TONASKET-The 2008 Harvest Fest was the focus of the Tonasket Chamber of Commerce meeting on Tues., Sept. 9.

The meeting began with a presentation from Stephanie Bradley from II Sisters Home Video and Stampede Awards and Signs about what trophies the chamber could order for the bed races on Saturday, Oct. 11. The chamber approved ordering five small trophies to give to the winners of the bed race, along with 50 percent of the collected race fees. They also decided to order a plaque for the sponsors. The chamber would use this plaque to note the winners every year.

During the Tonasket Visitors and Business Resource Center report, chamber member Jean Ramsey wanted to know if there were any plans to tidy up the south end of the TVBRC parking lot where the rocks are. Chamber President David Kester said that there’s a lot that needs to be done, but they can’t get any enthusiasm for it.

The meeting next turned back to the Harvest Fest with a presentation from Jerry Mills about the raffle. Mills stated that the purpose of the raffle was to raise funds for the chamber projects including community events, operational costs of TVBRC and promotions.

The grand prize of the raffle will be one Panasonic 42 inch flat screen plasma HDTV. Other prizes will be determined later and at the meeting, only a $25 gift certificate to Whistler’s had been confirmed. The TV will be on display at Lee Frank Inc., Sept. 8-13; II Sisters Home Video, Sept. 15-20; Tonasket Interiors, Sept. 22-27; US Bank, Sept. 29-Oct 4 and Wells Fargo Bank, Oct. 6-11.

Mills said that raffle tickets would be five dollars each and that they would sell at most 1,000 raffle tickets. The drawing will be on Oct. 11 during the Harvest Fest activities and the winner doesn’t need to be present to win. Raffle tickets can be bought from Lee Frank, Inc., Steve Mattson, Highlandia Jewelers, TVBRC, Tonasket Interiors, II Sisters Home Video, Terry Mills, Kari Alexander, US Bank, Rob Nau DDS and Herb Wandler.

During old business, the chamber approved the funding of $25 for advertising of the Community Cultural Center’s production of Animal Farm.

Bookkeeper Steve Mattson told the chamber that he knows of at least four people who want to take the free Accounting 101 course that the chamber is going to offer through the TVBRC starting on Sept. 22. He said the course has space for 10 people and that he doesn’t foresee any problems in filling it. Ramsey volunteered to announce to the city council that the chamber is running this course through the TVBRC.

During new business, Ramsey said that a group of community people would like to raise money for new holiday lights. The chamber approved the TVBRC sponsoring the fundraising for new holiday lights over two years. The cost would be $20,000 and she said they were hoping they’d get the lights by the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The next chamber of commerce meeting will be on Tues., Sept. 23 at Whistler’s at noon.