New chamber board members, officers elected

During their Oct. 10 meeting, the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce welcomed new members Jennifer Fisher, Howie Samelson, Beth Lewis and Jana Oliver. The four will fill the spots vacated by Phil Scheel, Deb Tudor, Greg Willson and Barb Heinze, who have officially “termed out” This means they’ve served two consecutive three-year terms.

Following the election of the new board members, the executive board was also elected and consists of President Sam Needham, Vice President Robin Griffin, Secretary Susan Linko and Treasurer Lana Nicodemus.

Also during the meeting, it was announced that the annual chamber banquet will be March 28, with the theme of “Antiques and Antidotes.” Guest speaker for the event will be John Sollo of Antiques Roadshow.

Chamber Executive Director Meri Ann Rush said considering there was a lower number of vehicles this year the derby was still good. According to the report presented at the meeting, the event resulted in $13,875.24 in net proceeds. Next year’s derby will be moved to the second Saturday of August rather than the traditional third Saturday so there is no conflict with the event and state fair.

Rush also reported on the recent online survey of whether people were interested in having a lighted Christmas parade. According to the results received so far, there is a lot of interest in having the parade, but only a couple interested in doing floats for them.

Heinze suggested contacting school groups to decorate floats, if chamber members and businesses provided funding and/or materials. She noted there are likely businesses that would like to do floats but do not have the time.