New chamber board members elected

The Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture board will have four new members effective Oct. 1.<p>

Joining the board will be: <p>

— John Bard, owner of Burr Trading Co.

— Terri Mund, owner of Terri Mund & Associates Real Estate Services.<p>

— Jonathan Jeter, director of the Wharton County Junior College Foundation.<p>

— And, Chad Faucett, Edward Jones financial adviser.<p>

Rotating off the board on Oct. 1 will be Steven Wisnkeski of My Storehouse Mini Storage, Debbie Folks of Wied Realty, and Sandra Kachmar of Mid-Coast Title Co. Inc.<p>

The 13-member body is the governing board of the Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. The votes were cast by the general membership.<p>

In other matters, the inaugural class of the Billie H. Jones Leadership Class will have its first session on Friday, Sept. 8. They will spend the morning in a classroom setting and make a field trip in the afternoon to JM Eagle, a plastic pipe manufacturing facility on the southeast corner of U.S. 59 and FM 102.<p>

The group will meet once a month for seven months. The class is under the direction Shannon Haltom, a Maxwell Leadership Certified Trainer and the Owner/Operator of Run Your Race Leadership Consulting Services.<p>

Also, among other matters, the planning is continuing for the Oct. 19 Party Under the Bridge. It’s the sixth annual. And planning is under way for another event, the 43rd Annual Christmas Holiday Parade, set for Tuesday, Nov. 21. Jeff Rainer is the parade chairman.<p>

“Players win games, but teams win championships.”<p>

Barbecue, Wharton County's best-kept secret

 You may be seeing more about something already familiar to Wharton County: Barbecue.<p>

 

We have started something called the “Wharton County Barbecue Trail.”  This trail will spotlight 11 barbecue restaurants in Wharton County.  A promotional campaign will include fliers, stickers, social media, emails, and newspaper and radio advertising.<p>

 

Our intent is to build synergy  — promoting all these restaurants together, from East Bernard to Hungerford, Wharton, El Campo and Louise. We want our barbecue restaurants to be front and center.<p>

 

Sometimes, when things are familiar to us, they may become too familiar. People tell me barbecue is Wharton County’s best-kept secret. <p>

 

We have heard exciting promotional ideas from many people. If you would like to help, we welcome your ideas. It does not start elsewhere, it starts here. With us. If barbecue is our best-kept secret, let’s not keep it a secret any longer. Consider it just the beginning.<p>

 

The complexities of being simple

Albert Einstein explained the universe in five characters. Wouldn’t it be nice everything else could be stated with such brevity?<p>

 

Although those five characters, E=MC², may describe the universe, it would take a million words, alone, to teach me how to make a proper Excel spreadsheet. Or how to fold a bed sheet.<p> 

 

The truth is that simple is not so simple.<p> 

 

So, I suggest we find wisdom somewhere else: advertising slogans. Really.<p>

 

A good slogan will keep it short and simple and say a lot, and cause action, like causing someone to purchase a product or service, in the split second it takes someone to see it.<p>

 

Simple things — like don’t repeat yourself. Don’t say the same thig twice. Once is enough. You don’t have to say the same thing over and over again. In other words, don’t repeat yourself.<p> 

 

Less is best.<p> 

 

So I searched and compiled a list of the elegant advertising slogans that even Albert Einstein would appreciate for getting to the point. My favorites:<p>

 

Nike: Just Do It.<p>

 

Burger King: Have It Your Way.<p>

 

Bounty: The Quicker Picker Upper.<p>

 

Taco Bell: Think Outside the Bun.<p>

 

Apple Computer: Think Different.<p>

 

Maxwell House: Good to the Last Drop.<p>

 

Wheaties: The Breakfast of Champions.<p>

 

De Beers: Diamonds Are Forever.<p>

 

Wendy’s: Where’s the Beef?<p>

 

Trix: Tricks Are for Kids.<p>

 

Budweiser: The King of Beers.<p>

 

So, a few words can say a lot. Even the universe thinks so. <p>

Progress, one decade at a time

 <p>

When I first moved here in 1982, I would occasionally get in my car and drive to Houston and see overpass after overpass going nowhere in Fort Bend County.<p>

