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Navasota–Grimes Chamber outlines 2024 achievements and 2025 priorities, including childcare conference and economic development projects
Summary
The Navasota–Grimes County Chamber of Commerce reported membership gains, internships, countywide events and early-stage economic development projects for 2024 and said it plans a childcare education conference and other initiatives in 2025.
Lucy Abada, executive director of the Navasota–Grimes County Chamber of Commerce, presented a year-end recap for 2024 and a first-quarter update for 2025 to the Grimes County Commissioners Court on Feb. 26.
Abada told the court the chamber retained a membership base and added 11 new members in recent weeks. Highlights from 2024 included the chamber’s first economic development internship that produced published articles, expansion of the Chamber Ambassador program to about 25 volunteers and higher event attendance countywide. Abada said large events drew more than 1,400 attendees in 2024 and the chamber hosted regular programming including "lunch and learns," after-hours events and ribbon cuttings.
For 2025, Abada described three development project proposals the chamber submitted — one in the Navasota Industrial Circle and two focused near Iola and Bedias — with workforce- and production-oriented employers under consideration. She said she was coordinating with commissioners about those sites and with state contacts to clarify requirements.
Abada said the chamber applied for a grant (with Entergy as a potential funder) to hold Grimes County’s first childcare education conference to provide continuing education units for childcare providers locally. She also described a PACE Loan webinar the chamber will invite the court to consider, and plans to rebuild and maintain the chamber’s website with area vendors.
Why it matters: The chamber’s efforts aim to support local business recruitment, workforce development and retention of services — particularly childcare — so local employees and employers spend less time traveling outside the county for training and services.
No formal court action was required for the presentation; commissioners thanked the chamber and asked staff to follow up on project-specific details and potential county collaboration on childcare and workforce topics.
