Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce

Weekly Update    February 7, 2003

NOURSE GATEWAY OPENED: A towering new entrance to the Nourse Chillicothe Automall was dedicated this week in a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Dick Nourse (third from left in the photo). Named the "Gateway to Savings," the new entrance is one of many improvements made by the dealership this past year. Customers will now be able to enter at Stewart Place and River Tree without crossing multiple lanes of traffic. Trained staff in a booth will help direct customers to the various sites in the mall along with new signage. The Automall now employs 100 and is doing business with customers in 18 counties.

BANKERS BREAKFAST: The chamber, along with the Small Business Development Center in Piketon, Ohio University-Chillicothe and the city of Chillicothe, is sponsoring a Bankers Roundtable Breakfast Feb. 26. Bank presidents, vice presidents of lending, relationship managers, leasing officers and loan officers are invited to attend the 7:30-9:30 a.m. session to learn more about partnering with the Small Business Administration to help companies get started or to help with special programs. The cost is $5 and it will be held at OU-C. Contact Bill Smeltzer at 800-860-7232 or e-mail him at smeltzer.17@osu.edu for more information.

NEW BOOKSTORE COMING DOWNTOWN: Christopher and Angela Pridemore hope to open Reader's Retreat on Statehood Day (March 1). The bookstore will feature 10,000 titles and be able to help customers order what might not be on the shelves. It will be open until 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It will be at 90 N. Paint St., the site of the former Shadow Box, and across from Sunnybrook Deli.

NEW DOLLAR STORE COMING: Word is that a Family Dollar and Cashland will be going in a new building at the northwest corner of Second and Bridge streets. No word on when they hope to be open.

PLANS ON THE BOARD: Buffalo Wild Wings has submitted its building plans to the city for construction of a 160-seat restaurant just north of the Elder-Beerman store on Bridge Street. A mid-summer opening is planned.

NEW GENERAL MANAGER: Phil Roberts, formerly the publisher of the daily paper in Hillsboro, is the new general manager of The Advertiser serving Ross County.

PAINTS REFURBISHING: All that work at the Chillicothe Paints store and offices at Second and Paint streets is to take care of an accident from the floor above. For your calendar purposes, Opening Day is May 23 against the new team from Florence, Ky.

WE’RE GETTING VISITORS IN JUNE – LOTS OF THEM: A preliminary schedule from the Ross Chillicothe Convention and Visitors Bureau shows plenty of activity that month. On tap: Project Learning Tree Ohio (200 people), Model A Ford Club (75-100), County Recorders Association (100), Harley Owners Group (better known as HOG; 70-100), Ohio Postmasters (250-300). And that's just June. And that’s on top of Gus Macker mania.

DON'T FORGET YOUR DECORATIONS: Jim Doersam already has decked out his Chillicothe Electric and Doersam Marketing buildings on West Water Street for the Bicentennial celebration, as shown in the photo. Also proudly displaying flags and bunting is the crew at Whited Seigneur Sams and Rahe at Seventh and Paints streets. It's not too late to order, so give JoAnne White at the Cellar Room a call right away for your bunting and state flags. And speaking of the celebration, tentative plans call for closing Water Street from Walnut to Paint on Thursday, Feb. 27 (to make room for the bell-casting

trucks) and the rest of Water to Mulberry starting at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28. Paint Street from Water to Main also closes at 6 that day along with Second Street from Walnut to Mulberry. Main Street from Mulberry to Walnut will be closed 5 a.m. to midnight Saturday, March 1. Walnut and Mulberry both will be open the entire weekend. So plan your trips downtown that weekend allowing plenty of time to get to events.

KENWORTH NUMBERS ARE GOOD: Paccar, the parent firm of the Kenworth Truck Co., reported this week its quarterly earnings more than doubled from a year ago and that its share of the heavy-duty truck market increased in 2002 to 23.7 percent from 19.7 percent. Stock analysts had predicted earnings per share on average of 64 cents for the quarter, but Paccar blew those away, coming in at $1.05 per share.

PARKS LEVY MEETING: The second meeting of the Chillicothe/Ross Committee for Parks to promote passage of a countywide levy is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Room A of the Ross County Service Center on Western Avenue.

PIKE WOMAN HONORED: Rose Downing, for 32 years an agent for Lorbach Insurance in Waverly, was named the Pike County Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year for 2002. She is the president of the Pike County Convention and Visitors Bureau and will be the 2003 vice president of Pike County Rotary.

CELEBRATION PLANNED: The Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative is inviting chamber members to a program to celebrate the news of the United States Enrichment Corporation's decision to build the gas centrifuge lead cascade facility in Piketon. The celebration will be Thursday, Feb. 20 at the OSU South Centers on Shyville Road. The social hour begins at 5 and the program at 6. Call Barbara at 740-289-3654 if you plan to attend.

PART OF SANDWICH QUESTION ANSWERED: In last week's newsletter, we asked if anyone knew about a "Chillicothe Sandwich" in regards to a question asked by someone in California. New chamber board member Pat Nichols has part of the answer: “Recently I was watching an old Judy Garland movie called “The Harvey Girls”.  In the movie there is a group of girls that are going out west to be Harvey girls (waitresses) and they are eating a “Chillicothe sandwich” and, they told what was on it but I don’t remember that part.  One of the girls on the train was from Chillicothe, Ohio and she brought the sandwich.”

NEW SUNSHINE RECEPTIONIST: Misty Brown, a 1996 graduate of Huntington, is a new receptionist at Sun Shine Tanning Studio.

ATTENDS CONFERENCE: Robert Newton of Newton Financial Services recently attended the "Quick Start 2003" national sales and education conference for VESTAX Securities Corporation in Atlanta.

WORKSHOP AND SEMINAR: Don't forget to register for two educational opportunities being offered by the chamber. The Group/Team Development seminar is 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18 and the Lockout/Tagout Workshop of the Safety Council is the next day. Details are on our website at www.chillicotheohio.com

RUSH TO OUR NEXT BAB: TPR Personnel is sponsoring the next chamber Business After Business which will be held at Club Rush on North Bridge Street. For the raffle that benefits the Pathfinders program,. TPR's Tim Robinson is offering a commemorative football of Ohio State's national championship season signed by Ross County's own Ben Hartsock. Make sure to buy a chance for this beauty. Date: Feb. 19. Time: 5-7 p.m. BAB Registration form

This newsletter goes weekly to more than 350 of the chamber’s members for whom we have e-mail addresses. If you have an item you’d like to include, e-mail Executive Director Marvin Jones at mjones@chillicotheohio.com. If you’d like to be omitted from this mailing, reply and ask to unsubscribe. To stay abreast of chamber activities, make sure to visit www.chillicotheohio.com frequently.