Spotlight shines on economic development
Brent Erickson
is the executive director of the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce.
As Camas and Washougal continue to grow and grow, it’s no surprise that we need to change to accommodate the growth. While many of us – myself included – feel the growing pains, we need to be proactive about it and embrace it.
At the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce, our board of directors, comprised of 14 business leaders and executives and two city liaisons from Camas and Washougal respectively, decided at the annual board retreat to take a new focus this year towards East County economic development.
Resulting from this decision was the re-organization of the Camas-Washougal Economic Development Committee, also known as the CWEDC. The highlight of this new committee’s charter is to establish and maintain regular channels of communication with appropriate staff and officials of the City of Washougal, City of Camas, Port of Camas-Washougal, Clark County, Greater Vancouver Chamber, Columbia River Economic Development Council, Skamania Chamber and other organizations that influence the business climate. The Camas-Washougal Chamber will provide the forum for those organizations to share information to maximize the opportunities for a healthy business environment in our area. The CWEDC will also identify local business issues through ongoing engagement of membership and will promote the business communities of Camas and Washougal as well as the industrial parks.
The Camas-Washougal Chamber is proud to announce the first forum has taken place, hosted by our CWEDC at the chamber office. CWEDC Chairman Doug Anderson and I orchestrated the initial forum with the following attendees: Camas Mayor Paul Dennis of Camas; Washougal Mayor Stacee Sellers; Sheldon Tyler, executive director of the Port of Camas-Washougal; Bart Phillips, CEO of the Columbia River Economic Development Council; Teresa Baldwin, superintendent of the Washougal School District; Mike Nerland, superintendent of the Camas School District; Camas-Washougal Port Commissioner Rich Gunderson; Camas City Councilor Steve Hogan; and Anderson, North America Operations – Components manager for Underwriters Laboratories.
Current CWEDC members were also in attendance: Kathleen Romane, CEO of Lacamas Community Credit Union; Pat Rice, president of IRA Resource Assoc.; Kirk Bruce, Camas-Washougal Chamber president and owner of All State Insurance-Camas; Damon Webster, member and supervisor at Mackay & Sposito; Mary Hargrave, partner at George Schmid & Sons; and myself.
This forum, which took place on Jan. 11, was the first time all these individuals who influence economic development in our area met with one another.
The forum’s purpose was to provide a collaborative environment where information regarding economic development can be shared to foster positive economic growth. This first forum was a success and the participants felt it was a good investment of time and an annual schedule of meetings was established.
Brent Erikson can be reached at 360-834-2472 or by email at brent@cwchamber.com.
