Hot Springs Chamber discusses events

HOT SPRINGS – The Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce had a full slate of events to discuss when the committee came together for their monthly meeting last week.

A number of matters including the recent Sanders County Fair and various efforts to pitch the town of Hot Springs to potential visitors were discussed during the afternoon assembly.

Members of the chamber assembled for the meeting and a luncheon at noon on Thursday, Sept. 4.

The meeting started with a roundup of the chamber’s activities at the Sanders County Fair, where the Hot Springs committee ran the soft drink booth throughout the annual event over Labor Day weekend.

“The fair was great. We went to the fair clean up day and opened up the booth on Thursday and it seemed like it went smoothly,” said Leslee Smith, president of the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Rachel Hulce was at the meeting to speak about the Chicks N’ Chaps event.

Hulce noted the proceeds from the event are used to help organizations within Sanders County.

“We give half of it to the Sanders County Cancer Network and the other half goes to the Clark Fork Valley Hospital to give out free mammograms or free treatment,” Hulce said.

Following the fair wrap up attention shifted towards Mike Brown from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe Roads Program.

The project, involving the construction of a footpath along the south side of Highway 77 has recently moved into the project’s development stage.

“The path will start right at the high school and goes right down along the highway all the way near the intersection of the highway. It is about a mile and a half long,” Brown said.

After Brown’s presentation the focus of the meeting turned towards marketing the Hot Springs community towards those passing through the area.

Over the last couple of chamber meetings the members have discussed the possibility of pursuing advertising signs on Highway 28 outside of town and or U.S. Route 93 in Elmo, in order to attract travelers to the Hot Springs community.

Smith said the company the chamber is looking into produces vinyl wrapped signs, which are placed on advertising billboards.

“The artwork goes into a designer, they put the design together, you get to approve it on your e-mail and they create a vinyl wrapped sign which goes over the existing billboard,” Smith said.

Smith added projected costs for the project are $150 for production of the sign, $150 for installation of the sign and $125 per month for renting the billboard.

The president of the chamber reiterated the importance of attracting more visitors to the Hot Springs downtown area.

“That seems to be the most aggressive way to get a really nice and attractive billboard sign up,” Smith said.

The local chamber continued its efforts to get the word out about Hot Springs by pursuing radio advertisements.

Steven Pickle from the Anderson Radio Group mentioned the advertising opportunities available on KERR radio, which broadcast the University of Montana Grizzly sports games.

“If we have five businesses that want to be part of those ads, that’s ten dollars per game for a business. The least expensive advertising we can offer to anybody is during the political season and this is way below what politicians get,” Pickle said.

Pickle mentioned the advertising slots would run not just during football games but also basketball games.

The ads would start in September and go towards the end of March.

“This is an extremely affordable opportunity,” Pickle said.

Smith noted during the fall months the collegiate sports are a major draw to the region and would be a good way to attract visitors to Hot Springs.

Smith mentioned the Homesteader’s weekend in early June could also be plugged through the advertising time.

“I think we should consider it and put it out their to the businesses,” Smith said.