Chamber Group Heads to Washington for the Twenty-Seventh Year
At the end of the month Rick Roden, President/CEO of the Mountain Lakes Chamber, will accompany a group of local leaders on his 27th trip to Washington D.C.
Better known as the annual Washington Fly-in, The Chamber takes part in a ritual not foreign to bigger chambers from around the country. As the Chamber has community connections in legislation that span touchpoints from local municipalities to The House of Representatives, we value the relationships we have made over the years that have allowed us to petition for positive change throughout our part of the state.
“We’re actually one of the smallest Chambers to take this trip,” says Roden, and “is something smaller chambers across the country could truly benefit from.”
In twenty-seven years, Mr. Roden and the team that accompanies him has worked hard to build great relationships with our state’s Congressional Delegation and The Chamber looks forward to keeping those relationships alive and well.
On top of relationship building, there have been some incredible local changes that have taken place as a result of the annual trip. In the past, The Chamber trip has resulted in helping our local airport acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars that our local airport has been able to use for major infrastructure projects. We are still working with the airport on major projects, and is one of the things Rudder Williams, Chairman of our Airport Authority will be asking for during the rapid-fire meetings he has scheduled.
“This is not a pleasure trip, we go to work on behalf of our community,” says Roden. The following meetings have been scheduled and set to discuss major issues that directly effect Jackson County.
Tuesday, February 26th:
Travel day & Meeting with Senator Shelby followed by dinner along with Congressman Mo Brooks, Richard Aderholt and both their chiefs of staff.
Wednesday, February 27th:
Meting with Congressman Mo Brooks, Congressman Robert Aderholt, Senator Doug Jones and Congressman Bud Cramer for an update on the Bellefonte project.
Thursday, February 28th:
Meeting with the Department of Defense at Fort Belvoir, set up by Retired General and newly elected board member Bill Nance. Then, the group will travel back to Jackson County, Alabama.
