In addition, the Woodburn City Council has directed the city administrator to draft an agreement to make transient occupancy tax (TOT) funds dispersed in one larger, multi-year sum in the future.

“This is a huge step for the chamber,” said WACC Executive Director Don Judson.

“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s always been on a one-year basis and the city was reluctant to commit for more.

“To me this is a huge statement by the city of Woodburn that they are committed to growing the tourism industry to help the local economy.”

He said measuring results in just one year has been difficult, noting several are needed to “really see the effect of the things you are doing.”

City Administrator Scott Derickson will begin working on an outline in the coming weeks that will address details such as how much money could be awarded, what percentage of the tax, how many years it would cover (most likely three to five), and how often it would need to be reviewed.

It is likely the new multi-year system will begin next year.

The decision, which was made at the June 22 council meeting, came after councilors debated how much to give the chamber and how effective the grants have been in the past.

Several members pointed to previous issues with accountability, saying there have been problems illustrating what the money has done.

Mayor Kathy Figley said the goal must be to help Woodburn and Marion County in general, not just specific businesses.

She said partnerships in the past with the chamber have had “varying degrees of accountability” from both sides.

“Let’s talk more about how we can quantify success,” Figley said.

She pointed to past projects, some of which have been measurably successful, while others have been hard to gauge.

“We can do better than that,” she said.

Yet Judson stressed that all increases to tourism help the community in general by generating revenue, creating jobs and bolstering the economy. He said he thinks both the chamber and the city have failed in the past to harness Woodburn’s true potential, especially when considering the number of visitors to the Woodburn Company Stores.

He pointed out that 4 million people shop there annually.

“We need to get them across the freeway and into the rest of Woodburn,” said Judson. “It’s not like we were starting from scratch and had to create a tourist attraction and bring people here and then get them to stay. We’ve already got them here.”

He asked why the city and chamber haven’t gotten together to hand out visitor’s guides to shoppers, as well as people at the Tulip Festival and the dragstrip. He said there should be guides on brochure racks in every downtown business.

Those types of projects are what he wants to use the money to partner with the city on, as well as Woodburn Area Tourism (WAT).

He pointed to the downtown streetscape that will be done in December with the Front Street Project. Once that is complete, he said, there will be even greater opportunity, which the chamber is prepared to make use of.

“Part of it’s chicken and egg,” Judson said. “We really wouldn’t want to send them downtown when they’re tearing up the streets and you can’t find a place to park. But once we get past that hurdle … we’ll be working with them to send people down here, we’ll put together a map of downtown.”

He also pointed to housing rehabilitation programs and business grants that will help boost the area.

“If somebody does some really nice landscaping and paints their house, then their next door neighbor says, ‘oh, well I better do something,’ so you start getting this snowball effect.”

The chamber’s long-term vision, Judson said, is to create a Historic Downtown Woodburn, much like Newport’s Bay Front street or parts of Sisters or Leavenworth, Wash.

The money the chamber received Monday is generated when people stay in hotels. A statute requires the city to allot a certain portion to tourism, generally via grants.

In the past, the chamber has received between $40,000 and $44,000 per year.

This year it went up, partly because the city budgeted more for tourism, according to Judson.