Pasco Chamber of Commerce: Putting economic development front and center

This year, we are proud to have the leadership of Dennis Gisi of John L. Scott as the 2017-18 Pasco Chamber of Commerce board president. He has a long history and experience in the region volunteering in area business, development and community organizations.

Late last year, the Chamber Board of Directors evaluated the chamber’s mission for 2018 and beyond. For over 100 years, the Chamber has embraced the economic growth our founders had predicted.

As the Tri-City area’s oldest business advocacy organization, the Pasco Chamber strives to adapt to changes over the years to better serve our thriving community. Our major focus in 2018 will continue be economic development for the Greater Pasco Area. Our Economic Development Committee, in conjunction with our community partners, will begin to implement its goals from information derived from the Somos Pasco visioning project.

Opposition to the Lower Snake River Dams remains a threat with the expanded influence for the removal of our clean hydropower system. To that end, we plan to create a “River Fest” event highlighting the vast array of interests benefiting from the Columbia-Snake River system.

The effort aims to bring together a diverse group of organizations to showcase the importance of the river to our area in an outdoor community event venue. This concept was successfully launched last year, led by the Port of Whitman, at Boyer Park just down river of Lower Granite Dam in Whitman County.

Successfully producing a Tri-City event will provide more visibility to the issue, and potentially launch an event further down river to further educate more populous areas. Be on the lookout for more information, because this event likely will take place in early autumn.

In January, the Eastern Washington Ag Expo drew over 2000 visitors from the Pacific Northwest as agriculture industry representatives showcased new products and advancements in the agribusiness industry. Attendees sat in on informative seminars about precision ag, better business practices, pesticide credits classes and live cattle-handling demonstrations.

We added two new large partners to the event – Lamb Weston and US Cellular. Thanks again to Les Schwab Tires for their continued support with thousands of bags of complimentary popcorn for the attendees. The importance of agriculture is growing in our area as companies are relocating here for our abundant water and accommodating climate. It is important that we continue to develop ag technology and manufacturing advancements here to keep our economy growing as the mission at Hanford evolves.

The Pasco Chamber also is host for the Mid-Columbia Agriculture Hall of Fame to honor our Agriculture Industry. The banquet in January honored a group of deserving individuals crucial to the agricultural industry of the Mid-Columbia area.

The evening honored Jim and Ann Moore, [Pioneer Award recipient], Don Kinion [Ag Advisor], Allen Olberding [Stewardship Award] and Visionary Award recipients Dave Roseliep from the Ag Forestry Program. Congratulations to all the honorees and thank you to the Port of Pasco for supporting this event.

August of 2017 was a hot month for us, too! We partnered with the Port of Pasco in a Solar Eclipse Viewing at Osprey Pointe that drew more than 1,000 people – and we also launched our new Crawdad Fest where attendees dined on hundreds of pounds of delicious local crawdads. We will be sponsoring the Crawdad Fest again in September!

June 15 will be the 7th Annual Sagebrush Scramble presented by Gesa Credit Union at Sun Willows Golf Course, offering a chance to get some business done on the links. Mark your calendars as well for our Annual Sunshine Meeting scheduled for Sept. 10.

The Pasco Chamber remains a friendly and personable group of businesses and professionals who have not lost sight of person-to-person contact and the comfort that comes with attending monthly luncheons where everyone gets to know your name.

Over 100 years ago, the Pasco Chamber was created to promote and advocate for economic development and free enterprise. We enthusiastically continue that tradition and carry on those goals as we seek to further incubate and endorse the kind of free enterprise and economic vitality that makes Pasco such a great place to live.

This story was originally published April 1, 2018 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Pasco Chamber of Commerce: Putting economic development front and center."