La Center resident Tammie Howard has been named executive director of the Woodland Chamber of Commerce and will take over the post being vacated by Sharon Knight, who will retire this month.
Howard, 45, has held management positions in both the private and public sectors. For the past 18 months, she has worked for Washington State University Clark County Extension as a 4-H clubs coordinator. She plans to continue overseeing the program through the end of the Clark County Fair, set to run Aug. 6-16.
Her first order of business as executive director of the chamber will be updating its website, http://www.woodlandwachamber.com, Howard said.
“That’s our business card to the world, so we want to make sure it’s very user-friendly and promotes what the chamber is doing in this community,” she said.
Knight, 67, has served as the Woodland chamber’s executive director since 2000, overseeing its focus on business and tourism. Knight listed membership growth as her biggest accomplishment over her decade at the helm. Under Knight, the business group grew from 50 members in 2000 to 285 members at its peak in 2008, though it has since lost several members.
Knight said the economic recession has hit Woodland businesses particularly hard, putting the skids on development that once pegged the community as the next outlet for Clark County’s residential growth.
Woodland has lost several employers over the past three years, including the Coca Cola Bottling Co., which shuttered its Woodland distribution center this year, and Fleetwood Homes of Washington, which shut down in 2007 and laid off 135 workers. Closed retail businesses include the Sav-On Foods grocery store, Radio Shack and several smaller shops and restaurants.
Consequently, the town, which is geographically divided by Interstate 5 and straddles the boarder between Clark and Cowlitz counties, has been plagued by high unemployment rates. In June, 12.4 percent of Clark County workers were unemployed and 11.9 percent of Cowlitz County workers were jobless. Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in June.
The Woodland Chamber of Commerce employs four full- and part-time employees at its office and tourist information center at 900 Goerig St., west of I-5 at Exit 21.