 

<p>These overpasses spanned U.S. 59, but stopped abruptly on each side of it. Why? A boondoggle? Pork? A mistake? It made no sense to me.<p>

 

<p>Now it makes sense. I now know why.<p>

 

<p>It’s called infrastructure. Sound growth often comes last. Infrastructure often comes first. <p>

 

<p>Those overpasses in Fort Bend County are an example of one of the many connections that needed to happen when the fourth largest city in the United States started creeping their way, and their leaders wanted to take advantage of it and create opportunities for commerce, jobs and quality of life.<p>

 

<p>Those overpasses don’t go “nowhere” any longer.<p>

 

<p>So, if infrastructure is the first thing that often happens, is Wharton creating that infrastructure? I would argue yes, starting with the generation that created an industrial park, lured Nan Ya Plastics and JM to Wharton, built an airport, lobbied for an interstate, looped water and sewer utilities, developed FM 102 at US 59, and much, much more lately.<p>

 

<p>Yes, some may see mistakes, have differing opinions, and there are always thorny complications of land-use policy. But the big stuff, the infrastructure has truly taken precedence.<p>

 

<p>This process really started decades and decades ago here. I can remember city-council planning sessions 30 years ago, for instance, when the extension of 1301 was launched, plus lifting Wharton from harm’s way from flood waters.<p>

 

<p>Yes, it takes that long. Just like it did with Fort Bend overpasses to nowhere.<p>

Why do we have so many wildflowers in Wharton? Is it the weather?


We don't care to answer, frankly. Here at the Wharton Chamber of Commerce and 

Agriculture, we are just too busy celebrating, instead.


The flowers are all over town! People, including Our Government, are going to extremes to ensure they are not mowed down, too.


People are stopping their cars. They are getting out of their cars. They are using their cameras and smart phones to take photographs of themselves and their children posing among the beautiful wildflower patches.


Facebook is filled with Cute Pictures. You can see people taking these Cute Pictures everywhere.


They are happy. We are happy. We could get used to this.


Wharton, the beautiful.


We already know Wharton is a good place to live, and a good place for people who don't come here to visit here and spend their money on hotel rooms, new construction, shopping, antiquing, dining, visiting museums, saying hello to the dinosaur, enjoying the countryside, our parks, our children learning, and lots of cows, and horses, and pecan trees, diversity, festivals, music, rich farmland, and great people, and great people with wildflowers.
Frankly, wildflowers are good for business. We love wildflowers. We love business.


Keep on keeping on Wharton!


That is all for now.

A press release from Preservation Texas:

The board of Preservation Texas, the only statewide nonprofit dedicated solely to preservation, visited Wharton, aka “Harrison, Texas” in playwright Horton Foote’s terminology, last week to hold its quarterly board meeting.

On Friday, the preservation group conducted their board meeting at the Carriage House at the Morris Ranch, and was hosted by Stewart Morris, whose company, Steward Title, funded the restoration of the Wharton County Courthouse Tower Clock.

That afternoon the group toured the Wharton County Courthouse with Paul Shannon and Jeffery Blair and afterwards held a public reception at the Plaza Theatre.  That evening, it was off to “Bountiful” and Bud Northington’s Egypt Plantation, for a meal and a history lesson to learn how early settlers and a “Sea of Mud” contributed to achieve Texas Independence.

On Saturday, the group toured historic sites and neighborhoods, including the restored Wharton Southern Pacific Passenger Depot Museum, Hopper Elementary and the 2oth Century Technology museum, before heading to Houston to hold the 2014 Preservation Texas statewide honor awards at the restored 1910 Harris County Courthouse.

The Wharton Chamber of Commerce organized the arrangements for the visit to Wharton, including catering from Hinze’s BBQ, and Mrs. T’s.  Special thanks to Colorado Valley Transit bus driver Lloyd Aldridge, who drove the bus for the Saturday tour.

