Russian River Chamber of Commerce

The County of Sonoma, through its advertising funds, contracts with the Russian River Chamber to provide and staff two tourist information centers, one in downtown Guerneville and one at the Korbel Winery.The two centers recorded 1753 visitor contacts this year with many of these visitors referred to River Area Businesses. It also recorded 200,688 online visitor contacts. Its office staff is constantly engaging with visitors and guests alike. These visitor centers are vital economic development resources, helping draw visitors to the area and enhancing the visitor experience through information and materials about area businesses and tourist highlights.

The Russian River Chamber received a grant from the USDA in September 2019 to implement a Russian River Business Lab. Due to the pandemic, we were granted a one year extension to the grant until September 2021. The lab was initially intended to be a community resource to offer assistance to businesses recovering from the February 2019 flood. During the pandemic, we used the lab to produce a series of webinars designed to help small businesses navigate the coronavirus workplace environment. Professional services, supplies, and equipment purchases are reimbursed to the Chamber on a quarterly basis. The differencve between the expenses and grant revenue are due to a timing delay between incurring expenses and receiving payments from the USDA over the two year period.

The Russian River Chamber received a grant from Creative Sonoma for an art installation safe reopening project. The Chamber worked with a local artist to produce banners, window clings and stickers. A frames and other signage was installed in and around the river area to promote safe reopening of local businesses. The grant was for $ 30,000 with $ 3,000 held back until the project was completed and the final report was submitted to Creative Sonoma. The difference between the grant funding and the project expenses was due to cost overruns on the project.

Expenses related to program service grant revenues not included above