Chamber, NGage, Main Street all to merge into 'Gage Development Coalition'

BEATRICE, Neb. - Three organizations are set to become one in southeast Nebraska.

The Beatrice Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, NGage, and Main Street Beatrice will all soon merge to create the Gage Development Coalition, with the goal of bringing tourism and business to Beatrice.

Craig Zarybnicky is a Board Member for Main Street Beatrice and says the three organizations are confident in what lies ahead.

“We’re strategically putting together committees to bring the past knowledge of all three organizations to the table,”Zarybnicky said. “We can integrate that into our new mission. The work that’s been done has been a strong foundation for the group and we hope to expand on that and we’re excited to see where that goes.”

Discussions of the merge began about a year ago when the three boards met with the Beatrice City Council and the Gage County Board of Supervisors.

Ryan Trauernicht currently serves on the board of the chamber of commerce and Gage County Tourism. He says the decision to merge came down to numbers and workload.

“The pace of inflation, staffing, and cost to operate were out-pacing the amount of revenue the three organizations could keep up with,” Trauernicht said. “Whether it be asking for more money from the city our county on NGage’s part or if you’re the chamber of Main Street, more fundraisers. And it got to the point of where we were having fundraisers for profitability vs. impact.”

In addition, so many fundraisers led to fewer volunteers.

Zarybnicky says having those three organizations be successful is crucial to Beatrice and Gage County.

“Pat of it is just having a plan, a unified plan, but a plan about where the community wants to see Gage County grow in the future,”Zarybnicky said. “This allows us to collaborate more effectively as one group, one strategic plan, and do what’s in the best interest of Gage County as a whole.”

While three organizations are set to become one, the goal of being impactful to the community remains, in addition to economic development and efficiency.

“We want to marked our town and county and focus on impactful things, instead of things that may have lost their luster,” Trauernicht said. “We want to be more efficient with the dollars…. We want to be more efficient and a more impactful organization.”