BY: RACHEL WUMKES
Nothing makes for a better Friday than blue skies and lots of sunshine. Even the cooler temps can easily be ignored! Plus, it’s easy to wake up happy on a Friday morning when you live at the Lake.
Am I right?
After my kiddos boarded the bus, I headed to the Chamber’s Quarterly Coffee event at the Surf Ballroom. Held once each quarter, it’s a great morning of coffee and treats while learning about the various projects and new happenings around town.
I love this event. The high school cheerleader in me comes out after each one, and I feel like I live in the greatest community in the whole world. If you’ve never been to this event before, keep your eyes peeled for the December date. They are open to the public to attend, and really are a great boost of pep for Clear Lake.
The meeting began with an update on the Clear Lake School District from Superintendent, Doug Gee. He discussed the highlights and excitement for our new, growing FFA program, and touched a bit on how Homecoming might look this year as well as how the faculty and staff are adjusting to the new COVID procedures.
Mayor Crabb gave his update on the city, touching on the various areas where there is housing growth. His report included information about new developments, new city projects, and a brief overview of projects already in progress.
To branch out a bit and cover North Iowa as a whole, Chad Schreck gave an incredibly interesting and informative update about the economic growth in our area. While many businesses have been affected by the pandemic, there were no major shutdowns in North Iowa. In fact, they’ve had an increase in activity and interesting from many companies looking to re-locate to our area. With so many companies now having employees work from home, it opens a new opportunity for us to recruit families to North Iowa – and now is the time to move on that concept!
The major speeches of the morning rounded out with a CEO report from Mark Hewitt. Mark is the President and CEO of Clear Lake Bank and Trust. He discussed various aspects of how his company has been affecting by COVID and was pleased to announce – after dealing with various employees being stricken with the virus – they are currently FREE of any cases and open for business! A fun fact about CLB&T that I never knew is that their logo, which looks like a sailboat, is the letters C-L-B put together to create the image.
How cool is that?!?! I’ll never look at their logo the same again!
The rapid-fire portion of the meeting then commenced where new employees and promotions were acknowledged, events highlighted, and pieces of interest were discussed.
We also recognized our NEW Chamber Members and were able to give them a warm welcome! We are excited for their commitment to our community and look forward to a partnership of development and growth for their companies!
Be sure to check them out!
Like I said before, I just love the feeling after these meetings. It really gives me a newfound outlook for what an incredible community we have. The upbeat, positivity from each presenter, who has found the silver lining during such a strange time in our lives, is refreshing. It’s a welcomed break from the often-negative barrage of information given via news outlets and such. To catch the full event as it was live-streamed, tune in to our Facebook Page here.
So, cheers to another fabulous week at the Lake. For a full list of fun things to do, great places to eat, and where you can shop locally til you drop, go to www.clearlakeiowa.com.
See you at the Lake!