Commerce

Maitland Mayor Doug Kinson said he’s ashamed to direct people to the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

The building — a 1930s house converted to a business — has a cracked ceiling, a caved-in roof above its sidewalk and dead bushes and trees making up the landscape. This is why the city’s plans to spend millions of dollars on a new city hall and fire station angers Maitland Chamber of Commerce Administrative Assistant Pat Williamson.

“The Chamber does so much for the city, but the city really doesn’t do anything for the chamber,” she said during an Oct. 11 City Council meeting when the city hall and fire station projects were discussed.

Williamson said the chamber’s phone rings nonstop with calls about anything from a local business’s phone number to a woman looking for a place where she can get an Irish blessing for her dying mother (this call came in last week).

“Like any chamber, it’s the center of the city. If people and businesses come from out of town, they come to the Chamber to get information about the city and that’s what we do — we promote Maitland.”

The city hall budget is $4 million and the fire station, which has a groundbreaking slated for December, will cost $3.3 million. But proposed additions to the plans, which include making city hall’s façade more prominent, will cost an additional $30,000 to $60,000.

ACi architects, who are preparing the plans, also proposed a third option for the buildings that would have made city hall even more prominent but costs an extra $300,000 to $500,000. Council preferred the price tag on the first option, but will not make a final decision until Monday’s meeting.

Councilwoman Bev Reponen said the Chamber was originally to be included within the new city hall but they would have had to take more bond money so they decided to cut it. Maitland is already adding another $1.7 million to the $8.5 million citizens voted to allow the city to borrow to fund new public buildings in 2005.

Williamson said Kinson is the only councilmember who’s a member of the Chamber. That’s about to change after Councilman Howard Schieferdecker, who’ll become mayor in January, visited the Chamber Tuesday to see the building’s shortcomings for himself.

“I’m going to do the same thing and carry on Doug’s tradition because I think it’s important that we support the Chamber,” Schieferdecker said. “I see some rot here and there that needs to be fixed; overall the building is sound, but it needs to get spruced up a little bit so that people can notice the building.”

Jean Thornton, resident of Maitland, said that if the city can build two new buildings it should help the Chamber.

“I’m embarrassed with our Chamber of Commerce building. It’s a disgrace to Maitland,” she said. “I’m really happy about city hall but our Chamber needs to have some class and that little place over there is pitiful.”

Because it supports local business, the Chamber can make or break a local economy, which is why Schieferdecker said the city should support them.

“Especially in this economy, we need to be partnering with them on a regular basis and to make it an ongoing effort that the city and the Chamber work together because we need to promote business,” he said.

The chamber plans to start collecting quotes for the work that needs to be done to the building, but meanwhile, Williamson’s son, who owns a pressure washing company, plans to clean the building so the following weekend the Chamber’s board members can paint it.

“We’re saving every penny we possibly can just to keep it running,” Williamson said. “The reason I get out there is because I’ve lived here for 40 years and I love this little town … and seeing the city officials and the city itself not being supportive is a slap in the face for a business that is doing so much for the city.”

Not so fast

During the Oct. 11 meeting, Councilman Phil Bonus was aggravated at the speed in which the city was moving forward with the public building plans, saying the reason ACi had to come back with these options was because they rushed the original building design.

“We went too fast and got Scheme 1 out before we knew what it should look like,” he said. “It’s OK to say, ‘let’s think about it.’”

Although the majority of the Council seemed satisfied with the proposal, some members of the community were not. Cathy Sandifer said she considered the plans for the buildings to be too fancy for a town where many of the homes were originally so modest.

“A slight tower with a pitched roof and a big window facing the street would be more appropriate,” she said. “I want something that we can be proud of, that our children can stand behind — good old middle class America.”

But Kinson said the plans are perfect for the city and its future.

“I think it’s in line to where the city’s going,” he said.