Group asks Huntsville council to waive hall fees for new business program

• Chamber president Mark Beadle and vice president Brenda Murdoch presented to council at its April 22 meeting. They asked the town to waive rental fees at either the Port Sydney or Utterson halls for up to six events, allow advertising in front of the halls for weeks leading up to each event and to have the chamber’s website address added as a listing on the town’s website.

• “We have four events that need space to run, and our preferred location is the Port Sydney Community Hall. We’d also like to have access to the Utterson Community Hall if the Port Sydney Hall is unavailable. This would allow us to, not only do our events in the event of an election year, it would allow the chamber to host, meet, and greet events where if there’s a municipal, provincial or federal election. And we would also like to revitalize our Business After Hours and Women In Business programs, that succumb to the pandemic and have not got back off the ground yet. So having a venue to be able to host those events would be wonderful,” said Beadle.

• The chamber president told councillors about a new event planned for this year, a business showcase the organization is hosting on May 18 at the Port Sydney Community Centre, where local businesses can book a table and showcase their products and services.

• Other community events the 90-plus-member chamber is planning for this year include its annual community wide yard sale in June; the presentation of the citizen of the year award on July 1; the chamber’s annual general meeting in September; and a packing party for The Shoebox Project for Women — which provides Christmas gift boxes to women in need — in November.

• “We have been in touch with Lauren (MacDermid) from Economic Development, and she seems quite engaged and amenable to some enhanced collaboration with our chamber. So our intention is to continue to work with Lauren to ensure that messaging from our chamber is disseminated to the broader Huntsville community,” said Beadle.

• Council approved waiving of the fees for the two halls for the May business showcase event and agreed to the placement of a banner to advertise the showcase and garage sale. Mayor Nancy Alcock said the link to the web page was already completed.

• Councillors also directed staff to bring a report back to the next council meeting that provides for an agreement with Port Sydney Chamber of Commerce that includes the terms of reference for each of their $5,000 annual support, as well as the waiving of rental fees for the remaining three 2024 events and the waiving of all four events for 2025 and 2026.