Attendees at the October Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce (FRCC) business luncheon on Oct. 17 acquired some fascinating facts about the eardrum and learned about the business community-police department relationship in Farmington.
Announcements
First-time attendee Jessica Layton announced her intention to file for entry into the Farmington mayoral race in the next election. She has been involved behind the scenes and learning about small-town government by attending committee meetings and expressed her enthusiasm over the potential of becoming a more active part of serving Farmington.
Michelle Smith, owner/operator of Amped Lifestyle Fitness Studio, announced the opening of a second location in the former Casey’s General Store located on St. Joe Drive in Park Hills. A Nov. 2 grand opening celebration is scheduled, with a ribbon cutting held Oct. 29.
Davine Conover, Business Development Specialist Ozarks Federal Credit Union announced an expansion that allows them to provide service in 25 counties. “As part of a credit union, we are people helping people and we’re trying to find ways to give back to the communities we serve.”
Kristen White with Discover Farmington shared information about the continued celebration of Long Memorial Hall’s 100th anniversary and some other upcoming events. “Trick or treating will happen downtown with costume contests on Oct. 25. So if you have a downtown business and you want to participate, let me know and we’ll get you on
Dr. Karen Melton with Hearing Care Partners educates luncheon attendees about eardrums. Lisa Brotherton-Barnes
the list of businesses for that. We have an upcoming concert here at the Centene Center–the TV theme song concert and tickets will be on sale.”
Candy Hente, FRCC Executive Director, shared announcements about upcoming chamber-related events that she said would be important to enter into attendee calendars.
“You can always look on our website or the eShop Play in the Parkland app for events and dates…We have a photo contest going on for the cover of our new magazine which will be out by the first of the year. We’re debating the title of that magazine; if you have any suggestions, we want it to be regional and inclusive,” Hente said.
“Nov. 16 is our first ever Mrs. Roper Romp. It’s deer hunting weekend, so the ladies dress like Mrs. Roper [beloved landlady from the TV show “Three’s Company”] with the wild muumuu, the curly wig, and jewelry and then we are going to launch into beautiful downtown Farmington for a boutique crawl and shopping. We’ll kick it off at Truman Auditorium at 10:30 and we will crown the best dressed Mrs. Roper. There will be a passport if you buy something at five stores that you can be entered to win a gift package that’s valued in excess of $500, including a beautiful necklace from Krekeler Jewelers–all just in time for Christmas shopping.”
The annual Krekeler Jeweler’s Christmas Parade is scheduled for Dec. 6 at 7 p.m., following the Country Days parade route. “Christmas Movie Marathon” is this year’s theme and any Christmas movie–traditional or non-traditional–is welcome as inspiration for parade entries. There is no charge to participate, but registration is required. The entry must have lights and decorations. Application forms are available at the chamber office or on the FRCC website at farmingtonregionalchamber.com. The FRCC is also seeking volunteers to help with the parade; interested parties can inquire at the office about those opportunities by contacting the Event Coordinator.
The executive director added, “It’s been in our newsletter, so hopefully you’ve seen it already, but we would like to congratulate Emily Hulsey on her promotion to Event Coordinator. Emily has been with the chamber for two and a half years; you didn’t see her a lot because she was keeping the doors open in the office while we were doing all the stuff with all of you. She’s done such a great job, and we are so fortunate to have her on our team.”
JoAnna Watts, Executive Director with CASA of the Parkland, reminded everyone about the upcoming Festival of Trees fundraiser at the Centene Center on Nov. 29 and 30.
“We will transform this whole space into a winter wonderland. We’re looking for businesses who want to decorate a Christmas tree. We provide the Christmas tree and then you as a designer decorate it. We’re going to be having a gingerbread competition that you could participate in as well. It’s free to attend, so bring your family. It’s a beautiful event. There are activities for children, like ornament decorating with Santa. We’ll have a big Lionel train display with Legos. It’s just going to be a lot of fun,” Watts said. “Even if you’re not able to attend, all of the trees and wreaths are going to be up for bid on the online silent auction. You can come in, take a look at the tree or wreath, and bid on it, or do it from home. T&T movers are donating their time and their trucks to deliver the trees for free to wherever you live. So come and celebrate the season with us.”
Jeff Burgert, Director of Marketing with Southeast Missouri Behavioral Health, said the organization celebrated 50 years last month. “We will be having a 50th anniversary celebration on Nov. 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m..” He asked that anyone wishing to attend let him know so they will have a good headcount prior to the event.
Ribbon cutting schedule
Amped Lifestyle Fitness Studio ribbon-cutting: 600 St. Joe Dr. in Park Hills on Oct. 29 at noon.
Owl Creek Park ribbon cutting: 198 Landfill Rd. in Park Hills on Nov. 4 at 11 a.m.
FRCC morning mixer Nov. 13: Raising a Village at 103 Strauss Dr. in Park Hills
Luncheon sponsor presentation
Hearing Care Partners was the sponsoring business for the month and Dr. Karen Melton gave a brief informational presentation in honor of October being Hearing Care Awareness Month.
“I am very excited to celebrate our 21st birthday with you today. So 21 years ago, we started the practice with only 900 square feet and two employees, one of them being me. We now have eight locations and almost 30 employees, and it’s mostly because of people in this room who are working in this space. And so we’re going to be talking about hearing care awareness and hearing care that really gave us the support and help whenever we needed it most. I’m always very grateful to the chamber for the way they’ve helped us succeed and grow. So thank you.
“Candy mentioned my talk last year. One of the things I’ve talked about lately over lunch was earwax. So that was a really fun lunchtime treat. This year, I was thinking about what I could do to really beat that. In our offices, one of my favorite things is we have something called video otoscopy. It’s the ability for us to look in your ear and show you your ear on a monitor. It’s a really fun thing to do. So I wanted to show you some of the things that we see on a day-to-day, month-to-month basis that I think is interesting,” Melton said.
