Tnl-News.com - Minerva Area Chamber of Commerce to hold retail-business forum May 6

The Minerva Area Chamber of Commerce will be holding a Minerva Village Retail-Business Forum for area retail-business owners on Tuesday, May 6, 6-9 p.m. at City Hall. The forum will provide an opportunity for retail-business owners to express their ideas for improving the retail climate in the Minerva area.

Larry Kosiba, executive director of the Minerva Area Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development, stated, "The chamber is reaching out to the retail-business owners throughout the community to identify various opportunities, and to develop implementation strategies toward improving and enhancing the retail climate in Minerva."

"The chamber will begin the evening by presenting an overview of the chamber's strategic plan known as "Minerva Tomorrow," which was developed through input from various business owners, community members, the chamber's Board of Directors, and elected officials," Kosiba said. "It is designed to provide a basis for discussion to generate ideas, to identify resources, and to allow targeted actions toward improving the retail economic climate throughout the Minerva area."

Also on the agenda for the evening is a presentation and discussion of the North Market Street modernization project. David Harp, Minerva village administrator, will be on hand to discuss, in detail, the scope of the project, expected closing dates, alternate traffic patterns, and utility outages that may occur during construction.

"We want to provide the affected business owners with as much advance notice on the closing of North Market Street and to collect ideas from the retail-business owners on actions the village may be able to take to assist the business owners in maintaining a viable business climate during construction. In the past we have covered village parking meters in an effort to ease the burden to the retail-business owners and to attract more visitors during construction," Harp said. "But we are seeking additional ideas that the village may be able to undertake that would further assist the retail owners affected. The village will be providing details to the general public in the very near future, but for this meeting we want to focus on the Minerva business owners, especially those located in the affected area."

Kosiba indicated that the chamber is planning future business-forum meetings that will seek input from the industrial and commercial business owners and additional forums involving the general public.

"It is important that all aspects of the community be afforded the opportunity to provide input into the future economic growth and direction of the Minerva area," Kosiba said. "The Chamber of Commerce is implementing a series of forums across a broad range of groups to obtain a comprehensive view of the business community and the public as we plan for our future economic viability."

The Minerva Village Retail-Business Forum is open to all Minerva-area business owners. For additional information concerning the forum, please contact the Minerva Area Chamber of Commerce at 330-868-7979.