Local Growth Takes All of Us

Scott Kemp

Every city has a heartbeat, the businesses, events, and people who make it feel alive. For Corvallis, Tracy Meese is working right at the center of that.

As CEO of the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce, Tracy is focused on strengthening local economy, supporting small businesses, and helping Corvallis become a more vibrant place to live and work. And today, I promise you, you'll learn something about what it really takes to build a stronger local business community.

This is Titans and Tangents.

Scott

Tracy, thanks for joining me today on Titans and Tangents.

Tracy Meese

Thanks for having me.

Scott

Yes. You're kind of like an important person in Corvallis, right?

Tracy

Yeah. Apparently, I am becoming one.

Scott

You're a big deal. You're a really big deal.

Tracy

Yeah, we'll see.

Scott

Yeah. So people, they look up to you, and you're helping the businesses succeed in Corvallis, and that's pretty cool.

Tracy

Yeah. Sometimes it's a hard job, but it's been really rewarding, so that's good.

Scott

Yeah. Your job is literally to... Maybe you can describe it in a nutshell?

Tracy

Yeah. So we're a membership-based organization, the Chamber of Commerce, and we do support our members, which are local business owners, as well as regional business owners. But we do that in a few different ways. We provide networking opportunities. We do a lot of advocacy work.

We do education for businesses, and exposure through other avenues.

Scott

How long have you been the CEO?

Tracy

Yeah, I've only been there a little over a year now, so it's still pretty new.

Scott

Well, I see you all the time doing your thing, and so I think you're doing a good job.

Tracy

Aw, thank you.

Scott

Yeah. So one of the cool things Corvallis does is have our little Greeters, right? And that's every Tuesday.

Tracy

Yep, every Tuesday morning, we have a hosting business, and then everyone meets at whatever location the host decides, and we all go there, and we network and learn about their business, and it's just a great way to get connected.

Scott

Yeah. I like that. It's kind of an interesting group of all walks of life that go to that, right?

Tracy

Because you get small entrepreneurs that are literally just starting, and then you get large businesses that maybe have a marketing outreach person, and they're all coming together. Or just even community members.

Scott

Nonprofits, right?

Tracy

Lots of nonprofits. Community members that just want to see what's going on.

Scott

So have you lived in Corvallis for a while?

Tracy

Yeah, I've been between Corvallis and Albany about 13 years now. And then before that, Portland forever. I've been around.

Scott

Your previous job was at Airlie Winery. Did I say that right?

Tracy

Airlie Winery, yeah.

Scott

Airlie. Okay.

Tracy

And I love them so much. Mary's like family. She's the owner. She's awesome.

Scott

Yeah. We got to shoot a video commercial for the Heart of Willamette Valley wineries, and we went to 18 different wineries to do video commercials for them, and they were one of them. They had a really cool thing. I like their pond out front.

Tracy

Yeah, it's so pretty. And the dogs. That's probably my favorite part.

Scott

Yeah, the video actually has the dogs in there.

Tracy

Yeah, I saw your video work. It looks so good.

Scott

Thank you. Thank you. So, what are some of the struggles that the businesses have here in Corvallis? And if somebody's thinking of starting a business, what are they thinking about here?

Tracy

Yeah, I think a lot of times we've heard that it's hard to develop in the area. There's been a lot of regulatory permitting concerns, but I know the city is really working on trying to make it easier to develop in this area. So that's one concern for newer businesses or businesses that want to expand.

Another thing, in particular in downtown, is some of those infrastructure things that go back, because a lot of those buildings were built a long time ago.

Scott

A long time ago.

Tracy

Yeah, and then for just businesses that are already established, I think following COVID, it's just maintaining that business and keeping it going. COVID hurt everybody, obviously, when it comes to business. But I think the community, from what I've been feeling since I've started this role, is people really care.

They want to take care of each other. So we're all in it to make things better, and that's one of the best parts of my job, because I want to do that too.

Scott

So do you have the city's ear? Do you have a special lane there?

Tracy

We partner a lot. I work with a lot of different areas of the city. I really appreciate, in particular, the business economic development team. Chris Jacobs, the business economic development manager, is amazing. So I've worked with him and Mark Shepherd, of course, and then the council, and the mayor.

I try and at least touch base with multiple people every month, just so that we're all moving in the same direction.

Scott

Is the chamber a private organization, or is it governmental?

