Chamber of Commerce elects joint presidents

SUPERIOR – The monthly meeting of the Mineral County Chamber of Commerce brought updates on events and projects in 2014 as well as the election of the new chamber presidents.

The meeting was opened by Vice President David Lawrence, with some guidance from Anita Bailey – the former president of the chamber. The only nomination made for president was for Loie and Monte Turner to act as co-presidents for the chamber.

Monte put himself up for consideration in December of 2013. However, changes at the hospital and health center caused him to withdraw his candidacy. After the concerns were discussed, the Turners decided to re-enter together.

“We were skiing a couple weeks ago,” said Monte. “I asked Loie…‘listen, you’ve always been…my right hand, for ideas, thoughts, follow through. What if we present to the chamber we [act as president] together?’ And…she thought it might work.”

When no discussion was raised, Monte and Loie were unanimously voted in as co-presidents of the chamber. The remainder of the meeting was run by Monte.

One of the first reports presented was on the annual car show in June. Glenn Koepke, president of the Mineral County Community Foundation, recalled some of the history of the car show as a county event. The community foundation was called upon to help with the event early in its history and was eventually put in charge of it.

However, the founders did not like how the foundation ran the event and took over it again. Over time, people have become tired of the event and pulled out from their involvement. The end result has been for the car show to be without an organizer.

Koepke said Rosie Schreckendgust came forward and offered to take over. She felt the event needed to be kept alive and in Superior, because of the tourism traffic it brings to the area. Koepke said Schreckendgust would run the car show, but would need the chamber’s help.

The car show committee will meet with Schreckendgust to begin organizing the event. The community foundation will also reach out to recruit others who have offered to help with the show.

“[We’re going to] try to cultivate them to be part of the committee to help, because it takes a lot…to get things done,” said Koepke.

According to Koepke, the show usually brings in between 75 to 125 cars from various areas. People come from all over the west, as well as parts of Canada, each year to participate in the show or look at the cars.

With the new organizers selected, the car show is expected to occur on schedule. Koepke felt they would still be able to have the event on June 7. Other events will also keep to previous scheduling.

Bailey presented an update on the annual golf tournament. She said Father’s Day weekend worked well last year and would be a good time to hold the event again. This would put the tournament on June 14.

There were also discussions of the chamber’s support to the Friends of the Olympian. The group is a non-profit organization set up to support the Forest Service project to create the Route of the Olympian Recreation Trail.

There have been challenges with marking areas where certain traffic would be allowed. The Forest Service has also run into difficulties with the purchase of a railroad trestle near Saltese, needed to complete the route.

“That’s the million dollar deal,” said Monte.

According to Monte, the owners will not waver on the price they originally wanted to sell the trestle for. They have requested $1 million for the trestle, not counting the cost to repair it. This is a problem for the county groups interested in the purchase, since the refurbishment would be more than the cost to buy the trestle.

There was also discussion of ways to advertise the area’s businesses to the county and surrounding area. The chamber wanted to assure the community an updated business directory would be available. However, it would most likely not be out before 2015.

The next chamber of commerce meeting will be on Thursday, February 13, at 7 p.m. in the chamber office.