By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

Tentative budget plans for the next fiscal year in the city of Joplin include about $1 million to promote area tourism.

About $237,000 from that budget would go to the Joplin Sports Authority to help the organization attract sports events to Joplin, while the balance is tabbed for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, according city documents. The overwhelming bulk of the money going to both organizations flows from the city's 4 percent hotel/motel tax.

The chief expenses for the Convention and Visitors Bureau include:

Almost $221,700 for marketing, which includes advertising, sponsoring events and promotional items.

More than $63,000 for entryway beautification.

A total of $105,000 in grants to area organizations staging local tourist events.

Mike McAfee, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said entryway beautification is part of the organization's charge.

Next year, the bureau is looking to construct a sign at the southwest corner of North Florida Avenue and Zora Street that has a Route 66 theme and welcomes people to Joplin, McAfee said.

Key tourist attractions that the bureau will highlight next year include the planned Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center in Joplin and the George Washington Carver Discovery Center near Diamond.

Construction is under way for the nature center, a nearly 10,500-square-foot building that will feature classrooms, exhibits, an 1,100-gallon aquarium and a 300-gallon terrarium.

"We are excited about the Audubon center," McAfee said. "It's going to be unbelievable."

The new, $5.3 million Carver Discovery Center, expected to be open to the public by next fall, will include a science lab, a humanities lab and a recycling lab. Students will have the opportunity to perform the experiments that Carver himself once conducted, and learn from his discoveries.

Different organizations, meanwhile, have applied for a share of the $105,000 in grant money available from the bureau. Members of the advisory board to the bureau have reviewed the applications, but McAfee said he could not yet divulge the board's recommendations because the City Council has the final say over the grant program.