Jim Sellers’ Chamber Article for 05-29-08

Inquiry Referral Feedback and Roads Funding Highlight Week

What a grand start to another season on Grand Lake! A little rain and wind, then sun and fun to follow. To all of our new Grand Lake businesses, we hope all went well over the weekend and that the shelves needed to be restocked after Monday.

Our state Legislators concluded their work for 2008 with the close of the session close to midnight last Friday. One of our representatives, Chuck Hoskins, was up early Saturday morning for an early day version of Grand Lake Live. He gave a recap of this session's activities. Also present was one of our board members, Mayor Joe Johnson (Vinita), there to fill us in on where his next fish fry would be held. Yours truly gave some of the latest activities of the Chamber and what to look for in the coming weeks.

At the top of the list is our membership meeting at 11:30 Thursday at Arrowhead Yacht Club. Our speaker is Shelli Todd from the Department of Commerce. (If you get the Chronicle early enough maybe you can still make it!) Next month we will be honored to have the Head of the Department of Labor for the State of Oklahoma, Lloyd Fields. This will provide the prefect opportunity to find out about many new regulations that are taking effect this year. Don’t miss this one!

One good thing that coming out of the work at the Capitol this year was the road funding package supported by some of my long time friends. $625 million in funding that will save lives and improve economic development in the state. The T.R.U.S.T. Road Coalition extended their gratitude and thanks to the Oklahoma Legislature and Gov. Henry for making transportation a top priority of the 2008 session.

Neal McCaleb, former Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation and president of the group said, “What the Oklahoma Legislature and Governor have done today is show their leadership in a tough budget year. Choosing to make transportation a priority amid declining state revenues is the wisest possible investment of taxpayer dollars. Every time you invest in transportation infrastructure, you are stimulating more development that leads to more prosperity for our state and improved safety for Oklahoma families.”

As we are beginning to see our investment in our mile long airport landing area, opportunities are opening up for businesses to start and to grow. It takes a combination of all infrastructure repair and expansion for economies to grow.

Have you made plans for you and your friends to be a part of the FUN IN THE SUN POKER RUN? The date is June 28^th and details are available at the chamber office. You do not want to miss this fun event that will help the Chamber continue to support our member businesses grow and prosper. Call 782-3214.

A new service we are providing through your chamber investment is our referral network. As calls and e-mails and snail mail come into our office for questions we are letting our members know when and who we referred their businesses to, by name. This way our members can track where their customers are coming from and see the value of their membership investment. IT WORKS!

HAVE A GREAT GRAND DAY!!!