Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome welcome walk commuting this time now for our community connection right here on Gate one, the one he trusted. It doesn't get any more community than our local Chamber of Commerce and we have surey wilt with the greater Warsville Chamber of Commerce. How you doing, young lady, doing good? You know? Nice and warm for yeah, finally it could stay this way all month, so nice coming out the
deep freeze. Yeah, that's well I needed because we needed an ice rink to melt. Finally. Finally, speaking of Christmas in the bill, I understand we have some happy totals. We do. We've got some really great encouraging statistics which support the reason why we did this festival to begin with seven years ago. We were actually opened December first through January second for one hundred and fifty five public skate hours and it brought over twenty one thousand people downtown
twenty one. That's just an a month of December. I mean, we had a couple months in January, but in December there were over It was actually twenty one thy eight hundred. Maria has that little tracking device magic, you know, can sheat sheets? We drew it around Geofence whatever it's called, around the debot property where the park to the ice rink is and was able to supply us with numbers and so that was It's great because it was always hard to tell us, like, you know, we didn't know for
sure, like opening night we had over fourteen hundred people attend. Now you got to realize that was in a three hour period from six to nine pm. But in the past we'd kind of look out there and go, I don't know. One of us would throw out a number, another would throw out a number. It's hard to gauge crowds, you know, because some come, then some leave. So it's really nice that visit Bartlesville is able
to provide us with accurate numbers that are truly tracked. And so, like I said, opening night, there were fourteen hundred people just on that night, that Friday night on December first, our paid skaters were up fifteen and a half percent over twenty twenty three. Nice with the private parties which were all up. We had some huge private parties. We had over seven thousand, probably close to seventy five hundred people on the ice, people skating.
And the thing about the skaters. Is a lot of times they come not everybody in their party skates, someone the parent is watching, you know, yeah, exactly, like can go to the ice I don't want to break a bone. But so there's a you know, a lot more than the seven thousand that were around that area, obviously from Maria's numbers. But you know, some people come down. They don't even ice skate, They just
want to go for carriage ride. They just want to you know, look at the lights and take pictures at all the different you know, photo op stops and that kind of thing. There are photo ops there are I love it. You see it all over people's Facebook during the holidays, which is really a lot of fun. This was exciting. We had well, our numbers at that twenty one thousand number, you know people downtown. That was a twenty three percent increase over last year. So it grew twenty three percent
over last year. And then one of the reasons we do this is we want to draw people to Bartlesville as well as keep our own folks here and just have another entertainment piece to our community, albeit just a month. But we did it kind of as a gift to the community. But we want to draw people to our community, keep our folks here, and so we
really have ramped up our regional advertising and are drawing folks here. And according to Maria's tracking, eighty two hundred people were here who live outside of a ten mile radius of Bartlesville, so they visited, and that's up forty four and a half percent over last year's numbers outside that radius, that ten mile radius. So we really were able to attract more people here. The point being, when they're here, they've skated, they've enjoyed, they've seen Bartlesville.
