November 2021 Minutes

Baker Chamber of Commerce & Ag General Meeting

Thursday, November 4th, 2021 at Thee Garage.

Vice-President Alissa Miller called the meeting to order.

Members present: Alissa Miller, Trish Barth, Dean Wang, Karol Zachmann, Melissa Higbee, Tammy O’Donnell, Emily Medearis, Steve Zachmann, Beth Epley, Jessica Batterman, Tracey Bruha.

Tammy moved to approve the October minutes. Trish seconded. All in favor. Minutes approved.

Executive Director Report: Director Heiser discussed her QuickBooks training through the SBDC at DCC. She felt she learned a lot and with Trish and Alissa’s help they should be able to get everything straightened out. For the new fiscal year, a new company will be made in QuickBooks for ease of use and better navigation.

Old Business:

Memorandum of Understanding Between Chamber and SMART- Final edits from the sub-committee meeting have been submitted to Darcy for review.

Moonlight Madness Recap- Downtown seemed to stay quite busy and the Haunted House helped keep people downtown.

Baker Chamber Calcutta Recap- The Calcutta was very well received with many board members getting praised for a great event.

Trunk or Treat Recap- Director Heiser made up 225 treat bags between The Chamber and SMART. Those were all gone before 5 PM. She purchased a total of 16 bags of candy and she would estimate over 300 kids attended. The beautiful afternoon definitely helped with attendance.

New Business:

Grasslands Donation/Account (Rec Department)- Director Heiser shared that she received a letter from Grasslands wanting to donate $5,000 to the Chamber. They would need an acceptance letter and explanation of what the funds would be used for prior to cutting a check. Karol made a motion to accept the $5,000 and use it towards getting the Rec Department up and running. Trish seconded this motion. All in favor. Motion carried. Director Heiser will work on drafting up a letter for the board’s approval prior to sending off to Grasslands.

Baker Jam (All hands-on deck) tentatively April 2nd-3rd- Alissa explained that this event takes a lot of planning and the week of is extremely busy. She will work on getting a job/duty list put together. She also stated that a flyer needs to get put out ASAP. Registration to open in January or February. Also getting referees is very important.

Other New Business:

The Christmas Stroll will be Thursday, December 9th. The Chamber will once again put together approximately 250 goodie bags for the kids.

Christmas in the Park will be Saturday, November 27th.

We will again have a committee to drive around and judge Christmas lights. This will take place on Monday, December 6th. There will be Baker Bucks awarded to the top three winners.

The Chamber will once again sponsor Be a Winner Shop in Baker. Director Heiser will reach out to see which businesses will be participating this year. There will be 3 winners of Baker Bucks to be drawn on December 6th, 13th and 20th.

Reports From Members:

EPEDC: Melissa explained that there is a new workforce training grant that will allow businesses to get up to $3,000 per employee to assist with additional training and certifications that will help their business grow and earn more revenue. She has been taking a training with the University of Utah on remote worker training and how it could be brought to Baker. The Montana History Foundation Grant cycle just opened if anyone is interested in that. Beth discussed the many trainings they have helped put on over the last month including Google, e-commerce, board governance, recruiting for the next generations and meat processing.  If anyone has any training, they think would be beneficial to their employees or would like to see in Baker let them know. They are always working on grants so if you need any assistance let them know.

SMART: The Haunted House saw approximately 400 people, and made $2,603 over the three nights.  Vaughn also recorded a voice over and music/sound effects for Big Mac’s Pumpkin Patch Haunted Hayride. We are working on getting The Baker State Bank Building on the historical register.

The Real Estate Investment Co-op’s steering committee has their first meeting November 10th where they will be identifying potential properties that we want to target first for the co-op.  The steering committee consists of Alissa Miller, Kevin Dukart, Mona Madler, Brenda Stoddard, Carson Beach, Brandon Schmidt and the BPA group at Baker High School (either an advisor or a student representative). Mary Grube resigned as President of SMART last week so a new President was elected and Jodi Varner accepted. SMART approved $3247.11 for a COVID Relief Grant.

EMEDA: The Child Care Project received a $1000 donation from a local business.  They were also asked to take part in a pilot program for Zero to Five Montana that comes with a $7000 grant, we’ll know this week if we’re accepted. There is consideration for a Child Care Co-op model for local businesses to provide child care for their employees as a bridge until the actual facility is completed. A feasibility study would need to be done. Linda Rost a committee member for the Child Care Project spoke with our Congressional delegation and they all agreed to send letters of support for future grant applications (not including the ARPA funds). The Child Care Committee has set some upcoming events including being at the Christmas Bazaar, November 21, making ornaments / bake sale.  Matinee Double Feature:  2 movies at Longfellow, 1pm and 3pm, November 26.  Gingerbread Decorating to be determined. EMEDA approved a $10,000 Façade Improvement Grant for Sew What and there are two other pending applications.

Friends of FMC: The 12th Annual Festival of Trees will be Monday, November 22nd. The Friends of FMC Foundation will be holding a soup and bread supper on Thursday, December 9th from 5-7 PM at Thee Garage after the Christmas Stroll. November 18th is National Rural Health Day so Friends of FMC will be sending out coloring pages to 3rd-6th graders.

Xi Alpha Nu: The annual Christmas Bazaar will be held on November 21st. BHS music will be selling concessions.

City of Baker: Mayor Zachmann stated that the 2021 street improvement project has been signed off as completed as of last nights City Council meeting. There are a few low spots that need to be remedied, but he is unsure if that will happen yet this fall or have to wait until spring as it is weather dependent. They will hold 2% until they are fixed which is standard. A special improvement district committee has been put together that will include members of city council, the city attorney, Shannon Hewson and a county commissioner. A maintenance improvement district will also be created so we don’t wait 20 years and have such a large cost for street repair in the future. The city has a conditional new hire for the City Police Officer position that Daylon is vacating. This was an internal hire from the Public Works department and now that position that will be vacated will have to be advertised. The city is still working with SNIP in creating an MOU. There is some confusion on reporting requirements. Currently the City has an audit coming up.

Trish made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Karol seconded. All in favor. Meeting Adjourned.