Tracy

So we are a nonprofit, so we are not run by the government. A lot of misconception is that we are. Our chamber is completely separate. Some chambers will have a visitor association that may fall under city government, but our chamber is not like that.

But with that, I do partner with our visitors' tourism company, and that's Visit Corvallis.

Scott

Visit Corvallis, right. Now, are they a part of the city, or are they separate?

Tracy

They're still considered as separate, but they do receive funding for tourism that is to support the city.

Scott

To bring more business, to make it more business-friendly in Corvallis, what can we be doing?

Tracy

It's a lot of things. I think we have a policy agenda we put out this last year. Housing, affordable housing is huge too. We want to attract talent and give them places that they want to come and live here, and have it at affordable prices.

Again, that permitting regulatory process, making it easier for those businesses to come, get established. Also, I would say downtown needs to be a focus. We don't want to see so many empty storefronts. We want stronger beautification. A connection to the waterfront would be amazing. All those things contribute.

Workforce, making sure that we have ready-now workforce that we can keep here in our community, especially what OSU is producing. Their robotics and agility, that whole school right now is amazing, with the new NVIDIA building coming in. I just can't wait to see everything that comes out of that. I'm super excited.

Scott

Who's NVIDIA?

Tracy

Uh... NVIDIA—

Scott

It was a joke.

Tracy

I was like, "Sorry."

Scott

No, that's okay. Google it if you don't know. But a cool thing, a cool fact, is the CEO went to Oregon State University.

Tracy

They're amazing. I love OSU. They do such amazing things. If you guys have never been to the extension program over on the HP campus called Atami, it's a bioscience program that helps these creative people that want to start a business, and they're all bioscience engineers. Amazing.

I would encourage anyone, if you could ever tour it. It's so cool.

Scott

Oh, do they have tours there?

Tracy

I don't know if they have open tours. I got to tour it because of the connections.

Scott

Because you're special. You have connections, you're telling me. You're special. Is that what you just said?

Tracy

But there's some cool companies that came out of there. One of them is called Valliscor. They're amazing.

Scott

Yeah. Wasn't there... There's a company there, Inpria, is that right?

We went and did some headshots for them, and they make a special goo that, it's literally called goo or goop, and it goes in between the computer chip somehow when they're building the silicon chips, and they're maybe the only people in the world that have it.

And they only have three or four customers, but they just happen to be Intel and Apple, and they sell these buckets of goo. It's very expensive.

Tracy

That's what Atami does. They do these incredible inventions that you're just like, "I've never even heard of this." But the people that come out of it and the businesses that come out of it are super cool. And then our job is to try and keep those businesses here and growing.

But yeah, I am not familiar with that business necessarily, but if it came through that program, I'm sure it's just so cool.

Scott

Yeah. That's neat. My biggest concern with Corvallis is the housing prices. So, raising girls here, it's like they can't even afford to live here. After they grow up, or after they fly the nest, they have to go somewhere else. They have to go to Albany, they have to go to Lebanon, Dallas, Independence, Monmouth.

Wherever else, but not Corvallis, and that's kind of sad.

Tracy

It's hard. I think, too, the next two years, you're going to see quite a bit of alternative housing come out, so denser housing, more duplexes. And we have 2,000 projects, the city, for housing coming out, so I will say that is something to look forward to.

But yeah, we have a high median household price of starting at half a million dollars, and an average median income of 80,000 on average. And it's just, they aren't lining up. And so we did host a housing forum, I think it was last spring, to kind of have those difficult conversations, and why is there that disconnect?

And the city was present. Lots of developers were present for that. But it's definitely, we all need to come together and have those hard conversations, have that awareness, and figure out change that we can make happen to make it more affordable.

Scott

Because we just closed down a middle school, right?

Tracy

Yeah, a middle school. Yeah.

Scott

And I hear rumors that we're going to lose a high school. So that's not good for city growth, when you're closing schools.

Tracy

Yeah. And I will say, just to speak a little to that, the birth rate trend is down in Oregon in general. So that has been on the decline for the last five years, so it is not that surprising that that happened. But that's just also the nature of this area statewide.

Scott

So, have more babies. Is that your official advice?

Tracy

Yeah. I mean, I'm not telling you to do that, but maybe.

Scott

It's not that kind of show. Very cool. So when you're not CEO-ing the chamber, what are you doing in your spare time?

Tracy

Oh, gosh. I'm a very active community member. I started... Well, I didn't start, because we work through Playground Sports, but I do run a kickball league, an adult kickball league.