More grim news about surface water

A press release from LCRA on our surface water supply. It's not good:

With parts of Texas in the midst of a persistent, severe drought, the Lower Colorado River Authority will seek permission from the state to curtail releases of interruptible stored water from the Highland Lakes for downstream irrigation for the fourth year in a row.

LCRA also will ask permission to reduce the amount of water required to be released in spring 2015 to support the habitat of the blue sucker, a threatened fish that lives in the river downstream of Austin.

"This was not an easy decision, but we must protect the region's water supply," said LCRA General Manager Phil Wilson. "More than a million people depend on water from the Highland Lakes, and right now, there is just not enough water for everyone to have all they want.

"This is a significant drought. At times, it's been even more intense than the worst recorded drought in this region's history, and we don't know when it's going to end," Wilson said. "This action will help us manage our limited water supply to meet the essential needs of the region's communities and industries."

On Wednesday, the LCRA Board of Directors voted 11-2 to ask permission from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to curtail releases from the lakes in 2015.

LCRA is requesting drought relief identical to the relief approved by TCEQ for 2014, which cut off releases of interruptible water supplies for most downstream irrigation.

The Board said it also would continue limiting outdoor watering by LCRA firm customers and their customers to a maximum of one day a week. Firm customers include cities in Central Texas that depend on water from the Highland Lakes.

The LCRA Board decision to seek relief for a record fourth straight year comes on the heels of some of the lowest amounts of water flowing into the lakes from streams and tributaries since the Highland Lakes were formed in the 1930s through early 1950s. January to October inflows were the second lowest for that 10-month period since 1942. The monthly inflows were the third lowest on record for October.

With this vote, the LCRA Board again is asking to deviate from the existing state-approved Water Management Plan, which determines how water from lakes Travis and Buchanan, the region's water supply reservoirs, is managed. Without the state's permission to deviate from the requirements of the plan, LCRA would be obligated to provide about 170,000 acre-feet of interruptible stored water from the lakes for agricultural purposes in 2015. (An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons.) Although LCRA recently filed a revised request with TCEQ to amend the Water Management Plan, these changes are not likely to be in effect in time to impact release decisions for 2015.

With combined storage in lakes Travis and Buchanan at about 674,000 acre-feet (or 33 percent of capacity), the Board determined there is not enough water available to meet all requests and still protect the region's water supply.

The request would suspend releases from the Highland Lakes for most downstream agriculture users in 2015. However, even if TCEQ grants LCRA's request, customers in the Garwood Irrigation Division still may be entitled to limited amounts of water because of an existing contract with LCRA.

Requirements for blue sucker fish

LCRA also is seeking permission from TCEQ to reduce the required minimum instream flow from 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 300 cfs for six weeks in the spring for the blue sucker fish, which is considered a threatened species in Texas. (One cubic foot per second is equivalent to about 450 gallons a minute.) The request is identical to the request TCEQ granted for spring 2014. If this request is granted, the amount of water that might be saved in 2015 will depend on flow conditions downstream. In 2014, this emergency relief saved about 17,000 acre-feet of water that LCRA otherwise would have had to release.

The lower flow is consistent with more recent science and still protects blue sucker habitat.

Increasing the water supply

LCRA is aggressively working to increase the region's water supply. LCRA plans to break ground on a new off-channel reservoir in Wharton County soon. The reservoir will be the first significant new water supply reservoir developed in the basin in decades. LCRA also has drilled four groundwater wells on property it owns in Bastrop County. The LCRA Board of Directors has committed to increasing the water supply by 100,000 acre-feet by 2017.

A good time at Las Casona

A big thank you to Las Casona for their open house on Thursday and for cutting the ribbon as a new Wharton Chamber member. Lots of fine fellowship, food and drinks. And a big thank you to our board and ambassadors who came en mass. A special shout out to Abby King, our board chair, and Jessica Dunn, who chairs our ambassadors. It's folks like all of you there who make the world go round.
Stay shoulder strong!

We agree!

We agree that when you expect more you get more.

We agree it is best to have a destination if you want to go anywhere.

We agree that different people can get to the same place differently.

We agree we should celebrate our common humanity.

