Chamber votes on annual awards

Last Thursday, the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce voted for the Citizen, Business and Nonprofit of the Year. Joining the regular board was chamber past president, Reg Filkey, who was named the first Citizen of the Year in 1968.

The award winners will be announced during the 97th annual Chamber Banquet, March 24 at the fair building. Prior to voting, Chamber Executive Director, Meri Ann Rush, read the reasons why each candidate was nominated.

Deb Tudor reported Main Street Thermopolis had their first Oktobrewfest meeting, and the date for the event will be Oct. 6. She said, hopefully, being later in the year and in October the weather will be nice. Oktobrewfest has been plagued by cold and rain the past couple years.

During her director’s report, Rush spoke to the cost of replacing computers at the chamber office. The hard drive of the computer in the main lobby, which was purchased in 2014, is going out.

Rush has received information that the life expectancy of a business computer is 3-5 years. Replacing the CPUs would cost $921 for each. Rush was also notified she has the option of going with two monitors. The total cost estimate — with two computers and three monitors — would be $2,391.97. That includes two monitors on Rush’s office computer and one on the main lobby machine.

As the computer replacements were not budgeted for this fiscal year, the board voted for Rush to take a look at what budget items she could pull from to cover the expense.

The chamber also held a strategic planning workshop on Feb. 12. Rush said they did great at their previous work session on the strategic plan and goals, and expressed her appreciation for those who attended. After she typed it up, she wanted to have another session to go over the wording.

Rush further noted they have used other towns’ samples, with the philosophy of “why create the wheel? If it’s out there we need to use it.” However, wording needs to be changed to where it sounds like Thermopolis speaking, not another town.

She wanted one more “polishing session” prior to finalizing the strategic plan and goals, which will be presented at the annual chamber meeting on April 12.

Upcoming meetings for the chamber further include the Christmas party on Feb. 16 and the regular meeting on March 8.