GATESVILLE, Texas — Between events, camping and being in the path of totality, the City of Gatesville expected a lot of visitors during April 8th's eclipse and the weekend leading up.
I looked into what we know so far about where eclipse dollars were spent.
Melanie Bailey is owner of The Nipa Truck in Gatesville. She said she served up more than 4,000 egg rolls during eclipse festivities.
“I probably tripled maybe quadrupled what, per day, what I would have normally done," she said. “It was very good.”
Scott and Nikole Tatum are the owners of 1854 Mercantile, a retail shop in Gatesville’s downtown. They told me eclipse merchandise were hot ticket items and that their sales were three times greater than any normal day.
“We seen a big boost in sales and foot traffic. Wasn’t a whole lot of traffic as far as they expected vehicle wise," Scott said.
Visitors at Texas Station RV Park told me they put money toward traveling into town, shopping, camping and eating out.
One traveler said, “$2,500 to something like that.”
“Overall maybe $800 for the whole trip," said another.
But Gatesville’s eclipse coordinator Cheri Shepherd said the possibility of severe weather kept the visit short for many people.
"Majority of the visitors came in on Monday and watched the eclipse and then left," Shepherd said.
While some eclipse events were not packed out, s$7,000 was collected from parking fees that will support local readers through the Gatesville Public Library.
Shea Harp isthe library director for the Gatesville Public library and said, “So that money is actually gonna go to our summer reading programs.”
How much sales taxes was collected from the eclipse?
Cheri told me that process involves the state and it will be awhile before we know those exactly numbers.
