Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce Joins Buying Group

<Mt. Vernon> Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce members will now be able to join chamber members from 14 other Southern Illinois chambers in securing bulk electricity and natural gas rates for the commercial electric and natural gas accounts. Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce joins the existing purchasing group comprised of Jefferson County, Marion, West Frankfort, Carbondale, Carterville, Centralia, Salem, Herrin, Murphysboro and others.

Benton/West City Chamber of Commerce Joins Buying Group

Business After Hours Benefiting Ministerial Alliance Planned

<Mt. Vernon> Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce members will now be able to join chamber members from 14 other Southern Illinois chambers in securing bulk electricity and natural gas rates for the commercial electric and natural gas accounts. Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce joins the existing purchasing group comprised of Jefferson County, Marion, West Frankfort, Carbondale, Carterville, Centralia, Salem, Herrin, Murphysboro and others.

Mt. Vernon based Affordable Gas & Electric is the coordinator of the Southern Illinois Chamber of Commerce Electric & Natural Gas Buying Group and has guided over 500 participating commercial chamber members in securing lower, long-term rate certainty and protection in the face of pending regulatory changes that are expected to increase overall electricity prices in the next few years. Participating members in the existing group range from city and county government buildings to schools, to larger industrial manufactures who all benefit from the larger group purchasing power. Additionally, small business owners who are the core of most chambers, benefit by combining themselves with these larger entities insuring “big box store type pricing” even for the smallest of businesses.

“Benton/West City business owners will now be able to join our group purchasing power. AGE currently manages over 450,000,000 kwhs of electricity on behalf of our participating members. Even the largest of electricity users benefits by participating in our buying group, but we are especially excited when small business owners are able to gain significant economies of scale that simply aren’t possible when negotiating on their own” said Jeff Haarmann, Managing Partner of AGE. “Chamber members can rest assured that their chamber membership is providing exceptional value by delivering sound energy strategies to its members and allowing the business owners to do what they do best; run their business and take care of their customers.”

To introduce the program to the membership, the Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Business After Hours event on Tuesday, December 8th from 4-7 PM at the Benton Elks. The event is sponsored by AGE who will be on hand to answer questions about the buying group. The Business After Hours will also feature a food and toy drive for the Ministerial Alliance. Guests are asked to bring canned food or a toy for children ages 8-15 to the event.

For more information, contact Karen Mullins at the Benton/West City Area Chamber of Commerce at 438-2121.