Chamber event mixes business with pleasure
Photos by MANDI BATEMAN Northern Lights Chief Executive Officer Annie Terracciano was one of the speakers and the Chamber of Commerce social event.
Mountain West Bank took the Arbor Day theme and added a splash of fun when decorating for the Chamber of Commerce social event.
Photo by MANDI BATEMAN Raffle items were donated by Mountain West Bank and Idaho Forest Group.
BONNERS FERRY — On April 19, the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce held a social event hosted by Mountain West Bank. The events are held quarterly, and this was the first one at the bank.
“It was kind of just a time for everyone to network and have some fun and be social,” said Mountain West Bank Branch Manager Patti Solt. “We are having a big day for Arbor Day when we are going to be giving away blue spruce seedlings and we are promoting Arbor Day and replanting, so we kind of went with that theme today.”
Along with the outdoors theme, they had a camping scenario set up, with a giant stuffed bear entering a tent, speakers that included Idaho Forest Group and sales of environmentally healthy products.
Mountain West Bank provided an array of cold cuts from The Bread Basket Bakery, and two raffle prizes were donated by Mountain West Bank and Idaho Forest Group. A variety of beer and wine was available for the guests.
“Elk Mountain Farms, Anheuser-Busch, donated the beverages for us today,” said Solt.
The event started at 6 p.m. and had four speakers, including Tim Dougherty from the Idaho Forest Group, Annie Terracciano from Northern Lights, Inc., Jule Hollabaugh representing Norwex, and Tim Garcia, the co-founder of The Coalition: Bonners Ferry Entrepreneurs.
“This was a good venue to get a lot of different topics about our resource industries, one being the timber and the other being electricity,” said Boundary County Economic Director Dennis Weed. “It was great. These type of things are always good to get everybody together. It was a great venue for that.”
“Patti invited me to come. She thought it went along with the theme tonight,” said Hollabaugh, who is an independent sales consultant for Norwex, a company whose mission is, “to improving quality of life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes.”
Hollabaugh spoke about her business, which sells cleaning items that disinfect without the use of harsh chemicals, as well as talked to people individually at her display table that she had set up.
Dougherty gave a speech about the Idaho Forest Group, both as a business and the benefits for the environment.
“We annually produce about 1.25 billion board feet of lumber, which puts us in the top ten privately held timber corporations in the North Americas, including Canada. So that is a pretty big footprint. Our Moyie Springs plant has approximately 130 employees,” Dougherty explained.
He went on to explain that they employ roughly 1,100 people through their mills, but if they include the logging contractors, trucking contractors, byproduct haulers, the laborers that they hire externally to come and work on their plants, that there are in excess of three to four thousand employees that are directly affected by Idaho Forest Group.
On the environmental side, and holding with the Arbor Day theme, he explained that they plant about 300 to 400 trees an acre. When they harvest, they take about 150 to 200 trees per acre.
“So you always plant more than you harvest, and then, as the trees grow, you start thinning them so they speed up the growing pattern that they have,” said Dougherty. “You can basically manage the same tract of land again and again. It is a renewable resource.”
Terracciano followed with a talk about Northern Lights.
“It is the oldest electric cooperative west of the Mississippi,” she explained. “We are governed by a seven member board of directors who are elected by the districts they serve.”
Terracciano also talked about Idaho’s first community solar project which began last year, sparking an open discussion and considerable interest among the attendees.
“The solar array is located at our headquarters in Sagle, Idaho. Members can purchase a solar unit for $300. The kilowatt hours that solar unit produces gets credited to your account monthly,” said Terracciano.
She also discussed power outages, explaining that Northern Lights has a reliability rates of 99.5 percent. During outages, she encouraged customers to report outages, and not to just rely on neighbors.
“The more you report your own outage, the more accurate the system is,” said Terracciano. “It actually predicts. If you call in, it will help the prediction. It just helps your get your outage restored quicker.”
Garcia, the co-founder of The Coalition, also spoke about his new venture, explaining the similarity and differences between The Coalition and the Chamber of Commerce.
“The idea is to really connect entrepreneurs and small business owners here in Bonners Ferry,” said Garcia. “I think the Coalition is, from what I am starting to see, is probably more tailored toward helping individuals, ideas, entrepreneurs, maybe in the earlier stages of inception.”
The evening’s success lay in allowing business minded people to learn something new, and to just relax and mingle with others, with snacks and the option of a glass of wine or a beer in hand.
For more information:
Norwex- Juliehollabaugh@yahoo.com or 972-849-1687
Idaho Forest Group- www.idfg.com
Northern Lights- www.nli.coop
The Coalition- Facebook The Coalition/ Bonners Ferry Entrepreneurs