Watch Your Mailbox for an Ad Packet & Order Form!

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1 Watch Your Mailbox for an Ad Packet & Order Form!

2 Is Your Business Brand Crisis Ready? It takes a long time to establish your business brand, but it only takes one big mistake to ruin your reputation forever. How ready is your company or organization for a crisis?

3 No ** Soldotna Chamber Luncheons Schedule Change in July! ** Let s Connect! Connect With Us on These Social Media Websites Facebook Pinterest Instagram Google + Foursquare Yelp Twitter Co n n e c t Over Lu n c h In order to better serve our members the Soldotna Chamber Board of Directors has voted to change our luncheon schedule to the 2 If you re interested in being a featured speaker at an upcoming nd and 4 th Wednesday of every month. All Soldotna Chamber luncheons will be located Soldotna at the Soldotna Chamber Regional Luncheon, Sports Complex, please unless contact otherwise Andy noted. at (907) ext. Wednesday, 14 or andy@soldotnachamber.com. September 6 th Joint Chamber Luncheon - Kenai Pen. Borough Mayoral Debate KPB Mayoral Candidates: Dale Bagley, Linda Hutchings, Charlie Pierce. Please submit questions to johna@kenaichamber.org by 5pm on Sept 1st. Location: Kenai Visitor Center - Kenai RSVP Online or call the Kenai Chamber at Wednesday, September 13 th Joint Chamber Luncheon - Kenai Pen. Borough Assembly Debate Confirmed Candidates: District 1-Kalifornsky (1yr): Brent Hibbert, Daniel J. Castimore, and Kate Veh; District 2-Kenai (3yr): Jill Schaefer, Duane A. Bannock, and Harold Hal Smalley; District 5-Sterling/Funny River (3yr): Leslie Morton and Norm Blakeley Location: Soldotna Sports Center RSVP Online or call Wednesday, September 20 th Joint Chamber Luncheon - Update from Andeavor (formerly Tesoro) Location: Kenai Visitor Center - Kenai RSVP Online or call the Kenai Chamber at Wednesday, September 27 th Soldotna Luncheon - Conversations on Soldotna Annexation Location: Soldotna Sports Center RSVP Online or call All luncheons require an RSVP in advance! Lunch cost is $15. Meetings are free to attend - open to the public. Register Online at or call (907) Luncheons are held the 2 nd and 4 th Wednesday of every month. J~B STOR N LOK INC. Units Available: ft. container sales 20 & 40 ft. Connex containers on site and off site New 10x30 or 10x15 units Open & Covered storage for RVs, Boats Mini Storage File Storage Cabinets Offering Secure Storage: Manager & Office on Site Perimeter fence, electric gate, video surveillance, keypad coded access & well lit units, Senior Discounts Open 7 days/week - 24 hr access (907) Mile 19.5 K-Beach Rd. Soldotna jb-storage.com soldotna chamber of commerce Sterling Hwy, Soldotna, AK Ph: (907) Fax: (907) staff Shanon Davis Executive Director shanon@soldotnachamber.com Katie Jacobson Membership Development Coordinator katie@soldotnachamber.com Andrew Heuiser Events & Programs Coordinator andy@soldotnachamber.com Sara Hondel Tourism & Education Coordinator sara@soldotnachamber.com RIVER CITY PULLTABS Rebecca Hanson, Store Manager 131 Warehouse Avenue, Soldotna (907) Permit #485 board of Directors Jim Stogsdill, President (907) Ryan Kapp, Edward Jones Investments (907) Becky Hutchinson, Secretary/Treasurer (907) Mary Hart GCI (907) Esther Chambers CENTURY 21 Realty Solutions Freedom Realty (907) Becky Foster Foster Construction (907) Laura West First American Title Insurance Company (907) John Tuttle US Post Office, Soldotna Postmaster (907) Leslie Cottrell Kenai River Suites & King Salmondeaux Lodge (907) Mike Frost President Elect First National Bank (907) Jerry Herring Central Alaska Engineering (907) Linda Murphy City Council Rep, City of Soldotna (907) The views and opinions expressed in member advertisements within this publication are not necessarily endorsed or reflective of the views of the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber Newsletter is published monthly by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce. Current Soldotna Chamber Members may place a flyer in the month of their choice by ing: One Page x 11 B&W high res. pdf to katie@soldotnachamber.com by the 20 th of the previous month to be included. Call for more details at ! Design: Katie Jacobson - Printed on Xerox Workcentre 7845

