A few thousand people stood on Water and Paint Streets in Downtown Chillicothe Friday evening as the City’s Christmas Tree was lighted along with several other displays in Yoctangee Park, during the Chillicothe Downtown Holiday Open House and Lighting Ceremony.
(Downtown Chillicothe 2021 Open House & Lighting Ceremony- Litter Media/Mike Smith)
Chillicothe-Ross Chamber of Commerce CEO Mike Throne introduced Santa, as the jolly old elf pushed the button that lighted the Christmas Tree at the head of Yoctangee Park.
Throne also told the crowd that more than $90,000 was raised through private and business contributions to light the park, compared to $15,000 raised a couple of years ago.
There was no lighting ceremony and open house last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce celebrated the community’s and local businesses’ resilience to not only survive, but also grow in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The chamber highlighted these success stories during Tuesday’s annual meeting held at “Bell Manor” off of Musgrove Road.
Tara Gillum, owner of Steiner’s Speakeasy and ALPHA Femme Boutique took home the top honor as “Entrepreneur of the Year Award”.
(Watch our interview ABOVE with Tara Gillum concerning her secret to success and plans for business growth)
The “Young Professional of the Year” is Mary Montgomery, food services director for Chillicothe City Schools. Mary led the effort to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing the feeding of 170,000 children from “Babe- The Big Blue Bus”
Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce “Young Professional of the Year”
The “Corporate Citizen of the Year” went to Herlihy Moving & Storage, accepted by company owner Joe Herlihy.
Joe Herlihy- Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce “Corporate Citizen Award”
Petland Corporation owner Ed Kunzelman was presented with a “Special Recognition Award”, for his years working to develop Chillicothe’s downtown. He promised the crowd that within the next year-and-a-half, the city’s downtown will have several more new businesses added to the successful boom already being seen.
Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce “Special Recognition for work to develop downtown Chillicothe
Tomlinson Insurance was presented with the “Legacy Award”, for their work in taking existing properties and improving their appearance with renovation, which has led to new business and a museum coming to the downtown.
Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce “Legacy Award” goes to Andy Tomlinson
Mike Thorne, CEO of the Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce, gave the State of the Chamber Address, highlighting great strides the business community made, despite the emergency of a worldwide pandemic.
In 2020, the chamber saw an increase with 78 new members, saw 13 new business openings, saved local business over $259,000 in Workers Compensation costs, posted 615 jobs that had more than 175,000 website views, held seven events for Greater Chillicothe Women in Business with 244 attendees and conducted 55 events- including 12 virtual events with 1,253 attendees.
Watch our interview ABOVE with Mike Throne, as he reviews his State of the Chamber Address and talks about how he’s seen the city change in his 24 years here…
Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce 2021 Annual Dinner
The Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce is seeking input from local businesses in order to better understand the current workforce shortage in Ross County.
Chamber CEO Mike Throne says- “We’re looking to collect data and information about the workforce shortage in our area.” Throne adds- “The idea of the survey is to find actual data and not just anecdotal information to address problems of business being able to find people to work.”
Throne says they are also interested in what employers are hearing from prospective employees- concerning their needs to get back into the workplace. Whether that means a need for even higher wages, childcare needs and/or healthcare benefits.
The survey is titled “Chillicothe & Ross County Workforce Needs Survey.”
Watch Mike Smith’s Litter Media interview with Mike Throne here.
Local business and economic development officials learned about and shared stories of successes in 2020 and what is ahead for 2021 in their Community Outreach Breakfast Conference held virtually by the Chillicothe/Ross Chamber of Commerce, Friday morning.
Speakers on the virtual conference included Tiffany Baldwin- Director of Downtown Chillicothe, Tammy Eallonardo- Economic Development Director for Greater Chillicothe and Ross County Development, Ross County Health Commissioner Garrett Guillozet and featured speaker Ryan Wardlow- Advisor/Wholesaler for J.P. Morgan in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Throne told the virtual breakfast following that their emphasis is on the “2021 And Beyond Initiative”.
Tiffany Baldwin says she believes 2021 will be a “turnaround year” for local businesses. Despite the pandemic, “20 new businesses started in Chillicothe’s downtown and 8 more have already started up thus far in 2021”, Baldwin says. She added that the organization known as Downtown Chillicothe is still trying to increase ways to keep customers coming to downtown businesses.
Tammy Eallonardo pointed to the arrival of a new business in the spec building located near Kenworth TruckCompany. The truck manufacturing supplier General Fasteners is occupying half of the spec building with Chillicothe based Petland‘s recent expansion announcement having them utilizing the remaining 50,000 square feet of that spec building.
Eallonardo also stated that much has been done locally thanks to more than $248,000 in grant support, the commitment of $837,000 in new capital investment and new and retained payroll of just over $2 million.
She added that the lack of spec building space might have contributed to missed business location opportunities in 2020, which is why more such space is needed.
Health Commissioner Garrett Guillozet discussed how his department has worked during the COVID-19 pandemic and how much of 2021 will look like what they have been doing in 2020.
Featured speaker Ryan Wardlow of J.P. Morgan talked about successful investments during the last year and said some of the big investment winners, according to the S&P 500 were:
Online Retail- up 62%
Information Technology- up 43%
Home Improvement- up 31%
Chamber President and CEO Mike Throne says they will have an announcement later this year on their Annual Meeting date- but will begin accepting nominations March 1st for Entrepreneur of the Year. Throne is hopeful the annual meeting can be held in July, while their Annual Chamber of Commerce Golf Outing is planned for September 17th at Jaycees Golf Course.