Scott

What? That's a thing?

Tracy

Yeah. It's so fun. And it is an open alcohol beverage league, so it's extra fun.

Scott

Oh my gosh. I want to do that. They're all drunk, kicking balls around. That's what you're saying?

Tracy

Yeah. And Block 15's our sponsor, so we love them.

Scott

Oh my gosh. Where is that at?

Tracy

We play at Crystal Lake Sports Field. And we have a following, and people just come and hang out now because it's so fun.

Scott

I want to come see that.

Tracy

You're welcome.

Scott

What days is it?

Tracy

Wednesday nights.

Scott

At Crystal Lake.

Tracy

Only you're welcome.

Scott

Oh, the rest of your audience, you are not welcome.

Tracy

I'm just kidding. You can come hang out, bring a barbecue and snacks, because we love snacks.

Scott

Oh, awesome.

Tracy

Yeah, and I have a bulldog.

Scott

So that's for the people that can't hit slow-pitch softball, then.

Tracy

I wouldn't say we can necessarily kick these balls, either. We're not that good.

Scott

But you have a lot of fun.

Tracy

Oh, yeah. We have so much fun. We dress up at the last game of the season, too.

Scott

I'm sure grade school was the last time that I kicked a ball. That was five years ago.

Tracy

It's been a while, probably.

Scott

Maybe more than five. But that was so fun. I just love that.

Tracy

Yeah. It's so fun. I do that, and then I have my bulldog, and so I go out to Airlie a lot and take him out there.

Scott

Oh, you're still a part of that?

Tracy

Oh, yeah. I love those guys. They have concerts on Sunday nights, so I like to go out to those.

Scott

Really? Every Sunday night?

Tracy

Yeah, on the pond down below. It's so pretty.

Scott

I'm going to have to get connected to that.

Tracy

Yeah. I'm surprised you don't go already, you guys. I could see you guys loving it.

Scott

We've gone to some winery concerts before, but I'm not sure we've gone to the Airlie one.

Tracy

Yeah. Yeah, you guys should go. We potluck. We have 20 of us that potluck. It's really fun. You can come to that too.

Scott

All right. And it's open to the public, right? You're all invited.

Tracy

Yeah, you're invited to all my social things. It's fine.

Scott

That's fun. So what's your dog's name again?

Tracy

Finley.

Scott

Finley? Is it after Finley Refuge or not?

Tracy

No. So my first dog was named after an "SNL" character, Simon from the old school one.

Scott

Oh, yeah. Old school.

Tracy

And then Finley was going to be...

Scott

With his drawings? Is that what... the drawings?

Tracy

In the bathtub. Finley was going to be Farley, but because he's a bulldog, he farts a lot. And so everyone was... Like an "SNL" character, Chris Farley. And so then everyone was like, "He's going to be Fartsy Farley." And I was like, "Oh."

Scott

Or Chris Fartley, right? It could've been that, too.

Tracy

So I had to switch it to Finley. Because of the farting.

Scott

My dog's name is Bella. She's a German Shorthair.

Tracy

Oh, cute.

Scott

She's awesome.

Tracy

I love dogs.

Scott

So I actually took a picture. I took her to the coast one day, and I had a 70 to 200 lens, which is a nice lens. And I would throw a stick forward, then I would call her back, and I would shoot her at a high frame rate coming back.

And I went home, and I got home, and I went through the pictures, and I saw her running towards me with this sequence. And the very last one, my eyes just went, "Pow. Holy crud." And she's just flying through the air, straight at the camera. Her ears are going wild. Her eyeballs are locked in. It's tack sharp.

Everything about that picture is literally perfect.

Tracy

Oh, really?

Scott

I want to sell it to a dog food company.

Tracy

You should.

Scott

Yeah. But I took it to a state fair. I like to enter photography competitions.

Tracy

Yeah. I love that.

Scott

And they loved it. And it won the People's Choice Award.

Tracy

Oh my gosh.

Scott

So they had 2,500 people that would rotate or that came to the state fair, which is a big deal in Oregon.

Tracy

Yeah, it's huge.

Scott

And 2,500 people voted, and they said it wasn't even close.

Tracy

Oh my gosh. That's so cool. That's amazing.

Scott

It's a neat photo. Maybe we'll post-process this and put a picture of it up there. Yeah. She's super dog.