4 Membership + Marketing You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. - Mae West Ellis Automotive Kalifornsky Beach Road Soldotna, AK (907) ellisautorepairak.com ellisautoak@gmail.com Kenai River Trout Lodge Soldotna, AK (970) kenairivertroutlodgellc.com kenairivertroutlodgellc@yahoo.com Katie Jacobson (907) ext. 13 katie@soldotnachamber.com Welcome New Chamber Members! Gold Standard Furs Kenai, AK (907) facebook.com/goldstandardfurs goldstandardfurs@gmail.com We invite every business with an Alaska State Business license to be a Soldotna Chamber Member. Be a part of the organization that supports business & community in the Greater Soldotna area! How to use the Chamber s Bulk Mail Permit & Save Up To 50% on Your Business Mailings or Direct Marketing Minimum 200 identical pieces of mail is required - Can be letters or flats. We will provide the necessary trays/tubs for your mailing. Please bring your ENTIRE mailing with you to the chamber. Bulk Mail Stamp Permit must appear in the upper right corner in place of regular postage on all pieces (permit image or stamps can be obtained from the chamber in advance). FREE SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH HELP! Did you know Soldotna Chamber members receive FREE Tech Help? Receive advice on your website, , social media and more! If I can t help you, I ll connect you to who can. Contact me today to schedule your FREE consultation! Mail is calculated per piece, so we need to know the exact count for each zip code category. Pieces must be sorted by zip code! 1) Zip starts with ) Mixed Others : any zip not starting with 996 (i.e. 995, 584, etc.) We need to know totals for both categories! Set hours for bulk mail acceptance at the Soldotna Post Office: 10 am - 1 pm; Monday-Friday only. Please allow enough time to acquire paperwork from the chamber before you take your mailing to the Post Office. Bulk mailing forms must be obtained from the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce and signed by a chamber representative before each mailing is taken to the post office. They will not be accepted if paperwork is missing or at any other post office facility. Payment is made to the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce at time of mailing. Costs for bulk mail vary by weight and size, but typically you will save up to 50% off the current first-class mail price. We accept check, credit card or cash payable to: Soldotna Chamber of Commerce. Questions? Please contact Katie at or katie@soldotnachamber.com. Note: Only active Soldotna Chamber members in good standing may use the bulk mail stamp permit.

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6 Soldotna Annexation Engagement Opportunities Prepared by Meagan Picard, The Athena Group The City of Soldotna is continuing to study whether or not annexing one or more areas outside current city boundaries is a viable option for the greater community. Your participation is needed! Building from the fiscal study that was completed last year, the City has hired The Athena Group to design and facilitate a process that will allow everyone to be heard and to hear each other. As shown in the enclosed flyer, this process will include: An online discussion forum dedicated to this issue for two months. Everyone is encouraged to visit this site as much as possible to stay current on the progress of the conversation and share thoughts on the increasingly specific questions that will be posed there. Four community conversations meetings dedicated to community views on annexation and what matters most to everyone involved. Current city residents, businesses and landowners as well as folks in surrounding areas are encouraged to participate in these meetings. Three open houses plus a kick-off presentation designed to ensure that everyone has reliable information about how annexation would impact the areas being studied as well as current city residents and borough residents beyond the study areas. The Athena Group is working hard to ensure that these will be productive conversations in an open and trustworthy environment. We understand: Learn more at: This is a heated and emotional issue for some, and trust between people on opposite sides of the issue is low. The Athena Group honors these feelings and perspectives and will make room for all to be heard and try to help everyone trust in the process at a minimum, and hopefully, eventually, each other. Different groups of people are working with different information. The Athena Group will be posting a set of informational materials to the city website ( and will make them available in the community conversations and open houses. New materials will be posted as the project progresses, so be sure to check back over time. Please contact Meagan Picard at meaganp@athenaplace.com if you don t yet see the information that you need. The City needs to have this conversation and to hear from everyone. Annexation remains the most direct and practical solution to some key challenges the City is facing, but staff and officials know there is significant concern about its impacts. They are asking the greater community to have this conversation in more depth than in the past, so they can understand what s behind the opposition, determine if others they haven t heard much from yet (like current city residents) agree, identify ways annexation could work to reduce or eliminate negative impacts from the community s perspective and provide the City Council with thoughtful and detailed community input to inform their decision on whether or not to proceed with some kind of proposal to the State of Alaska s Local Boundary Commission. Please get involved! Make your voice heard, and maybe even have some fun and get some good rewards for your time spent on this important community issue. The City of Soldotna and The Athena Group look forward to hearing from you soon!

