Chamber discusses maps, board vacancies

Thursday evening at the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce Board Meeting, the board received an update on the city maps. These maps feature Thermopolis on one side and Hot Springs County on the other, with advertisements outlining each.

The town side will feature local businesses and attractions, while the county side will have landmarks such as Legend Rock and fishing access points.

Chamber Executive Director Meri Ann Rush said the process of selling ad space on the maps is ongoing. Her hope is to sell all the spots through promotion in the Chamber’s newsletter and constant contact rather than business solicitation. As of Jan. 12, 20 of the total 36 spots were sold. Rush hopes to have all the spots sold by the end of February, allowing March for layout design and proofs, and the maps ready in early April.

The board also discussed the three board vacancies, noting there are various people who have expressed interest. Rush noted she touched base with Kolby George about being the board’s high school representative, and he is interested. To keep the board well rounded, suggestions were made to have people on the board from entities such as the media, school, hotels or hospital.

Tracy Linko reported on progress for the board’s Christmas party. After much discussion, the board voted to have the party Feb. 9. Though the date is also the board’s next meeting, they chose to shorten the meeting agenda — with the vote with the past president for the 2016 business, citizen and non-profit organization a priority — and pushed back the start time to 5:30 p.m. rather than 6 p.m.

The 2016 business, citizen and non-profit will be announced at the Chamber of Commerce Banquet scheduled for March 18. The banquet theme this year is “Passport to Adventure,” with the idea of going around the world.

The annual board meeting is scheduled for April 13. In addition to the regular meeting, the annual meeting includes information on what the Chamber has done over the past year.

Phillip Scheel provided his first report as the new Hot Springs County Commission liaison. Scheel, who has been attending meetings outside the Commission and the Chamber reported there would be a public meeting in the next 30 days regarding what to do with the old airport property. The meeting, he said, would be an opportunity for people to bring their ideas of what to do with the property.

An exact date for the meeting will be available when it is set.

Scheel also reported the Commissioner Association will head to Cheyenne for lobbying to ensure positive legislation is enacted for the funding of local governments. He further noted everyone has the opportunity to call and visit their legislative representatives, and he encourages people to keep abreast of the bills under consideration this session. The Legislature is a cool thing, he said, because everyone are neighbors and know what’s going on. But, they only meet for 45 days so there is a limited window for any action.

Main Street representative Deb Tudor said they are in the middle of strategic planning meetings, to determine what they want to accomplish in the coming years. They are also working on some grants for the downtown for way finding signs, plaques, benches and to get an architectural facade survey done.

Also during the meeting, the board looked at statistics regarding the visitor center over the past three years. There is an upward trend for walk-ins and calls at the center. Walk-ins have gone from 3,763 in 2014 to 4,594 in 2015 and 5,214 in 2016; calls were 906 in 2014, 1,176 in 2015 and 1,189 in 2016.

Board Chair Greg Willson noted the big jump in walk-ins from 2014 to 2015 may have been due to the Chamber’s changing to being open seven days a week. Rush explained the seven-days schedule was implemented in May 2014. Prior to that the office was only open on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.