Chamber to absorb Grovetown group

The Grovetown Merchants Association soon will be no more.

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The Columbia County Chamber of Commerce will finalize a deal Monday to absorb the organization and then dissolve it, said Chamber President Tammy Shepherd.

"The current members will become chamber members for one year," Shepherd said in an e-mail.

Association members then will form a committee of the chamber.

"The committee will be part of the chamber just as our other committees are," Shepherd said. "They will focus on the business needs of that community."

Grovetown businessman Sonny McDowell founded the Association in 2007, and the group persuaded the city council to fund the 2010 Initiative -- a plan to improve the city's commercial corridors.

Once the 2010 Initiative passed, the association went inactive.

After he was elected to the city council in November, McDowell tried to reactivate the group, but he admitted to no longer having time to lead it. No one else stepped up to pilot the association.

"Moving the association to fall under the chamber's umbrella is a progressive move that will enhance the city's future plans of commercial growth," McDowell said in a statement released on Thursday by the chamber.