WARREN Bureau seeks director

WARREN -- The Trumbull County Convention and Visitor's Bureau will begin advertising for a new director next week, after nearly nine months of going without one.
"We had always planned for fall as the deadline," said Carolyn Anderson, secretary/treasurer of the bureau's board of directors.
Applications for the bureau's top job will be solicited through ads in local newspapers and from national tourism organizations.
Local candidates who sent in resumes in the nine months the position has been vacant will be invited to re-apply, said Daniel Novello, the board chairman.
The bureau's two full-time and one part-time employees have been working directly under the supervision of the board since Feb. 17, when former director Carol Gordon was fired.
Gordon filed suit in May to get her job back. The case is still pending.
Novello said he has been meeting with the staff twice a week this year to give them direction.
"We took care of everything we wanted to do this year," he said.
Their job: The convention and visitors bureau promotes Trumbull County to potential tourists with brochures and visitors guides it distributes around the region.
It also helps sponsor the Giant Eagle Ladies Professional Golf Tournament, contributing $25,000 a year, and markets the area to tour agencies and bus companies.
Pay for the top job at the bureau will be close to what Gordon made, about $46,000 a year, and involves much travel to conventions and shows, Novello said.
The Trumbull County Convention and Visitor's Bureau has a $350,000 annual budget, collected by a 2.5 percent tax on hotel rooms.