Future of the Redfield Area Chamber of Commerce discussed at annual meeting
By Shiloh Appel
A small crowd of concerned business owners filled the American Legion building on the evening of Tuesday, June 5, 2018, as the Redfield Area Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting began to unfold. Shortly after first dollar profits were given out to local businesses by Chamber president, Jerad Appel and a prime rib dinner was served by the Legion team, Mayor Jayme Akin stood up to address the issue of concern to those in attendance.
"I get to be the bringer of bad news and with that being said... a few short months after I became mayor, we had some really bad news in the city of Redfield and that was six years ago, so a lot of you probably don't remember this bad news," said Akin. "But that bad news was the South Dakota National Guard made the decision that they were going to remove the unit from Redfield and not only Redfield, but Miller and a lot of other small communities. Me being the new guy and young guy… I remember the general from the South Dakota National Guard coming there in person and he looked at everybody, including myself, right in the eyes. He looked us straight in the eyes and said 'I feel it is my job, since it is bad news, to come and tell you guys the bad news."
Akin went on to explain that he wanted to look the citizens present "straight in the eyes" and let them know that the city council is considering using the $20,000 that is usually paid to the Redfield Chamber to create a new city position. The Redfield Chamber would therefor no longer receive their $20,000 annual supplement.
"Sometimes you have got to look at the numbers and look at what is presented in front of you and you do have to make a decision. You have to do something. We are a small community and we are in the Northeastern part of the state. We need to come out fighting. We need to come out swinging. We have to be proactive. We need to do more and better than everyone else," said Akin. "Because everything right now is going to the Southeastern part of the state. If you look at what is going on in the Northeastern part of the state, enrollment at the schools is declining. Businesses are leaving. We are having troubles recruiting people to come here. We have holes in marketing, promoting city businesses, job opportunities, getting people to come here for employment, and community development. These are all areas that we struggle in."
According to Akin, the Redfield City aims to tackle these problems by hiring a new city employee that would focus solely on marketing Redfield, promoting tourism, and boosting the economy. Akin listed specific areas that he would like to see covered. Areas included bringing more pheasant hunting back to Redfield, filling the 30 open positions at SDDC, enabling Redfield to be "Capital for a Day" , promoting the 100 year Pheasantennial celebration, and preparing to host the District 6 meeting (a meeting of all of the municipal governments in the district) next year in Redfield.
"Everybody complains about our property taxes being high in Redfield, correct? There are multiple things that come into play that will bring our property taxes lower. More houses, more people, more industries, more business. We get money back from the state depending on how much business is being done in town. And I will say this — for years, Redfield relied on Pheasant hunting. 'Pheasant Capital of the World', that is how we promote pheasant hunting. With that being said, in the last couple of years, people are not coming to Redfield. People are not coming here to hunt, specifically, and they are not spending dollars," said Akin. "SDDC, that is our biggest employer in the city, right? Every couple years, SDDC comes up. It comes up and they talk about jobs out there. Right now we have a hard time filling those jobs. What does the city need help with? We need help filling 30 positions out there. Because that comes up, and they talk about it at Pierre. They talk about those 30 positions being open and they say maybe it would be better off if they had it over in Sioux Falls or somewhere where they can fill those positions. …The 100 year celebration is coming up. We want to promote that, but we are kind of short-staffed here. We want to be known as the 'Pheasant Capital of the World'. We want people to start coming back here to Redfield."
Cathy Fink and the Redfield Chamber board, which consists of president Jerad Appel, Josh Hilbrands, Dawn Schmidt, Heidi Appel and Mike Siebrecht, proceeded to open a discussion with Redfield business owners in attendance.
"I think we are asking first for ideas. You know, it is your membership dues that you pay every year.
You see now what we use that money for. Are there things that we should be doing as fundraisers?" said Heidi Appel. "...I don't think anyone is sitting here going 'damn the chamber'. [The city] wants to double their money. They want to get more bang for their buck. They want to get Shelly some help and they want to make more things happen. They hope that this group will rally and make other things happen and I have no doubt that they will supplement the chamber, just not to $20,000."
After a time of discussion, business owners and the Chamber board decided to start scheduling the monthly Chamber meetings at local businesses to enhance community involvement. The June Chamber meeting was held on Monday, the 18th, at Edelweiss Inn. The next meeting will be held at CMH on July 16th at 5:15p.m.
Meanwhile, how the Chamber will be supported going forward is still undecided. The decision to use the Chamber's annual supplement to create a new city position is not yet set in stone. The Redfield Chamber is currently funded until the end of the year, the city budget is not reviewed until July - August, and the annual $20,000 supplement is given out in December. However, Akin made it clear that " there is a very good possibility that [the city] is not going to supplement the chamber moving forward."
"We are, like I said, Redfield. We are South Dakotans. We are blue collar and hard workers. I am short staffed. I am asking business owners and other people from the community to step up," said Akin."We are here for Redfield. We want to promote Redfield. We want to survive, but there has got to be a shake-up. Something different has got to happen."
