By Eric Bourque
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
It’s back to the downtown for the Yarmouth and Area Chamber of Commerce, which is relocating to 342 Main St. from the Yarmouth airport, where the organization had been based in recent years.
The chamber had an office in Lovitt Plaza before moving to the airport.
“We thought it was appropriate for the chamber to be (downtown again),” said Jim Greig, the chamber’s executive director.
In an interview last week, he said the chamber in interested – as is town council – in having a healthy downtown.
Returning there, he said, “does indicate our desire to be supportive of the downtown effort that’s taking place.”
For the chamber, he said, being on Main Street will make the organization much more visible than it had been at the airport.
The chamber will be sharing quarters with Jim Stockman, local representative for the Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Plan.
Stockman rents part of the building from owner Don Hamilton and is subletting office space to the chamber.
Previously known simply as the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, the organization added the words “and Area” to its name in 2005.
The chamber’s membership lately has been constant at around 200. The organization may lose some members from year to year but tends to gain some too, Greig said.
“We don’t do a lot of chasing, although we contact pretty well every new company that comes to town,” he said, adding that the chamber is especially interested in hearing from people in the tourism business.
“There’s a great inter-connection between tourism and commerce,” he said. “Tourism is commerce.”
Acknowledging that this is a very difficult time for the tourism industry with the loss of the Cat, he said, “It’s too bad that we have to go through this to arrive at something else. We thought there was probably an easier way of doing it…Sustain the service for at least another year and ease into something else. However, I guess we roll with the punches and we do what we have to do.”
Over the years no issue has dominated the chamber’s attention more than transportation; and, within this category, the two main areas of concern have been ferry service and the airport.
“Transportation is really something the federal government – government in general – should be supporting,” Greig said.
Greig worked for many years in the airline industry and is a former president of the local chamber of commerce, as is Jim Stockman, who, with the Yarmouth chamber now occupying second-floor space at 342 Main St., will have Greig working out of an office next to his.
Dave Hall is the chamber’s current president.
The chamber invites people to visit them at their new location, Greig said.
The chamber’s staff at the Main Street site will include administrative assistant Lori Emin.
The site includes space that is to be used as a boardroom.
