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Agencies consider business checkup
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, PINELLAS PARK -- Mayor Bill Mischler got a big surprise when he went to eat at the Kozy Korner, a local landmark for 25 years. The restaurant had closed. Mischler called owners Joe and Carol Parziale at their Oldsmar home to see what had happened, but he never found out. "The phone was disconnected," Mischler said. City officials wonder whether the Kozy Korner was in trouble and whether they could have done anything to help. The mystery has council members considering a program that would keep them more in touch with local businesses. An establishment or company at risk of failure or relocation could be identified and expert help could be assigned to help prevent failure or a move out of the city. The Business Assistance Program would be a collaboration of the city, county and the Pinellas Park/Mid-County Chamber of Commerce. Each entity would chip in $15,000 for the business assistance specialist who would work out of chamber offices. The new position would be a "joint employee" of the three agencies, said Rita Bott, the chamber's executive director. His or her job would be to meet daily with businesses and collect demographic and other information about businesses that the city and county could use, Bott said. The specialist would find help for any strugglers. "There are so many resources available to business through government (and other sources), but nothing that ties the package together," Bott said. "This is a really good way to tie things together." Bott said the program is modeled after one created by the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. About three or four years ago, Pinellas County became interested in working more closely with chambers of commerce and studied the St. Petersburg program. "They found the business people were extremely pleased with it," Bott said. The Pinellas Park chamber began talking about the idea about 31/2 years ago, she said, but "it just never got out of the talking stage." Chamber president Housh Ghovaee heard that other chambers had joined the program and decided to approach the City Council. "It's knowledge," council member Rick Butler said. "You have one person out there who's dedicated to getting all this information on existing businesses." As it is, Butler said, there are many diverse businesses in the city, but they may not know that they have the equipment or other products to help each other. The business specialist will help those businesses network. The specialist also will gather information that will enable elected and appointed officials to create programs and policies that benefit businesses, Butler said. "I'm looking forward to it," Butler said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
