The Red Oak Chamber of Commerce evolves

The Red Oak Chamber of Commerce is no more.

A general membership meeting occurred Thursday at the Red Coach Inn, and a resolution was unanimously approved to dissolve the group and merge into the newly-formed Red Oak Chamber and Industry Association.

The Red Oak Industrial Foundation had already dissolved, and a new director has been on the job for more than a month, steering the ROCIA.

It seems a little odd for a community the size of Red Oak not to have a Chamber of Commerce. That seems like such a staple of any community, and in fact, has been a driving force in Red Oak since the 1950s.

But you know what? This isn’t the 1950s anymore.

This is a different era, even a different century, with an undisputed different economic climate. That’s going to require something, well, a little different.

Combining the Chamber and the Industrial Foundation seems a little odd on the surface, but really, it makes perfect sense. They should work hand-in-hand with a common goal of making Red Oak a better place to live.

Competitively speaking, Red Oak has a lot to offer in terms of recruiting new businesses and industries. Turning a negative into a positive, plant closings in the last few years leave a lot of available buildings and an available, skilled workforce to recruit. And with these two groups working together and pooling resources, Red Oak in theory should have another leg up in this increasingly aggressive recruiting war.

With that though comes a lot of expectations. As mentioned, Red Oak has lost its share of jobs over the last few years, and is in need of a serious boost.

Hopefully, something different will provide it.

****

I especially enjoyed one of today’s letters to the editor regarding one of Obama’s tsars who has been roasted lately for a quasi-comment he made years ago about pets being able to sue their owners.

The comment, which he actually wrote in an critique of a book, has been taken way out of context as he was speaking theoretically about animal abuse cases and having a person represent the “abused” in civil litigation.

However, as someone who does enjoy ribbing extremists of any sort, it is kind of fun to point and laugh at the premises’ absurdity, even if it is in a rhetorical sense.

And I agree 100 percent with the letter writer in the beliefs that it would be cats, and not dogs, packing that courtroom at the first possible chance to sue the snot out of their owners.

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express. He can be emailed at publisher@redoakexpress.com