Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce / Finney County Convention & Tourism Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce Finney County Convention & Tourism

Amarillo E.D. Trip

Eighteen Finney County and Garden City business and community leaders recently returned from a two-day trip to Amarillo, Texas, bringing back ideas and enthusiasm in regard to economic development and how to bring more jobs to our community. The eighteen leaders included individuals from the three sponsoring groups, the Chamber, the Finney County Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC) and Downtown Vision (DTV) as they took two or three board members from each organization. Also invited were representatives from the City of Garden City and Finney County. The purpose of the trip was to gather ideas on how they conduct and implement economic development in Amarillo, Texas.

Meeting with the Garden City and Finney County group were Amarillo Mayor Debra McCartt, Buzz David with the Amarillo EDC, Gary Pitner, administrator of the Pan Handle Regional Planning Commission,Gary Molberg, president of the Chamber, Beth Duke with Amarillo Center City and several others including the a representative of a wind generation company interested in doing business in Kansas.

Attending from the Garden City and Finney County community included Scott Taylor, chairman of the Chamber board, Dennis Mesa, regional director with Senator Sam Brownback's office, Martha Hinojosa, Chamber board member, Paul Joseph, president of the Chamber, Lynn Schoonover, director of the convention and tourism bureau and Shawna Whitehurst, Chamber vice president of member services and marketing. From FCEDC, commission chair Cathy McKinley attended as well as commissioner Ray Purdy and FCEDC President Eric Depperschmidt. From Downtown Vision was board member and Garden City Commissioner Reynaldo Mesa and Downtown Vision director Dr. Beverly Glass. From Finney County was Commission Chairman Cliff May, Commissioner Larry Jones and County administrator Pete Olson. Also from the City of Garden City were City Manager Matt Allen and Kaleb Kentner, director of planning and community development. Attending from High Plains Public Radio was general manager Deb Oyler.