- The Uncle Hunk’s Junk building, located at 203 E. Walworth St. in Elkhorn will soon have a vacancy with the move of the Walworth County Visitors Bureau. The Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce will continue to operate from this space.
By Chelsey Hinsenkamp
Staff Writer
After more than 30 years of serving local tourists from an Elkhorn hub, the Walworth County Visitor’s Bureau is planning to move from the county seat.
The Bureau will leave its current location at the Uncle Hunk’s Junk Building, 203 E. Walworth St., where it has shared space with the Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce for the last five years. Officials are eyeing a new location in Delavan, but would not release details since negotiations are pending.
“We are hoping that it would be late, late fall,” said the Bureau’s Executive Director Kathleen Seeberg said of the move.
“Our lease is expiring here in the end of January,” she added.
Seeberg explained that the move has been in the works for about a year now. The organization formed a committee composed of people from different communities including Elkhorn, Delavan and Lake Geneva who were charged with visiting various spaces that the Bureau might eventually occupy.
Seeberg said the committee’s goal was to find a place that would best suit the needs of the Bureau itself, and more importantly, visitors to the county.
“We want to actually be a welcome center, a true welcome center; so we want to be close to a place near one of the major highways,” she explained.
She said the city or town they move into is not the important thing, but rather the proximity to major roadways.
Seeberg said the Bureau made sure to get approval of the County Board before making any decisions to move.
“Before we even started looking at locations, I went to the County Administrator,” said Seeberg, citing her concerns about not being located in the county seat.
“Their response was, ‘we need to be wherever we can best serve the visitors’… We went forward with the blessing of the county,” she stated.
Seeberg said the cost of the move should be minimal through the help of members and friends of the Bureau.
Additionally, County Administrator David Bretl, in his preliminary 2013 budget, proposed allocating an extra $15,000 to the Bureau to “underwrite some one-time expenses associated with the move of their offices and establishment of a Visitors Center in Delavan.”
Seeberg said that the $15,000 would actually cover the costs of advertising the new location in addition to purchasing adequate signage. It is important to get the right type of sign to showcase the business, that is why using resources like Milwaukee Dimensional Signage Services or others that are closer to the new location, will help promote and intrigue customers to come and take a look.
She said on top of some sort of campaign to publicize the move, the money would cover “everything that we would like to do.”
That would include signage on the highways, signage off of Highway 50,” she said.
If the current location the Bureau is looking at pans out, Seeberg said the organization may actually save a little money on housing fees.
The Bureau is currently paying $870 per month in rent plus the varying cost of utilities and is looking at a cost of $1,000 per month, all inclusive, at the new location.
Seeberg said the Bureau also plans to have some extended hours after the move, including remaining open on Saturdays year-round rather than just during the summer.
Aside from expanded hours, and change in venue, Seeberg said much will remain the same, including staff and phone line.
Chris Clapper, executive director of the Elkhorn Area Chamber of Commerce, said she doesn’t feel the Bureau’s move will affect the Chamber’s residence in what is currently a shared space, as the organizations have always had separate leases.
The fate of the soon-to-be-vacated side of the building is still undetermined, according to Clapper.
“We’re working closely with the building owners, (Gary and Sue) Wallem, seeing what can be done with the space,” Clapper explained.
She said the Chamber is disappointed to see the Bureau go, but that she does not foresee it affecting day-to-day operations.
“It’s too bad, you know, with Elkhorn being the county seat,” Clapper said.
“As far as the chamber, there has been benefits to sharing with the Visitors Bureau but we don’t feel this is going to affect our business.”
Clapper added that, “It’s probably one of the best locations we could have,” and stated that the Chamber has no intention of moving any time soon.
