Most of the readers of my articles are aware I am from Louisiana. One thing I like to do is cook. But I don't use recipes. Brown a little of this. Add a little of that. Mix in some of those. Taste it... then add more seasoning as to get that perfect flavor. And there it is... a perfect meal with no name and no recipe to ever make it again. It's just a full pot of comfort food. My wife will attest to the fact that she is often amazed how I can take almost nothing and turn it into a decent meal.

At the Chamber of Commerce, we are cooking on a whole bunch of burners all the time. We have the July 4th Celebration, the First Annual Murray Ryan Golf Tournament, possibilities at the Grant County Business and Conference Center, upcoming tourism conferences, new chamber members, open houses and ribbon cuttings. Our pots and pans stay full. The trick is to keep from burning any of the things we are cooking. You know what I mean. There's nothing worse than having the smoke alarm go off at the busiest time.

So what are a few of the things we are cooking up in the coming weeks? This evening we are attending the Open House for Silver city Care Center. We are meeting the staff and exploring the facility. We are learning more about Silver City Care Center and all the things they are able to do. On April 6, we will have a Board of Directors meeting and our monthly Chamber of Commerce Lunch meeting at the WNMU Student Cafeteria Sunset Room. On Friday - April 7, we will help with a Grand Opening Celebration and ribbon cutting for Elemental Artisans, a new hand-made jewelry and photography studio at 406-B Bullard Street in downtown Silver City. On April 19, the Chamber of Commerce will assist Hidalgo Medical Services with their opening of the new full-service on-site pharmacy at 1007 North Pope Street in Silver City.

Between these events, the Chamber of Commerce office will continue mailing relocation packets and tourism packets across the United States. We will continue taking telephone calls and emails from folks asking all kinds of questions and requesting lots of various types of information. We will continue being an advocate for businesses and our community. We will sit with individuals and help them through their important issues. We will visit with businesses discussing their issues and learning what their needs are for the present and future. We will continue marketing the Silver City - Grant County area as a great destination for tourism, retirement, and work. We will continue to work with state, county, and local governments in an effort to build toward great successes in the future. We will continue to promote Western New Mexico University as the excellent higher education facility that it is a great economic driver for the future of Grant County. And we will even continue trying to support some type of coalition to ensure the preservation of Fort Bayard.

By the way, the Village of Santa Clara has volunteers coming in a couple of weeks with the AmeriCorps program. They will be doing lots of work on the old officers' homes and buildings to help preserve them from weather and vandalism. The windows will be boarded up... but they will be painted to look like windows. Access to basements and upstairs areas will be closed off. This work will take lots of materials that cost almost $8000 dollars. They will need 220 sheets of plywood and 50 gallons of paint. If you or your business can help by donating materials or money to be used to purchase the materials, please contact Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara Village Clerk. Her phone number is 537-2443 ext. 5.

Running the Chamber of Commerce is somewhat like cooking. All the burners are being used and we are mixing a lot of stuff in at any given time. Hopefully, and I think our track record is pretty good, but hopefully at the end of the day we have cooked up something that works well for our members, for our community and for all the people who contact us each day. If you want a taste of what we do, call me at the Chamber of Commerce office. Our phone number is 575-536-3785 or send an email to sterry@silvercity.org. I am the president of the Chamber of Commerce 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.