Business association moves forward

PLAINS – The Plains Business Association, formerly the Plains Chamber of Commerce, opened up their first meeting of the year with a little brainstorming session.  

The strategic planning meeting, which was open to the public and well attended, took place in the Building One Conference Room at the Clark Fork Valley Hospital.   

Last October in the same meeting room, four individuals, Monica Weedemann, Sherry McCartney, Shauna O’Brien and Erika Lawson volunteered to join Sandy Chenoweth on the chamber’s board to keep the organization running.

Prior to last week’s meeting board members of the new business association had met and come up with ways to ensure the continued success of the organization.

O’Brien opened the meeting by going over some of the changes and goals of the business association.

“We have tried to come up with a whole new concept to carry us into the future,” O’Brien said.

Additionally, in their first public meeting of 2015, the board members of the association stressed the importance of working together to maximize the effectiveness of the association.

“Our objective is to unify the community and small business in this area. Everything we do will attempt to accomplish that” O’Brien said.

O’Brien addressed how in past years the chamber board had planned and executed many of the events held in Plains throughout the year.

The new business association recognized this strategy tended to put quite a bit of stress on board members. And in lieu of steps taken in past years, decided to look for volunteers from the community to pick certain events and take part in their planning and organization to ensure their success.

“If we all just do a little bit then I think we will have great results,” O’Brien said

Following O’Brien’s introduction, the meeting moved into the brainstorming phase, where community members in attendance proposed particular events they were interested to see continue in the Plains community.

Additionally, projects deemed as a way to draw more traffic towards area businesses were also proposed and discussed during this session.

One of these projects, proposed by John Lawyer, was the idea to look into utilizing the present Wild Horse School Property for a Glacier Lake Missoula Interpretative Center.

“Plains is in a very unique situation in terms of its geographic location,” Lawyer said.

Lawyer mentioned there is sizeable interest throughout the region in taking the geology of Glacial Lake Missoula and using it as a means to educate local residents and tourists who frequent this region of the state in the summer months.

According to Lawyer, in 2001 the National Park Service completed a study and submitted it to Congress, proposing that an Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail be established on existing public lands running from the Oregon coast to Missoula; the proposed trail would pass through the Plains valley.

On top of this NPS study, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act into law in 2009 and included in this legislation was the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Bill.

Lawyer added Plains sits at the major confluence between routes to Glacier National Park, with western traffic from Idaho and Washington passing through Plains via Highway 200 and eastern traffic passing by the town as they head north via Highway 135 and Highway 28.

“The goal is to get tourism to come to town that is not just recycling local money but bringing in fresh new money from outside,” Lawyer said.

He was quick to point out the massive potential in tapping into the large number of tourists who visit northwestern Montana annually.

“Last year Glacier National Park had 2.4 million visitors. If we attract one percent of those that would be 24,000 people who come to Plains and spend money,” Lawyer said.

Lawyer estimated this level of visitation could bring around $2 million dollars in revenue into the community.

Other ideas suggested during the brainstorming session including creating a pamphlet for visitors, which would include a map featuring the locations of local businesses.

The placements of banners over Main Street to highlight particular events and increased signage on the highways on the edge of town to draw in visitors were also proposed.

At the conclusion of the half hour of brainstorming those in attendance voted on ideas they would like to see carried forward.

Once the votes were tallied the interpretive center received 11 votes, the pamphlet with the map of businesses also received 11 votes, Plains Day received nine votes, and increased signage got eight votes.

The proposal of placing banners over Main Street and the placement of flower baskets on Main Street both received seven votes, while the concept of having a coordinating evening of activities during the holiday season tallied five votes.

Following the announcement of the results volunteers were taken for the aforementioned proposals and the meeting was wrapped up.

O’Brien stressed early on in the strategic planning meeting that the association’s board appreciated all the input they could get from members of the community.

“It is certainly not are business association it is our business association. We are just here to help be the vehicle to help drive what you guys want to accomplish in our town,” O’Brien said.