Covington, Newton County is one such community.

A chamber is managed and mainly financed by the business sector of a community, and the business community is the heart of any successful city or county.

One of the strongest supports a chamber like the Covington/Newton County Chamber of Commerce provides for its community is in economic development.

Generally, the very first contact a prospective business makes in a community is with the Chamber of Commerce. That is a fact that has withstood even economic downturns.

The chamber, in turn, encourages the prospective business to visit and meet civic and community leaders and provides the company with facts and information needed for that business to locate in a community.

The Newton County Chamber has done that for years and has done a very good job. We currently have numerous strong businesses in Newton County that have decided to locate here because of the chamber's efforts.

We are fortunate here in Covington, Newton County that our city and county leaders have recognized these efforts and have shown their support by giving monetary grants to the chamber to support its efforts.

This support is a win, win situation for both the chamber and the local municipalities.

The additional cost for the county and the city to have their own economic departments would not be financially viable at this time. Especially in these days of economic unrest, we do not need to start up another bureaucracy

We support the continued partnership between the city of Covington and Newton County as a joint chamber of commerce in their efforts toward our future economic development.