FAYETTEVILLE — Sixteen event organizers and nonprofit groups made their pitch Monday for more than $225,000 from the Advertising and Promotion Commission.

Most of the requests came from groups that have received hotel, motel and restaurant tax money in past years.

A local theater company, TheatreSquared, is asking for $15,000 to help cover venue rental, performer booking, catering and decor at its annual Gala for Education. The event raises money for theater-related outreach programs in Arkansas schools.

Organizers of the OffShoot Film Festival, Oct. 2-5 at the University of Arkansas' Global Campus building, want $17,500 to promote the event and to pay for travel and lodging for visiting filmmakers.

Lights of the Ozarks, the holiday light display that has received commission funding in the each of the past five years, is eligible for another $15,000 in 2014.

The Little Craft Show at the Fayetteville Town Center, the New Year's Eve celebration, Last Night Fayetteville, the project-based, site-specific Artists' Laboratory Theater and the for-profit Fayetteville Half Marathon, which has brought visitors to Fayetteville for years, are back for more money, too.

Commissioners also heard Monday from seven groups that haven't received Advertising and Promotion money before.

Ozark Regional Transit, Northwest Arkansas' bus provider, applied for $7,900 to help publish informational brochures about available transit routes. The materials will be placed in restaurants, hotels and other places where residents and visitors to Fayetteville might see them.

"We're making an effort to find a way to bring public transport to a higher level of user," Karen Eccles, an Ozark Regional Transit representative, said. "There's no reason not to have our average community household relying on a safe, affordable, greener source of transportation."

Members of the Ozark Highlands Trail Association want $5,000 to help create new maps of the more than 200-mile network of trails that runs from Lake Fort Smith to Lake Norfolk in Baxter County.

Duane Woltjen, association webmaster, called Fayetteville a jumping off point for hikers. He said an existing map hasn't been updated for decades. The new map would be more user-friendly and would feature new sections of trail with GPS coordinates, Woltjen said.

Members of the Fayetteville Firefighters' Association plan to use up to $19,000 to promote the Hero Half Marathon. Runners in the the first-time event, scheduled Oct. 18, will leave Fire Station No. 1 at 303 W. Center St. and wind along city streets and the Fayetteville trails system in a 13.1-mile race. Firefighter Kyle Martin said proceeds will benefit the Fayetteville Firefighters Scholarship Fund, the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation, dive-in movies at Wilson Park and several other charities.

And members of the Dickson Street Merchants Association want to bring Oktoberfest, a craft beer festival with live entertainment and a kids zone, to the main Walton Arts Center parking lot Oct. 4.

Advertising and Promotion commissioners will decide how to divvy up money next month.

According to Marilyn Heifner, executive director, the commission has $85,770 to give this spring. That figure comes mostly from surplus money in the commission's 2013 budget. Groups will have another opportunity to apply for funding this fall.

The commission receives the bulk of its revenue each year from a 2 percent tax on hotel stays and food purchases in Fayetteville restaurants.

NW News on 04/15/2014