Chamber Action Hurts Village Progress

With what we now consider short sighted logic after hearing all the explanations and assumptions expressed by both sides of this story we can only ask what was the Chamber members thinking? After months of not showing any interest in a new project announced by Wellsville's Revitalization Committee (RC) the Chamber-of-Commerce voted last Thursday to sign up with Heritage Ohio. We have been following this for months ourselves and as late as last Tuesday's Council meeting a week ago were quite encouraged it was going to get off the ground.


Back early this past summer a member of the RC hinted that there may be something news worthy being announced in a short time. We were told no more than that. It was just getting started. Back on August 31 we were invited to tour the old Liberty Theater with members of the RC and the Potter Players Community Theater group. The PPCT group now own the old theater and some day hope to restore it to be used to stage their plays.


At the time we thought this was the news hinted at a few months ago. We reported on the tour of the old building and thought the RC was going to help find ways the PPCT group could get the renovations done. Enter Heritage Ohio.


On October 1 at the request of the RC the Chamber co-hosted a meeting with a Director of Revitalization from Heritage Ohio following a Chamber Board-of-Director's meeting at Central Federal. It was attended by several Chamber officers and the RC members. The Heritage Ohio director explained the mission of his organization and their Main Street USA program. That program is designed for communities such as Wellville to revitalize their downtown areas to enhance existing businesses and attract new ones. Instead of tearing down and rebuilding they encourage restoring historic old buildings. Across the state they have been involved in many successful endeavors doing just that.


After the meeting at Central Federal three members of the RC took the Heritage Ohio director on a tour of the flood wall murals, the kiln and finished up in front of the Liberty Theater. We tagged along and reported on it a few days later. At the time we thought it was going to be a joint effort with both the Chamber and the RC. We were later told officers of the Chamber advised the RC they were not interested. They felt it wouldn't work.


At the October 6 Council Meeting RC member Connie Carmichael advised Council members and Village officials that the RC was going to pursue working with Heritage Ohio. She added they were in the process of forming a board for the project, working on financial details and were planning to have the Heritage people back for another meeting in November. Chamber President Allmon is also a Councilman. He was at that meeting and didn't offer any comments.


On November 18 RC Chairwoman Candy Bangor hosted a second meeting of the RC with several members of the community, Village officials and a Program Manager from Heritage Ohio. As we reported on November 21, it was an informal question & answer session attended by 24 people. The Heritage Ohio Program Manager told us of several communities they are working with that are having some remarkable success with Main Street USA. Allmon was one of those that attended. We left that meeting that evening with a spirit of hope for our old hometown. Things were looking up.

At the request of the Mayor, according to Bangor, the RC attended the December 1 Council Meeting to announce that their next project would be the Main Street USA program. The Sisters Carmichael along with Wellsville native John Corak explained the program. Connie Carmichael invited Council to "team up" with the committee on this. See our report on that Council meeting dated 12-3-09. There were encouraging comments and discussion of arranging a Town Hall Meeting after the first of the year for additional in-put from all that may be interested. Councilman Allmon was at that meeting and, again, offered no comments.

Our "buzz kill" came this past Saturday, December 5, when we were invited to attend an emergency meeting of the RC. Bangor announced that she had learned that this past Thursday, Decemeber 3, the Chamber Board-of-Directors voted to sign on with Heritage Ohio and had sent a check for the membership fee. Bangor learned of this action indirectly and called Allmon to confirm it. After exchanging some heated words Bangor & Allmon agreed to a cooling off period. According to Bangor, as agreed, Wednesday morning would be decision time on whether or not the Chamber was willing to let the Main Street program remain a RC project. It was decided that members of the RC would contact Chamber Board members trying persuade them to keep this a RC controlled project. We were asked not to write anything about the meeting until we saw what developed.

Other than Allmon we don't know who attended that Chamber Board meeting. Allmon was quoted in the newspapers as saying there are 16 members on the Board. Their web site (http://www.wellsvilleohiochamber.com/) only lists eight members.

Over this past week-end things got crazy with the phone calls going back & forth. Allmon's house was vandalized with spray painted obscenities on his front windows. Instead of cooling off it just heated up. On Monday morning both Bangor and Carmichael were questioned by a Wellsville police officer and read their Miranda rights in regards to the vandalism. It is not known who the vandals were and members of the RC vehemently deny any involvement. To the best of our knowledge no charges have been filed.

Meanwhile the RC contacted Heritage Ohio to confirm that the Chamber had paid the membership fee. They were advised that no money has been received from the Chamber. The RC paid the fee with a credit card over the phone and was told the membership was theirs. By Tuesday both groups were contacted by Heritage Ohio after learning of the feuding going on and withdrew their participation with Wellsville. It made front page coverage in Wednesday's newspapers.

In a telephone conversation with Allmon Monday afternoon he informed us that after learning a week ago last Wednesday the EL Chamber had signed on with Heritage he felt Wellsville should get on board. Since most members of the RC are also Chamber members we asked why they were not invited to that Thursday meeting. Allmon responded he tries to be aggressive with Chamber matters and in his excitement didn't even think of the RC before the meeting.
We later were told that the RC was informed by a member of the EL Chamber that they have only checked into the Heritage Ohio programs. As yet they have not signed on with them.

We confirmed with Heritage Ohio that they did indeed withdraw their participation with our Village. Director of Revitalization Jeff Siegler told us they have decided to stay out of it for now. There is no upside inserting themselves in the middle of two feuding community groups. Participation in the Main Street USA program requires cooperation from everyone in the community. Siegler said they would love to work with Wellsville. The Heritage Ohio decision is not a permanent one. When an understanding is reached with the entire Wellsville community they would be willing to come back.

This was a hard article for us to write. Even though there are some Chamber actions we don't agree with we believe that over all the Chamber is good for the Village with many members working on behalf of Wellsville. We strongly dislike reporting on anything negative pertaining to Wellsville. One merchant told me many times Chamber business is taken out of town without any consideration for businesses in the Village. Hopefully this fiasco will realign some thinking within the Chamber.

For now the Chamber is going to lose some memberships in their organization. The RC spent months of researching and checking out the Main Street program before even going public. We believe it is a program that will work in Wellsville. Candy Bangor told us they hope to move on. They are planning to go ahead with that Town Hall meeting after the first of the year.

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