While Boerne residents and visitors tell the tales of their 15- or 20-second glimpses of the April 8 total solar eclipse, city and county officials continued to assess the city’s handling of the event.
Larry Woods, Visit Boerne director, told City Council the weather dampened the expected flood of visitors forecast in the days and weeks prior to the eclipse.
“The weather forecast hurt us a little bit,” Woods told council at its April 9 meeting. “We lost quite a few reservations (while) a few were picked up at the last minute.”
While Woods’ staff continues to tally revenues and exact visitor numbers, he said hotels “are probably going to finish at about 80 percent occupancy.”
In talking with other Hill Country visitors’ bureau officials, he said Boerne made out well — a testament, he said, to planning ahead and being prepared. “I’m glad we went into this weekend very conservatively.”
Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, 36 hours after the four-minute total solar eclipse, Woods said the visitor’s center remained a busy place.
“We had more international visitors than we’ve ever previously had,” he said. “Families from Taiwan, Japan, Germany, a couple from France,” he said. “Today we had about 75 people in the building, and about three quarters of those were from out-of-state, so there are still a lot of people in town,” he said.
City Councilmen Ty Wolosin and Joseph Macaluso spoke to the city’s preparedness.
“Things weren’t as busy as they could have been, but I’m glad that we prepared for that,” Wolosin said, thanking law enforcement and first responders for being prepared.
“It felt safe, it felt fun, and it got dark in the middle of the day,” he added.
Macaluso said he was satisfied with the city’s level of preparedness.
“Some people thought we overprepared for October (the annular or ‘partial’ eclipse) and for this event,” Macaluso said. “I just want to say I’m glad we did, because we had almost no problems that I’m aware of.”
Jeffrey Fincke, Kendall County emergency management director, said Friday the lower turnout because of the weather was a blessing in disguise for them.
“The event went pretty smooth. We had a few minor traffic issues that we mitigated pretty easily,” Fincke said.
Fincke said a few extra crews were staffed over the weekend and into Monday. “There may have been a slight uptick in calls, but our response times were all normal.”
“I think the weather helped us. I heard (Friday) the Fredericksburg airport had 76, 78 planes registered to park, and only 26 showed up,” he said. “That might be considered indicative of visitation in the Hill Country last weekend.”
He said County Judge Shane Stolarczyk last week addressed some criticism directed at the county for over-preparedness for the eclipse.
“We got a lot of criticism for our preparedness. But it’s better to be prepared than get caught with your pants down and not be ready for an emergency,” Fincke said.
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