Local News

The Josephine County Commissioners held a general discussion meeting Monday afternoon to hear the Chamber of Commerce Business Retention Presentation following which Chamber President Terry Hopkins laid out his plans for the next three years based on the information just presented.

The first item he mentioned was workforce development. Some of that came from a survey item that over half the merchants mentioned. That item was interpersonal skills, welcoming client to a business and basic communication skills. The second most mentioned important factor affecting business locally is available childcare followed by available housing.

Local businesses stated employee retention as one of their biggest problems followed by social issues, the homelessness situation.

The presentation included national trends that included a displeasure with government with the national government being the lowest, just below state government and then local government. None fared very well.