.”

According to an analysis the TDA put together earlier this year, salaries for full-time TDA directors in North Carolina range from about $30,000 in Sampson County to $89,000 in Orange County, so using the entire $75,000 would put Jackson County toward the higher end of the spectrum.

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.