BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

CANTON — The St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce hopes to have an integrated chamber in place by July 1.

Ben Dixon, county chamber’s executive director, updated the Canton Town Board on Wednesday night, April 11, on the benefits to the Canton community from the integration and the timeline.

“What does it mean for the Canton community? Supporting the well being of the community,” said Dixon. “It’s exciting and on the doorstep.”

He pointed out the next steps in the process, beginning with the finalization of the governance documents for a new integrated chamber. The Canton Chamber will have legal counsel review the documents before the board engages in a Resolution of Merger vote.

If adopted, a notice of merger will be issued to active, paying membership by post or email. Legal documents and feasibility study will be posted on the county chamber website.

Dixon said he plans to hold a public presentation on the integrated chamber model to Canton Chamber members. Members would then vote in a live meeting with the option to mail in a proxy vote to approve the merger. He noted that a New York statute requires a two-third vote in favor of 10 percent of the membership.

If approved, legal filings will be made to the NYS Department of State.

The proposed integration involves the county chamber, Massena, Ogdensburg and Canton chambers.

Benefits outlined

Dixon briefly presented an overview of the benefits of the merged chamber while providing board members a most detailed account via a handout.

Some of the benefits identified include:

• Community-specific initiatives and community-dedicated staff per municipal contracts.

• Gains operational efficiencies, cost savings and shared services.

• Increased capacity of staff for community-specific programming.

• Consolidated budget but with reserved allocations and accounts for town-specific initiatives.

• Regional board of directors with representation from each community, advisory board from each community.

• Streamlined programming and marketing

• Central calendar and cross-promotion of town events.

• Benefits for new employees.

• Focusing on regional issues and provide a stronger voice for businesses

ª Attract more visitors, potential residents and businesses to the county with collective initiatives.

The plan is to hire an employee to dedicate half time to Canton-based programming and potentially half time to county chamber-related initiatives, such as marketing.