Poplar Bluff, Missouri

will want to go visit downtown to do some shopping, have some coffee, have a drink, listen to a band play, watch a sporting event, go to the circus, or go to the rodeo.” BVM: Are there any other Chamber of Commerce initiatives that you would want our readers to know about? Halter: “We’re the Destination Marketing Organization for three counties: Wayne, Carter, and Butler. Our office does tourism for them, so we are promoting the outdoor activities that we have here, and we have branded our area as ‘The Gateway to the Ozarks.’ We’ve got a tourism website for those counties, and we were awarded a grant from the state’s Economic Development Authority to create short documentaries on our area to help promote tourism. We were also awarded a grant for $99,000 for a retail and industrial market analysis, and a laborshed study. “We were also awarded a sustainability grant PREFERRED VENDOR n Zoellner Construction www.zoellnerconstruction.com through USDA Rural Development for solar panels for our office. So, the Chamber of Commerce office, which sits at the busiest intersection in the community, where Hwy. 60 and Business Hwy. 67 meet, has solar panels, now. It really lets people know that we’re embracing sustainability efforts.”