SANGER – The collaboration between the city of Sanger and the Sanger Chamber of Commerce to host community events and support local businesses is continuing into the new year.
At the Sanger City Council’s Jan. 16 meeting, the council heard a quarterly update on chamber activity from CEO Karen Pearson and approved a six-month contract extension with the chamber. In her update, Pearson reflected on the success the chamber saw throughout the busy holiday season. She said many events had record attendance, and new partnerships with local organizations paid off.
“Community engagement was at an all time high, and just seeing the residents joining in these festivities, it was just amazing,” Pearson said.
The city’s contract with the chamber was extended through June 30 in order to continue compensating the chamber for their services promoting and managing events sponsored by the city while a new contract is negotiated. The chamber currently receives $80,000 annually from the city, broken down into monthly payments of $6,666.
City Manager Nathan Olson said the full $80,000 was already included in the city’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget, meaning the six-month extension would not require any amendment to the city’s current budget. The professional services agreement with the chamber was initially set to expire on June 30, 2024, but Olson asked the council to continue payments to the chamber through Dec. 31, 2024, while he worked with the chamber to renegotiate the contract.
“My intent was to renegotiate contracts with the chamber and clean it all up and have one comprehensive contract,” Olson said. “However, I was waiting to get some data back from the audits and whatnot, so the plan is now to finish the year as-is, not change anything, and then we’ll work on the revisions for the (2026) budget.”
Though originally placed on the consent calendar, a resident asked the council to remove the item for discussion. The resident questioned why the city was giving the chamber so much money and asked if the city could audit the chamber to see how it spends the money.
Olson clarified that the payments provided to the chamber through the contract are audited, as the city is required to be audited every year, and that involves looking at the city’s contracts and what it is paying for. The city also requires the chamber to turn in statements to show what they spend on each event.
“They spend more than we give them on an annual basis,” Olson said. “So they do a great job. We’re bringing in thousands of people every year to our town, like when they do the car show, … so it’s good for community and it’s good for family.”
Pearson added that the chamber is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, which means they are required to do their own financial reporting and they report to a board of directors. She also said the contract with the city was for $60,000 annually for many years, and it wasn’t until the last few years that the city increased the amount.
“It was just within the last few years that we did increase to $80,000, and with just that $20,000 increase in the last two years, we were able to increase the quality of the events that we started bringing into the community, and with that also increased the attendance,” Pearson said.
Events highlighted by Pearson included the downtown trunk-or-treat event for Halloween, a candidate forum ahead of the November 2024 election and the annual tree lighting ceremony. Other fall events included the crowning of the Sanger and Sanger West High School royalty, the Veterans Parade, the Toyland Parade and the Trek to the Nation’s Christmas Tree.
Pearson said the trunk-or-treat event involved a partnership with Bethel Church for the first time, which proved successful and resulted in the biggest downtown trunk-or-treat event Sanger has hosted. Pearson said the event was so popular that it did not end at its scheduled time and the chamber will have to rethink how it is organized in the future to accommodate for the demand.
Many other events also included collaborations between the chamber, which Pearson said is necessary when operating on a tighter budget. For the candidate forum, the chamber worked with the Sanger Rotary Club, and for the tree lighting ceremony, they partnered with Sanger Bible Church and Tabernacle of Praise.
The Toyland Parade was particularly successful, attracting record-breaking crowds, showcasing the community’s enthusiasm for the event, Pearson said. Parade entries reached full capacity, and Pearson said she thinks the next step to expanding the event is to add a second stage and emcee to the parade route.
Looking forward, Pearson said the chamber is excited to host the Fresno County Blossom Trail Opening Ceremony in February, with the Blossom Days Festival to follow in March.
Additionally, the chamber will be starting a new annual event to celebrate Women’s History Month in March. Pearson said she has a five-year plan mapped out, where this year, the chamber will host a social to honor the history of the women who built the town, and the following year they will honor the Sanger women who made breakthroughs in male-dominated fields.
Information about upcoming events is available on the chamber’s website at sanger.org.
