DTR Industries will sponsor a special Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast at 7:30 a.m., Friday, June 3. The breakfast meeting is in the third floor of the town hall and Richland Manor will provide the free breakfast.

DTR Industries will present its five-year history of a disease management and wellness program that it launched with its associates. The findings of that five-year study will be shared at the breakfast.

Garland action

During Friday's breakfast meeting the chamber will ask members to support a program for new garlands, being proposed by the chamber's garland committee. New downtown holiday garlands are close to becoming a reality this season. Garlands have been on chamber monthly meeting agenda since February.

The committee met twice this winter and spring and has had several e-mail discussions on holiday garlands. On Tuesday afternoon Jon Kinn and Fred Steiner of the committee visited every Main Street business. Some business owners were not available on Tuesday. Steiner will follow up the rest of this week to meet with those persons.

The current garlands are nearly 30 years old, are in very poor condition and have outlived their lifetime.

When the streetscape program was completed, Mayor Fred Rodabaugh asked the chamber to act as the catalyst to develop a plan for ordering new garlands and holiday lights on Main Street.

A committee formed this winter to review downtown options. Committee members include Dr. Mark Yoder of Family Eye Care Clinic, Lauren Beasley of Citizens National Bank, Gideon Fisher of Greg's Pharmacy, Jon Kinn, fire chief, and Fred Steiner, chamber. The committee worked in consultation with Jamie Mehaffie of the village and Aphaphanh Nussbaum, chamber president, of Ten Thousand Villages.

The committee is recommending to order new garlands identical to the present set. The difference is that new garlands are lit with C9 LED bulbs, which last longer than the current lights. In addition, these bulbs are much more energy efficient than the old bulbs.

In addition, the chamber plans to purchase several lighted snowflakes to hang on many of our Main Street light poles. The chamber will also purchase garland for the Main Street light poles. The chamber will pay for these with its own funds. Businesses will not be charged for the snowflakes or light pole garlands.