A Carbon County business owner says a $28 million hotel project and hundreds of seasonal jobs may be in jeopardy if Carbon County chooses to decertify Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau.

County commissioners said Carbon would consider pulling out if an agreement between the two parties can’t be reached over the hotel tax revenue collected in the county.The county wants to make sure an agreement over the 3 percent tax revenue looks out for the nonprofits and keeps money in Carbon County to help promote tourism, as well as help businesses maintain the level of exposure they currently have.On Thursday, the commissioners listened to a number of area business owners who want to see the county stay in a partnership with Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau.That’s a contrast from last week when a few smaller Kidder Township business owners said they supported the decertification of the bureau.Through discussions Thursday, it appeared some important information in the form of a written proposal was never received by the county, even though a verbal proposal had been made.Barbara Green, president of Blue Mountain Resort and one of the business representatives helping in the negotiation process between Carbon and the visitors bureau, said that she feels decertification would be bad for the county as a whole.“I truly, truly believe it would be a disservice to the county and all the people who live in it if we were not a part of Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau,” she said, adding that it would hurt her business in the long-term. “I believe it’s going to be a 10 to 20 percent reduction in visitors and as a result I think that’s going to be between 100 and 200 seasonal workers that won’t have a job at Blue Mountain.”She added that in addition to the loss of visitors and jobs if the county chose to leave PMVB, she thinks her $28 million condominium/hotel project would be in trouble because investors may not continue to fund it.Green, also a member of the Carbon Chamber & Economic Development Corporation, said she understands the reduction in revenue the county would receive with the new proposal does hurt, but added that she feels the current offer on the table may help solve some of the issues the county has with the negotiations.No proposalsCommissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the county finally received a response to the email officials sent to the bureau in January, but they have not seen any proposals in writing.“Until we see something in writing, we cannot act on anything. I will not act on anything until we have a complete understanding,” he said.“I know every one of you have a concern and the concern is losing business but we also have that concern of losing all that funding too so we’re not happy either. It’s been a huge lack of communication on behalf ofPMVBB, which we’re very aware of.“I’m asking all of you to bear with us. We continue to fight for what we think is right for us and our constituents and the businesses,” Nothstein added.Paul Fogal, owner of Pocono Whitewater, said he is against leaving the visitors bureau.“If Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau leaves the county or the county drops out of Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau we cannot be members of Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau and that would cost us 20 to 30 percent of our business,” he said. “If we lost 25 percent of our business that would be about 20 percent of our seasonal jobs or about 100 jobs. If you take the whole rafting industry, that’s maybe 200 to 300 jobs. When you add in the ski areas and everyone else that could be like 1,000 jobs, and that’s bad news for everybody.”Nothstein said he understood the businesses’ thoughts, but again stressed that the county has yet to receive the offer in writing from the bureau.Commissioner William O’Gurek asked Green andFogall if either of them spoke to the bureau about their concerns.“We get asked the questions, but I think the message needs to be delivered to Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau,” O’Gurek said. “When you are saying about potential loss of jobs, have you pressed upon Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau?“If they don’t want to share the money, then I think it is on them with regard to who is jeopardizing jobs and where. We’re not talking millions of dollars like their budget is, we’re talking about maybe $20, $30 or $40,000 to get this thing ironed out. But if you’re giving the message to us, I would hope you are giving the message to them because they’re very much a part of this too.”Reasonable offerGreen said she is on the executive board and has said counties should be treated fairly.She asked the board again to consider the offer, adding that Carbon should give the visitors bureau a year since it is currently in the process of getting a new director since current CEO, Carl Wilgus, is retiring.The commissioners said they would not give it that much time, pointing out that the end of the first quarter is today.They added that none of the money collected from the 3 percent hotel tax for the first quarter will be remitted to Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau until an agreement is reached, and stressed they want to continue to help the local nonprofits.The conversation ended with the commissioners saying if they had a reasonable offer in writing in front of them, one that would continue supporting nonprofits, Mauch Chunk Lake Park and a contribution to the chamber, then they would act on it without a doubt.“We would like to stay with the visitors bureau,” O’Gurek said. “We would do it in a split second but we’ve said to them over and over, share the money (for people in the small communities.) They need help too, and we want to help them.“For the few dollars difference in what we’re proposing and what they are refusing to give us if they would budge, they would share the money, they would have the best of both worlds and continue to have what they have now and we would be able to continue to help people that we are giving grants to these past couple years.”Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said that the goal is to just continue to help support the community efforts that Carbon already helps support through the hotel tax grant.“I want to continue to support the nonprofit groups,” he said. “I want to continue to support Mauch Chunk Lake, and I want to continue to work with the businesses, but somewhere there has got to be a compromise.”