2012 was once again a very active year for those involved in the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce.
Here are some of the highlights of some of the news stories from 2012 that involved Chamber activities during the year.
In February, the Chamber bid farewell to outgoing president Scott Campbell as he handed over the gavel to new president Pat Smith, general manager at Battlefords and District Co-op, at the President's Banquet in February.
One topic the new board of directors took up was attracting regional air service to the Battlefords with the news that WestJet was setting up a regional airline. Chamber directors made a motion encouraging City Hall to make efforts to attract the new airline to the airport, and encouraged the City to pursue upgrades at the airport so it could be ready for passenger service.
The Chamber had also been preparing to host a fall trade show at the soon-to-be-completed field house at the Credit Union CUPlex. It had been expected that the field house would be ready by late October for the Best Business Showcase, but it was later learned the facility would not be completed in time, so the show was postponed.
A major new event put on by the Chamber in 2012 was the State of the City/ State of the Town Address held at the Western Development Museum.
Both North Battleford mayor Ian Hamilton and Battleford mayor Chris Odishaw addressed the gathering, the first of what is expected to be an annual event. Both gave glowing accounts of the future of each community.
The one hot-button issue that did come up was talk of amalgamation of the two municipalities. Odishaw didn't see that as very likely, noting the big stumbling block was the separate water and sewer utilities for the two communities.
"I don't see how you could join those two departments," said Odishaw.
A major issue during the summer and fall that eventually required Chamber intervention was North Battleford's development of a traffic bylaw.
After it passed council, truckers turned to the Chamber for help once it was learned the bylaw featured a costly new fee structure for those vehicles veering off the designated routes, with fees upwards of $6,000 annually per truck.
One of the companies affected, Edge Transport, threatened to pull out of the Battlefords if a resolution was not found, and there was outrage from trucking companies and other businesses.
The controversy prompted the Chamber to lobby city officials. City Hall pledged to reverse the offending provisions in the bylaw.
One major activity that was new to the fall schedule was the move of the Battlefords Business Excellence Awards to October at the new Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts, a departure from the spring timetable that the BBEX awards usually followed. Several businesses were honoured, with the top prize going to Scott Campbell Dodge as Business of the Year.
Another highlight of the fall was the Chamber's hosting of a noon-hour luncheon Oct. 22 in which Premier Brad Wall unveiled details of the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth for the local audience. Once again, the venue was the Dekker Centre.
The Chamber was involved in hosting municipal election forums in both North Battleford and Battleford in October, in the lead up to the Oct. 24 civic elections.
Finally, there was some proud news for the Battlefords Chamber with word that executive director Linda Machniak had been given a prestigious national award as Executive of the Year for a population base less than 100,000.
The award was announced at the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada's gala banquet in Hamilton, Ont. in September.
Chamber president Pat Smith was among those who welcomed Machniak's national recognition.
"This is recognition from across the country," he told the News-Optimist. "This is a wonderful thing for the Battlefords - I mean as a whole, not just the Chamber. The business community should be proud of this achievement, that we have unquestionably one of the top executive directors in the country working for us."
