The Chinook Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual banquet this past weekend at the Eagles Club. Members enjoyed a prime rib dinner, by chef Doug Mitchell and Shirley Fisher, met the officers who will serve the chamber in 2017 and heard about some new projects planned for the coming year. The speaker for the banquet was Russell Nemetiz who grew up in the Chinook area and went on to a broadcasting career reporting on topics of interest to farmers, ranchers and residents of rural America. Most recently he can be seen on RFD-TV, a national network dedicated to ag topics.

After dinner 2016 Chamber President Heather DePriest thanked the membership for its support of the Chamber work. She commented about how the region tends to pull together to get things done, whether working on an economic development program, an infrastructure upgrade or aiding a community member facing some difficult times. In his talk, Nemetz echoed a similar thought urging Chamber members to "keep telling residents and visitors how fortunate they are and how well the town is doing. I visit a lot of rural areas and Chinook and the surrounding region has much to be proud of."

Breaking with the tradition of listing the chamber's accomplishments for the past year, outgoing President DePriest described a program that would allow members, and community, to comment on the work of the chamber. DePriest said, "We want to hear what we've done that has worked well and how we could improve things that didn't work as planned." Most of the comments will be gathered via email. She also announced that a group with the Montana Economic Development Association (MEDA) would be coming to assess community needs and resources and help fashion a plan to utilize strengths to improve weaknesses.

Each year the chamber recognizes an individual who has made a "dedicated effort to the growth of the community of Chinook." This year Craig Lowham was selected to receive the honor. Lowham, who is President of the First Bank of Montana in Chinook, is active in his church and community, serving on a number of local boards and volunteering in the community.

The officers for 2017 were then introduced. Sarah Pratt will be the new chamber president replacing DePriest who will become a volunteer grant writer. Other officers are: Rob Kelley, Vice President; Jenn Hellman, Secretary; Hayley Yost, Treasurer and Mitzi Cecerle, Parliamentarian. DePriest, who served several terms as head of the chamber, said she was excited to focus on writing grant proposals that could benefit the chamber, the town and the region.

After the event, incoming President Pratt said, "One of the major changes in how the chamber operates will be less involvement in organizing and running community events and more focus on serving members." She said that now the Chamber has a space downtown she is hopeful they can add a part time director to be at the office and take over some duties that currently fall to volunteer members. As an example of the new emphasis on activities to support local businesses she pointed to one of the new banners that will be going up along Highway 2 and Indiana Street downtown. This part of the chamber's effort to make the town more welcoming and draw visitors to local businesses.

A native son speaks about the need to

advocate for agriculture and small towns

Russell Nemetz, the banquet speaker, graduated from Chinook High and then completed a degree in communications at MSU-Billings. He's used his training, and experience growing up in agriculture, to tell the state and region about the news in agriculture. He said, "After 21 years with the Northern Ag Network I've branched out and created Nemetz Communications. I'm still with the Northern AG Network but having my own company has opened doors in Colorado and Nebraska with national responsibilities on the RFD-Network doing "Cattlemen to Cattlemen" and "This Week in Agribusiness on RFD-TV."

Nemetz has won a number of awards for his broadcasting work about agricultural issues and ag news. He was named an Outstanding Alumni from MSU-Billings, with special mention of his volunteer work for 4-H and Future Farmers of America, in 2015. He's won numerous awards for his broadcast career and can be heard every weekday on nearly 70 stations in four states. He was honored by his alma mater with an invitation to present the spring commencement speech at MSU-Billings.

The main theme of his presentation to the chamber audience was, "We have to be better advocates for agriculture and small town America." He fears most consumers don't realize the pressures on farmers and ranchers saddled with cumbersome regulations. Nemetz explained, "There are some who would regulate us out of business, not recognizing what the effects will be on food production." He said, "What we desperately need is a national food policy."

Steve Edwards

Sarah Pratt, new President of the Chinook Chamber, and Heather DePriest, outgoing President, pose by one of the new street banners that will be hung along Highway 2, through town, and also on Indiana Street. The new banners are part of an ongoing program to make the town, and businesses, more welcoming.

Referring several times to how fortunate he was to have grown up in the Chinook area, he thanked locals who had such an important impact on his life. He said, "In 1996, when I first got into ag broadcasting, I realized that was where I needed to be. I've been given a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to tell agriculture's story. He added, "My brother, Chris, who still ranches in the Chinook area, gets to talk to the cows. I get to talk about the cows." Seems both brothers have found their niche.