PVT FILE PHOTO Dan Rodriguez Advertisement

Dan Rodriguez, the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce president last year, who served as the interim executive director since Aug. 1 after Lucy Ivins left, has been named permanent executive director by the chamber board.

Rodriguez said he has been serving as interim director on a part-time basis and will continue working part-time while the chamber cuts costs in this challenging economy.

"They did do interviews and went through a process. They got some resumes in and advertised the permanent position," Rodriguez said.

"I was the interim executive director until they did the search. My hope was to continue on, and the board did choose to have me become the permanent executive director. That's effective Nov. 1st," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez served three years on the chamber board until he became president last year. Mike Selbach took over that position in January.

Rodriguez sold the McDonald's Restaurant three years ago and is the owner of Martinizing Dry Cleaning.

"As a small business owner myself, I know the wants and needs of the business community in the valley. We're refocusing the chamber to serve the business membership by building commerce in Pahrump," he said.

Rodriguez has a lot of background in chambers of commerce. He was on the board of the Ely Chamber of Commerce and before that was president of the chamber of commerce in Lafayette, Colo.

"In the last 10 years or so I've been on a board of directors somewhere, so I'm a real chamber person," Rodriguez said.

The focus on the chamber will be less on sponsoring events -- there was a plan last year to sponsor a festival every month -- and more on creating commerce, he said.

"We're also starting a committee in conjunction with the county to work on planning and zoning issues. That's something that's going to be starting up in January, so we can focus on getting some new construction and some new businesses in town," Rodriguez said. "I haven't heard what both sides are."

The five-member committee will review individual applications as they go through each step of the county planning process to determine the issues and concerns in the process, Rodriguez said.

Nye County Manager Rick Osborne is supportive of the chamber committee, Rodriguez said. It will start from where a group of Realtors left off two years, who were working to improve the planning department.

"We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect results," Rodriguez said. "If we keep doing the same things we're going to get the same results, which is where we've been."

The chamber will be working with major events in town like the Freedom Festival over the Fourth of July, the Fall Festival and the Wild West Extravaganza, Rodriguez said.

"Our goal is to have 500 members by the first of the year," Rodriguez said. "We found well over 100 of our members had gone out of business in the last year. That hit us a little bit. We have a campaign to invite those that were members to come back in. We have some programs to help them pay their dues."

Rodriguez has authored books titled "Inner Secrets for the Every Day Landlord" and recently published "Anything With Two Heads is a Freak," which gives advice how to make business partnerships work.

Besides Selbach, the chamber board includes Vice-President Jeff Meads, Secretary Brian Strain and Treasurer Debbie Jones.