Photo by Catherine Stachowiak
Longtime President of the Kernville Chamber of Commerce, Orion Sanders, told the Kern Valley Sun on Wednesday, November 13 that he announced to the chamber board his decision to resign Tuesday, November 12.
While everyone on the chamber knew he had his plate overloaded with his new job, as District Manager for the Kern River Valley Cemetery District, and his own concert production business, Notorious Entertainment, as well as running a nonprofit, Sarge’s Wreaths 4 Vets, his email resignation letter still came suddenly and unexpectedly.
Nevertheless Sanders did not make his decision, to resign the chamber board, over night. He said, “I had been thinking about it (resigning) for awhile. Primarily when I took the cemetery job. My time is very thin. And I was unable to put in the time and effort that it takes to run the chamber office, and maintain the rodeo grounds, as well. Both things were my responsibility. But I have so many irons in the fire. And I have so many different things that I’m involved in, between the cemetery, and my business, and my non profit, that it was time that something had to give. And so I just didn’t have enough time to do everything that I was involved in. I had been thinking about it for a while. The timing just became right. So I made the decision.”
Sanders sent a resignation letter to the Kernville Chamber of Commerce board, via email, effective immediately. He resigned the board, all together, as well as the presidency. He said, “The board is very capable of going on without me. There’s a lot of good people there. They have a lot of good ideas. And they’re totally in good hands. I have no doubt about that. They will be perfectly fine.”
Sanders said some of events he put on with Notorious Entertainment, to bring in tourism through the chamber, had not been necessarily 100 percent successful. However he’s considering continuing the Blues Fest because it is a successful event and has a good following, mainly because it has been around for 13 years. Other events he’s done
in Kernville may not continue as before. “The Kernville Chamber of Commerce deserves more effort that I’m able to put into it,” he said.
Sanders served as president for over 4 years and had served on the board for close to 7 years.
Because Sanders had been care taking the rodeo grounds for years, he’s hoping the chamber will find the right person, to take over that task to continue progress at the grounds. He also hopes the chamber would continue to reach out to new and exciting rodeo associations to come use the property.
Sanders explained that he was caretaker for the rodeo grounds before he was ever on the board. The chamber had some vandalism take place at the rodeo grounds property. Therefore a need for a caretaker, living at the grounds, became evident. The chamber requested Sanders come live on the property and become a caretaker. There was only one event, back at that time, which was Whisky Flat Days.
The chamber ended up getting other organizations to use the grounds, including concerts, a Beer Festival, and started looking for ways to bring people to create commerce for the valley.
“Right now tourism and recreation is our industry. So with tourism and recreation as being our industry, that requires businesses, that opens up jobs, that opens up new businesses. And hopefully we can, as a community, advocate for tourism and recreation so that businesses will thrive, even through the slow seasons. That’s the key to economy in Kernville,” Sanders said.
