COPLEY TWP.: The township’s business community could have its own chamber of commerce with the start of the new year.
“Jan. 1 is our official start date,” said Scott Shields, who three months ago was prompted by support from local businesses to “officially” start work on putting the organization together.
The chamber’s charter will be to promote Copley businesses.
“The vision is there,” Shields told township trustees Wednesday night.
Shields, founder of Shields Blice & Co., a certified public accounting firm based in Fairlawn, acknowledged the new chamber’s work will require bolstering ties and coordination with the neighboring city of Fairlawn and Bath Township.
Their central business corridor is the Montrose shopping district and also Summit Mall, which runs along West Market Street.
The “special relationship with Bath and Fairlawn should be kept in mind,” Shields said, adding he has not approached Bath officials yet but has met with Fairlawn’s.
Shields, a Copley resident who graduated from Copley High School, emphasized the new chamber’s focus will be local.
“We want to specifically zero in on the needs of this township,” he said.
Trustee Helen Humphrys enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Through local chamber promotions, “businesses that are here will stay viable,” she said.
The Fairlawn Area Chamber of Commerce is “a wonderful organization, but it’s more for networking from what I’ve seen,” she said.
Mending relations between Copley and Fairlawn could prove difficult. The municipalities are feuding over plans to relocate Sam’s Club and Walmart in Fairlawn’s Rosemont Commons less than one mile west to a site in Copley off Rothrock Road.
The new commercial development has not broken ground, but traffic issues in the area have put the two municipalities at odds.
Citing potential residential hazards, Fairlawn has blocked traffic on a section of Rothrock within the city. Copley unsuccessfully sought court intervention to stop installation of the roadblock.
The dispute received only a brief mention at Wednesday’s board of trustees meeting, when township Fire Chief Michael Benson said a department firetruck had no problems this week negotiating the roadblock.
Copley officials have voiced concerns about the need for emergency vehicles to be able to get through the roadblock.