The time may be approaching for the Columbus-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce’s tent to get a little bigger.
Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins, speaking Friday at the Chamber’s annual luncheon at Lion Hills, said the organization is considering merging the Chamber with other local organizations.
Although there are no concrete plans as of now, Higgins said upcoming changes at the Chamber and the Golden Triangle Economic Development LINK have gotten the LINK executive committee thinking.
The LINK is the industrial recruitment arm for the region, but the Columbus-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce serves under the LINK umbrella and shares its office space.
Chamber Executive Director Cathryn Borer is leaving her post on Jan. 1, and The LINK is planning to relocate its offices to Golden Triangle Regional Airport to be more centrally located.
“(Borer) is leaving, and the question is whether or not to replace her,” Higgins said. “The LINK is moving out to the airport, and it’s not practical for the Chamber of Commerce to be located at the airport.”
Higgins said the time may be ripe for a new “umbrella” organization to be created.
“I remember when I got hired David Sanders said we have created a true umbrella organization for economic development,” Higgins said. “No, you didn’t. You’ve got the Chamber and economic development (together), but a real ‘umbrella’ would have the (Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau), Main Street Columbus, quite frankly the Port Authority and the (Lowndes County Industrial Development Authority), too.”
Higgins said the executive committee at the LINK has been talking about the possibilities.
“I think we have time to have those conversations,” Higgins said. “We’re not going to let the Chamber have second fiddle. We’ll figure out a plan where it continues the good work that it does.”
Nothing is set in stone, Higgins said, and the status quo may win out in the end.
“We’re still looking at doing a stand-alone Chamber of Commerce that does all the things it does (now),” Higgins said. “I don’t have all the details worked out. We’re having meetings regularly.”
The executive committee has met with the Chamber board and is meeting with Mayor Keith Gaskin and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston next week, Higgins said.
“We’re trying to figure out how some of this stuff will work,” Higgins said. “As soon as we know, you’ll know.”
Turning commuters into residents
Higgins said the LINK will once again work with economic development expert Bill Fruth next year to establish a 10-year roadmap for the LINK.
“We brought him in years ago and he gave us a roadmap for Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties of things we needed to work on,” Higgins said. “That’s how we ended up with the Communiversity. He gave us the roadmap we’ve used for the past 10 years, and we’re going to do it again.”
One of the areas Higgins said he wants to look at is how to draw the area’s workforce, which mostly commutes from 37 surrounding counties and two states, to the area as residents.
Higgins said at a previous job he did a survey of the workers who came into his area for a job, and 70% of them lived outside the county and 30% outside. Five years later, that ratio flipped.
“What happened was, you had to get a job and you had to know you were going to stay,” Higgins said. “Then you move your spouse and your kids here, and you move into a neighborhood where your co-workers lived, and it worked.”
That’s not happening in the Golden Triangle, Higgins said. Part of the reason may be the nature of the shift work at local companies.
“They work four days on, four days off, and then four nights on and four nights off in 12-hours shifts,” Higgins said. “I think a lot of folks live where they live and make the sacrifice to live in an RV because they’re only here four days. Then they can go back and help dad with the cattle, hunt on daddy’s place and be with their family. That’s one of the things we want (Fruth) to look at.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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