It took nearly six months, but VisitEly will get what it was looking for in funding from the Ely Area Lodging Tax Board.
Action Monday by the board gave VisitEly, also known as the Ely Tourism Bureau, the final third of the $315,000 the organization had sought to market the region in 2026.
Members also indicated they’d grant the Ely Chamber of Commerce and the city of Ely the funds those entities had requested to respectively staff and maintain the new trailhead facility on the city’s west end.
The developments were just the latest chapter in a saga that has played out in public, often messily, for several months.
In late-2025, the board had voted to provide each entity two-thirds of what they had requested, a decision that has sparked pushback from VisitEly and has resulted in several contentious lodging tax board meetings.
The board’s newest member, Cindy Smyka of Fall Lake, pressed this week to make VisitEly whole, making the case the organization needed its full allotment to continue its marketing efforts and drive visitor traffic to the area.
“I do think it’s imperative that marketing keeps moving,” said Smyka. “Ely has to be open for the summer. Let’s keep the tourism bureau doing what they do best.”
Board chairperson Terry Soderberg of Morse, who had come under fire from Smyka earlier this year, endorsed the plan under the condition that an earlier funding error related to the Chamber be corrected.
Soderberg also added that “at some point in time we have to pay the remainder to the city and the Chamber and we have enough money at this point in time to make those payments.”
The funding for both the city and Chamber were points of contention for months, given previous practice of funneling the bulk of the proceeds generated by the area’s three percent lodging tax to VisitEly.
Former Ely representative Paul Kess had pushed for a “more balanced approach” in the use of lodging tax proceeds and the board opted to use divert some of the funds to both the city and Chamber for the new trailhead facility.
That decision and the delay in providing the full $315,000 to VisitEly, has led to months of public discourse, questions related to legality, dueling legal opinions and a public divide aired out at lodging tax board meetings, Fall Lake board and Ely city council sessions, and via letters to the editor and social media.
Smyka this week continued to push for changes in lodging tax board governnance. She has called for listening sessions, improved public relations and transpacency and “healing.”
Smyka said that the board should “approach it head on and create something better with transparency and sustainability in mind. I don’t think we can heal all of these issues on our own and I don’t think anyone expects us to. Let’s make a plan on how to embrace some strategic planning and better oversight so we retain stewardship of our lodging tax.”
Last month, VisitEly’s Whitney Woods addressed the board and lamented that the group “missed a substantial amount of marketing time,” amid the controversy over funding for their group, which resulted in declines in website traffic.
The joint powers board, which includes Soderberg, Smyka, Ely’s John Lahtonen and St. Louis County Commissioner Paul McDonald, has learned that all decisions by the group require unanimous consent.
Attorney Steve Overom was asked if the unanimous vote requirement nullified an earlier, 3-1 vote (with Smyka opposed) to elect Soderberg chair.
Overom responded that “the bylaws say your chair continues until a successor is appointed,” allowing Soderberg to retain the chair position he held leading up to last month’s vote.
On Monday, Woods updated the group about ongoing marketing efforts which include a push to attract families to the Ely area to camp this summer.
Woods noted that Ely was featured prominently in Lavender magazine and that VisitEly has upcoming advertisements both in Minnesota Monthly and Minneapolis- St. Paul magazine as part of a push to attract visitors from other parts of the state.
Soderberg asked about previous advertisements at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and on billboards in the Twin Cities, but Virginia Nelson, a tourism bureau board member, said “those are very expensive” and currently not within the group’s budget resource.
“It’s nice but the return on investment is not as great as a lot of other stuff we’re doing,” said Nelson.
Lodging tax proceeds jumped in 2025, climbing from $211,909 to $223,858 from establishments in St. Louis County. Lake County proceeds are provided separately.
Given inflation and room rates, the lodging tax numbers have often stirred debate, with some local government officials questioning if increases in tax receipts actually equate to an increase in visitor traffic.
Some have pushed for a more detailed count of “heads in beds” that - at least to date - appears all but impossible to gauge.
Also muddying the waters is the impact of vacation rentals utilizing platforms such as AirBnB and VRBO.
Local officials are trying to get an accurate measure of the impact of those properties, and are seeking better compliance with the lodging tax requirements that also apply to those rentals.
“As I’m looking at this, the lodging tax has gone up consistently,” said Smyka. “Not only is it going up, but we’re not capitalizing on our short term rental market.”
As 2026 nears the midway point, the lodging tax board must soon begin the decision-making process related to spending for 2027.
After dealing with several scheduling conflicts among the members, they agreed to meet again July 27.
Smyka unsuccessfully pushed Monday for expanding the board to include more members.
“Our community doesn’t rest while we travel,” said Smyka, citing the pending absences of board members. “We need to be making strides.”
“That’s what we have the tourism bureau for, and the Chamber,” Soderberg responded.
