Jefferson City Area Chamber TODAY
TODAY
CHAMBER & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
June 2013
JEFFERSON CITY AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Serving the Community Since 1893
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w w w. j e f f e r s o n c i t y c h a m b e r. o r g
From the Chamber Chair
There’s no place like home
I’m going to go out on a limb here and
assume that most of you reading this
column live or work in the Jefferson City
area, and, unless you are a resident of the
Missouri State Penitentiary or the Cole
County jail, you chose to live here. Sure,
many of us—myself included—either grew
up here or have family here. But what
about the people with no prior ties to
the area who decided to live here? What
drove their decision? The reasons, I’m
sure, are vast and varied but I’m willing to
bet that there are some common themes
that many would point to as part of the
myriad of reasons to make the Jefferson
City area home.
Life here is filled with many options for
fellowship and camaraderie. Do you enjoy
live music? Many local establishments
regularly book live entertainment and
some even build their business around
live music. The just-resumed summer
event series, “Thursday Night Live,” which
turns the downtown area into a temporary concert venue by closing the streets
to vehicles, is quickly becoming a local
tradition along with many other annual
events: “Salute to America,” “Blues, Brews
& Brats,” “Living Windows,” Oktoberfest,
etc... If you add in the picnics, festivals
and other events in Jefferson City and
the surrounding communities, you could
probably attend an event nearly every
weekend!
Jefferson City is blessed with many
options for dining and entertainment. We
have many fine local restaurants serving a wide variety of cuisines as well as
an ample supply of chain restaurants. In
addition to 12 cinema screens, we have
some of the best and most active community theater groups you could ever hope
for. There is nearly always a show being
produced by Jefferson City Little Theatre,
Stained Glass Theatre, Capital City Players Dinner Theatre or Scene One Black
Box Theatre.
The list of amenities we have to offer is
long indeed. Some of our assets include
the Capitol building (No other community
in the state can make that claim!), several
interesting museums, a top notch parks
and recreation department with many
league sport programs for both children
and adults, miles of greenway paths and
even an ice arena.
We have a very welcoming community.
Newcomers are typically accepted here
without reservation and there are many
ways for them to begin building relation-
ships with people in the community beyond their neighbors and coworkers. For
those seeking community through their
religion, a look at the Yellow Pages shows
pages and pages of churches and related
ministries in the area. The Christian
churches are most numerous and they
include non-denominational, Protestant
and Catholic options. We also have LDS,
Jehovah’s Witness, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Unitarian Universalist places of
worship. Apologies if I missed anything!
We also have great schools here. Many
share ties with our churches making it
easy to find religious educational opportunities if you are looking for them, but we
also have an excellent public school system. No matter your preference, both our
public and parochial schools consistently
produce student bodies that test above
the state averages.
If service is your passion, you won’t
be hard pressed to find a place to volunteer. We have many strong charitable
organizations serving people in our area
and beyond. They include the United
Way, Samaritan Center, Special Learning
Center, Boys & Girls Club, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters to name just a few. There
are also civic organizations like Rotary,
Lions, Cosmopolitan, Eagles, Elks,
Masons, Knights of
Columbus, American Legion, VFW,
AMVETS and Marine Corps League.
Several of our local
organizations—
like the Jaycees,
Rotaract and the
Joe Scheppers
Chamber-sponsored
2013
Chairman
group, hYPe—are
targeted specifically
at young people just starting their careers. You have no excuse for not getting
involved if you want to.
I could probably fill up this entire
Chamber Today issue just listing the
things we have right here in Jefferson
City that make it a great place to live,
work and raise a family and I would still
forget to mention some things (like our
low cost of living). Whatever the reason,
I think that for the vast majority of us, it
is a decision that we are very happy with.
This seems especially true for the folks
who came to Jefferson City from other
places. Quite simply, people tend to love
it here. They have found their home and
they have no desire to live anywhere else.
Did I miss anything? Send me a note
at JCChamber2013@gmail.com to let me
know why you have chosen to make Jefferson City your home.
Articulation agreement improves access to higher education
John Klebba, Vicki Schwinke and Dr. Donald Claycomb, Linn State Technical College, Missy Bonnot, Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Connie Hamacher, Kathy Pabst and Winston
Rutledge, Lincoln University.
Presidents of Lincoln University and
Linn State Technical College signed an
articulation agreement during a May 15
press conference at the Chamber.
This articulation agreement is an important milestone for the Central Missouri
Innovation Campus (CMIC) program. It
will allow students to seamlessly transfer
credits between the two entities, ensuring
that graduates enter the workforce with
the skill sets and technical degrees local
business partners and the economy need.
The agreement provides students who
have earned an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Programming at Linn
State the opportunity to complete a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information
Systems (CIS) at Lincoln. Students who
are accepted into the CMIC program and
have earned the degree are guaranteed
that Lincoln University will accept designated freshman and sophomore credits to
apply toward a Bachelor’s degree in CIS.
Funding for this grant would not have
been possible without local business and
education partners who provided input
for the grant proposal. Governor Jay
Nixon awarded the $1 million grant last
August. The CMIC program will reduce
education costs for 127 area students
who choose this field. “It’s a pleasure to
witness this agreement today,” said Gov.
Jay Nixon. “It will make a real and lasting
difference for our community.”
The CMIC program is designed to
respond to critical information technology needs in central Missouri. “For many
years our area business partners have
told us that finding qualified IT workers is
a challenge,” said Missy Bonnot, Director
of Economic Development. “We’re pleased
that our education partners have signed
this important agreement to further
improve graduate preparation for this
2006 DECEMBER CHAMBER CHRONICLE
career.”
“The value of
this articulation
agreement is twofold,” said Lincoln
University Interim
President, Dr. Connie Hamacher. “This
agreement strengthens the collaboration
between Linn State
and Lincoln University. And, our students
will benefit from the
internships with our
local businesses. This Dr. Donald Claycomb, President, Linn State Technical College & Dr. Connie
Hamacher, Interim President, Lincoln University signed the articulation agreeis a win for Lincoln
ment May 15 at the Chamber. Governor Jay Nixon witnessed the event.
University, a win for
Linn State Technical
information technology needs of the
College and most
importantly, a win for both our students.” greater Jefferson City area and the state of
Missouri. This articulation demonstrates
Dr. Donald Claycomb, President,
the commitment of both institutions to
Linn State Technical College agrees: “We
believe that the Innovation Grant provides develop innovative initiatives to better
serve our students.”
both Lincoln University and Linn State
The CMIC program is scheduled to
Technical College an excellent opportubegin
fall 2013.
nity to collaborate and better meet the
Reflecting on the 2013 legislative session
Randy Allen
President/CEO
Now that the legislative session has
ended, it’s time to
reflect on the results
of the session and
to analyze how the
passage or defeat of
various bills affects
us locally.
Our economic development staff have
developed articles
on several of these issues. We have also
asked our local legislators, Senator Mike
Kehoe and Representatives Jay Barnes
and Mike Bernskoetter to share their
opinions regarding the impact of the session on state employee pay, ISRS, appropriations for the Capitol and MoDOT, and
transportation infrastructure funding.
We welcome your input. If you have
questions or concerns about these issues
or other issues affecting our local economy, please contact me or my staff.