Darien Chamber May Go Dormant: Official
DARIEN, IL – The Darien City Council is likely to create a new business group that officials say would resemble a traditional chamber of commerce.
In an interview Thursday, City Administrator Bryon Vana said he was not sure what would happen to the Darien Chamber of Commerce.
“I think they’re going to sit dormant,” he said.
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On Monday, the City Council plans to vote on forming a new group called the Darien Business Alliance.
In response to a Patch inquiry, Andrew Blumenfeld, the chamber board’s chairman, said in a text Friday that the board would release a letter on the subject for publication.
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“It’s best for me not to comment before I discuss it with the rest of the board,” Blumenfeld said.
Vana said the chamber’s ability to raise money has been problematic over the years and that it has neared bankruptcy.
The chamber’s biggest fundraising event, he said, has been Darien Fest, where success depends on good weather.
Many other chambers of commerce have similar financial struggles, Vana said.
“It’s hard to maintain a chamber if you’re not on solid financial footing,” he said. “In our minds, we’re getting ahead of the game before it gets harder on the chamber.”
The chamber’s nonprofit tax forms show surpluses in the last three calendar years. For instance, the chamber’s income was $125,148 in 2023, nearly $20,000 above expenses. At the end of 2023, the chamber had about $105,000 in its accounts, according to the tax forms.
As part of its plan, the city is poised to hire a director of the business alliance and community events. That job is set to go to April Padalik, the chamber’s executive director, Vana said. Padalik didn’t immediately return a message for comment Friday.
For the last couple of years, the city has provided a grant of about $30,000 to the chamber. In return, every Darien business with a city license got a free chamber membership, instead of paying $225 a year.
Before the subsidies, city officials said they were considering taking over the chamber, a plan that the organization’s board at the time seemed to favor.
The chamber’s office is at City Hall.
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