A Chamber Update
By Miki Landseadel-Sanders President of the San Miguel Chamber of Commerce
On October 16th the membership of the San Miguel Chamber of Commerce was invited to its First Annual Meeting at RiverStar Vineyards and Winery in San Miguel, California. Great food was served by Dallas, of The 10th Street Café, Basque Restaurant, and by Melissa Saler of N2 Productions, an award-winning area caterer. People partook of the fine vintages of RiverStar and we were grateful to Muriel and Ed Dutton for their generous offer of their winery for this occasion. Vicki Shelby, Frank Mecham’s Assistant, Greg Rambo, San Miguel Advisory Council Chairman and his wife, Mary, Jean and Richard Hoffmann, of The Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, Rene Salas, Manager of the CSD, Noel Carpenter, an area realtor, the Templeton Chamber Executive Director, Berdette Robison and a representative from Continental Labor Resources in Paso Robles attended as well as Members of the Health Department, who presented details of the area food survey conducted by Kathleen Karle, the Health Department Director. This study had been completed earlier in the year at the Chamber’s request. All told 26 people attended this historic meeting. Charter members in attendance were issued certificates of recognition. On behalf of the San Miguel Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, we wish to thank each and every person who attended. We want the community of San Miguel to know that we are grateful for the assistance we initially received from the San Miguel Senior Center in their allowing us use of their facility while we constructed our bylaws. We also want to thank the SMRC for their ongoing support and friendship, for their providing us with a nonprofit status as one of their subcommittees while we were producing our Articles of Incorporation. Our appreciation for the San Miguel Resource Connection cannot be overstated. Without their help we might not exist today. The Chamber has taken on two special community tasks that we’d like residents of San Miguel to know about. First, the SMCC is responsible for coordinating participation in clean-up and maintenance of the sidewalk gardens on Mission Street. We will have a community workday on November 17th from 8 AM to Noon on Mission Street. All members of the community are invited to help with this clean-up project. We’ll provide the donuts! Secondly, the SMCC has hosted two Candidates Forums in San Miguel, one for the CSD and the other for San Miguel School Board candidates. We will likely continue to assume this responsibility for hosting future such forums. It would help greatly if the community attended. Finally, we intend to retain our link with the Discover San Miguel Website even while pursuing our own website, the construction of which will be announced very soon. Once we have our own website, Chamber of Commerce members who are business owners or who represent community organizations can be assured a place for name recognition. Now that we are a genuine Chamber of Commerce regular membership is due. This funding is essential to assure that improvements for business and community development occur in our area. Please contact me at mlandsea@yahoo.com or call (805) 975-6996 for more information.
Experience San Miguel!
By Paula Fisk, Joyce Herman, Jean Hoffman and Lynne Schmitz (The CDG Historical/Cultural Committee) Edited by Miki Landseadel In the late 1880’s needs of the populace of northern San Luis Obispo County dictated that bridges across the Salinas River were needed in order for the local farmers and business people to transport goods and services. In addition, new roads would improve access to the various farming communities. The first two bridges and their access roads were built by and paid for from the pockets of concerned individuals in Templeton and Paso Robles. Soon it became apparent that county coffers were increasing due to the “flow” over bridges and roads. The people demanded that the county pay back the investors and build a bridge in San Miguel. Suggestions to pay for the new construction included use of this new source of funds, new taxes, bonding road districts and encouraging private subscription. Citizens joined together in an effort to enhance the quality of their lives by increasing access to goods and services. This helped advance resources and support for the community in San Miguel as well as the rest of North County. A drive to build a flouring mill here capitalized on the abundance of wheat produced by local wheat farmers who in turn were able to increase their profits by keeping production local. Without a local mill, San Miguel wheat farmers had been forced to ship their wheat to the Bay Area, resulting in little or no profit. Even in those days, profit in farming was based on middle levels of production. The mill proved to be a cooperative innovation that helped tide them over from year to year with consistent success. San Miguel kept growing and developing. Public pressure was brought to bear on the county to build the bridge as a result of the new developments and because the river posed a major obstacle to access from farms and ranches to the town. Since the bridges built with private funds had made a significant difference in the wealth of the overall county, officials finally acquiesced to the pressureand built the bridge. Today, although San Miguel is a much smaller community than it was then, it still makes sense for us as a community to band together to gain improvements by achieving a cooperative support network with our county administration. More recently, the county has adopted a much stronger presence in unincorporated areas such as San Miguel. Clearly, citizen unity and cooperation is influential in helping to maintain support for development as well as to retain a unified sense of our own specific community identity.The people of San Miguel have a history of working together. This is how we will continue to build a growing community —by working together. We begin by developing a goal and then support the project to attain that goal - plan it, finance it, construct and enjoy it. We have sidewalk gardens and a community garden (at Lillian Larsen School) that we can all support right now and the Chamber Development Group has been conducting research to obtain a grocery store for our area. Together, we will achieve our vision for San Miguel! The San Miguel Chamber Development Group is presently operating as a committee of the San Miguel Resource Connection. For more information please contact: Miki Landseadel, CDG President (805) 975-6996 email: mlandsea@yahoo.com posted 4-23-2012 Previous Articles (click on article to read) first article: “Necessity is the Mother” of a San Miguel Chamber of Commerce
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