Chamber outlines plans

It's been an interesting year for the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce, especially if you're President Natalie Dennis.

Dennis and others outlined past challenges and future plans and directions last Wednesday night at the chamber's annual meeting and awards dinner.

Dennis told attendees at PK's Culinary that the chamber is once again facilitating "business after hours" events where business owners can "speak with like-minded people and bounce ideas off of each other." Two have been held this year. Dennis said they hope to do them about once a quarter.

She said the chamber has been working with Downtown Strategies in a revitalization project spanning Elmer City and Coulee Dam. Some of the next steps involve forming "action teams" for designs, tourism promotion, economic vitality, and others. The grant-funded project could potentially expand to Grand Coulee and Electric City in the future.

She said the chamber, long the purveyor of community-wide events, is becoming "a little bit of an event incubator." The Triple Fish tournament was started by chamber and recently was taken over by Reel Recreation, a group of local folks who want to encourage outdoor activities for youth.

Harvest Festival, she said, has been taken over by another non-profit headed by Kelly Buche, Run The Dam.

Board member Rachel Anderson has been heading the chamber's upcoming festivals, including Colorama, coming May 12-13. She said many vendors are coming; kids will get to see Rapunzel and Spider Man, take photos with alpacas, and enjoy inflatable bounce houses. A car show on Main Street that was a hit last year will be back for Kids Fest, along with a "reptile guy."

She said the Festival of America will include some "cover bands" of Santana and Judas Priest.

First Fridays will be back, she said, and applications will be out soon.

Rachelle Baughman, of Coulee Creative, presented videos contracted through Voortex Productions that will be used online, in social media and on television to promote the area for tourism. They feature all local people doing things like hiking, waterboarding, biking and more. There is a link on the chamber's site at grandcouleedam.org.

Buaghman said she's planning to do business "spotlights" too.