The 115th Annual Meeting of the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce bestowed honors and awards on local business owners and local officials at an event hosted Thursday night at North Central State College’s Kehoe Center. Three categories of awards were given: small business, extraordinary leadership, and the chairmen’s award.
Chamber President Kevin Nestor noted that Karl Milliron, owner of Milliron Auto Parts, was the chamber chair for 2013. He also will be the chairman for 2014 to maintain continuity in program development from 2013.
Milliron reviewed chamber accomplishments in 2013. Among those was strenghtening the chamber’s relationship with the community. Richland County Deveopment Group (RCDG).
“Our biggest accomplishment within the past year was accepting the chamber’s role within the community regarding economic development,” said Milliron, “When defining economic development, we can generally divide it into two buckets: attraction of new business and retention and expansion of existing business. As determined by our membership, the chamber should focus on retention and expansion, while other entities should focus on attraction.”
The chamber tradition of awarding Extraordinary Leadership Awards began in 1999. This year three local businessmen were honored with the award.
Otis (Earl) Hawkins was honored for his generous donation of the former Hawkins Market to the Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging. The new home of the Area Agency on Aging is a new model for an agency of this kind and the chamber honored his generosity and vision.
Duana Patton, Director of the Area Agency on Aging accepted the award on his behalf. “I know if Mr. Hawkins was here he would be extremely humbled and honored and tell you he doesn’t feel deserving of this, but we all know better.”
Bill Danuloff was also instrumental in the execution of the Hawkins Corner project and served as the chair. The chamber also recognized his work in founding and providing leadership to the North Central Ohio Regional Information Technology Alliance (NCORITA).
“I was fortunate to work with a lot of good people on these two projects,” said Danuloff.
Carl Fernyak was a member of the chamber’s Leadership Unlimited class when he decided to start a new venture, Richland Source. His passion for Richland County coupled with innovative technology led to a new community resource that connects and promotes Richland County.
“I’d like to thank the community for embracing Richland Source. It actually takes a lot of revenue, marketing dollars to put this thing together and I’m just overwhelmed with the support we’ve received from the community.”
The capstone of the festivities was the presentation honoring the Chairman’s Award Winner, Ed Olson.
“This person has several attributes. He loves to solve problems, he is very opinionated, he’s passionate about knowing the facts, he becomes even more opinionated after knowing the facts. This person is compassionate, humorous, respected around our community and also the neighboring communities, and rumor has it he’s a pretty good dancer too. Above all this individual puts his service above himself and it’s an honor for me to present to you my chairmen’s award for 2013,” said Milliron.
During the program Board Vice Chair and President of Richland Bank John Brown recognized the chamber’s 2013 Small Business award winners businesses after crediting Norbert Peiker who first identified that small businesses should be honored.
“We again this year hosted and honored small businesses that are in our county and thanked them for creating jobs, for serving all of us, and I want to take a moment to recognize all of those folks,” stated Brown.
According to the chamber 70 percent of all local employment is driven by small business. Because the small businesses are such a vital part of the local economy, the chamber gives four annual awards to small businesses.
The 2013 Small Business of the Year awards were given to Forbes Rehab Services, Inc. for Manufacturing/Industrial, Shelby/Mansfield KOA Resort for Retail/Service, Two Cousins’ Pizza Company for Entrepreneurial, and Derrenberger’s & DW Catering for the Minority/Female categories.
Antonelli’s Training Systems, Cornell’s IGA Supercenter, and Jones Potato Chip Company were all finalists for the small business awards.
The Richland Area Chamber of Commerce’s event was sponsored by Medical Mutual Health and Life Insurance and CenturyLink.
“When defining economic development, we can generally divide it into two buckets: attraction of new business and retention and expansion of existing business. As determined by our membership, the chamber should focus on retention and expansion, while other entities should focus on attraction,” said Karl Milliron.