They exactly right, they go, they go eat, And so I know that our restaurants, our retail establishments are probably going to stop coming from a lot of them Southeast Kansas Aria. While they're here, they're going to make use of their time. Then they're going to go shop. You know, it's Christmas. We've got a shop. So you know, our retail hopefully are the beneficiary of that as well as the area of restaurants, especially the ones downtown. And so anyhow that it was a great season. We
did not lose. We lost one day. I always want rain, always want rain. But when it rained, it was Christmas Eve and we closed it five anyway on Christmas Eve, so we did lose that day and then we lost Christmas Day, but we were closed anyway on Christmas Day, so the rain was perfect timing for us. Yeah, so I love the rain, but it didn't want to have it. You know, you can't skate when it's raining. And other than that, because of surf Pro and I
want to give a shout out to TJ. Dickinson and his crew because of surf Pro, they left us there an extra set of equipment they had this year, knowing that if they needed it for anything, you know, they could come get it, but they just left it for us, and we were able to salvage several days because if we did have some warm days, not like the year before, we're you know, it's hitting almost eighty, but I'm telling you, you start hitting sixty with that sunbea been down if
it's full sun. Yeah, we struggle keeping that ice frozen. So but with that equipment we can stay on top of it, and we were not. We didn't have to close any days except for like I said, because of rain, So we were excited about that. We didn't have to close. A family skate from four to six because it was just it's right when that sun was finished beaming down. But other than that, that's all we lost. So it was a really good season. We now the rink is
finally gone. He came Monday and finally got it. It was finally had melted. And the city came yesterday and got the sand that they let us use, which is great. That goes back to their supply for sanding the streets and things, and they do such a great job. They even bringing our a little street cleaner out so our parking lot. Yeah, stay, I doesn't have much of sand in its still. And then you know, it's like Domino's. Next we'll be a crew. Give a shout out to
Diversified Kevin Moore. Some of his friends come and they tear down the village, just assemble it. And then we got to get it to storage, which thank you to Armstrong Bank for let us and use us store each area that they have and then you can move the shit or the skate hut, and thanks to Paul's record, that gets moved and we hopefully get some football players to help us move all the stuff into the head. So it's like
Dominoes. Nothing can happen until that rink was gone. And so anyhow, like I said, great season, and it's really there's a lot that goes into it. It would not happen without our sponsors. And I just want to say a huge thanks shout out to all of our sponsors. We cannot do this without them. People do not under they don't realize. I think people think, oh, they just put an ice rink in, no big deal. You know, it's not that hard or it's not the detail that
goes into it. Every piece of the puzzle is important, and that rink is expensive. That chiller if you ever go behind that village and see it's like on the size of a semi trailer. It's huge. There's just a lot, and it is expensive. And that's why. And it's a risk because you never know what weather's going to do. So our sponsors make it truly happen. And so we appreciate each one of them. I cannot I'm not going to go through and name them all, but just some companies that
really stepped up and help support the festival. So we appreciate that. Great. You know, we've got some things to look forward to you. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back after these words. Tim Howell, Arnold Moore and Ni Camp Funeral Home. You have to start out giving comfort because your role is help that person walk through the worst day of their life, and they're counting on you and your expertise and they trust
you to get them through this. That's what we try to do and do exceedingly well, is walk hand in hand with our clients and say, you know what, we've been down this road, will help you down. Here's what we've learned, here's the benefit of our years in this. Let us help you with this. Do you have suggestions? Our job is to relieve
the stress so you can grieve and you can heal. And that staff at seven ten South Dewey does a tremendous job of just putting their arms around people and loving them and they have one goal and that's to satisfy the family and that final tribute to their loved one. It'll be all right. We'll walk through this together. Arnold Moore and Ni Camp Funeral seven ten Dewey, Bartlesville.
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our community connection. And boy, after those astounding numbers from Christmas in the Belt, I know that we've got a full year ahead of us. We've already done some great things in January. But boy, February, tomorrow, February is packed. Yes and no, it's February is to no, this is the thirty first. Yes, sorry, tomorrow's February first. I'm a
gay ahead of myself. Oh yeah, you know. December we kind of, I don't want to say shut down, but our focus is on Christmas in the bill and running that and the holidays it's not a good time to be trying to do things anyway. So we're starting off. Actually today Operation Thank You is happening. Our advocate volunteers, who are the kind of the goodwill arm of the chamber. They are the ones that attend our ribbon cuttings and that kind of thing. Our Community Guide and it looks so good.
Our twenty twenty four community Guide that really just gives all sorts of information about the community. It's one hundred and twenty pages. I think. In the back is a buyer's guide that lists all of our members by kind of their business category. Anyhow, that is in and done and has been delivered, and our volunteers, our advocates are going out today and there's about twenty five
different routes. Kim at the office on how she does this, but she takes all of our members and puts him in a logical order address wise, and we have twenty five different routes and they will all take a route or two and deliver those community guides hopefully today. We don't deliver to home addresses, but other than that, and we will send an email out to those folks to swing by when convenient, but anyhow, those are being delivered.
