We can have our cake and yes, eat it, too

The passion of Shilo Eggers, president of the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce, is to be commended.

In discussions Tuesday with Allen County commissioners, Eggers said she believes the long-ailing chamber will soon be turning a corner and that with her leadership, “[W]e’re pushing to get the chamber on solid footing. And I think that we’ve made some strategic moves with the idea of tourism in mind,” including its new location in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and a soon-to-launch new website.

Ms. Eggers estimated that within a year the chamber will be a horse of a different color, including the hiring of a new director, its third within the last year.

Ms. Eggers’ goal was to dissuade commissioners from immediately funding VISIT Allen County, a ready-to-go vehicle for tourism, which she contends would compete with the chamber’s mission of serving local businesses.

IT DOESN’T have to be an either/or proposition.

Instead, why not let VISIT Allen County have its trial year, as has been suggested, while the chamber re-gears?

That way, the momentum that has gone into creating the countywide initiative is not lost and, if it proves successful, it can pair up with area chambers to attract outside visitors. You can’t have too much of a good thing.

An added bonus of the VISIT initiative is the one-for-two funding match by Thrive Allen County, the umbrella for the tourism initiative. Thrive has pledged $25,000 to the county’s $50,000 to help launch VISIT Allen County, including a full-time director, whose goal is to promote the recreational, retail, dining, and civic opportunities available across the county.

That significant buy-in by Thrive — a known driver of economic development — guarantees its commitment to the program’s success.

WE UNDERSTAND the chamber’s unease. Membership, its lifeblood, has dropped precipitously over recent years due in part to the changing landscape of retail.

The answer, however, is not to pull up the drawbridge, but rather to open the gates and work as partners.

Lots of successful examples exist, including the Regional Rural Technology Center in LaHarpe which depends on the coordinated efforts of three area school districts and three community colleges. Singularly, none would have had the resources to make it fly.

Another is Project 17, a regional consortium of counties that work together to attract industries and sponsor helpful workshops on things such as website development and promoting locally made products.

Every city in Allen County can attest to the benefits Thrive has helped bring its way, from their assistance in LaHarpe with its city park and the fitness center in its community building to Moran’s fitness center and Marmaton Market, Humboldt’s Neosho River Park and its Southwind Rail Trail to Iola’s G&W Foods and Lehigh Portland Trails.

That it now wants to help promote these attributes by making Allen County more visible is a natural segue for the 10-year-old organization.

Neither the county commissioners nor the public should feel as if they’ve been backed into a corner, forced to choose between supporting the Iola chamber or VISIT Allen County.

Both have commendable goals. Surely to hope that they could complement and even foster each other’s success is not out of the realm of possibilities.