IDB settles into Chamber addition
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According to director of economic development Don Rigsby, the move is a welcome, and roomy, change from the cramped quarters the Chamber and IDB shared prior to the completion of the building expansion.
“We’re very excited,” Rigsby said. “We’ve been in a small space and not able to bring in prospects, and having to use other locations to have meetings. So now we have a nice meeting area, a nice place to bring prospects and work with existing industries. There’s about 2,000 square feet in this upper floor that we’re leasing from the Chamber of Commerce.”
The Chamber building expansion has been very much a community endeavor, with a number of local firms donating items or in-kind construction services, and Rigsby says that spirit is still very much in evidence, considering the generosity of a local business which has saved the county a substantial amount of money.
“The Chamber was going to provide the furniture, as part of the lease,” Rigsby said, “which was going to be fairly expensive, but Region’s Bank had some additional furniture they donated, which basically furnished the whole space up here. These chairs, these desks, even pictures. This was some of their furniture that they did not use on their top floors and they donated it to the IDB and to the Chamber of Commerce.”
Rigsby said the Chamber’s furniture will be stored until the Chamber is ready to move into its new offices on the first floor of the expansion, which should be within the next few weeks.
“So it’s a big thanks to Region’s Bank,” Rigsby said. The IDB began moving its offices a week ago.
“I’m still moving, really, and still organizing,” Rigsby said. “But now we’ve got places to put all our maps, files where we can find everything quickly, so things are really starting to move.
“And we probably have one of the best views from our windows here of the downtown McMinnville area, which will be very impressive to new prospects,” Rigsby said. “We’re excited about it.”
Rigsby will have two part-time employees, Joyce Lawson, who will divide her time between the Chamber and the IDB, working about 10 hours per week for the IDB, and new part-time employee Jamie Rigsby, no relation to Don, who will work around 30 hours per week.
The IDB will share the boardroom on the upper floor with the Chamber.
“If I have a presentation, I can bring them into a nice facility in the boardroom to show them,” Rigsby said.
There is also a room that can be used as an “incubator” for industry moving into town to use temporarily if they need a space with phones, fax, computer access and office space.
“Right now I’m allowing Right Management to use it,” Rigsby said. “They’ve contracted with Carrier, and they’re here one day a week doing interviews and helping those being laid off find new jobs. They’re assisting with writing r?sum?s and things like that.”
Though the Chamber offices on the ground floor will have some community access rooms, as has been the plan all along, Rigsby said the main purpose of the offices on the upper floor will be to recruit industry.
“This is the contact place for industrial and economic development,” Rigsby said.