Now that the selection committee is complete to find a new Coahoma County Tourism executive director, a new application deadline has been put in place to apply for the position.
The deadline had originally closed. However, in an effort to expand the search and increase the pool of candidates, the new deadline to apply for the position is Aug. 15.
The decision came during a selection committee meeting Thursday, July 12.
“The responsibility of the committee is to provide to the tourism board one or more qualified candidates who may best serve Clarksdale and Coahoma County as the executive director of our tourism agency,” said at-large committee member Jon Levingston, who is the executive director of the Clarksdale/Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce. “To that end, the committee decided to reopen the application process to a wider geographical area for the purpose of attracting the greatest number of qualified applicants. The committee is posting a position available on the website of the Mississippi Tourism Society, and a regional tourism agency as well. August 15 is the new deadline to submit applications to the tourism selection committee.”
Kappi Allen resigned as executive director in February and the state is still investigating her for allegedly misappropriating funds.
Levingston said the tourism selection committee will submit one or more highly qualified candidates as prospective executive directors.
“The members of the commission will then interview the candidate or candidates presented to them by the committee, and the commission will make the final selection,” Levingston said.
Six individuals serve on the selection committee. Roger Stolle, who is the Juke Joint Festival co-founder and the Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store owner, was appointed most recently by new tourism board member Bill Gresham.
“I think the whole committee is just super committed to getting the right person in that position and is very much viewing this as a great opportunity for Clarksdale,” Stolle said. “We have all this amazing infrastructure in town, via clubs, museums and festivals. All these folks local and those who have moved here are working on blues and tourism, so it’s really the perfect time to be doing this.”
Stolle spoke on what qualities he believes the next tourism director should have, noting he was speaking on behalf of himself, not the committee.
“My personal hope is that our next tourism director very much understands why people are coming here,” he said. “It is not a coincidence that people come off the highway specifically because they know we have this deep blues history. It’s our job to get that word out there, make sure people know that and make sure that they know it’s a living history that you could come to our town and see blues seven nights a week, a dozen festivals, a couple museums and so forth. It’s really a destination now.”
Stolle noted Fodors Travel Guide named Clarksdale the No. 1 music city after Nashville and the next tourism director can follow up on that.
