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WORKSHOPS & RESOURCES
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Visit www.burkevermont.org for town clerk services, planning, selectboard and other important town meetings.
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SHOP LOCAL
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Support your nei
ghbors and fellow Chamber members by Shopping Locally for goods & services. Visit
www.burkevermont.com for directory listings.
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OUR LOGO
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Add the Burke Logo to your website!
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| The Burke Area Chamber of Commerce CHAMBER MEMBER E-NEWSLETTER
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Happy New Year!
We hope you all had a great holiday season and that the new year brings much health & happiness to you and our community.
2019 was a busy and productive year for the Chamber and we look forward to an equally successful 2020.
Highlights from the year include:
- Chamber membership has grown to 328 members!
- IRS non-profit status - It's back! We received word from the IRS in March that our non-profit 501c6 status was reinstated back to the date of revocation.
- The Chamber is responsible for the free WiFi (The Burke Connection) available in East Burke Village. We are working with Mosedale Integrated Solutions to upgrade equipment and improve the connection.
- The Chamber is a sponsor of the free Burke Mountain Shuttle service offered on summer weekends.
- We have increased our involvement with One Burke to assist them as they work on community needs including village infrastructure improvements in West Burke and Trails & Transportation needs.
- In June, we received word from the USDA that the Burke Chamber/Kingdom Trails Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) was approved! The grant is to partially fund a Network & Welcome Center Feasibility Study to determine traffic, parking and other needs in East Burke Village. The Chamber is the fiscal agent for the grant with Kingdom Trails completing the work outlined in
the grant. KT recently hired SE Group of Burlington, VT to begin work on the feasibility study.
***
SAVE THE DATE***
On February 11th from
5-7:30pm at the Burke Town School gym, there will be a public workshop with KT and SE Group to gather community input on the project.
CLICK HERE
for details.
CLICK HERE for more about Chamber accomplishments of 2019.
Don't forget to
let us know about your events, business news or specials so that we can get the word out via the website, facebook and/or our monthly e-newsletter.
We look forward to a prosperous year ahead for the chamber, your business and our community. As always, your support is greatly appreciated.
With many thanks,
Burke Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors:
John Kascenska, President
(kamountainguides@gmail.com)
Chris Andrews, Vice President
(burkesugarshack@gmail.com)
Linda Lotti, Treasurer
Michelle Cleveland, Secretary
(mcleveland@communitynationalbank.com)
Jim O'Reilly
(jim@wildflowerinn.com)
Tammy Wagner
Laura Malieswski, Chamber Administrator
(burkechamber@burkevermont.com)
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Thank You Gail Weed!
 We regret to announce that longtime Chamber Board Member, Gail Weed has recently decided to resign from her position on the Board of Directors. However, we are very pleased to announce that Gail will continue to volunteer her time to help with Chamber events including the Annual Santa visit to West Burke, our Community Dinner to benefit the Burke Senior Meal Site and other events.
Gail has been an active chamber member and board participant for almost 20 years! We are immensely grateful for all she has brought to the chamber including her active involvement at meetings and events. As a long time small business owner and resident of West Burke, she has always been a great resource for business needs and a voice for the community. While no longer a member of the Board of Directors, Gail will continue to be a chamber member and participate in activities as her time allows.
THANK YOU GAIL FOR ALL YOUR YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE CHAMBER!
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Great News for One Burke and OUR Community!
One Burk
e has been doing lots of great work in 2019 including the West Burke Water and Wastewater Study and thanks to some recently approved grants, you can expect lots more for 2020.
Grants received so far include:
$22,500 - Municipal Planning Grant
$5,000 - Vermont Community Foundation NEK Fund
$2,000 - Kingdom Trails Association Mini Grant
$10,000 - NCIC Grant Application pending - Rural Development Technical Assistance Grant
Town of Burke to provide remaining funding up to $4,500 if needed.
One Burke also received a Grass Roots Grant in the amount of $1,125 to assist with purchasing supplies and outreach.
Aside from the Grass Roots Grant, the funds received and pending are all for the One Burke Downtown Development Initiative which is focused on economic growth for the West Burke community. The grant funds will assist One Burke to create an economic development plan and hire a professional facilitator to host a visioning session to understand the community's expectations & visions for development in West Burke to help attract/develop businesses for growth. Stay Tuned for more info about that and a date for the visioning session. All community members will be invited.
THIS IS YOUR COMMUNITY SO YOUR INPUT AND IDEAS MATTER!
The information gathered from the visioning session will be used to establish priorities for One Burke & paint the vision for residents, local businesses, funders & developers.
To learn more, visit the
One Burke Facebook page.
Better yet, Get Involved!
The Village Revitalization Task Force
meets the 1st Wednesday of each month at 5pm.
The Trails and Transportation Task Force
meets the last Monday of each month at 6pm.
Meetings are at the Community Building, 212 School St., West Burke.
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Christmas Tree Contest Winners
A brilliant display of Christmas Trees is lighting up the green in East Burke Village as part of the Burke Area Chamber of Commerce annual holiday contest. Ruggles Christmas Trees provided the trees which were each 'adopted' and decorated by a local school or business. The judges have spoken and winners were chosen at a Tree Lighting Ceremony on Sunday, December 15th at the Burke Mountain Club/East Burke Community Library Holiday Party. Each winner received $100 sent to their charity of choice.
Best School Tree - The Newark Street School won this category for their tree featuring hand-made wooden ornaments with engraved messages from the students. $100 on their behalf went to The Newark Winter Sports Activity Program.
Best Business Tree - StoneCrest Properties took this category with a red ribbon wrapped tree that featured ornaments with images of the critters who live at the Mountain View Farm Animal Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was also their chosen charity.
Best Lights - The Lyndon Outing Club won this category with flashing lights of many colors. They chose the Lyndon Area Food Shelf to receive $100.
Best Decorations - Passumpsic Bank and Café Lotti tied for this category. The PSB tree featured a Polar Express theme while the Café's tree is an ode to coffee with lots of coffee bean ornaments. Their respective charities of choice were the Burke Senior Meal Site and Kingdom Kids.
And, finally, Best Overall Tree went to Century 21 Farm & Forest with a very detailed Wizard of Oz theme complete with ruby red slippers as the tree topper. Their charity of choice was the Lyndon Area Food Shelf.
The trees will be on display until mid January. Folks are welcome and encouraged to wander around the snow covered green to get a close up look at the Christmas trees. Photos of all the trees are also on the
Burke Area Chamber of Commerce facebook page.
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Burke Area Chamber of Commerce
PO Box 347 East Burke, VT 05832
802-626-4124 burkechamber@burkevermont.com www.burkevermont.com |
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