Super excited. If anybody needs a good recruitment piece, if you are new to the community, this is a wonderful piece. Please stop by the chamber. This is what they're for if you need them as realtor's apartment complexes, people moving in, you know, come and get get a box of them, or you know, a handful of them, whatever you think you might go through. But a lot of our you know, major employers use them when they recruit and it's just a it's a great piece, really sells our
community. It's beautiful, full color all the way through. Know that new Electric company covered to down and they could probably use a couple of thousands. Man, there's a lot of good news in the employment field, so a lot of expansion and and grown expansion with the existing industry as well as industry moving in. So it's exciting. Boom have their groundbreaking Monday or yeah, groundbreaking, so we jumped right in. Tomorrow is business after hours. We
skip December, but business after Hours is at the new Osage Casino. If you've not had a chance to see it yet, it's out there on Highway sixty, just a few minutes outside of town and encourage you to attend that it's free for our members or if you want to come as a guest and just kind of check it out. But it's a great way for our members to connect meet other folks and just you know, make those connections, kind of spread the word about what they do. I know we're time short,
but we got a lot of things. Next is February fourteenth, is our next Women in Business and it's changing the perceptions of building workplace culture. It is always good to hear presentations on workplace culture. It makes or breaks a business or at least your retention the satisfaction of your employees. And everybody plays a part in it. Just because you're not the boss or the manager. Everybody plays a part in work place culture. And I know they're the ones
that set the tone, but it is for everyone. And so I'm real excited about that. And her name is kit Letcher, and I won't give you all the details on our bio, but anyhow, it should be really good. And that is Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, so we may have a little extra things happening at that one, but it's at Hillcrest, and encourage you to just go to Bartlesfield dot com and register if you're interested in
that event, and men are welcome. We actually had two at the last one, so now I'm more all excited about this February fifteenth, the next day. We love doing back to back events, but our next day. We do six major forms each year in our Forum series, and this will be our fourth one for the year. And it's going to feature Pat McFerrin, which I know does not probably the name does not ring a lot of bills for people, But what he is. He's the president with Cole snod
Grace Hardgrave, which is a polling firm. They pull on all sorts of issues. I get the results of their surveys they're polling that they do, and actually the city has used them before for elections. Candidates have used them and not just here locally, not just statewide, but nationally. And I am telling you he is spot on and how he predicts. But what's interesting, he's going to go over how Oklahoma covers several topics, and especially being
an election year, that kind of thing. He will go into maybe education, McGirt, tax cuts, you know, how does Oklahoma feel, how to Oklahomans feel, and he breaks it down. It's always interesting your male, female, rural urban you know, this is across the state, you know, Republican Democrat. Just not that that's political, but it's just interesting to see how it pulls out. So to me, I can't express how excited I am for this one. I think it's going to be a different,
very very interesting form. And there will be a few minutes also for Q and A at the end. So that is going to be the day after Valentine's Day, February fifteenth at Tri County Tech. They are our sponsor for this as well as ABB and Ascension Jane Phillips, which I'm excited about the name it Ascension Jane Phillips. So register online for that one if you're interested. Yeah. I'm fascinated by people who can collect that kind of data, break it down and make it so easy to understand. Oh and it
is. It's amazing. I love it. Oh yeah, he's got a great team and he'll explain how polling works, how they do it, that kind of thing. But anyhow, I think it'll be very very interesting. So are we good or okay? Well, we're okay. We've got February twenty third is our next eggs and issues politics over breakfast. These breakfasts always have some sort of political interest. And as a February twenty third, the state Legislature's legislature will have been in for a couple of weeks, so this
is a preview of the legislative session. They'll kind of have a good feel for what's coming. They're what they're working on. And when I say they, it's our local delegation. We have the best I think in the state. We have. Senator Julie Daniels will be there, Representative Judd Strom, and Representative John b. K and they'll just give a preview of kind of what's coming down the pike, what they're working on, what they see, you know, the issues are, what the challenges will be for them,
and it's always interesting. So that is like I said, at Tri County Tech. And it has a full hot breakfast and so it's a great way to start your morning. We're done by nine am. We're sending Skinny Nathan down there. Put some put some put some stuff on him. There. There you go, you'll get a good one. There we go. Hey, thank you very much. Surey, I appreciate it. By the way, Where can folks find you at the Chamber Bartlesvield dot com. Just go
to Bartlesviield dot com. That's our new website, and any of these events are on there, our mission, just all sorts of things. I encourage anyone who's interested in the Chamber to check that out. Go there for the information, enjoy the video, Yes I love a video. Thank you.