Published: Thursday, March 28, 2013 1:08 AM CDT

Yankton business officials are getting prepared for the first month of the $2-per-night tax to be charged for stays at certain hotels within the city.

The Business Improvement District (BID) group, which met on Wednesday, includes hotels within the Yankton city limits that have 25 or more rooms. Smaller hotels can also volunteer to be included in the group.

The hotel tax, which will begin this April, will be due on the 20th of each month, with an electronic spreadsheet for hotel operators expected to be online soon.

“With the online spreadsheet, you can fill out everything you need on the computer,” said Dave Mingo, community development director, who attended the BID meeting. “All hotel operators would have to do after filling it out would be to mail it in.”

After receipts are collected, the BID will establish a budget within the next several months and update it in time for each meeting.

Also on hand for Wednesday’s meeting was Lisa Scheve of the Yankton Convention and Visitors Bureau. She spoke about a program that was started by the bureau which established an incentive and event fund.

“The goal of the fund is to be able to get large tournaments and other conventions here,” Scheve said. “The money we have in the fund helps us get incentives on the table for the officials to want to have their events here.”

Convention and Visitors Bureau officials were able to get approximately $5,000 from the city for the fund in previous years, but they are not asking for money this year.

“Ultimately we want more large groups to come here, and more people to stay for a longer time while they’re here,” she said. “If they stay longer, they’ll likely be spending more money during their stay, which is good for everyone.”

One of the events the fund has been able to assist has been the geo-caching festival. It started out as a one-day event, but has expanded to multiple days in recent years. It is encouraged, though not required, that funds given to events be spent on marketing.

“We developed an application that we go through to allocate funding,” Scheve said. “There is a 90-day window for groups to apply for funds    because we want to make sure that it is a well-established event.”

Officials running events that are given funding are asked to fill out an income and expense report following their event to make sure the funds are being spent properly.

“After the event, we’ll score their form, and if they score under 50 percent, they will not be awarded the funds,” she said. “The post-event report includes nights stayed, attendance and local spending.”

Other events that the fund has granted money to include the Lewis and Clark Adventure Race and the 2015 National Cribbage Tournament.

She added that the fund seeks to bring larger events to Yankton,        particularly from November to March, which are slower months for tourism to the city.

Rob Stephenson, chairman of the BID, said he thinks some money should be set aside for big                 opportunities.

“There are some other communities in the area with a similar fund in place,” Scheve said. “We started small with the $5,000 and we want to see where we can go with it and how we can grow.”

The next BID meeting is currently set for June.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal