July 2022 Minutes

Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture General Meeting

Thursday July 6th, 2022 at the Tavern.

Members present: Alissa Miller (President), Shyla Hadley (Vice-President), Karol Zachmann (Treasurer), Tammy O’Donnell (Secretary), Jade Boggs, Vaughn Zenko, Dean Wang, Josey Madler, Jerri Breitbach, Beth Epley, James Park, Steve Zachmann, and Jodi Varner.

Staff Present:  Melissa Higbee, Executive Director and Kassidee Kilsdonk, Rec Department Director

Alissa called meeting to order at 12:09pm.

Tammy made a motion to approve the minutes from last month and Vaughn 2nd the motion. All in favor. Motion carried.

Executive Director Report:

Melissa Higbee reported Friends of Reynolds is up and running if you want join to help the Chamber. Go into your rewards account and add the Baker Chamber as your non-profit friend. Clean Up Day – not many helpers but still got some of it done. Melissa stated she wrote an article for the paper on this and made sure the people who came out were mentioned and their employer. A Thank You in the paper for Grasslands Donation and the Xtreme Broncs thank was written by Melissa and turned into the newspaper. Melissa said she has gotten lots of good feedback on having a mini golf downtown. We just need to figure out a fund raiser to order the greens and clubs for this idea to work. Melissa stated she was thinking maybe use the BPA stuff still and have Put Put golf with Crazy Days Downtown to raise the money for the greens and club.  The Chamber has two new members; that brings us to 76 members now. Calcutta Poll is up. Please go to the Chamber Facebook page and vote.

Rec Director Report:

Kassidee Kilsdonk stated she had 27 kids for the Mission to the Moon Camp, 14 kids for the Lifestraw Camp, Nerf Battle she had 40 to 50 people show up to participate, 5K ended up with 27 runners, Sand Castle contest had about 6 teams. Sports Camp only had 9 kids sign up. Kassidee said next year we will not have a camp week after 4th of July everyone is tired and the lack of kids that said up shows that the timing needs to be different. Upcoming programs: Art Camp next week 6 older kids and 18 younger kids signed up. The Rec Department is going to coordinate with the Fair Grounds so the kid’s art can be put in the Fair. Also, the kid’s art will be displayed in the Baker Community Art Walk.  Crazy Days 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament is coming up.

Old Business:

Update Fall Festival: Alissa stated Senator Bogner is willing to be in the Dunk Tank as well as Joe Epley, Roy Rost (County Commissioner), and Police Officer Strandbakke. Melissa said Vaughn Zenko said he could DJ the event. Letters still need to be sent out to vendors. The committee meets July 28th at Thee Garage at 12pm if anyone is interested on being on the committee. Beth Epley said she would like to be on the committee. James Parks would like to do the dunk tank.

Update Calcutta: Alissa stated the 90’s Theme is in the lead. We need people to go vote on the theme they want to see at the Calcutta this year. Until we get a theme, we are at a standstill so go vote. Facebook is where you need to go vote. The committee meets July 18th at Thee Garage at 12pm if anyone is interested on being on the committee. 

Update Golf Tournament: Alissa replied we had our first meeting and the tournament will be kept the same as far as scholarships goes. The Chamber will get a little for the work we put in it. The Rec Department will do its own events for fundraising during the event like the long drive or putting.  Angie is very thankful we are taking this over and keeping it the same. If you are interested in being on this committee we will be meeting again before the next board meeting on August 3rd at 11am at the SMART Office.

4th of July Chamber Recap: Melissa stated that the Boat Parade was a success and lots of great feedback on Facebook from having this event. Kassidee stated the 5K was a success and the Sand Castle Contest was a blast.

Crazy Days: Bike Parade starts at 9am Saturday Morning. Setup will be at 4pm on July 21st. Put Put will be Friday and Saturday 9am-4pm both days. $5 dollar per person to play. 3 on 3 starts at 8am both days. Businesses will be having deals and sidewalk sales.

New Business:

Website Updating Jobs:   Melissa stated that she would like to offer a new perk for being a chamber member. Melissa has researched other chamber websites and on their websites a job listing is available. Melissa said she has become better at managing the chamber website and would like to put current jobs of current chamber members on the website as a perk. After discussion, the board agreed that the Job Listing is a good idea and Melissa should pursue getting that up and going. So, if you have Job Listings, please get them to me and let me know when the job is filled to keep our website updated.

