Chamber Corner with Larry McHugh

This morning, we are excited to welcome back Rece Davis as guest speaker at a Chamber Member Breakfast Meeting. Rece Davis, who joined ESPN in 1995, serves as primary studio host for ESPN and ESPN2’s coverage of college football and college basketball. He is the host of ESPN’s Saturday college football pregame, halftime and postgame studio coverage and College Football Final with analysts Lou Holtz and Mark May. Davis also calls the ESPN College Football Primetime game on Thursday nights with Jesse Palmer, David Pollack and Samantha State. He is the host of ESPN’s College GameDay basketball road show and calls select college basketball games. A regular contributor to SportsCenter and ESPN Radio, Davis served as the host on the NBA Draft on ESPN in 2012. He has also worked on ESPN and ABC’s Triple Crown horse racing and NFL Draft coverage. Previously, Davis hosted ESPN2’s weekend RPM 2Night and Sunday morning RPM 2Day programs (1997-1999), and ESPN2’s NBA 2Night, the network’s daily NBA highlights/news program (1996-97). Before joining ESPN, Davis worked at WJRT-TV in Flint, Mich., as a sports anchor/reporter (1993-95). From 1988 to 1993, he was a sports anchor and sports director at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Ga., and, while he was still a student at the University of Alabama in 1987, a general assignment reporter for WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa. He also worked as a freelance television play-by-play announcer, studio host and radio announcer in select media outlets in Alabama (1983-93). In 2008, Davis won the Best Sports Host award given by Cable Fax.  Davis, a native of Muscle Shoals, Ala., graduated cum laude from the University of Alabama in 1988 with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in broadcast news and public affairs. Davis was named the University of Alabama School of Communication Broadcast Department’s outstanding alumnus for 2001. I want to again thank Webster Bank for their sponsorship of this Member Breakfast Meeting, and for their longstanding support of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.   

Tomorrow morning, our Westbrook Division will hold its January meeting at Westbrook Town Hall. In addition to local reports and a Chamber report, the main agenda item will be a presentation on C-PACE, or Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy.  C-PACE is a program that allows commercial and industrial building owners 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. The Chamber has partnered with CEFIA, the Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, to market this program to the business community in Middlesex County.

The first Member Business After Work Networking Event of 2014 is scheduled for next Wednesday, Feb. 5th at The Gelston House in East Haddam. The Gelston House is a great supporter of our Chamber and hosts a number of meetings throughout the year. We look forward to this Business After Work event which will feature Gelston House food and hospitality, and the best networking around. We are expecting a large crowd in East Haddam next Wednesday and I would like to thank Iso Dedusaj, owner of The Gelston House, and his entire team for hosting what is sure to be a terrific evening on the river. 

On Monday, Feb. 10, we will welcome United States Senator Richard Blumenthal to a Member Breakfast Meeting. As I noted last week, Senator Blumenthal visits with our Chamber every year and we look forward to another great Breakfast Meeting. Senator Blumenthal’s committee assignments include the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the Committee on Veterans Affairs. These assignments are extremely important, particularly to the economy in Middlesex County and the state of Connecticut. I would like to again thank Pratt & Whitney for their sponsorship of this event with the Senator, and for their strong and continuous support of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce. 

This Blumenthal Breakfast will be immediately followed by a seminar on affordable housing, hosted by our Affordable Housing Committee and sponsored by Liberty Bank Foundation. The program will focus on the development of affordable housing in Middlesex County, and will feature Evonne M. Klein, Commissioner of the new State Department of Housing, Dante Bartolomeo, Chair of the Senate Housing Committee in Hartford, Eric Chatman, President & Executive Director, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), Macky McCleary, Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Quality, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and Michael Rendulic, Rural Development Coordinator, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Our Affordable Housing Committee has put together a number of terrific events over the years and this one will be no different. Please visit www.middlesexchamber.com for more information.

The Chamber’s 2014 Legislative Breakfast will be held on Friday, February 21st, at the Courtyard by Marriott in Cromwell. We have 15 state legislators that represent towns in the Chamber’s service area and each one of them is invited to attend the event. We look forward to visiting with our Senators and State Representatives, and speaking with them about the upcoming legislative session in Hartford which begins on February 5th.

Speaking of the legislative session, members of our Legislative Committee and Board of Directors held a meeting last Friday with State Senator John McKinney, and State Representative Larry Cafero. Senator McKinney is the Republican leader in the Senate, and Rep. Cafero is the Republican leader in the House of Representatives. It was a great discussion, and I thank both of them for making the trip to Middletown to visit with our group. Our Legislative Committee and Board will meet with Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey in March, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Williams in April. 

Last Thursday, I attended a grand opening at Signature for Women in Middletown along with Middletown Mayor Dan Drew and Chamber Chairwoman Darlene Briggs. The new Court Street business looks terrific, and we wish owners January and Terry King the best of luck and much success in downtown Middletown.

The 21st Annual Middletown Sports’ Hall of Fame Induction Dinner will be held Thursday evening, January 30th, at the Crowne Plaza Cromwell. We are expecting another large crowd for this event where we will be inducting 13 deserving individuals and 2 teams into the Hall of Fame. I want to again thank the Middletown Sports’ Hall of Fame Board of Directors, and President Tom Serra, for their hard work and dedication to the event. I also want to offer a big thank you to Chamber Vice President Johanna Bond for her extremely valuable support to this great event. 

It may be cold outside, but the Chamber calendar is hot with events and activities. 

For more information on Chamber events and activities, please visit www.middlesexchamber.com