We agree that our children are the most important thing on earth.

We agree we should collectively make effort for children to succeed.

We agree that God made everyone special.

We agree that teaching our children is an honored, sacred task.

We agree that we are capable as a community of sharing a vision of success.

We agree that we can succeed.

We agree that we will succeed.

We agree to empower those we trust and with which we share a vision to carry it out.

We agree!

Wharton in the news

The Star section of the Houston Chronicle today puts the focus on Wharton.
The Alley Theatre will stage the Houston premiere of Horton Foote's The Old Friends at the Wortham Theatre.
The article notes that the play is about "Harrison, Texas," which is really the memories of Foote's hometown, Wharton, Texas.
Wharton is a great place, and Horton Foote is one the reasons.
In other news today, the wire services are reporting that a baby was born with pierced ears.

Come on, everybody!

We have read out loud this story a couple of times at chamber-related gatherings. Some of you may have heard this before. Some may have not. 

If you have heard it, sorry. However, it might never hurt to hear it again. For first timers, we hope you find it entertaining and useful.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.  

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.  

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  

Somebody got angry because it was Everybody's job.  

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.  

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

We cannot discover the origins of this story. We got our copy from Abby King. Thank you, Abby. Abby got her copy from her father. Dr. Dwight King. Thank you, Dwight.

Other stuff:

Chamber member of the week: Small Blessings.

Number of referrals from whartontexas.com to our Chamber members' businesses during July: 738.

Also, thank you to everyone who came to our Membership Appreciation Fish Fry a week ago Thursday. And a big thanks to the Chamber Ambassadors for putting it together, Caney Auto Service for the sponsorship, and the Hungerford Volunteer Fire Department for frying fish second to nobody on this earth. And Leroy Dettling, who makes the best tarter sauce west and east of the Mississippi and beyond.

Also, we enjoyed speaking to a new crop of 37 Wharton ISD teachers on Wednesday morning. We also are appreciative to the many many many businesses, organizations and individuals who donated item to our teacher goodie bags. The bags have never been bigger! Thank you!

That is all.

Another credit card reader

Amazon is extending its reach. What's else is new?
The wire services are reporting today that Amazon will introduce its own mobile credit card reader. Small businesses, using Amazon rather than Amazon's competitors, could pricess credit card payments from smart phones or tablets.
In other wire news today, a talking moose has been discovered in Minnesota.

New members!

WELCOME ! WELCOME ! New Chamber members ALLSTAR, Woodforest National Bank, Sweetwater Apartments and individual members Gary Gates and Kate Holman. Proud to have these businesses and individuals as a part of our member listing and our community development.

1,029

1,029. That’s the number of referrals our business members received from our website, whartontexas.com, last month. 

Members only Fish Fry on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at the KC Hall! If you are a Wharton Chamber members, you should have received your tickets in the mail. If not, give us a call! 979-532-1862.

New Chamber Direrctors elected

We are pleased to announce  four persons elected to the Wharton Chamber board of directors.

They are Jessica Dittrich with H-E-B, Marshall Francis with General Sales, Debbie Folks with Wolf Run Design and Wied Realty,  and Abby King with K-Mana LLC.

Their terms will start Oct. 1, and they are already getting ready.
We are very excited to have them join the board, as they will bring ideas and energy to further the efforts of making Wharton a better place.

The slate of candidates were sent to members last month. The results became official on Tuesday.

Carry-over board members are Greg Baines with Just Do it Now Inc., Landon McClain with Prosperity Bank, Bill Wallace with the Wharton Journal-Spectator, Carol Wootton with Congressman Blake Farenthold’s office, Timmy Barker with Wharton Feed, Linda King with Milam Street Coffee/Wall to Wall Words, Mickey Reynolds with Caney Creek Church and the Texas Colorado River Flood Plain Coalition, and Justin Coldeway with Exelon Energy’s Colorado Bend Generation Station.

Jason Coldeway has served as 2013-2014 board chair, King as vice chair, and Wallace as treasurer.

Retiring from the board will be Steve Wisnieski with Moonwalks ‘N More, Scott Lovejoy with H-E-B, and Joe Munoz with J&M Printing Co.

