Schnebel new Chamber director

Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce has hired Stacey Schnebel as the executive director and promoted Mark Johnson to president, leaving the vice president and treasurer positions open. The position of vice president will remain vacant until the fall. Mary Sterhan of North Valley Hospital was named treasurer at the chamber’s board meeting last week.

A year ago Carol Pike retired as executive director after three decades in that seat. Anna Stene had the position until she resigned in December and Schnebel started volunteering as interim director along with her role as president.

The chamber had a hard time finding an executive director with the “right fit,” Schnebel said last week. It needed someone with knowledge and passion for community, understanding of tourism, and marketing and technology skills. The chamber did look at several candidates since last fall without success. With summer approaching and the Columbia Falls business community growing, the chamber decided it needed someone with a “firm grasp” of these changes, Schnebel said.

She doesn’t think the transition will be a problem for chamber members.

“I feel confident that our membership will know that we have an executive director that’s invested and knows what’s going on and there won’t be any lost ground,” Schnebel said.

She plans to use her sales and event experience to bring new events to the city this summer and fall. One of these events is an all-day music festival at Marantette Park. The Deadication Festival is Aug. 27 from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. and tickets are available online.

Schnebel has been on the chamber board for 4.5 years, as officer for 3.5 years and president for 1.5 years. She lives in Coram, where she co-owns and operates UnderCurrent Web and the Stonefly Lounge. She recently stepped down as president of the Trapline Association. She was also elected this year to the Flathead Electric Co-op board of trustees.

She came from Chicago 16 years ago and met her husband, Seth, here. They’ve been married for eight years and their children are Jackson, 6, and Gillian, 2.

She has many different responsibilities in the community and she prefers it that way. Over the years she has learned that she’s skilled at organizational work. She studied at the University of Iowa and Flathead Valley Community College.

“Balance is very important,” she said. Her husband takes the majority of their web clients which are out of state and she focuses on the local clients, but they may be growing with more local demand. She hasn’t worked a shift at Stonefly Lounge in more than three years, but is responsible for booking entertainment and marketing.

She will now have to balance this with the part-time position at the chamber, but is prepared for the full-time mindset that it requires. She won’t work out of the chamber’s visitor center at Marantette Park. The chamber is working on plans to change how the visitor center will be run this summer, Schnebel said.