Chamber Corner with Larry McHugh

The month of October is always a busy month for the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce and 2013 is no different. 

Next Tuesday, October 8th, we are pleased to welcome Kevin Ollie, UCONN Head Men’s Basketball Coach, to a Member Breakfast Meeting.  We are expecting a sold out crowd for this event, and we look forward to what Coach Ollie has to say about the upcoming season and the state of UCONN basketball.  The Member Breakfast Meeting, sponsored by ConnectiCare, will be held at the Crowne Plaza Cromwell, 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell, with networking beginning at 7:00 A.M., Breakfast Buffet opens at 7:45 A.M., and the Meeting Program, 8:00 to 9:00 A.M.  Cost is $20 for Chamber Members and $30 for non-members.  Kevin is about to begin his second season as Head Coach, and I appreciate his willingness to visit with our members. 

October is also of course home to the Middlesex County Business to Business Expo.  This year’s event, scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th at the Crowne Plaza Cromwell, will once again be a full day of meetings and activities.  This year’s event includes an Economic Forecast Breakfast Meeting, featuring economists Don Klepper-Smith and Pete Gioia, and a Small Business Awards Luncheon, featuring guest speaker Wayne Carini from the television show Chasing Classic Cars which airs on Velocity TV.  Expo will also once again feature a Middlesex County Career Fair with employers from throughout the state, a Health and Wellness Fair, sponsored by Middlesex Hospital & Aetna Inc., a workshop on Emergency Preparedness for businesses, and a workshop on social media.  Finally, our Middlesex Businesswomen’s Alliance will host a Speed Networking event, and Real Estate Continuing Education classes will be offered at different points throughout the day.  Expo is a major annual event for the Chamber and for Middlesex County, we look forward to another terrific edition.  I would like to thank all of our Expo sponsors, led by Presenting Sponsors Comcast Business and Updike, Kelly, and Spellacy P.C., for their strong support of this event and of this Chamber.  www.middlesexchamberevents.com, a website dedicated to the 2013 Expo, has all the details for this major event on October 29th. 

This week features a few important meetings of Chamber committees.  Our Manufacturers Council will meet tomorrow morning at the Galleria Design Center on Middle Street in Middletown.  Our members from the manufacturing community will hear a presentation on

C-PACE, or Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program.  This program offers commercial and industrial building owners the ability to finance qualifying energy efficiency and clean energy improvements through placing a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill.  The following towns in the Chamber’s service area have taken the necessary steps to opt into the C-PACE Program: Chester, Durham, East Haddam, East Hampton, Middletown and Westbrook. We look forward to a good meeting which will also feature a tour of the Galleria showroom and manufacturing operation.  I would like to thank Gerry Martorelli and his team for hosting our manufacturing group. 

The Chamber’s Central Business Bureau will meet on Thursday morning in the Chamber Conference Room.  The two main agenda items are 2013 Holiday on Main Street, and the continuing Main Street (North End) Yankee Gas System Reliability Project.  Yankee Gas construction hours for the installation of about a half mile of new gas pipeline currently under way in Middletown's North End have been extended by one hour.  Yankee Gas has alerted us that work on the section from Main Street to Hartford Avenue will now be conducted between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. (previously 6 a.m.), Sunday through Thursday.  Work hours remain the same for the section from Hartford Avenue to Route 9, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday.  The work schedule adjustment was approved by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.  The Holiday on Main Street Committee has been meeting recently and the Central Business Bureau will receive an update from Event Chairman Al Santostefano. 

The Chamber’s Young Professionals’ Alliance is very much looking forward to its Moonlight Zip Lining Event on Thursday, October 17th.  This Halloween Themed Adventure will be hosted by EMPOWER Leadership Sports and Adventure Center in Middletown.  Our YPA group will take part in some terrific networking before embarking on a nighttime adventure through the 30 acre EMPOWER facility, a zip line course that boasts five long and fast zip lines ranging from 200 to over 650 feet, and two "Indiana Jones" style suspension bridges. EMPOWER Owner Joe DeRing and General Manager Dan Jaskot are active with our young professionals group and we appreciate their support. 

Jeff Pugliese and I attended last Thursday evening’s Middletown Riverfront Planning Workshop at the Municipal Building in Middletown.  This event included a tour of the riverfront sites, a presentation from Projects for Public Spaces, a noted planning and design firm working with the Middletown Riverfront Redevelopment Committee, and small group discussions about the different sites that were toured.  It was a very informative session and I look forward to continuing discussions with my fellow committee members on this important issue for our city and our region. 

Last Monday’s Member Breakfast Meeting with Congressman John Larson was a very successful event.  We had a terrific turnout and I would once again like to thank Pratt & Whitney for their sponsorship, and Congressman Larson for his great remarks. 

Finally, I would to like to commend the Durham Agricultural Fair Association, and all of their volunteers led by Association President Dan Miramant, on another outstanding year for the Durham Fair.  I spent over four hours on the fairgrounds on Friday and saw a number of Chamber members, friends and supporters.  The Durham Fair is an institution in Connecticut that attracts up to 200,000 people each year.  We are truly lucky to have it in Middlesex County.  A BIG Congratulations goes out to the entire Durham Fair team. 

For more information on Chamber events and activities, please contact Jeff Pugliese at jpugliese@middlesexchamber.com.