Director hired as chamber, industrial foundation near merge

Negotiations have ended, and pending normal hiring prerequisites, Darrel

Steven Carlyle will become director of the newly formed Red Oak Chamber and Industrial Association.

Selection Committee Chairman David Jennings announced Carlyle was offered and accepted the position Friday and expects Carlyle to be in Red Oak for a meeting this week before he starts his new job next Monday.

Carlyle, who prefers to be called “Darrel Steven,” comes to Red Oak with a background as city administrator in two communities. After serving as administrator in Bondurant, Iowa, Carlyle served in that position in Greenwood, a suburb of Kansas City.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to come to Red Oak,” Carlyle said Monday. “My background is that I’m a native of Bellevue (Neb.) and a University of Nebraska graduate and as a small child, my family traveled extensively in western Iowa. I feel like I’m coming back to home by moving to western Iowa.”

Carlyle will assist as the current Red Oak Industrial Foundation and Red Oak

Chamber of Commerce work through the transition into becoming the Red Oak Chamber and Industrial Association. After the transition is complete, including the transfer of assets, the Industrial Foundation and Chamber will dissolve.

“Both organizations (the Red Oak Chamber of Commerce and the Red Oak Industrial Foundation) needed directors, and realized their worked overlapped, so they began talking about the possibility of maybe putting the two together,” Jennings said.

According to Jennings, the decision to form the new organization came about shortly after the resignation of the Red Oak Chamber director, Angie Stein. Stein moved with her family to Nebraska last February when new opportunities opened there for both her husband and herself.

That factor and the fact for several months George Maher, Executive Director of Montgomery County De-velopment Corporation and part-time director of the Industrial Foundation,, had said he was looking at wanting to step back, caused boards of the Cham-ber of Commerce and the Industrial Foundation to realize the potential of forming a new organization.

Maher is a well-known and long-time personality involved in economic development within the Red Oak community.

“George has been a very active individual and I think that’s what keeps him so young,” Jennings said of Maher. “George will continue to work for Red Oak as long as he lives in Red Oak.”

Among his activities will be working closely with Carlyle as the director shapes the newly forming Red Oak Chamber and Industrial Association.

Funding for the new organization will be through dues, income from special events and by receiving money from both the City of Red Oak and Montgomery County. The dues structure is still being developed and the projected budget is still being discussed.

“We are a corporation and we can conduct business, but we’re still building the organization. That’s what Carlyle’s responsibility will include,” Jennings said.

The six-member selection committee that narrowed their candidates down to three who were invited to interview for the director position, was made up of board members from both the Red Oak Chamber of Commerce and the Red Oak Industrial Foundation.

They were Karen Blue, Jennings, John O’Neil, Randy Orme, Terry Schmidt and Nick Zimmer.

Board members on the new organization are Montgomery County Memorial Hospital Public Relations Director David Jennings as president; United Group Realtor Larry Barnett as vice-president; manager of Red Oak Inn and Restaurant Randy Orme, treasurer; and Montgomery County Memorial Hospital Administrator Allen Pohren, Susan Jones of Jones Mechanical, Chad Johnson of Hy-Vee, R. K. Belt Field (airport) Manager Gail Ernst, Houghton State Bank President Jim Sifford, John O’Neil of O’Neil Electric and Kristie Konz, manager of UPS in Red Oak. Carlyle will serve as secretary.

Ex-officio non-voting members are Red Oak Superintendent Terry Schmidt, Red Oak City Administrator Brad Wright and Montgomery County Board of Supervisors representative Karen Blue.

Carlyle’s mother still lives in Bellevue and his married daughter lives in Papillion, Neb.