Darien Won't Take Over Chamber Of Commerce: Mayor

DARIEN, IL – Darien has decided against assuming control of the local chamber of commerce, which has struggled financially at times.

At Monday's City Council meeting, Mayor Joseph Marchese said the city could ensure the financial viability of the Darien Chamber of Commerce without taking it over.

Instead, the city would inform businesses upon their license renewals that they are getting fee chamber memberships, Marchese said. A membership is worth $225 a year, he said.

The city would reimburse the chamber $29,300 to cover the income lost from memberships, the mayor said.

The city plans to have its new business liaison gauge what local companies need.

After a year, the city would end its subsidy to the chamber if it finds no growth has resulted, Marchese said. But he said he doubted that would happen.

"When we looked at absorbing the chamber, we didn't look at it because they were in bad financial shape," the mayor said. "We looked at it as a way of ensuring their viability financially as well as their growth within the business community. What we learned from our discussion is that we did not need to absorb the chamber in order to do that."

At a November council meeting, Darien officials said they were considering taking over the chamber. The organization's board members appeared to favor such a plan.

Patch wrote a story at the time about how officials said such an arrangement may benefit Darien.