January in the business community means changing of the guard, so to speak, as local chambers of commerce start a new year with new leaders.

In Nederland, Dee Lane took the reins as chairman from Pam Trosclair, who served the previous year. Lane, who is a business representative for the Coushatta Casino and Resort, will oversee a number of annual events such as the Nederland Heritage Festival, National Night Out, Trunk or Treat and the Boots and Bulls: Celebrity Waiter event. She counts the latter as her favorite; it features judges and well-known community members as waiters, a silent auction, music contests and more.

Port Neches Chamber of Commerce welcomed Terry Schwertner, owner of McFerrin Insurance Agency, as its new president earlier this week. The annual event was held at the Neches River Wheelhouse and included outgoing president Lance Bradley roasting his old friend with good-natured jokes.

Schwertner, a long time businessman, knows the importance of the chamber.

“If you are going to live and work in your community, you need to get involved,” Schwertner told the crowd.

Longtime businesswoman Beverly Herford took the reins as the president of the Groves Chamber of Commerce board during an early morning annual event Tuesday at Magnolia Manor Skilled Nursing Community.

“I’m looking forward to working with the chamber and the city together to increase our membership,” Herford told The Port Arthur News in an article introducing her. “We have better things to come this year. We had so many roadblocks in 2019 with Imelda and the blast, so we want to put things back where they need to be.”

Herford, who owns Merle Norman and Bella Boutique on Lincoln Avenue in Groves, said her goal is simple: to do better for Groves.

The Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce’s incoming chairman, Ron Fletcher, has sets goals to reach out to the under-served during his tenure.

Fletcher took over from outgoing chairperson Elizabeth Cravens.

Fletcher wants to continue building the membership with focused efforts on re-recruiting past members who fell out and targeting under-served community segments.

“What we’re doing now may be something they are interested in, and we need to see if we can move forward by getting them interested,” Fletcher said. “We want to look at some of the other minority groups that are within Port Arthur and, maybe, come up with another minority committee, whether it is African-American or Vietnamese. We really want to reach out to other parts of the community that we may not have touched in the past.”

Chambers of Commerce have their fingers on the pulse of the community as a business network, sharing information and promoting their respective city businesses, thus adding to the economy.

Mary Meaux is a reporter with The Port Arthur News. She can be reached at mary.meaux@panews.com