Tracy

You know what we should do? Because Finley just got on the front page of the Visit Corvallis website. He's in a photo with another dog. We'll post those, that one and yours. That'd be super cute.

Scott

That's fun. Yeah. And it was the last frame, too. It's right when I said, "Lift up the button." And I can't believe, if I would've lift up that button one half of a second or partial second earlier, I would not have gotten that photo.

Tracy

That is so cool.

Scott

And all the others, as she was running, were nothing special at all. And it was the last one. It's like, boom.

Tracy

Just amazing. Dogs are the best. That's cute. Well, hopefully your dog is now bringing home some dough to help with the household.

Scott

I need to reach out to some dog food companies. I can totally see this on a bag of dog food.

Tracy

Yeah, getting sponsored. I keep telling my dog, I'm like, "When are you going to start contributing?" He doesn't care.

Scott

Yeah. Mine's a working dog. She goes out hunting with me, and we go hunt birds and things like that.

Tracy

You have land, I think, don't you?

Scott

Yeah, but we normally go somewhere else to hunt birds. We like to keep the birds on the property.

Tracy

What kind of birds do you guys have on your property?

Scott

Any of the songbirds. There are these cute little yellow finches that are pretty cool.

Tracy

Oh, the swallows, too. Do you get probably a lot...

Scott

Lots of... Yeah, the barn swallows that come in. I don't like those.

Tracy

What about... there's those little...

Scott

If they make those mud nests on the side of your house.

Tracy

Oh, yeah, they do.

Scott

So I'm squirting them with water and, "Get out of here. I don't want you here."

Tracy

Oh, my gosh. Have you seen them when they're babies? Their mouths are...

Scott

They're huge.

Tracy

wide. I was like, "What?" You can't even see their heads. It's just, like, a mouth. Anyway.

Scott

We have hummingbirds. I love hummingbirds.

Tracy

Yeah, me too. They're so pretty.

Scott

We built a place in Alaska, oh, shoot, 20-something years ago, but we fed hummingbirds there and taught them to land on your hands and drink nectar out of your hands.

Tracy

That's so cool.

Scott

So we had... Do you know what a poultry waterer is? The chicken people will know. You can get...

Tracy

Oh, with the tray.

Scott

It's like a red tray. And a big jug that goes on top of it, and it just dribbles out water as they drink.

Tracy

Yep, I've seen it.

Scott

So we had a two-and-a-half gallon version of one of those. Every two days, we were filling that with nectar.

Tracy

Hey, when they land on your hand, do you feel it? Because they...

Scott

Totally.

Tracy

Oh, really?

Scott

Yeah, their little tiny claws.

Tracy

Because I feel like they'd be weightless. You know what I mean? I don't know.

Scott

Theirs was awesome. So I did a little video of that and put it on YouTube, and it's over nine million views on it. So that's pretty cool.

Tracy

Have you seen that thing about when you hit a certain age, you get super into birds? And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I think I'm in that decade." Just kidding.

Scott

Yeah, we've got quail, lots of ducks and geese, and the girls used to raise chickens, so we had lots of chickens. Doves.

Tracy

And the quails are so cute. They have the little thing on top of their head.

Scott

On the top of their head.

Tracy

They're cute. Yeah, we're definitely at that age.

Scott

Yeah. Well, we definitely went off on a tangent there. Let's bring it back to the Titan part. How has business growth been in Corvallis?

Tracy

So, I think we're seeing some changes. I'm hoping downtown... I know Lee Eckroth has been doing some...

Scott

Lee and Tony, yeah.

Tracy

amazing things in the plaza downtown. So that's bringing a new vibrancy. I know a lot of the downtown business owners and the DCO, the Downtown Corvallis Organization, have been working really hard to kind of beautify down there. And we've seen some new shops go in. I just saw Plant Posse.

They just expanded, so that was cool to see. And then we've got the Gordon Hotel. I think they're on the third floor right now.

Scott

That's the new one on First Street, is that right? How many stories is that going to be?

Tracy

I think it's seven, I want to say.

Scott

Wow. And it's mixed use, residential, commercial.

Tracy

Yep. And up top, I'm really excited, there's going to be a taco and margarita bar, rooftop bar.

Scott

Oh my gosh.

Tracy

Yeah, so we kind of need one of those. That'll be really fun.

Scott

Wow, that's going to be packed. People are going to want to go up there just to see the view. And it's going to be the tallest building in Corvallis, right?

