A new BIA for 2012

For the first time in several years, the Creemore Business Improvement Association will enter 2012 with a brand new executive, featuring not one holdover from the previous term.

The transition, however, did not result from revolt, but rather from natural evolution. The last executive, while completing a new website for the BIA and addressing a lot of the internal communication of the past, gradually saw all four members resign for various personal reasons – president Aiken Scherberger to travel and then return to his career after a short retirement, vice president Harold Elston to put more focus on his law career, secretary Lily White to make room for a refashioned job at Creemore Springs Brewery, and treasurer John Millar to make way for a new teaching job at University of Guelph.

BIA members were asked to nominate people for the four positions by November 30 by a December 13 election. Lo and behold, only one person was nominated for each job but the president. Both Corey Finkelstein and his wife Laurie Copeland were nominated for the top job, but Copeland immediately declined to run.

So the BIA for 2012 is: President Corey Finkelstein (Inzane Planet); Vice President Karen Gaudino (Creemore Springs Brewery); Secretary Cheryl Robertson (Creemore House of Stitches); and Treasurer Michelle Zorychta (Just Push Play).

Talking to the new president this week at his web and graphic design office above Affairs Bakery, Finkelstein said he intends to “continue the great work that Aiken did.” He also hopes to encourage more participation among BIA and associate BIA members, explore the possibility of giving charitable receipts for support of the BIA, and strike a balance between promoting Creemore in other markets and helping out with the great events already on the Creemore calendar.

“My main focus will be on helping both building and business owners on the main street in any way I can,” he said.