Exceptional Customer Service

We are collaborating with Dale Carnegie Training to present our next Lunch and Learn business seminar.

The title is "Exceptional Customer Service from Exceptional People." It will from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5 at the Wharton Civic Center.

Lunch and Learn is series of short business seminars by the Wharton Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture. The seminar series has been sponsored by Exelon's Coastal Bend Generation Station, H-E-B, Moonwalks-N‑More and the Wharton Journal-Spectator.

The topic of customer service was chosen from surveying our members' needs.

Tickets are $15 each for chamber members and $20 for non-members. Reserve your tickets by contacting us at 979-532-1962 or helpdesk@whartonchamber.com.

Ken Marsh, a Certified Dale Carnegie Trainer and Founder and CEO of Fearless Networking, will be the presenter. Marsh is an award-winning author who has written two books on business networking and two books on networking for a job/career.

Marsh is a chair and facilitator of two CEO Peer Advisory Groups. He is a certified Master Senior Trainer in eight courses for Dale Carnegie, and he is also a Growth Coach for business owners and CEOs.

He is the host of "The Word on Fearless Networking" on 100.7 FM and KKHT.com in Houston.

In the past four years Ken has written more than 400 articles on how to build a life and a network for several online magazines.

Marsh is a Rotarian, serving as Co-Chair of the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program and has been so for the past 11 years.  
He is also a Lee Alumni Mentors' of Hope "At-Risk-Youth" mentor for Lee High School in Houston.

Here is some of the points he will cover:


- Explaining why customer service is important.
- Knowing the value of following up and following through.
- Learning how to be a much more effective customer service provider.
-  Standing out from the Competition by providing customer service "Magic Moments".
-  Discovering how to build customer loyalty
-  Knowing the No. 1 way consistently to build long-term customer relationships.

Please plan to be there for this and much more at the next Lunch and Learn business seminar. You get a catered lunch, too!

Here's a link to a Dallas Morning News article on the Export Import Bank. Congress needs to reauthorize its existence, and there are serious doubts they will do so. http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20140608-critics-wrong-that-ex-im-bank-only-benefits-big-companies.ece

The following resolution was unimously adopted Wednesday, May 28, by the Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture board of directors:

Resolution

of the Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture

WHEREAS the Export-Import Bank of the United States was established in 1934 by an Executive Order for the purpose of providing credit guarantees and other financial services that help foreign customers of U.S. companies secure financing they need from to buy American products; and

WHEREAS the Export-Import Bank of the United States has facilitated $586 billion in U.S. exports since its inception, supporting nearly $47 billion worth of exports in 2013; and

WHEREAS the charter of the Export-Import Bank of the United States provides that the Bank makes available not less than 20 percent of its lending authority to small businesses, which currently support nearly 290,000 export related jobs with more than 85 percent of all Bank transactions directly benefitting small business exporters; and

WHEREAS the Export-Import Bank of the United States has maintained a very low default rate of 1.5 percent through the recession and several years of strong growth and pays for itself through the fees it charges to foreign buyers and returns billions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury ($3.4 billion from 2006 to 2010); and

WHEREAS the Houston metropolitan area exported $110 billion of goods in 2012 and surpassed New York in 2013 as the number one U.S. market for exports with Texas having the most exporters by far that use the Export-Import Bank of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Import-Export Bank of the United States has facilitated about $3 million in exports from Wharton’s Eco Prime Group, boosting the Wharton community’s employment and economic activity; and

WHEREAS eliminating the Export-Import Bank of the United States would not only increase the annual deficit by the amount deposited each year by the Bank in the U.S. Treasury but would also put thousands of export related jobs at risk;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

The Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture fully endorses and supports the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States because of  the significant economic impact that exports have on the regional economy and the nation.

Approved by the Board of Directors and signed on this 28^th Day of May, 2014

Justin Coldeway

Board Chair

have your say

The Texas Transportation Commission officials will meet to receive input on future highways in Wharton County. It will be 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, at the Wharton Civic Center.