Marietta allocates nearly $1M for tourism grants

New requests of $379,000 for tourism grants have been approved by the Marietta City Council for the new budget year.
Additionally, $598,000 in tourism grants have been renewed by the City Council for a total of $977,000.
The new requests - from high to low - are:
- $300,000 / Marietta Welcome Center
- $24,000 / city marketing budget for museums
- $20,000 / Cobb Landmarks
- $12,000 / Marietta Arts Council
- $10,000 / Atlanta Lyric Theatre
- $8,000 / Marietta Fire Museum
- $5,000 / Actors Theatre of GA
Remaining requests are:
- $162,000 / Marietta Museum of History
- $132,000 / city staff request - city services
- $90,000 / Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art
- $66,000 / The Earl Smith Strand Theatre
- $55,000 / Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum
- $18,000 / GA Metro Dance Theatre
- $16,000 / Marietta Business Association (Art in Park)
- $15,000 / Georgia Symphony Orchestra
- $12,000 / Marietta Square Branding Project
- $10,000 / Cobb NAACP Juneteenth
- $10,000 / Old Zion Baptist Church Heritage Museum
- $9,000 / city staff request - Vapor Wake Dog
- $3,000 / The Georgia Ballet
Marietta Communications and Governmental Relations Manager Lindsey Wiles said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the $9,000 for the vapor wake dog is a bomb-sniffing dog which the city rents for certain events.
Wiles said renting the dog is “more cost effective than the city owning a bomb-sniffing dog.”
The $300,000 for the Marietta Welcome Center and the $162,000 for the Marietta Museum of History are for their normal annual operations.
The $132,000 for city services involves “tasks we perform as a city for events which bring tourism into Marietta like police, fire, sanitation, clean up both after and during the event and other staffing needs” throughout the fiscal year, Wiles added.