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WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1996
Editorials
Ml
Visitors' Center
- The issue came up at Town Council last week. Member Peter Skqwronski suggested if the town is going to encourage people to vjsit the town, it should provide something for them, at least public toilets so people will perhaps stop using the Rush River as a depository for dirty diapers. i Member Ray Gooch suggested a welcome center, and Mayor Stewart Willis said that is a problem he wants to tackle next year. I Clearly Rappahannock County does need a visitors’ center, and the Town of Washington is a logical location for such a facility. It should have public toilets certainly, but more importantly it should serve as a clearing house for all sorts of information about what the county has to offer visitors, overnight accommodations, fine dining, and opportunities for all sorts of artistic and recreational activities.
To some extent Hunt Harris has tried to provide that service at the Ragged Mountain Resource Center, but Mr. Harris is understandably unwilling to sit in the center all day serving in that capacityfcwith no pay. His efforts to staff the center with volunteers have n<H been very successful.
‘ So in addition to the having such a center, the county and town also need to pay to have it staffed. But taxpayers should not have to p»Qk up the entire burden. The businesses which benefit from local toilrism should also be willing to support such a center.
1 It would be most important to have the center open on weekends. For the time being, it could probably be closed Tuesday through Thursday. ! Tn Warrenton the Chamber of Commerce established a visitors’ center and it has been very popular with tourists and businesses alijte. Rappahannock County has no Chamber of Commerce, nor does it need one. However, in the absense of such an organization, other organizations, including the local business councils and town apd county governments should see the need and pick up the slack. : It is absurd that a community as dependent on tourism as Rappahannock County leaves visitors to their own devices for ferretjng out the variety of opportunities available here.
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