Bruce Hobbs has been named chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Sean C. Morgan

As new chairman of the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Bruce Hobbs sees a chance to take the organization further in the positive direction he says it is moving.

“I’m really optimistic,” he said. “I think we’re really getting some of the pieces together.”

Hobbs, who owned the now-closed Coast to Coast Hardware store, later Cascade Hardware, in Sweet Home, said his property management business leaves him time to get involved in the business community.

He started volunteering with the chamber last year when he helped the organization with some Web problems it was having. That led to stints in the office and he was asked to join the board last October. He was elected chairman Feb. 15, replacing outgoing President Dave Bauer of Steelhead Strength and Fitness.

Hobbs said the chamber is moving out of a stretch where it “lost focus” due to economic difficulties and a succession of managers.

“In my opinion, the chamber is coming out of a reorganizational period,” he said. “We went through a period of time when we didn’t have a lot of direction, and in which there were a lot personnel changes.”

Hobbs said he wants the focus this year to be on business support.

“We try to provide support for businesses that they can’t necessarily do in-house,” he said. “We’re helping them get in touch with educators, advertisers, and putting on classes to educate them about business skills they need. We’re trying to be more of a partner with them.”

The chamber also serves as an information center and promoting tourism for Sweet Home.

“We have the visitors center, which is kind of a different entity, in the same building,” he said. “We have a lot of tourism efforts – the highway project, the scenic byway, and we spend a lot of time in direct contact with visitors.

“We spend an awful lot of time being the general directory for the town.

“It’s not uncommon to get two dozen phone calls a day from people asking ‘Who’s in charge of this program?’ or ‘Do you know who owns that property?’ or ‘I need the phone number for this business.’”

He said the chamber membership is “growing rapidly” and he would like to see a “sustained increase” this year.

“People are responding real well to us being available,” he said.

Hobbs said he would like to add a paid staff member to help new director Andrea Culy, to supplement the volunteer base.
“I love volunteers but they’re volunteers,” he said. “They can go home whenever they want.”

Hobbs said that the chamber is working to coordinate its efforts with those of the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort and he hopes SHARE will be able to take over some of the functions the chamber has assumed, by default, in recent years.

“We are not interested in doing event production,” he said. “It had fallen to us, even though it was not the original intention or design, to do some of these things because it became kind of a historical “the chamber does that.”

“SHARE has come on, and it seems to be much more eager to do event-style projects. We want to help support business. We’re more interested helping with advertising, education, organization and resources.

“The big thing, I think, and I think it’s starting to happen, is to begin cooperating with one another.”