Chamber makes 2nd attempt at Web site


By D.a. Wilkinson

The all-county chamber Web site is down.

WELLSVILLE — A second attempt is under way to create a Web site to help promote a proposed coal-to-liquid fuel plant and the area economy in general.

The first attempt was never completed, although the Web site operated at one time, Pamela Hoppel, the chief executive officer of the St. Clair Area Chamber of Commerce, said Monday.

Hoppel said she’s coordinating the project.

The Web site was, and will remain, www.columbianacounty-areachambers.com.

“It’s totally down now if you click on the Web site,” Hoppel said.

The chambers of commerce in 2007 banded together on the cooperative plan. They are the chambers of commerce in St. Clair Township, Columbiana, East Liverpool, Lisbon, Salem, East Palestine, Wellsville, Leetonia and Washingtonville in Ohio, and the Chester/Newell Area Chamber in West Virginia.

The cooperative plan was the first time the local chambers agreed to work together.

The chambers hired Newbold Technologies in East Liverpool to create the new site. No completion date has been set.

The participating chambers raised $2,500 for the plan, and the Columbiana County commissioners contributed another $2,500 to pay for the site.

Baard Energy of Vancouver, Wash., plans to build a $6 billion plant along the Ohio River that would turn coal into a liquid fuel that can be used by the military.

Some clearing of the site in Wellsville is expected to begin this year, and construction on the Baard plant is expected to begin in 2010.

The chambers had linked their Web sites to the columbianacounty-areachambers.com address.

The idea was and is to attract people to the area who will be involved with the plant’s construction or operation. Construction is expected to include several thousand workers, and the plant is expected to have several hundred employees.

People could go to the site and then go to links on each community’s page to look for schools or homes closer to the facility.

Contractors for the project could also go to the site to find information on needed materials, workers, motels and restaurants.

The area push is not only on the Web. Diana Spencer, the president-elect of the Wellsville Area Chamber of Commerce, is working on a brochure to promote the village.

“We needed to sell 12 ads to pay for the brochure, and we sold 32 ads,” Spencer said.

The material will focus on attractions in Wellsville and others nearby, such as the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort in West Virginia.

Similar information also will be found through the new all-chamber Web site.

Wellsville also will freshen its Web material. When the all-chamber site was being constructed a large number of photographs were taken in Wellsville. Spencer said the idea was to have the Web designer put a few photos on Wellsville’s site. Instead, he put them all on the site. Only a handful of photos will go on the Wellsville site, she said.

“It was not about the photographs,” Spencer said. “It’s about the information.”

wilkinson@vindy.com

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