Reports from Members: Josey reported she will be doing scratch off this year instead of the ducks during Crazy Days, Shyla reported fairgrounds is still hiring even though the summer is almost over. Fair is coming up and we need the grounds mowed before fair time. There will be a carnival this year get your tickets early right now it’s $25 for a wrist band not sure what the prices will be day of carnival. 8-10 rides will be offered some adult and some kids. Thursday will be a rodeo, Friday Motor Cross, and Saturday Parade, Sunday Cowboy Church. Slamabama will be the free entertainment Friday and Saturday, Vaughn reported SMART is hosting the Baker Community Art Walk 12 Artists will be displayed in the downtown businesses from 3pm -8pm on July 16th. Sew What came through with the wine cups we needed to have a wine walk with the art walk. City Council lifted the open container for the wine cups only from 3pm to 8pm on that Saturday. Heiser’s will have the wine cups to purchase and you can fill up your cup at Heiser’s, OS Brew Pub, or Thee Garage. The Baker Childcare Project is hosting a Princess and Hero’s Picnic on July 17th from 11am -3pm. This event will be at the gazebo at the lake. Free will offering proceeds go towards the new child facility. Vaughn also stated he attended the Childcare Policy Workshop. This workshop had many different people coming together to discuss policy for the upcoming legislature. 10 State Legislator, 0 to 5 Montana, and DPHHS old and new director were a few that attended this workshop. Baker will not be getting any funding for childcare any time soon Vaughn stated. The left-over ARPA funds might be going into a trust fund of sorts to give to businesses as a tax incentive if they help with a portion of childcare for their employees. Jerri reported that Sew What will be apart of Crazy Days and she would like to thank the 4th of July committee for doing an awesome job with so many activities put on during the 4th of July weekend. Jodi Varner reported the O’Fallon Historical Society needs more people. If interested, they are having a meeting on the 17th at 2pm at the museum. Steve Zachmann reported he would like to thank the 4th of July committee everyone who worked so hard at making these events run smoothly. City Council was last night. The city is receiving a 485,000 grant from the ARPA funds for the Baker Wells Project. Thank you EPEDC for writing this grant. Wyrick Construction will be starting soon on street repairs. The city does not have to do a procurement if the project stays under $80,000. The city can hire directly and use the city budget. 3rd street from Hwy 12 to the Creek on 3rd street will be one of the repairs being done. The City has renewed their contract with MDT to do the street sweeping. Still trying to figure out a railroad crossing. Fireworks complaints: Only 2 calls on the 4th of July about fireworks. But a lot of calls on Tuesday after the fact with complaints of the fireworks. Facebook is not the best way to reach the city please call our office if you have concerns. Baseball score board is needing fixed again. We were hoping the school would start a team and be able to help fix the board however, that is not happening. Vaughn stated the Baseball Association has some money. Karol Zachmann reported she would like to give a thank you from FMC for the cornhole, sand volley ball, and horse shoe tournament. Thank you, Jade, for coming and playing sand volley ball.  Thanks to the City, Chamber, Fallon County, for letting us do this. Melissa and Kassidee, Brenda Uecker and Laurie MacKay for being on the committee. Meeting is next week at Thee Garage on July 14th at noon if interested in being on the committee. Potluck was a no go. The Community Church raised $250 to send to Red Lodge to help with the flooding disaster they had recently. Thank you for the Tavern having a band, paper and radio for announcing our events, and the Bank of Baker for the coins in the coin hut. James Parks reported he would like to start an adult 3 on 3 basketball yearly event. Beth Epley reported that EPEDC has been busy $55,000 in the last month of grants. We received the Red Ants Pants grant for $1,000 dollars. We now have $6,000 to do a placemaking contest between the 5 communities we serve. Training Tuesday the 19th Show Me the Money in Ekalaka. Alissa reported Crazy Days will have bike parade and police will give out popsicles at Reynolds parking lot for the participates. Cow and Carbon workshop in Wolfpoint went well. In this workshop, they taught how carbon credits work. July 12th at the Tavern Frederick from the Governor’s office will be in town at 12:30pm. He would like to meet with community members and get a feel for Eastern Montana and how he could help with businesses moving to this area.

Pam Owens arrived late at 12:55pm.

Other Announcements: Pam Owens announced that the Beautification committee could use more volunteers and helpers. As of now, there are only two on the committee. Let Pam know if you’re interested in being involved in this committee.

Adjournment: Tammy O’Donnell made a motion to adjourn at 1:14pm. Jerri Breitbach. All in favor. Motion carried.

**Next Meeting Thursday August 4th, 2022 at NOON at the Heiser’s**