About
Alpine Business Alliance
Businesses helping businesses.
Alpine Downtown Association – its history
The Alpine Downtown Association grew out of an informal meeting of a group that called itself the Economic Development Group.
Journalist Jim Street had contributed regular editorials when he was managing editor of the Alpine Avalanche and a new publisher told him he could write editorials so long as they were “local and didn’t make anybody mad.”
He walked around a downtown block and counted ten empty storefronts, so he thought, “I know, I’ll write about the need for economic development.”
After a few editorials, he decided that, rather than just write about it, he would get a group together to discuss it. The Chamber of Commerce had an “Economic Development Committee” but it hadn’t met in many years. So he called together some community leaders and they met monthly to discuss ways of improving the business community.
Dave Busey, who had served as the city’s Main Street manager, told the group that to get grants, some organizations required a business association so they put out a call for anyone interested and a large group showed up at Brad Obbink’s Teak store for a meeting. There was a call for a suggested name and those present chose Alpine Downtown Association.
We realized we were being created for all businesses, whether or not they were located downtown. So we created a mission statement that said a robust, profitable downtown business community helps the entire community. We agreed not to limit membership to downtown businesses or even to businesses. We said anyone who supports the mission statement can be a member.
We created By-Laws that said all were welcome at meetings but only those members “in good standing” could vote. We elected the first board consisting of Brad Obbink as President, Dave Busey Vice President, Rick Stephens as Treasurer and Jim Street as Secretary.
Rick Stephens, who then served as a City Councilor, volunteered not only to serve as Treasurer but to do the paperwork necessary to file for a federal 501C3 tax-exempt status and the required state permits.
We also voted to approve dues. The motion was for $50 dollars per year. Some felt the need to charge more for businesses that can write off the expense than for regular citizens who would have to pay out of pocket but they were outvoted by those who felt everyone should be “equal.”
The IRS approvals came in July, 2017, and we set up a bank account and started regular monthly meetings.
On December 16th 2021 after a turmoiltuous hear dealing with panic caused by the 2020 COVID 19 outbreak, Dave Dumas checked with the current officers to determine election availability. He motioned that since Jim Street said he will not be running for President, for the ADA to dissolve and contribute all profits to other organizations across the area. Conley Rasor mentioned the value of having a strong business community and offered to volunteer as President of the ADA in the interim. The ADA has been on a mission to connect the economic development leaders with business owners from within Alpine Texas. On August 25th, the members of the ADA agreed to change the name from the Alpine Downtown Association to the Alpine Community Alliance as "Doing Business As" entity.