She displayed a slide depicting a normal eardrum and pointed out the relevant components: the ear canal, the malleus, coloration, and reflective capacity of light. As an element of the sinus system, the ear canal can be collaterally impacted with fluid build-up of infection if someone gets a cold or has a sinus infection. Those visual depictions were not as appealing as the healthy ear.
“If your ear doesn’t drain properly to the back of your throat–an ENT specifically–may choose to put a tube in the ear. One thing people don’t realize is that adults get tubes, too, and it happens a lot,” Melton explained.
She said that sometimes foreign objects–like insects–find their way into the ear canal, and require removal by a physician. Anesthesia is sometimes needed, but the problem can be eradicated quickly.
Featured Speaker
Executive Director introduced the featured speaker, Ryan Miller, and said that many people may not realize that the Farmington Police Department (FPD) has a Business Resource Division (BRD) staffed with several officers.
“We’re very fortunate today to hear about the services that they provide,” she said. “This is a relatively new aspect of the police department.”
Ryan Miller with the Farmington Police Department’s Business Resource Division discusses developing effective relationships between businesses and the department. Lisa Brotherton-Barnes
Miller, a 14-year veteran with the FPD, said much of his career had been spent where he grew up in the Parkland. “Last year, I was thinking about the mission of the police department and usually it’s when something happens, you call the cops. Normally that’s fine. But if we don’t know what’s happening, then we can’t react and provide the best service that we need. So I started looking around at some other police departments that had some model programs that we could imitate. I actually have to give a shout-out to the Arnold police department because they have a full-time BRD with dedicated officers assigned just for that purpose. We don’t quite have the manpower or the need for exactly that, but I thought we could do something that’s a bit of a hybrid.
“I got the approval to try and start this BRD process: we have myself, Officer Pierce Wynn, and Officer Aaron Bowles. What I’d like to do today while I’m here is have a little bit more of a round table discussion with you to see what kind of things you as business owners and representatives would like to see from the FPD.”
Miller said one of their first tasks has been reaching out to businesses to collect current contact information, and they are still working on that effort. He said it is crucial during an emergency or a call is dispatched to a business after-hours when there is no staffing, they need to know who the point of contact is.
“If we don’t have that information, we’re stuck,” he said. “If we’ve got somebody there that was vandalizing a business or commercial property, or they stole something, we can’t take action without a victim. Having a point of contact allows us to identify a party as the victim. That’s one thing that is not often thought of unless you’re in the criminal justice system, is that the city is only the victim if it is city property, or if it’s something like disorderly conduct, and so on and so forth. But if they’re trespassing on your property at night, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Miller said he was aware that the homeless population is often tossed out as a key factor contributing to crime in the city. Some homeless individuals may choose to camp on commercial or business property and possibly steal or vandalize things while they are there.
“I don’t have a solution for it,” he said. “But some of them, they’re just fine. They’re good people just trying to get by. There are others that they don’t really care where they get their things from. If they’ve got to take it, they’ll take it. If they’ve got to camp out on somebody’s property, they’ll camp out on somebody’s property. It’s a detrimental effect on the entire community. So with things like that, if we don’t know where they’ve camped out and it’s on your property, we’re probably not going to find them. What we need is to hear from you, because if you don’t tell us, we can’t do anything about it.”
He said there are six police officers on duty during a typical shift, and they respond to hundreds or thousands of calls every month.
“If you will send us an email, having that contact information is so important for us, because we’ve got to know who represents what business. Second, we have what’s called a letter of enforcement, and what that is, if there is some kind of crime that occurs on your property, it streamlines things so that we don’t have to wait around and go, so who’s your boss? Can you get the manager here? Do I need to talk to the owner?”
He said they spend an inordinate amount of time on calls to businesses that are essentially wasted while they attempt to locate a person with authority to move the situation toward prosecution.
“That slows things down. And especially for employees that go, well, I don’t know. We’ll just have to call you later. And you know what happens? We don’t ever get a call, so nothing gets done about it, and the crime events start to happen more frequently. Back in the 80s and 90s, William Braden was the police commissioner in New York. He came up with this theory. It was called the broken windows theory, where, if we are not attending to and prosecuting minor crimes or things that people think aren’t a big deal, what’s going to happen is that those minor crimes are going to snowball into bigger and bigger things. And then we’re going to wonder, well, how did this drug house get set up? Or how did this business end up, you know, as a front for drug trafficking? If we don’t start looking at the small things, then when the big things happen, we’re going to be left with more questions than answers.”
Miller also said there should be no hesitation in whether a situation warrants a call to the police or not. He said the call should be made. “If it feels sketchy to you, call. ends up being nothing, that’s great. But if it ends up being something, it’s better to call and not need us than to need us and not call us.”
He then invited questions and comments from the attendees. “What kinds of things are you seeing at your businesses that you think the police department may be able to assist you with?”
One suggestion from the attendees was that when business licenses are renewed, or a new business license is established, that a completed letter of enforcement should be included in the packet when submitted to the city clerk or the license should not be issued.
Miller invited anyone with additional thoughts or questions to feel free to contact him and he would pleased to discuss things with them.
The next FRCC business luncheon will be held on Nov. 21 at noon in the Centene Center located at 2 Black Knight Dr. in Farmington. An address will be presented on the “State of the City of Farmington.” The public is welcome to attend and registration can be handled through the FRCC office. If the attendee would like to purchase lunch, a $10 fee in advance is required, or $15 if paid at the door.
Lisa Brotherton-Barnes is a staff writer for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at [email protected].
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