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(AUDIO): Columbia Chamber leader hopes to have at least 70 people on Madison leadership visit

July 18, 2023 By Brian Hauswirth

Columbia business leaders and elected officials will be making their tenth leadership visit this fall to another college town.

Columbia Chamber of Commerce president Matt McCormick tells 939 the Eagle that he’s excited to visit Madison, Wisconsin, which is a state capital and the home to the University of Wisconsin.

“They’re doing some great things around the unhoused and homelessness, some things around medical and a number of other topics. So, we’re meeting here in about a week to sit down and make that agenda and be putting that agenda out here in a couple of weeks. But it’s going to be an exciting trip. It’s going to be a fun trip,” McCormick says.

Columbia’s city council voted in February to approve a permit that allows for the construction and operation of a proposed homeless shelter near the Business Loop.

Madison is larger than Columbia: Madison has about 270,000 residents. Columbia has about 127,000 residents. Mr. McCormick hopes to have anywhere from 70 to 100 people on the September trip.

“It’s one of those things to when we are able to bring community leaders and business leaders along to have those conversations, they can bring that information back to their community to Columbia and say how can we be a part of this, how can we make something like this happen in Columbia,” says McCormick.

Anyone interested in going on the trip is encouraged to contact Mr. McCormick at the chamber.

(AUDIO): Homelessness will be major focus of Columbia business leaders when they travel to Madison

June 16, 2023 By Brian Hauswirth

Columbia business leaders and elected officials will travel to Madison, Wisconsin for September’s leadership visit.

Columbia Chamber of Commerce president Matt McCormick announced the visit during this week’s Regional Economic Development Incorporated (REDI) board meeting at Mizzou. Mr. McCormick tells 939 the Eagle that Madison has been doing great things with homelessness, and Columbia leaders want to see what they’ve done.

“One of the things that we’ve noticed with Madison pre-COVID versus post-COVID, they’ve done a lot of work during that timeframe around homelessness. And a lot of the issues that they’ve been dealing with, which are a lot of the same issues we’re dealing with, the unhoused. And you know people are wanting to responsibly help this,” McCormick says.

Columbia’s city council voted in February to approve a permit that allows for the construction and operation of a proposed homeless shelter near the Business Loop. The Voluntary Action Center (VAC) would operate the shelter, under the proposal.

Columbia Chamber members and others visited College Station, Texas in October. They’ve also traveled to Tuscaloosa, Athens, Knoxville and Gainesville in previous visits. Mr. McCormick is inviting business representatives and elected officials on the trip.

“Our leadership visits are always made up of business leaders, business owners of small, medium and large-sized businesses. But it’s also made up of elected officials on the local level, on the state level. We have different organizations, we have our city and our county are part of it. The University (of Missouri) is a part of it. Because it’s going to take all of us to work on these issues,” says McCormick.

Madison, Wisconsin, which has about 269,000 residents, is a state capital and is also home to the University of Wisconsin. This will be the chamber’s tenth leadership visit.

(AUDIO): Columbia Chamber considering two Big Ten towns for leadership trip

March 8, 2023 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri Governor Mike Parson and Columbia Chamber of Commerce president Matt McCormick (left) visit with Leadership Columbia participants on March 7, 2023 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

Columbia business leaders will be choosing one of two major college towns for their leadership visit this fall.

This will be the Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s tenth trip. They visited College Station, Texas in October. Chamber president Matt McCormick tells 939 the Eagle they’re looking at two Big Ten college towns for this year’s trip.

“We actually have two cities on our docket that we’ve looked at. One is Madison, Wisconsin. The other is Lincoln, Nebraska. We always go to a university town, because there’s something special about a university town,” Mr. McCormick says.

The University of Wisconsin is located in Madison, and the University of Nebraska’s main campus is in Lincoln. Previous visits have included Ann Arbor, Tuscaloosa and Athens, Georgia.

“Homelessness is one of those issues that we know Madison has addressed a great deal, and so we’d like to learn from them what they’ve worked on,” says McCormick.

Columbia’s city council voted in February to approve a permit that allows for the construction and operation of a proposed 120-bed homeless shelter near Columbia’s power plant and former VFW post.

Heavy rain prompts several overnight flood warnings in central Missouri

June 1, 2022 By Brian Hauswirth

Flash flood warnings remain in effect for several mid-Missouri counties, due to Tuesday’s heavy rain that continued overnight through this (Wednesday) morning. National Weather Service (NWS) St. Louis meteorologist Mark Britt tells 939 the Eagle that the flash flood warning for Cooper, Howard and Saline counties continues through 8 a.m. A flood warning for Monroe …