Page 8 Museum of Route 66 Lincoln Daily News June/July 2026 City of Lincoln takes action to form a city Department of Tourism From April, 2025, Committee of the Whole meeting of the Lincoln City Council Lincoln Aldermen discuss re-directing hotel motel tax to a city tourism department At the Tuesday evening meeting of the Lincoln City Council, aldermen heard from Mayor Tracy Welch a proposal that would re-direct the hotel/motel tax collected in the city of Lincoln from the current Logan County Tourism Bureau to a newly formed City of Lincoln Tourism Department. It was noted that the 100th anniversary of Route 66 is next year, and currently the city of Lincoln is way behind in preparing for that event. The city would need to have money in hand and start working on promoting Lincoln as a stop on the route during that anniversary year. In a subsequent voting session of the council, aldermen approved the re-direction of the hotel/motel tax to a newly created City of Lincoln Department of Tourism. The council also would approve annual ongoing support for the Logan County Tourism Bureau so that entity could work to serve all of Logan County. Other actions to keep the new tourism program moving included hiring Scott McCoy as first a consultant and later as the Director of Tourism for the city of Lincoln. And, finally, the council voted to approve the purchase of the former State Bank of Lincoln building located in the 500 block of Lincoln, then owned by Heartland Bank and Trust for an amount of $150,000. The purchase included the building, the parking area adjacent to the building, and the large, paved parking area at the corner of Pekin and Chicago Streets. The purchase of the property brought on much speculation via social media including thoughts that the city might abandon city hall and convert the bank building to a new city administration office.
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