Tracy

Yeah, until there's a resident going in, where the old Tacos El Machin is. There's going to be, I think it may even be a 14-story or 10-story residency building going in down there.

Scott

Oh, really?

Tracy

Yeah, and that you'll see in the next two years. So that'll go up.

Scott

Awesome.

Tracy

Lots of change.

Scott

Awesome. So, what kind of businesses... is it easy for them to come in and fit in Corvallis, and what are some that are kind of struggling?

Tracy

So, I would say the ones that are struggling, I'll start there, are ones that need industrial zoning. Our industrial sites that we do have ready, they have no infrastructure. So right off the bat, we need infrastructure, like sewer lines or whatever else. So they're looking at high costs there.

So those are the ones that we're having a hard time drawing in. I think the ones that seem to be coming and doing well are those smaller, unique businesses, a lot of the little funky thrift stores that have the little booths. Those seem to be doing really well. There's funky coffee places.

Scott

Corvallis does like the funky stuff, right?

Tracy

Yeah. We like a little bit of uniqueness.

Scott

A little spice in their latte.

Tracy

Yeah, or quirk. I like to call it quirkiness. But yeah. And I think they're doing really well, like Lee's little food carts inside the plaza. So cute. And I think he got a new one that may be going in. I saw a little teaser for that.

Scott

I like how Lee and Tony just, they attack these projects and just go over the top with them, and they turn out so beautiful. And they had to just bring a tremendous, excuse me, a tremendous amount of vision to those, that most people don't have.

Tracy

Yeah, and it's their perspective, that's also unique and quirky, so it kind of just ties into what our downtown already is. Like, I think that whole theme on that one's '80s, so there's some arcade kind of throwbacks, some retro furniture. Yeah, just every little detail to that project has been amazing.

They've done such a good job in there.

Scott

I got to take pictures. So they did the 257 Madison, which is above Guardian Games, right? They retroed that, and that looks amazing. And then there's another space up top that isn't theirs, and then one more that they bought that is, and I got to go in there before they built it out.

And I took a tour, our 3D tour camera, around there, so you can walk through the floor plan and look around and everything. And so it was literally a time capsule, I think from the '50s. There were literally calendars on the wall that had... That was it.

And they just walked out of there and left it, and it looked like a movie you would see on HBO. I forget what the name of it. What's, "The Best of Us," or what's that sci-fi one? "The Last of Us." "The Last of Us," where it's like the...

Tracy

Apocalypse.

Scott

apocalyptic. There's paint peeling down off the wall that's like half... I mean, they couldn't have gone in there and done it deliberately. It was like, "Let's walk away for 70 years and then see what happens." It was so cool. And all these old breakers and, man, it was neat.

Tracy

Yeah. That is so cool. Maybe he gets inspiration from some of these old things, and he's like, "Oh, I love that detail. I've got to put... How can I incorporate that into a newer look?" You know? Maybe. I don't know.

Scott

I'll ask him if I can maybe show that tour. So people can see the before and after, because the after is amazing. And all the doors had hand-painted signs. Some of them could've been, like, 100 years old. And they took those door glasses, and they framed them, and that's part of the wall art that goes down.

So they paid homage to that.

Tracy

Yeah. Wow. I mean, we're a very historic town, and you can see it in all of our architecture downtown. But, I mean, that kind of makes us a little unique, I think. We like to preserve, you know? In a way.

But I think we're getting to the point where we're understanding that that might have worked for us in the past, and that maybe that's not going to continue.

Scott

Yes. Yeah. Sometimes that has side effects. I don't know the whole story, but there was a house that was run down, and it was on the historic register, and they couldn't do anything with it. They couldn't afford to fix it. It's like stuck in this never-never land. Well, we can't reno it.

"What else can we do but just sit there and watch it rot to the ground?" It's like...

Tracy

Sad.

Scott

Yeah. So some of those good intentions don't end up helping anybody sometimes.

Tracy

Yeah. Man, as I have an architecture background, that's what my degree was in, I totally hate seeing that because I'm like, "Oh, the beauty of those historic buildings." But yeah, I can understand, especially during COVID, if people got into situations where they couldn't maintain it.

They have very strict guidelines on historic buildings on how to maintain those.

Scott

We rented one that was a 1918, so it was 100 year.

Tracy

Oh, that's cool.

Scott

It wasn't quite 100 year when we moved out.

Tracy

Was it an old farmhouse or something?

