Some community members want to honor a former resident for her work in the city of Sweet Home, Chamber of Commerce members learned at their annual business meeting Thursday, Jan. 16.
Chamber Board President Christy Duncan said at the meeting that members of the Beautification Committee, President’s Club and city staff are collecting funds to erect a bench or statue in honor of Alice Grovom for her contributions to the beautification of Sweet Home.
“She’s the one who started the flower strip down the middle of Sweet Home,” Duncan said.
Grovom, who passed away in 2022, founded the Beautification Committee in the late 1990s (alongside Craig Martin and Phyllis Smith) with a focus on making the Main Street median strips more attractive.
The median strip, dating back to the 1970s, was sort of an “on-again, off-again” affair, Martin told The New Era in 2009. The Sweet Home Ranger District personnel maintained the upkeep on the median for years, but by 1997 the U.S. Forest Service staff in Sweet Home was being scaled back and the median wasn’t getting as much attention.
Martin pulled together a meeting with stakeholders and volunteers, posing the question about whether the city should keep the median strips or tear them out. That’s when Grovom spoke up and said she’d pull something together.
Grovom began the median beautification project using a $3,000 grant from the Sweet Home Foundation and a match she was able to gather. Over the years, Beautification Committee projects were funded by the city, SHEDG, private donors – including Grovom herself, and the Arts and Crafts Fair hosted by committee members during the Oregon Jamboree.
She led the group of Beautification volunteers for a quarter-century, relentlessly beating the pavement when more funding was needed.
Chamber board member Karla Hogan suggested the parties apply for a grant from the Sweet Home Community Foundation to fund the project.
A look back at the chamber’s accomplishments for 2024 include:
- The annual membership for 2024 ended at 157, a 13.7% increase from the previous year, with an 83% retention rate.
- Two of the larger projects accomplished by the chamber included moving their database system from GrowthZone to ChamberMate, which provides a $3,177 annual savings, and rebranding the chamber’s logo (designed by Mull) with a new outdoor illuminated sign.
- The chamber held 22 networking events in 2024, 12 of which were Coffee With Colleagues, and 10 Business After Hours.
- Ribbon cutting events were held for Into The Brew, Steve Hummer Homes and Sweet Home Gift Shop.
- The chamber sold 307 passports for Cut the Gut and had 6,120 map views online. The event was the chamber’s largest fundraiser of the year with a net income of more than $10,000.
- There were 83 paid entries for the Sportsman’s Holiday Parade and 70 paid entries for December’s Parade of Lights.
- The chamber logged 6,475 map views online for the Community-Wide Yard Sale event, and 4,129 map views for Christmas in Sweet Home.
- The chamber took over management of the annual Gingerbread Competition. While participation was lower than expected, Mull said she was happy to report as many as 60 people visited the event and expressed interest in participating next year.
- Projected membership sales, rental and tourism incomes came in over budget, and projected event income came in under budget, resulting in a total of $2,020.50 under budget overall. The chamber spent $5,211.89 less than was budgeted for the year.
- Executive Director Lagea Mull also presented data showing how the chamber’s income and expenses have improved from 2017 to 2024.
In other business:
- Shelly Larson announced that next year’s Sportsman’s Holiday Princess Court members have been selected and will attend Princess Boot Camp next month. They are Bailey Chafin, Natalie Conn, Ashley Duncan, Anabelle Morris, Delainie Pratt, Bella Wagner and Selah Wright.
- Mull praised the work of the Ambassadors Committee, who help with a variety of events throughout the year.
- The Annual Banquet will be held Feb. 8 at the Boys & Girls Club. Mull reported the City of Sweet Home is sponsoring the Gold Level, the Tony & Shelly Larson Family Foundation is sponsoring the Silver Level, Cascade Timber Consulting is sponsoring the Bronze Level, and Steelhead Fitness is sponsoring the Bar Level.