Chamber selects new director, Heather Burnham

By CALEB SOPTELEAN

Bigfork Eagle

Heather Burnham is the new executive director of the Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce.

She will replace Bruce Solberg, whose term expires at the end of the month.

The announcement was made at the chamber’s annual banquet Wednesday at BruMar Estate.

Burnham, 40, moved here in the fall of 2010 with her husband, Orion, and daughter, Ocean, 10, from the Salt Lake City area.

“My goal is to get out and meet the business owners and find out what could assist them in their business,” she said Thursday.

Burnham plans to meet with the Kalispell Convention and Visitor Bureau and the Montana Office of Tourism in order to promote tourism in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall.

Referring to what she called Solberg’s “huge shoes,” Burnham said she plans on using him as a resource. “I look forward to the challenge,” she said.

After moving from Utah, Burnham was the catering and events manager at Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell from the fall of 2010 to January 2012. She worked as director of sales and marketing at Marina Cay Resort in Bigfork for a year until the business was sold.

Over the past year, Burnham has been on the Bigfork chamber board.

She grew up in Utah and graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor of science degree in parks, recreation and tourism with a minor in business.

After graduation, she worked for various hotels and Delta and Skywest airlines.

Her family has ties to the area, and they vacationed here for 10 years prior to the move.

Her husband’s side of the family has owned a home on Swan Lake since Orion’s grandparents built it in the 1980s.

“We were looking for a better quality of life,” Burnham said, citing the reason her family moved to the area. “We loved the community. Bigfork is a unique place. It has a small-town feel. Everyone is friendly,” she said.

Burnham can be reached at chamber@bigfork.org.

Business hours at the chamber are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, through the end of May.

The office is located at 8155 Hwy 35 in the Old Town Center, next to Rocky Mountain Bank.

Solberg thanked for service

The Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce thanked Bruce Solberg for seven and a half years of service Wednesday.

A salmon and prime rib dinner was the venue for thanking Solberg for his years of service as well as announcing his replacement. The annual chamber banquet was held at BruMar Estate, the business Solberg runs with his wife, Margie, off the Swan Highway.

Laurie Pacheco honored Solberg and joked it was his “last supper.”

She presented him with a $2,000 travel voucher.

Solberg worked 30 years for UPS in Washington state prior to moving to Bigfork. Each of those years required time to be spent away from his wife, he said.

When he retired and the Bigfork chamber position opened, his wife applied for him, he recalled.

He remembers visiting Bigfork for the first time in 1983. “I said, ‘This is where I want to live,’” he recalled.

Solberg credited his mother and wife for much of his success in life.

Also on Wednesday, Gretchen Gates received the Little Red Hen Society award in honor of the late Elna Darrow, who organized Tamarack Time. Previous winners include Donna Lawson in 2009, Mark “Mister” Langlois in 2010, Cheryl Richmond in 2011 and Diane Kautzman in 2012.