By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
There will be no second chamber of commerce in Jacksonville.
Less than a week after the word was out that the grassroots group collecting signatures for the wet/dry vote had filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office and the IRS to form the Greater Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, the idea is dead.
Mayor Gary Fletcher, in a statement delivered to The Leader on Friday afternoon, threw his support behind the old chamber, saying two chambers would rip the city apart.
“I must take a firm stand in supporting my local chamber of commerce that I have pledged publicly as recently as a few weeks ago to work to unite our efforts to be more of a seamless city in making our business community stronger,” Fletcher said. (See lettter, p. 6A.)
“The mayor decided not to back us and without the support of the city it would be hard for us to do what we wanted to do for Jacksonville,” said Jennifer Niemeyer, one of the individuals working on the votes and the new chamber.
The city’s longtime, yet beleaguered Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, apparently was not happy with the idea of another chamber. It blasted out an e-mail telling businesses to back away and got into a Facebook comment tit-for-tat with the new group.
Things started to unravel for the upstart enterprise when Amanda Clark, who was raised in Cabot, backed off. She was planning to help with membership, festivals and other programs.
Clark said she had approached the Jacksonville chamber and offered her service a month or so ago and was rebuffed. “I just wanted to be involved. I had no agenda. It was just about the community.”
The new group came out of the grassroots operation, Saving Jacksonville, which was formed to gather signatures for a local election on the wet/dry issue.
The group has close to 2,000 signatures, but needs 4,400. Before it took over the wet/dry petition drive, the old chamber of commerce had gathered only a dozen signatures in more than a month’s time.
“We’ve turned all of our petitions over to the city, and it’s up to them now,” Niemeyer said.
And why did she and others feel the need to try to create a new chamber?
“We talked to many businesses that weren’t members of the chamber and they made it clear there was a void that needed to be filled,” Niemeyer said. “We decided to fill that void. “We are not trying to compete with the Jacksonville chamber. There is enough for both of us to do to make this city great,” she said.
The new chamber’s stated mission was “to promote and improve new and developing businesses, stimulate a vibrant local economy and produce a cooperative effort to enhance the overall quality of life in Jacksonville to its highest potential.”
The Jacksonville chamber didn’t like the new upstart.
Marleen Eddlemon, a local resident, called the new group imposters on a social media site.
Jody Urquhart, a former chamber president, questioned the new group’s credentials, even though he admitted on Facebook that he had to get the old chamber back in good graces after the IRS pulled its nonprofit status for failure to pay back taxes.
Karen Carlisle, wife of Philip Carlisle, who is a chamber board member of the old chamber, said, “Please don’t confuse this new group with the long standing Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce that has been working for this city for over 50 years,” in a Facebook post.
She then questioned why the wet/dry group would team up with the new chamber.
“Why would you team up with the Greater Jacksonville Chamber? They don’t represent Jacksonville. You will probably lose support with this move,” she said in another post.
Niemeyer said, “One of the first things we want to do is to work with the city to bring in a high quality festival.”
She said the old chamber got out of the festival business two years ago and did not help the city in its effort to have one earlier this summer.
The Jacksonville chamber has, over the past few years, pulled out of running or supporting the annual citywide festival, the Christmas parade and the annual business expo.
But, in the chamber’s letter, the board of directors said, “It has been said before that your chamber has pulled support from certain community events, and that’s just not the case. We have simply elected to take a role of support within the parameters of those events to be more inclusive of our community partners.”
That said, organizers of this year’s festival, sponsored by the parks and recreation department told The Leader they received no help, assistance or support from the chamber, even after making numerous requests.
Amanda Clark, who helped organize the new chamber, said plans were in the works for a Halloween Bash at or near the Boys and Girls Club. “We wanted to do things that would involve the young people,” she said.
In a letter to its members that was posted on Facebook, the Jacksonville Chamber board wrote, “Please know that this group is in no way affiliated with, or supported by, your Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. They are also not affiliated with, or recognized by, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.”
The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce is listed as a member of the state group and the Greater Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce had copies of membership paperwork turned into the state chamber.
Niemeyer said she had a phone conversation with Daniel Gray, another Jacksonville board member and told him, “We are in no way trying to be competition or rivals. We are in no way trying to steal any duties they already take part in; we simply want to add things to this town to help our community ensure future prosperity. There is absolutely no reason we can’t collaborate.”
But obviously there were reasons and the group folded.
