Pittsburg hires Chamber president to do its economic development - KOAM TV 7

Pittsburg hires Chamber president to do its economic development

The City of Pittsburg decides to contract out its economic development to the area Chamber of Commerce president for the next year.

City commissioners voted in favor of the decision 4-to-1 after Pittsburg's Economic Development Director of 18 years retired earlier this month.

Pittsburg Mayor John Ketterman was the only commissioner to vote against the decision, claiming he would rather keep the job in-house.

But according to Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce President Blake Benson, many area cities from Lawrence to Joplin use this model with great success.

"Potential new residents or potential new business owners, often they stop at the Chamber first for information, so it makes the process easier for them where we're kind of the one shop source of information and now we can add economic development to that as well," says Benson.

Benson says despite concerns of conflicting interests between the city and local business, his primary goal is to bring more economic development to Pittsburg.