Chamber and council talk aid for non-profits, tourism strategy

Community of Hope Pastor Rusty Akers used to sweat bullets every time he stepped foot in city hall, but he said those days are long behind him.

“The city has become more business friendly,” he said, during a joint meeting Tuesday night between the Maricopa Chamber of Commerce, where Akers serves on the board of directors, and the Maricopa City Council.

While he said the city has improved its work with businesses in the community, Akers added he is still not sure how the city will work with non-profits in the area as they begin to take the next step and build facilities here. “I ask the city to work with us on the large development impact fees because most non-profits do not have a lot of money,” he said.

Mayor Anthony Smith responded, saying he had a great respect for non-profits in Maricopa and called them the “life blood” of the community. “More good comes from non-profits than a government institution could even think of providing,” he said.

Council member Carl Diedrich said he would like to see non-profits in the community step up and take over some of the events the city hosts. “It can be very costly for a city to run the entire year’s event calendar,” he said.

City manager Kevin Evans added that non-profits do a lot of work that cities cannot, and Maricopa would work to support the non-profit entities in the city. However, he said the city must be careful to make sure anything done for the non-profits falls within the legal limits of the state’s laws. “We cannot show favoritism.”

In addition to the discussion on non-profits, the two entities discussed the chamber’s plan to develop a tourism brochure for Maricopa and market the city to those outside the community.

The council recently granted $10,000 to the chamber for this project, and chamber secretary Anthony Snider said they plan on bringing in a graduate student from Arizona State University to help with it. “We have put out an intern posting and hope to start receiving responses and doing interviews soon,” Snider said.

Chamber vice-president Keith Kirkman asked the council for direction as to the vision for Maricopa’s tourism strategy. Council member Brent Murphree responded that, while Maricopa may not have the world’s largest ball of twine, it is a gateway community.

“I see the city holding special events to pull people into the city, those who would normally just drive past,” Murphree said.

When marketing, city council member Ed Farrell added it is possible to start with an internal focus. “There are so many great places in Maricopa that the residents do not even know about,” he said. Examples of these places, according to Farrell, are the ethanol plant, Shamrock Farms, Hickman’s Egg Ranch and the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center.

In addition to tourism, Mayor Anthony Smith expressed a desire to turn his next annual state of the city address into a type of fundraising event for the chamber.