The Wellsville Area Chamber of Commerce held their monthly luncheon this past Thursday at the Riverside Road House. First Christian Church Pastor Mark Blakely offered the invocation noting that Wellsville is experiencing a spiritual awakening. Chamber President Randy Allmon welcomed new members New Life Ministries Pastor Bishop Bill Rudder and Donna Rudder. Allmon also announced that Welcome Committee Chairman Brandon Russell introduced Chamber members and welcomed Wellsville's newest business “Four Bad Jacks” dog grooming business. It is located at 525 Main St.
Allmon issued a reminder of the upcoming Columbiana County Economic Summit. The summit will be held May 7 and 8 at the East Liverpool Motor Lodge. There will be 60 businesses present with many of them doing job interviews. Anyone wanting more information can contact Allmon at 330-843-3475. Guest speaker was Agent Dean Hassman of the Youngstown FBI Field Office. Hasson spoke of the different categories of crime and offered tips to guard against identity thief and cyber crime.
Pictured above is the Business of the Month being awarded to Wellsville's Holly Development. Shown from the left is Chamber member “Pinky” Gill, Theresa Pullie & Byron Carter of Holly Development and Chamber President Randy Allmon. Allmon noted the Main Street headquartered company has been in business for five years and have always been very supportive of Chamber activities. Holly Development is located at 460 Main St.
The next luncheon is scheduled for Thursday, April 26 at the Dairy Queen, located at 400 Third St. The luncheon begins at 12 noon and the public is invited.
ole nib
6 comments:
What does Holly Development develop to become Business of the Month?
Just hold on... When the economy starts picking up you will see.
nib
I have a comment/question about the level of influence, if any, that the Chamber of Commerce has over current and past business owners in the village.
I spent about all of fifteen minutes this morning cleaning pornographic symbols and profanity off of three separate windows in the heart of our business district that have been there for about the last three months, at least. These businesses were: Brush Insurance (still in business), Nina Graves' old beauty shop next door, and the antique shop across the alley. The latter two sites are no longer in business.
I placed a note on the door of Brush's Insurance on my way to work Thursday morning asking to please have the offensive markings removed, as many women pass by daily and are subjected to looking at this garbage. I went on to empathize with the business in my letter about the sad state of those who live in this town and don't have any more pride in the place they live or respect for someone else's property, but bottom line, please fix the problem. I don't think the request was out of line. Oh, and by the way, as I was placing the note on the door, there were two police cruisers across the street who looked to have two separate cars pulled over. I wonder how many times the police have driven by these windows, and couldn't have taken the time to inquire with the business owners about cleaning the mess up.
As you can see by the little time it took to rectify the situation, the job wasn't that hard, but lo and behold, come Saturday morning; no fix. I had no problem cleaning it up, but someone else should've taken the lead right after it happened--namely the property owners. It was egg, not paint. A little elbow grease and presto!
Then I started to think how many times council members, the Mayor, Village Adminisrator, and Chamber of Commerce officers have driven by the situation and missed it or simply chose to ignore it. Was this really an issue that should've taken so long to fix?
I try to be patient, as you Nib, have suggested in your remarks to others who voice their complaints, as changes for the better are supposedly on the way with a new regime and attitude in charge. But the weather has been pretty decent for a while now, and it's starting to look like the "same old same old." The laundry list of eyesores that plague the beautiful things that this town has to offer haven't gotten any shorter at all. How long are we supposed to wait?
This simple problem seemed like something that should have fallen under the scope of responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce, and getting things like this done would do a lot more justice to the village than handing out another "cheerleading plaque," which is a nice gesture, but where are the real priorities? And while were speaking of expenditures, how about skipping the price of a plaque one month, or the cost of dry cleaning a suit for yet another photo op, and buying a new mini-blind for the empty storefront next to the Liberty Theater--to replace the ratty one with a hole in it that's been hanging there for years.
I ,could go on, but it's time to head up to the "Boy With the Boot" statue to spray some weed killer--yet another neglected area.
It simply amazes me how indifferent so many people in this town are to trying to make it a nicer looking place to live by failing to taking on projects that don't cost anything but a little time and sweat equity.
We got two comments - one from "Snoop" & another from "wondering". Neither one of them had one positive thing to say or anything constructive to add. One had snide remarks about the old Liberty Theater. The other was mainly about the appearance of the business district.
We're not going to entertain another feud between organizations or let one get started on here.
Some things take time and the very basic reason for this is that it takes time, lots of time, to find funding for any major project. Instead of taking jabs at others try doing something that benefit all involved. You could start by trying to find grant resources to finance some of the things you would like to see accomplished.
nib
I'd like to clarify and expound on my earlier post, and to clearly state that I am not trying to stir up animosity between any organizations. When I said I had a question about scope of authority over the business district, I was sincere.
It's no secret that more than one storefront could use some Tender Loving Care. In some instances, and I'm talking about a minority, not most places, responsible upkeep is not taking place. Someone needs to step up and enforce a change, whether it be City Hall through ordinance enforcement, or interaction by the Chamber Of Commerce with these business owners. I fully realize the Chamber does many things to try to make things better and give them all due credit and thank them for their efforts. Bottom line though, is that the pace at which unsightly property here is being policed needs to speed up drastically, or nothing is ever going to change.
As for the Liberty Theater comment, I myself have spent time shoveling debris in the upstairs portion and would love to see it open back up at some point in the future. And I don't believe in wasting my time or energy on projects. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have bothered to put in the time or the effort.
I spent 21 years working in and with the military, and being a boss and working with budgets and resources, networking was a critical part of getting what you needed to get a job done. If you didn;t have what you needed to get a eask accomplished you had to know where to go to get it, or you wouldn't be in a position of authority long.
I have ranted and raved about the lack of political involvement here many times in the past. I firmly believe that our higher elected officials who have a say in how our tax dollars are spent-- if they can't give us the funding needed for improvements, they at least know who we need to go to for help. We might get a more enthusiastic response if we could show these folks how sincere we are about turning things around if we could show how much we got done on our own.
There is money out there.
I would have no problem submitting grants but it's kind of hard to speak on behalf of our local government when I don't have the authority to commit matching funds. It would be nice to know what the game plan is for the funds the village is supposed to receive from oil & gas drilling.
Ask the Mayor Sarge. She seems to be approachable. I'm sure she has a gameplan for the money.
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