Scott

It was an old farmhouse. And I heard that he won it at the track. Did you know Corvallis used to have a horse racing track?

Tracy

No.

Scott

On the HP campus.

Tracy

Oh, really? Oh, wow. That's cool.

Scott

And so he literally won it. Like won enough money to buy this house or something, and then I heard that he lost it later at the track.

Tracy

Oh, no. Oh my gosh.

Scott

That's what I heard. But it was a cool house. The dining room and the... I might have a picture I can post here. It was so cool. The dining room and the living room was ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog. You would order all the trim, all the woodworking, from the Sears catalog.

Tracy

Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Scott

And it would come in a giant package.

Tracy

Because we had a Sears downtown. Yeah. Oh, that's so crazy.

Scott

And they would install it. So you would see this in multiple houses, like, "Isn't that the same exact living room?" Yeah. It probably is.

Tracy

Oh my gosh. They probably literally pointed to the picture and were like, "I want all of that."

Scott

Yeah. You can see them flipping through the catalog. "Honey, I'd love this kitchen. Can we order it?"

Tracy

Nowadays, we're on TikTok, and we're like, "I want this TikTok room."

Scott

Yeah. That's right.

Tracy

It's the same thing. I'm just kidding.

Scott

So that was super neat. It had the single-pane windows, leaded windows. It was a very drafty house, of course. Not very insulated.

Tracy

But didn't they build farmhouses so the airflow would keep you cool in the summer, the way that they turn the homes? They'd be like, you could open one window and the front door, and it would just cool the whole house. We don't do that anymore, but they used to do weird things like that. I don't know.

Scott

I loved it. I love the old farmhouses. We have a brand called Realiant Photography where we do real estate listings, and we just did one for Marty Fulford that was also a century house. And it was just neat. I walked in there like, "Oh, this feels like home." Creaky floors, and it was nicely done and renovated.

It didn't feel old.

Tracy

Was it...

Scott

Of course, it felt old, but it wasn't falling down old.

Tracy

Okay. And you said original wood floors? Is that what they had?

Scott

Yes.

Tracy

Oh, yeah. That's cool.

Scott

And it was Doug fir floors...

Tracy

Oh, really?

Scott

which is very interesting. That's not very common. They typically use oak, right? But it was Douglas fir, very tight grain.

Tracy

Yeah. Cool. I just went and did a Starker Forests kind of tour thing, so I've started to learn. I knew nothing about wood before, but like hardwood and softwood. Now I'm like, they're different — the top is different on the fir trees, and the quality of the wood is different than the bottom.

That was really interesting, how Starker grows all their forests.

Scott

I learned something, maybe it was at Lizzie's presentation, and I feel like a real idiot not connecting the dots here, but hardwood is any tree that loses its leaves in the winter, and softwood is any tree that has leaves all year.

Tracy

Yeah. Weird.

Scott

It's just that simple. And that was weird for me.

Tracy

Yeah. There were a lot of weird things that I took away from when we did, because you were at that tour too. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't know that much about the forest. And I didn't know their planting process, and I don't know. I think you guys had Lizzie on this show before, so I'm sure she talked about all that.

Scott

Yeah. Well, awesome. Thanks for coming on today.

Tracy

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Scott

If people are interested in joining the chamber, they're going to be contacting you. Is that right?

Tracy

Yeah. They can contact me directly. My email's on the website, but they can also just join straight on the website, too. So yeah, if you're any business in the area, and you want better connections, you want more exposure. I have stories, like small businesses. I would say Craig at CNC Woodcutters.

He's gotten like 90% of his customers through us.

Scott

I remember when Craig first joined.

Tracy

Yeah. He loves the chamber. He gets a lot of business from us. But a lot of people do.

Scott

He's a fun guy.

Tracy

Yeah. He's great.

Scott

Oh, Craig.

Tracy

I love him. He's funny. So anyhow.

Scott

Okay. Well, join the chamber if you're a business in Corvallis. We're members, and Craig's a member.

Tracy

He's got a lot of business.

Scott

And how many do you have? 4 or 500?

Tracy

320.

Scott

320 other businesses are also members, so it's great for networking and growing, I would say.

Tracy

And supporting the city and helping that advocacy process on making things better for all of us. We work hard to do that.

Scott

Well, thanks again, Tracy.

Tracy

Thank you.

Scott

All right. Another episode of Titans and Tangents. Thanks for joining us. See you later.