The Ocean Shores/North Beach Chamber of Commerce survived “a catastrophic 2015” and rebounded from that year’s financial losses to forge ahead with several new developments in 2016.

That was the overall assessment from Chamber board members last Wednesday when the local organization held its annual dinner banquet and awards presentation at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino.

Earning the Business of the Year award was North Beach PAWS, with president and founder Lorna Valdez accepting the honor.

Highlights of the evening included remarks by County Commissioner Vickie Raines, Ocean Shores Mayor Crystal Dingler and newly hired Grays Harbor College President Dr. James Minkler, making his first official visit to the North Beach.

With about 60 people present for the banquet, a theme of the night was “everybody pulling together.”

“We have a very special little town, and it’s filled with pretty awesome people,” said Chamber president Mike Doolittle of Playtime Family Fun Center.

Jim Donahoe of Windermere Real Estate, who has been in the area since 1962, gave an overview of the past year, which saw the Chamber rebound from financial losses suffered in 2015 largely due to the costs of assuming the organization and expenses of that year’s Sand &Sawdust Festival. That led to the departure of full-time Chamber executive director Douglass Orr, who was replaced by current interim director Mark Plackett.

“We had a couple of events that didn’t work,” Donahoe acknowledged, “and that were serious financial losses to us.”

Donahoe likened 2015 to a “hundred-year summer” with summer weather as nice as he could ever remember for tourism on the North Beach. “Tourists came to the beach in droves, so we had a record year for bringing people here,” Donahoe said.

This year, however, the weather was not as good and businesses have reported “mixed signals,” he noted.

New Director sought

Among the challenges for the Chamber listed by Donahoe was the need for a full-time executive director, and the organization moved the following day to announce the position was open for applicants.

“We have an immediate opening for a great person that can run the Chamber as our Executive Director,” Doolittle said in the announcement.

“We are looking for someone with excellent people skills, administrative management skills, and financial management skills,” added Plackett. “We would like to have someone in place by the beginning of the new year.”

A job description and job application are available by email, or at the Chamber office. Email Chamber@OceanShores.org to receive a job description and application.

“Thank goodness for Mark. I would say he’s the one that has been major in helping us turn some of the corner that we have in 2016,” Doolittle said at the banquet.

Don Kajans, CEO of Quinault Beach Resort and the Sweet Grass Hotel in Ocean Shores, was the master of ceremonies for the event. He called for help from members in everything from volunteering, to generating new ideas and financial support for the organization.

Kajans said the Chamber currently is looking at a variety of new revenue-producing or business-generating ideas, such as pushing for fewer restrictions on overnight rentals in certain areas of Ocean Shores, completing a boardwalk and beach trail, or backing a tsunami-safe parking garage adjacent to the Convention Center.

“We need participation. This is a chamber and chambers run by participation of their members,” he said. “We need some help, we need ideas.”

Guest speakers

Minkler, most recently Vice President of Learning and Chief Academic Officer of Spokane Falls Community College, on July 1 became president of Grays Harbor College to replace the retiring Ed Brewster.

He called for the college to help serve the needs of the hospitality and tourism-based industry among other services provided to the community

Minkler said he wanted the college to be an important part of the “economic development” of the area, which continues to suffer from unemployment from the recession and the collapse of the local timber industry.

“We’re all working at the same end, and that is to improve the economic well-being of our community,” Minkler said.

He pointed to 5,000 jobs generated locally by the tourism industry: “What can the college do to support that growth? What can we provide in training and short-term certification, as well as in our degrees?”

Also, the college now has three bachelor of applied sciences degree programs: one that started in September in organizational management, another in 2017 for teacher education and another in forestry resource management.

Mayor Dingler said while the city was still struggling with the impacts of a recession on the area, she, too, wanted to find ways “we can make things better.”

“We each have to look at our own business, and the city is a business of a sort,” Dingler said.

She pointed to the city’s operation of the Convention Center, which has gone from overall attendance of about 80,000 for events in 2013, to 90,000 in 2014 and 111,000 in 2015.

She also advocated continuing to find funds to support the Co-Op Marketing Plan effort to advertise and market Ocean Shores as a tourist destinations outside of the area, particularly in the Tacoma-Seattle-Olympia and Portland markets.

“But it’s not the only thing we can do,” Dingler said. “There are a lot of other things that we can do in our individual businesses and collectively to make it better for Ocean Shores, for the people who live here and for those wonderful tourists who come.”

Raines listed a number of developments that have helped spur economic activity in the area, including the county finalizing the agreement leading to construction of the Illahee/Oyehut sewage treatment project now under way.

The county also disburses its share of hotel/motel taxes through a Lodging Tax Advisory Committee much like the city of Ocean Shores, but the county’s LTAC is not as strapped as the city’s currently because of the debt and maintenance of the Convention Center.

As a result, the county LTAC has helped with funds to support North Beach events such as the Big Foot Brew Fest in Seabrook or the Chocolate on the Beach Festival in Pacific Beach, as well as the Toast the Harbor wine tasting event at the Quinault Beach Resort.

Raines encouraged Ocean Shores applicants for the funds:

“If you have a community group or participate with a community group that does these type of local events, festival or special projects — and you’re looking for some additional funding — let us know. Come to the county as ask for some of those dollars. That’s what they are available for.”

Raines noted she also has been in ongoing discussion with the Quinault Indian Nation about potential development issues, such as expansion of the sewer system to Hogan’s Corner or the redevelopment of the Ocean Shores Marina.