Ironwood Chamber director responds to Feb. 18 letter

To the Editor:

This is in response to the letter to the editor published on Tuesday, Feb. 18, about the Ironwood Area Chamber of Commerce missing the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus.

The Ironwood Area Chamber of Commerce is proud of the Ironwood Snowmobile Olympus and the crew that supports it. Unfortunately, we aren’t in a position to give money to organizations and events due to insufficient funds. We would have been happy to attend and pass out information on Ironwood, but we would have needed to become a financial sponsor in order to do so. We do, however, promote the Olympus in any way that we can by using our many marketing resources.

The Ironwood Chamber is in a completely different position from the Hurley Area Chamber of Commerce. The Hurley Chamber has two staff members and they also receive money from room tax. We unfortunately do not get any tax money and all of our funds come from business membership and fundraising. As you can see, we do not have the means to financially support the event. However, we do support the event in our marketing.

Tim Erickson

Executive director, Ironwood Area Chamber of Commerce