POPSICLE 5K on Saturday, February 25th – Tell Cold Weather to Take a Hike!
February 15, 2017Join the Fun — 29th Annual Shamrock Run this Saturday!
February 28, 2017The Davie County Chamber of Commerce’s iShopDavie initiative encourages everyone to SHOP local, SAVE money & GROW our economy. The Davie Chamber loves doing business with its members and recently had another chance to “practice what it preaches” when making energy-saving upgrades to the office.
Trey Copeland, Energy Advisor of Lime Energy, Carolyn McManamy – President of Davie Chamber, Tom Lentz of Davie Electrical Company
The Chamber and its members learned about the Duke Energy small business grant program when Trey Copeland of LIME Energy spoke at a monthly Let’s Do Lunch and Learn event. As a partner with Duke Energy, Lime Energy meets with business owners to perform complimentary energy audits and provide estimates of cost savings when businesses choose to install energy-efficient lighting. The grants make the upgrade very affordable while driving down the energy costs for the businesses.
Carolyn McManamy, president of the Chamber, invited Copeland to complete an energy audit to determine if the Chamber’s building was a good candidate for the program. “The audit showed that the cost of replacing the old fixtures with new ones would pay for itself in a short time, resulting in significant energy savings,” McManamy said. “This is an older building, so it made good fiscal sense for us to go ahead with the upgrade to save money and reduce our energy use.”
Lime Energy partners with area electricians to complete the actual installations of new fixtures, which gave the Chamber an opportunity to work with another member. The new lights were installed by Tom Lentz, owner of Davie Electrical Company.
“We have had Tom and his crew work on the office in the past, and Tom is very involved with the Davie Chamber, so there was no question who we wanted working in our office,” McManamy said. “Both Lime Energy and Davie Electrical were great to work with because they worked around our busy and unpredictable schedule to minimize disruptions.”
Soon after the lighting upgrade was completed, the Davie Chamber had the opportunity to enhance its curb appeal while supporting another member and displaying a product made in Mocksville.
Michael Barron of Comfort-Bilt Windows and Doors at the Davie Chamber
That offer came from Michael Barron, plant manager of Comfort Bilt Windows & Doors, who was at the office for a meeting and had the chance to spend time in the visitor center/lobby. He hadn’t visited the Chamber office in a while and commented on how welcoming and inviting the office felt.
“Over the last few years, we have worked to improve the appearance of the office including painting the brown wood paneling a light tan, rearranging the tourism and business materials, and installing a sliding barn door, built by Justin Draughn Construction, for our conference room area. Outside we have front porch rockers and a screen door. All of these changes have dramatically improved the look and feel of our office and visitor center,” McManamy said.
“Michael said he liked the overall effect, but thought it would look even better with a screen door that was made locally. He then graciously offered to donate a new storm/screen door made by Comfort Bilt right here in Mocksville.”
“The door is beautiful and we have received so many compliments from people who come to our office. More importantly, we enjoy having the opportunity to tell the “door” story and feel very fortunate to have such great businesses here in our community. Comfort Bilt is known for being supportive of the community and we are proud to have a locally-made product on display at our office!” said McManamy.
The Chamber’s iShopDavie campaign is designed to shine a spotlight on the importance of supporting businesses in Davie County. Purchasing goods and services where we live, pay taxes and send our kids to school contributes to a thriving community with a high quality of life. It truly matters where you spend your money and the Davie Chamber is committed to doing business first and foremost – with its members!
The Davie County Chamber of Commerce shops local, do you?