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9 Tourism + Education I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question. -Harun Yahya Sara Hondel (907) ext. 15 sara@soldotnachamber.com Soldotna Visitor Center Updates August s Visitor Count (as of Aug 21) = 4,939 Geocache Participants (YTD) = 53 The visitor who traveled the furthest in August came from Silverwater, Australia. Visitor Compliments: Regina from Portland, Oregon - Patricia was super helpful! Rick & Roseanne from The Villages, Florida - What a wealth of info. Barb provided! Trip Advisor Review: 5 Stars from 167caribou: Always a helpful smile behind the counter. We ve stopped here many times on our visits to Alaska, and there is always someone there willing to do all they can do to answer your questions. Soldotna Chamber Scholarship Forms Now Available Online! visitsoldotna.com/chamber/ scholarships Contact Sara at for more info! Funny Visitor-ism: Visitor showing us a photo of a spawned out fish on their phone, Excuse me what is this animal? Students Apply Now! Student Ambassador Program Registration has been extended to Friday, September 22, Know any high school juniors or seniors that may be interested? Have them contact Sara at the Chamber office.

10 Congratulations to the 2017 Industry Appreciation Day Award Winners! INDUSTRY APPRECIATION DAY Honoring the Oil & Gas, Tourism, Commercial Fishing and Healthcare Industries that shape the Kenai Peninsula * OIL & GAS * OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL In Memory of Bill Bishop OUTSTANDING SUPPORT BUSINESS Alaska Industry Support Alliance OUTSTANDING BUSINESS Hilcorp Alaska, LLC * Commercial Fishing * OUTSTANDING SUPPORT Arnie Thomson OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL Eric Thompson OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL Thor Evenson * Tourism * OUTSTANDING BUSINESS Seavey s Ididaride Sled Dog Tours OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL Shanon Davis OUTSTANDING SUPPORT BUSINESS Alaska SeaLife Center * Health Care * OUTSTANDING SUPPORT ORGANIZATION Central Peninsula Hospice OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL Dr. Kristie Sellers OUTSTANDING BUSINESS Peninsula Internal Medicine DON GILMAN SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY AWARD Jane Stein PIONEER SERVICE TO HEALTH CARE ON THE KENAI In Memory of Dr. Milo Fritz In Memory of Dr. Elmer Gaede In Memory of Dr. Paul Isaak Dr. Peter Hansen * Special Recognition * THE CITY OF SOLDOTNA For Superior Dedication to Improving and Enhancing the Quality of Living for all Kenai Peninsula Residents, Businesses and Visitors

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12 Upcoming Chamber Events Save the Date! 2017 Sept 12: Quarterly Morning Buzz - Crisis Management for your Business Free Membership Breakfast & Presentation - Soldotna Regional Sports Complex A Special Thank You to Bob Sizemore It is with mixed emotions that we announce the retirement of Bob Sizemore as our Student of the Month sponsor. He has provided us with 25 years of dedicated service, providing a total of 632 lunches to Soldotna area students. We saw the Student of the Month program grow from including three schools to now five under Sizemore s sponsorship. Mr. Sizemore s constant devotion to education and local youth demonstrated a commitment to excellence that we have come to depend upon. A lot of students owe a debt of appreciation for the numerous times he was present at their Student of the Month luncheons radiating quiet thoughtfulness and encouragement of their endeavors. We wish Mr. Sizemore the very best in his move to Wyoming and in his new ventures. Oct 21: 23 rd Annual Soldotna Chamber Pie & Dessert Auction & Fundraiser Soldotna Regional Sports Complex Dec 2: Christmas in the Park and Christmas Tree Lighting Soldotna Creek Park 2018 Jan 20: Peninsula Winter Games Soldotna Regional Sports Complex Jan 31: Soldotna Chamber Annual Awards Luncheon Soldotna Regional Sports Complex Feb 17: Frozen Riverfest Soldotna Creek Park

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16 Soldotna Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center Sterling Hwy. Soldotna, AK (907) ~ Presorted Std. US Postage PAID Soldotna, AK Permit #5 Community Partners Soldotna s Community Partners - Developing Soldotna s Future DIAMOND PLATINUM GOLD SILVER BRONZE Media Partners These businesses have made a commitment to the community of Soldotna by supporting the Chamber s mission: To Promote Responsible Growth for Greater Soldotna through Representation, Education and Advocacy for our Members. Important local community events, such as Progress Days, Peninsula Winter Games, Music in the Park, Shop Local campaigns and more, wouldn t be possible without the support of our Community Partners!