After further review, the City Council on Monday took the first step in approving $75,000 in lodging tax funding for the Renton Chamber of Commerce’s Visitors Center.

The 6-0 vote (Councilman Don Persson was absent) comes after the Council asked for further information from the Chamber regarding their original request for the money, which the Council removed from the other lodging tax funding recipients prior to their approval in March.

Councilmembers, tasked with approving a list of funding recommendations from the city’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, initially had concerns about the request from the Chamber and asked to see more details about how the money would be used.

Complicating matters was that the councilmember who was part of the advisory committee had retired from the council, meaning no one on the dais had been part of the discussion and other councilmembers had questions that were going unanswered.

On April 6, the LTAC re-convened with councilman Armondo Pavone in the council’s seat.

Chamber President Vicky Baxter presented the committee with a more detailed form showing how the city’s money would be used. According to the plan, the Chamber will spend the largest chunk of the money, about $42,000, on staffing for the visitors center, which will add two new employees and extend the staffing and hours of service of the center. Beginning in May it will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturdays, in an attempt to catch summer tourism traffic.

Along with the extended hours, the center is also working on a new visitor-centric website that will be separate from the main chamber site and will include information about things to do, restaurants, events and a map. It will be designed to be mobile-friendly, a major concern of the council. The cost of building the site is pegged at $15,000.

The plan also presents two new programs starting this year and designed to spur tourism to Renton. First is the “Yappy Hour” program, which will present live music on Friday evenings beginning in June at the Chamber. The event is designed for people to bring their dogs and the Chamber expects to have some beer and wine tastings and food samplers at some of the events as well. The free event began last year and drew 25-50 people and their pets.

The money will also be used to create a new “FAM (familiarization) tour” designed to bring groups to Renton from other cities and show them what the city has to offer for “Staycation” purposes. The first tour was scheduled for this week with a group from Vancouver, Wash., attending and visiting restaurants, shops and the Jimi Hendrix memorial.

Speaking of Hendrix, the Chamber is also looking to build on the rockstar’s fame and Renton heritage in the future by creating such tributes as a street name or festival to try and draw more rock fans into the city.

The Chamber also envisions a “Hawk Night” built around the Seattle Seahawks being located in Renton as well as a “Hysterical Tour” that would give visitors a humorous, mostly-true version of the city’s history, much like Seattle’s Underground Tour.

Councilmembers thanked Baxter for the additional information and her responsiveness to their requests before moving the funding forward for approval.

“I like this,” said Councilman Ed Prince, who was one of the main voices of concern over the funding in the first round. “I feel like we asked the Chamber to do something … and they took the feedback we gave them and came back.”

In total, the Council allocated $217,000 in lodging tax money for 2016.