Palmyra Chamber of Commerce

PALMYRA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES April 12, 2012 8:00 a.m. Creative Plastics

Meeting was called to order by Chamber President Rick Ball at 8:00 a.m.

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll Call: Laurie Mueller, Lori Garlock , Rick Ball, Kelly Anderson– present.

Treasurer’s Report: Motion by Terry Burrington, second by Dave Turner to accept the February and March’s 2012 Treasurer’s report as presented Total cash on hand is $6,941.53. All ayes-carried.

Approval of Minutes: Motion by Dave Turner, second by Kelly Anderson to approve the February 2012 meeting minutes. All ayes-carried.

Communications: A thank you from Doghouse Liquors for the plant that the Chamber sent to them, and thank you’s from the family of Mary Squire, and also Ken Kaufman for the plants they received were read aloud by President Rick Ball. The Jefferson County Dairy Breakfast will be on May 19th and tickets are available at the village Hall. There is a new dental office open in Eagle.

Business:

1. Everyone went around the room and introduced themselves.

2. Representatives from Palmyra Eagle High School District were present and explained that the school has been implementing their new motto “Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful”. These are the schools new expectations for the students throughout all of the district buildings. They are rewarding students who are achieving the 3 goals and they would like the entire community to support this motto. The Art students will be making posters and they will be going to local businesses asking to put their posters up in a show of support. Everyone thought this was a great idea and Lori Garlock will put the motto on the sign in front of Banco.

3. Motion by Dave Turner, second by Lori Garlock to spend $256 on a ½ page ad in the Summer Fun Guide published by Southern Lakes Newspapers. All-ayes carried.

4. Lori Garlock gave an update on the rummage sale. She explained that this was a chamber event but it was held when sidewalk days would be going on in the village and businesses participated in that so it was more to help promote the businesses but in the last few years it has become just a rummage sale for the households. Discussion took place on whether or not to change the date of the rummage sale to coordinate with the Hardware Store’s sidewalk days and try to get more businesses involved or if another organization would want to take it over like maybe a Church. Lori said she will not be doing the rummage sale at all next year due to more responsibilities at her regular job. The chamber will look at this again at future meetings and ask if any of the Churches or businesses would like to take it over.

5. Kelly Anderson, Wendy Lucht, and Marie Koch will be on the scholarship committee this year to choose the 3 recipients of the Chamber’s $250 scholarships. Senior Awards night is May 16th. 6. The outstanding student’s names have been given to the Chamber and they will honor them at a dinner on Wed. May 2nd at the Cornerstone Restaurant at 5:30 pm., dinner at 6 pm. Normally the meeting would be on Thursday but this is a very busy night for the students as they are in sports and they have games so the Chamber moved the meeting to Wed. instead.

7. Rick Ball mentioned some info. He had received on a recycling company out of Elkhorn that would pay a penny a pound for recycled electronics. He thought this would be a good thing to offer to Village residents. Laurie Mueller said that the Village contacted their garbage company and they will supply a much larger dumpster than this company would have and they too will pay a penny a pound for the ewaste materials.

8. Kelly Anderson is looking into a company to give the Chamber a price on removing the very large trees on the corner by Hot Rod Bar & Grill and the Rutkowski residence and also the tree in front of Banco that is growing so large it is blocking the sign out front. Rick said that maybe a large flower pot could be placed on the corner by Hot Rod’s rather than a tree and maybe a bench as well and then more compact trees in front of Rutkowski’s and Banco or even some shrubs.

9. Laurie Mueller asked if anyone would be interested in doing a “Spring Clean Up” in the village would involve in volunteers walking the streets and alleys picking up garbage. No one responded.

Any Other Business: Rick Ball mentioned that Blue Rose Floral has become a chamber member as well as….. There are new owners of the ice cream shop now known as The Kettle Hill Grill.

Peter Fritch from Rushing Waters Trout farm told everyone present of their plans for building a banquet facility for special events and hosting weddings, cooking classes and giving tours of the Trout Farm. This is a very exciting time for them. So far the re-zoning with Jefferson County has gone well but they are against a hurdle with the Palmyra Town Board. The Trout Farm would need a liquor license and the town of palmyra has never issued liquor licenses. The Chamber will be writing a letter of support and doing whatever they can to help the Trout Farm as this expansion would bring jobs to the community as well as people that would help the local businesses.

The American Legion wanted to make everyone aware of a telemarketing scam going around that asks for donations to support the Veterans, please be careful this is a huge scam.

Rick Ball brought up to everyone present that the Chamber is going to have to be thinking about the possibility of hiring a person to work part time to do all of the things necessary to keep the chamber going like emails, mailings, phone calls, website, etc. Lori Garlock and Laurie Mueller are spending way too much time doing chamber things and they each have full time jobs not mention Kelly Anderson and Rick as well. The members either want the chamber to keep growing and be willing to get some help or it may end up as it was a few years ago, barely active. Everyone agreed that there should be a job description written and reviewed and then start looking for a person that would be interested. This would be very minimal hours per week but it might work out well for a stay at home mom or someone that is retired. This will be on the next meeting agenda for more discussion

Next meeting will be at the Cornerstone Restaurant on May 2, 2012 at 5:30 p.m.

There being no other business Laurie Mueller made a motion, second by Kelly Anderson to adjourn at 9:35 a.m.