Published: October 20, 2006 10:41 am            

Move to Metro government? Princeton, Bluefield chambers pursue alliance to boost local economy

PRINCETON — “I think two entities agreeing on anything is a great thing, but if you have one voice, it’s much stronger,” Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of Commerce Vice President Mike Swatts said Thursday, as the PMCCC board voted unanimously to pursue an alliance with the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce.

The special announcement came during PMCCC’s monthly board meeting, which was delayed a week to allow GBCC leaders to vote on the same motion on the same day.

“We have made a lot of progress over the years in working with the Bluefield chamber,” Swatts, who introduced the motion in board Chairman Roger Topping’s absence, said.

He cited collaboration with the Business After Hours program, Mercer County Day with the West Virginia Legislature and efforts involving a proposed equestrian center. As the current PMCCC 1st vice president and upcoming chairman, Swatts said, “There is probably not a day that goes by that I don’t talk with either Tom Hall or Marc Meachum from the Bluefield chamber about issues involving the chamber or our members.”

Collaboration and even consolidation have often been studied by the two chambers, PMCCC President Robert Farley said Thursday, but leadership and members have never acted to strengthen the bonds between the organizations designed to give business in southern West Virginia a common voice.

Farley said he had recently looked back on a membership survey from 1974 that indicated Mercer County businesspeople believed 32 years ago, “This county will not go anywhere until the two chambers get together.”

Although the PMCCC president said any extended collaboration or consolidation must be a gradual process, he said he could envision a united chamber in Mercer County’s future.

“I am personally in favor of, hopefully, someday, one chamber of commerce in Mercer County,” he said, reminding members that a merger could make Mercer’s chamber the third largest in West Virginia.

Swatts emphasized that his motion and the action taken by the board would not immediately consolidate any chamber functions that currently exist independently. No personnel or programs are set for an overhaul.

The motion simply allows chamber leaders to enter into discussions with the GBCC leadership on ways to make both chambers stronger and more efficient.

“The plan is to make this as transparent as possible to all of our members,” he said.

After the vote, he added, “I think this is a great step in the future.”

It could also assist in promoting the idea of metro government, an action made possible by a Sen. Brooks McCabe-sponsored law during the last West Virginia legislative term. Essentially, the new law allows municipalities to rewrite their charters and combine municipalities, with the vote of the affected residents, in order to operate more successfully and efficiently.

Locally, leaders have discussed the metro government concept in hopes of making the Census numbers reflect the true size and strength of Mercer County’s workforce and potential to industry.

Farley said he believed the chambers working together could make some reluctant leaders or residents look again at the metro concept.

“How can we ask everybody else in this entire county to be in favor of metro government, when our two chambers can’t be involved in a metro government?” he asked. “... The vision has got to start somewhere, and I think this is the right step.”

Board member Tim Arnold, of MCNB Banks, also spoke in favor of the motion during the discussion phase of the meeting, telling the group that Princeton and Bluefield are too close and too dependent on each other to demand on operating completely independently.

“As the business community, we can either lead the way, or get out of the way. Sometimes, up until now, I think we’ve been in the way,” Arnold said.

GBCC Vice President Debbie Maynard said members of the Bluefield chamber board also unanimously approved the same measure presented by Chairman Tom Hall.

Hall was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

        

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