Spring River Area Chamber of Commerce sees successful awards ceremony; Rose receives E. Wilson Green award

The Spring River Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual awards ceremonies and banquet March 28 at the Elks Lodge in Cherokee Village.

Following entertainment provided by the Osage Water Band, dinner by Biggers Bluff Steakhouse an update to the public of activities conducted by the Chamber during the 2022-year, guest speaker, Cathy Drew, Director of the Ozark Gateway Tourist Council took the stage to inform attendees of the upcoming 2024 Solar Eclipse, what to expect and encouraged businesses to begin preparing now. 

“This is going to show you just how dramatic visitors can make tourism in our state. I want to ask you; how much do you think tourism brought in across Arkansas in 2021? I’ve done this to you before and generally everyone guesses too low.. The answer is $8 billion. This is really big,” Drew said. “In our region, we received $259 million in 2021 for tourism in our eight-county region. That is a lot of money, we are a small region. $259 million and it grows every year.”

Drew provided the county-by-county breakdown of how much the tri-county area had received in revenue through tourism before moving on to the statistics and cautions regarding the upcoming eclipse.

She compared the upcoming eclipse to an area of similar size who was inundated with tourists during a prior solar eclipse… and they were not prepared.

“Casper Wyoming is a town of about 50,000 people. The number of people who came in was overwhelming and they were not prepared. In 2017, hundreds of thousands of visitors chased the eclipse across the U.S., and they believe in 2024 the width of the path of the eclipse will double, drawing even larger crowds to rural America”

Not only will the path of the eclipse double in size, but so will the duration of time the eclipse is in place and the tri-county area is directly in the center of the path of totality, meaning those who chase after the best view, will come to the areas which will be in the path of totality. 

“It will be overwhelming how many people will come to this area to see that… The next eclipse will not be until 2045. We are in an exciting position, because the way the path of the eclipse will go across the state, our region, we are In the heart of it. From one side of the region to the other we will have totality. Our hotels will not be enough for the pole coming in. we will need places for people to camp, to hook RVs up, and for people driving through will need a place to pull over and park,” Drew said.

Drew said the influx of traffic, tourists and needs for police, fire, food, and other services would be unprecedented and preparations must begin now in order to property handle the influx of over one hundred thousand of people who will likely come to the region and others like it.

Following her presentation, Board Member Hazel Whited briefly spoke about a new committee which has been formed to assist cities, counties, businesses and the community at large with preparing for the eclipse, influx of people and to help coordinate events and information to aid in a smoother running event. 

The bottom line could be summed up with the simple phrase “ready or not, here they come”.

The awards were the next item on the evening’s agenda. Awards were presented to B&B Supply, the City of Hardy, First Community Bank, Hometown Radio and the Hardy History Association.

The late Betty Waser, who was an avid volunteer in the community was unanimously the recipient of the Individual Member Award and the award was presented to her family.

Board Member Ethan Barnes co-presented the awards alongside Executive Director Kari Hollis leading up to the most anticipated award of the evening, the E. Wilson Green Community Service Award, where last year’s recipients, Dr. Chris Clem and Julia Baldridge took to the stage to help with the presentation.

“The nominees for the E. Wilson Green Award are Mr. Patrick Black, Mr. Chuck Wolff and Mr. Ernie Rose, three wonderful people in this community who effortless volunteer and continue to serve. We’re honored to present this award to an individual who has been nominated and has been given this award by the community,” Barnes said. As he began his first sentence to announce the winner, the crowd burst into a roaring round of applause.

“Mr. Ernie Rose began his law enforcement career in the 1970s with the Sharp county sheriff’s dept. in 1988 he began working for the City of Hardy and became the town Marshall. He later was named chief of police and during his tenure, he was a mentor to many families and had a reputation of being a father figure to many and a respected member of the community, catching many criminals and keeping our town safe from harm. He has sacrificed time away from his family and is well known around the state of Arkansas for his keen sense to solve a crime. Even with the FBI. He retired in December of 2014 from law enforcement and then ran for mayor of Hardy in 2018 and won… Mayor Rose has led the City of Hardy in growth these past four years. Despite the pandemic years he’s done a wonderful job. We are thankful for Mr. Rose and his family for his dedication to our community. He’s one of the good ones…”

Rose appeared to be taken aback by his selection by the community and offered a few brief, but heartfelt and sincere words.

“I want to let everyone know how much I appreciate this. It’s not one or two people it’s the whole community you think they don’t notice, so when I see this, some people do, and it is greatly appreciated. The whole community… thank y’all very much,” Rose said.

The Future Leaders award, the junior award to the E. Wilson Green Award was presented to Nona Saulnier, a student at Highland High School by Rep. Trey Steimel and Past President Lauren Siebert.

Steimel also presented Saulnier with a citation which can be used for college applications for years to come.

Siebert also presented the in-house awards with Patrick Black and Debra Ball being the recipients.

The evening came to a close with final comments from Chamber President, Fred Holzhauer.

“First off, I’d like to thank all of the past presidents, when you look at that list and see the program I have some mighty big shoes to fill and I aim to do that one by trying to get by and visit with every member in the chamber of commerce to get feedback about where we are, what we can do for you and what can we do better. No matter how good we are there is always room to do better,” Holzhauer said. “When you look at the room tonight it is overwhelming. I remember in 1999 and there was an event where you had one table. Now I look around this room and I am very proud to be a part of this and I am proud to be your president. If there is a certain way you want things to work, you have to let me know.”