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During the Troup County Board of Commissioners work session on Tuesday, Visit LaGrange President Kathy Tilley presented Facilities Manager JJ Kuerzi with an award for Tourism Partner of the Year.

For the past three years, Visit LaGrange has hosted an awards luncheon to recognize partners who help them promote tourism in LaGrange and Troup County. Visit LaGrange is the city and county’s Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), which means they spend a portion of hotel-motel taxes to promote tourism for both.

Kuerzi was unable to attend the luncheon, so she was presented with the award at the commissioner’s meeting.

“The Tourism Partner of the Year Award is a tribute to individuals who go above and beyond to support Visit LaGrange and to ensure the success of our initiatives,” Tilley said.

Kuerzi is a true stakeholder of our tourism community and she demonstrates a consistent dedication to our mission, Tilley said.

“Her regular visits to the visitor center, checking in to see if we need anything, and her willingness to do anything we need speaks volumes about her commitment to our organization,” Tilley said. “She is quick to help whenever needed, often taking the lead on many projects. She stays calm during the various crises we have, and we have a lot of crises.”

Kuerzi not only sells and books large-scale sporting events, but she also works those events, evenings, weekends and holidays. We can always count on her, Tilley said.

Keurzi did not make an acceptance speech but did take the opportunity to promote some upcoming events.

“We’ve got about five different fishing tournaments coming up this fishing season. Between now and then, we’ll probably have over 3000 anglers in town.  We’ll finish up with our Military Tournament, which will be the last weekend in April,” Kuerzi said.

Kuerzi said the last time Troup hosted the tournament, it was coming off of COVID, and they had about 40 boats. As of last week, they are expecting at least 89 boats.

“The numbers are doubling,” Kuerzi said. “We’re very excited about hosting our military again, and they will be in town all week. They’ll come in on Sunday, they’ll practice, and the tournament will start Friday and Saturday. So the lake will be very busy from now until then.”