PORT HADLOCK – For the first time in at least 10 years, the Port Hadlock/Tri-Area Chamber of Commerce has an office.
“Where before, there was a disembodied telephone, we now have a chamber center,” said chamber board member Susan Whitmire, vice president and commercial lender with Kitsap Bank.
The office space is in the back of Carol Kenealy’s Soul Garden Art Gallery, a cooperative that supports 26 artists at 95A Oak Bay Road.
“The chamber is just trying to send the message that we mean business here, and we’re now turning the corner,” said chamber president Frances Rawski on Wednesday.
Rawski was joined by several other chamber members who were excited about the space to be shared with the gallery, which is under the Kivley Center sign. It is one of several retail shops at the community’s main business plaza.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening the chamber office space is set for noon Tuesday.
Kenealy, who is a chamber board member, said she now will double as a volunteer business and information provider.
“We maintain good, solid hours and somebody’s always going to be here,” said Kenealy, who has lived in Hadlock for seven years.
She took over the gallery in March. She originally founded the Otter Crossing Cafe at Hudson Point Marina and recently put on her first gallery show at Soul Garden.
The chamber shared office space with The Leader weekly newspaper in the early to mid-1990s, said Rawski, owner for four years of a home-based business, Eagle Notary.
Chuck Russell, longtime owner of Hadlock’s popular Valley Tavern and a chamber board member, said the chamber dates back about 25 years.
It first met at the Tri-Area Businessman’s Club. It was formed to pay for business community lighting.
