Chamber of Commerce holds quarterly luncheon
COSHOCTON – Jan Myers was very appreciative of the community improvement award that she accepted at the Coshocton County Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Luncheon held July 24, at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum.
The award was for Myers’ Coshocton Visitors Bureau and the Annin Flagmakers Showroom.
“Thank you very much for this,” she said. “We at the CVB are so proud to promote this great community of ours every day.”
Within the past several months the CVB moved to Roscoe Village so it could connect with visitors to the community and promote locally made products like Annin’s flags.
“We will sell the flags and showcase other items from places like Wiley Organics, RockTenn and Clow,” Myers said. “You will have to stop back periodically and see what we are showcasing.”
During the luncheon, Myers shared that Coshocton’s attractions, hotels and restaurants are having a great summer season.
“We get at least 50 visitor package requests each week and we’ve had over 800 people come into our new location just since July 4,” she said.
Myers also was excited to inform attendees that Ohio Chautauqua will return to Coshocton in 2015 and about Bon Appétit Appalachia.
“It’s a branding campaign that focuses on the local foods, farmers markets and vineyards of Appalachia, which includes 13 states,” she said. “It’s a positive thing that you are going to hear a lot about over the next couple of years.”
Myers also made sure to say thank you to everyone who lets her know about events and attractions in the community that she can promote to visitors.
One attraction that has helped draw visitors to the community is the museum’s advertising art exhibit in its special exhibit gallery. The luncheon was held in this gallery so people could take in the display, but they also got to hear some history on the exhibit from Patti Malenke, director of the museum.
“Everything in this room was made in Coshocton from the 1890s to the 1950s,” she said. “We were the birth place of advertising art and for the first 10 years of the 20th century we had more artists living here than any other place in the United States, except New York City.”
The exhibit will be up through Sunday, Sept. 14, and Malenke encouraged everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about Coshocton’s history.
“This is just an amazing display,” said Amy Stockdale, executive director of the Coshocton Chamber of Commerce. “You will not see anything like this other than in Coshocton, Ohio.”
Stockdale also was glad to share that the Chamber of Commerce has added 30 new members so far this year and that her office actively uses Facebook to help promote the news of its members.
“This is an important tool for small businesses that don’t have a lot of marketing dollars,” she said.
Stockdale also announced that this week is Buy Local Week.
“That also includes buying locally grown food and locally made wine so don’t forget about Local Bounty, our wonderful farmers’ markets and our five great wineries,” she said. “It’s important to buy local, shop local and support one another.”
Dorothy Skowrunksi, executive director of the Coshocton Port Authority, also shared how her organization does its best to help the local economy.
“We wear a lot of hats, but our main focus is on jobs and economic development,” she said.
The Port Authority has played a role in helping many businesses expand and get started up.
“The ethanol plant just celebrated its one year anniversary after being shut down for a long time,” Skowrunski said. “It took a lot of work to get it back up and running, but it is now successful.”
She also was happy to share that the Powdered Rubber Products Co. moved into the old Ansell Edmont building and is helping the economy and the environment because it turns old tires into new products instead of having them be sent to landfills.
The Coshocton County Commissioners also had good news to share at the luncheon. They are working on renovating the Job and Family Services Building, making plans to renovate the interior of the courthouse and announced that Irene Miller, former clerk of courts, is going to lead a citizens’ committee, which will help with fundraising for needed updates to the courthouse’s exterior bricks and sandstones. The commissioners also are working with the Village of Warsaw to help it get a new building for its emergency medical services and the board of elections to get them a space to do early voting.
Like Stockdale, Commissioner Gary Fischer also encouraged those in attendance to shop local.
“Tax money generates your county government,” he said. “Sales tax money hit historic highs last year and we are seeing a one to two percent increase from last year. We need to keep up the work because it all works if we work together.”
City of Coshocton Mayor Steve Mercer continued the theme of encouraging people to work together. He thanked the public for passing the city’s street levy so more roads can be paved and assured those in attendance that their city’s government is doing all it can to run as efficient as possible.
“If we work together we can keep things going and become more and more efficient,” Mercer said. “We are going to do what we can to grow Ohio and make our county and city better and I thank our state legislators for what they are doing to help accomplish that.”
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Multimedia, People & Places, Photo Galleries
