Thursday, March 28, 2024

Annual Pateros Chamber banquet scheduled for April

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The Pateros Chamber of Commerce will host its annual banquet in late April; that kicks off town and Chamber activities for the year, which include Business Appreciation Day, the city-wide garage sale, the annual town celebration (complete with dragon boat races) and the annual hydro races.

The Chamber's board of directors will start taking applications for the Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year awards in March; the recipients will be announced at the annual banquet April 27. Business Appreciation Day will be the following Saturday, May 2. The city-wide garage sale has been moved to June 26 and 27, the last weekend of the month.

The Pateros Apple Pie Jamboree is scheduled for July 17 through 19, with a day of dragon boat races on Saturday, July 18. The Pateros Hydro Classic is scheduled for Aug. 22 and 23. And the Chamber's year winds up with a visit from Santa and lighting of the community Christmas tree, Wednesday, Dec. 16. Joni Parks suggested that for 2010, Chamber officers think about adding an event of some kind between December and April.

In other business at the general meeting Wednesday, Jan. 21, Pateros School District superintendent Lois Davies talked about the construction bond proposal that will go before Pateros voters March 10. Ballots will be mailed about Feb. 20, Davies said.

If the bond is approved, most of the money would be used to pay for a new heating/ventilation system, Davies said. The existing system is the product of three separate construction cycles, and is getting old and showing it. "I spend money every month fixing an old system," she said. The bond also includes money to pay for an upgraded fire alarm and intercom system, upgrades to the bus garage, new equipment in the kitchen (but not a remodel) and remodeling a bathroom in the grade school wing.

Davies said district officials will sponsor an open house at school all day Tuesday, Feb. 3; administrators and students will be available to conduct tours of the building and show people why district officials think the changes are necessary (without climbing up on the roof to look at the heating units, of course). Davies said she'd be willing to meet with district patrons - pretty much any time, anywhere and any size crowd, "one or two or 50 people" - to talk about the proposal.

Molly Filer of the Methow Arts Alliance attended the meeting to talk about the organization's "art education partnership" program.

The Arts Alliance works with five schools in Okanogan County, including Pateros and Brewster; its roster includes about 30 artists from throughout the county, including writers, performance and visual artists. The organization has an "Artist in Residence" program, where artists work with kids at each school on big and small art projects. At Pateros the artist in residence just finished a school-wide session in dance, teaching kids hip-hop moves. The Arts Alliance also sponsors performances by out-of-area artists four to five times per year, typically singers, actors or dancers, Filer said. One group of high school students from each school takes a trip to Seattle each year; this year students will attend a performance of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," stay overnight at a local high school and visit the Seattle Art Museum.

In answer to a question from Kevin Stennes, Filer said the Arts Alliance gets both public and private funding, including grants from the Washington Arts Commission. However, administrators already have been told that its arts commission funding will be cut after 2009 to free up money for communities that are just starting up programs. Under those circumstances the Arts Alliance will be looking for more local financial support, she said.
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