CVB, EDC, chamber form partnership
The Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. and the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau have formed a partnership to work together to promote the community.
Mark Calitri, the CVB’s president, told his board Tuesday that “collaboration is essential for communities to grow.”
Candance Castlen Brake, chamber president, said, “We’ve talked about things we can do together. It’s important for the community to have confidence in what we’re doing. We need a partnership.”
City Commissioner Mark Castlen said the chamber’s monthly Rooster Booster breakfast has “excitement in the air. We’re the envy of the state.”
Brake said, “The economy is built on feelings. When people start a business here, that’s confidence. It gives me hope.”
In other business:
• Calitri said the CVB has a new portable digital billboard on a hydraulic lift that can take it up to 10 feet.
It has a 10-foot screen and will be taken to various places in the community to support events here.
He said the county will move it, store it and provide a generator to run it.
• Calitri said he learned in conversations with Churchill Downs that Owensboro Racing & Gaming, 460 Wrights Landing Road, plans to open in February.
And the 145-room Home2 Suites by Hilton across from the Owensboro Convention Center is scheduled to open in March.
• Calitri said the summer has been good for local hotels.
The CVB compares itself with Bowling Green, Paducah and Elizabethtown.
In July, Owensboro hotels had a 60% occupancy rate, second only to Bowling Green’s 62.5%.
And in August, Owensboro led all four cities with 66% occupancy.
• Calitri read a letter from Special Olympics Kentucky that said that its recent state softball tournament in Owensboro was the most successful ever and that the organization hoped to be back next year and “for several years to come.”
• Dave Kirk, destination management director, said he plans to go to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass starting Sept. 23 in Raleigh, North Carolina, to see if Owensboro can get part of the event back.
The International Bluegrass Music Association was located in Owensboro from 1985 to 2003.
Its Fan Fest and Awards Show were here until 1997.
By Keith Lawrence Messenger-Inquirer