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Effort under way to inspire new businesses

Brian Wilkinson

(Updated: Thursday, March 11, 2010, 12:50 PM)

A roundtable discussion, attended by 11 business professionals, was held last week to talk about the future of Oakhurst.

The gathering was organized and moderated by Tim and Susan Madden, owners of Above the Fog Marketing.

"We wanted to have an informal gathering where people could brainstorm and throw out some creative ideas about attracting new businesses to the area," Tim Madden said.

He is a past president of the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce and his wife is the current president.

Tim Madden said his idea was to get some friends together and ask them to come up with a list of businesses and activities that would help stimulate the business climate in Oakhurst. He told the group not to be restricted by the "nuts and bolts" of the idea, but to be creative and think outside the box.

The group came up with more than 50 ideas led by the most obvious and most desirable -- a department store to replace Gottschalks, which closed in June.

After the department store, the wish list of businesses was varied including a toy store, tutoring center, craft supply, camera store, public indoor pool, dance studio, cooking school, indoor miniature golf, conference center, batting cages, micro-brewery, nightclub/cigar bar/piano bar, theater in the round, home care for seniors, paintball park, chain restaurant, amphitheater, mega bingo, dude ranch, town trolly, rollerblade skate rink, art mall, water park, gold panning and ice cream parlor.

The list of activities and events included a year-round rodeo, renaissance fair, historic reenactments, gold panning and a large farmers' market.

"I thought the meeting was a great first step and the response exceeded my expectations. Those attending had some great ideas," Tim Madden said. "The next step is for us to research some of these ideas and see what might be feasible."

He feels the hard work will be to actually seek out and find business people who might be interested in expanding or relocating to Oakhurst and also to research some financing to assist with these ventures."

"We will continue to move forward and possibly make some of these ideas a reality for the good of our community" Madden said.

Others attending were George Sitts, Joe Stern, John Thor, Angelo Pizelo, Theresa Wilson-Allen, John Crane, Dave Wolin, Monica McClanahan and Donna Dozier.

The group will meet again March 25.