A group of local businesses reached an agreement with the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce to create a coalition in western Clark County.

The Western Clark County Business Coalition, formed as a way to promote business and economic development efforts in that part of the county, has formed a partnership with the chamber to provide services to previously under-served areas.

“It’s always been a challenge to engage and work with (western county businesses) on a county-wide level, mainly because of their location on the edge of county,” said Mike McDorman, president and CEO of the chamber. “In the past we’ve tried but haven’t been successful. We have less than 25 of our more than 800 business members located in those parts of the county.”

But the Western Clark County Business Coalition already has substantial interest in places such as Enon and New Carlisle. Scott Griffith, owner of several Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken franchises and head of the effort to create the coalition, said he has already collected 65 indication letters from businesses who wish to join in the past two weeks.

The group hasn’t collected membership fees yet because the coalition wanted to be sure of the agreement with the chamber.

On Thursday, Griffith announced that the coalition will become a member of the chamber for an undisclosed membership fee each year.

“We will be represented as a member of the chamber and we will get some of the chamber benefits,” Griffith said. “To be fair to existing chamber members that cannot share membership costs, we don’t get all of the benefits.”

According to the agreement, members of the coalition will receive hiring assistance, member rates for chamber events, Speedway discount cards, vision and Lasik services and more.

The chamber will also assist the coalition in marketing and communications, tourism and economic development, a page on the chamber’s website and more. The chamber will also have three representatives from western Clark County for the HITS program that checks on businesses progress and assists with expansions and hiring.

All coalition member dues will stay within the coalition to help pay for local marketing efforts and events.

“It’s a big win,” Griffith said. “We’ve been tons more excited in these last weeks. We have many people on board collecting members.”

In exchange for the chamber’s help, the coalition will encourage its members to also join the chamber.

“Even though our name has Springfield in it, it has been a county wide chamber for the last 115 years,” McDorman said.

Scarff’s Nursery and Landscape is a current chamber member that plans on joining the coalition.

“We’ve always been supportive of Clark County and the Springfield Chamber and that’s not going to change because we do business in the Springfield area,” said Peter Scarff, owner of Scarff’s. “But there’s a missing element out here in the western part of county. We’ve got a lot of assets out here and have a lot of good things going.”

Scarff said he wants to join to give western Clark County a voice.

“(Not) just to toot our horn from western Clark County to the rest of the area,” Scarff said, “but to Huber Heights and Fairborn and north Dayton and even Miami County, too. Too often only the negative things are brought up from western Clark County.”

Although the coalition doesn’t officially have members yet, those involved have already started working on bringing a job fair to the area. The New Carlisle Sports and Fitness Center will have a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 12. The event is sponsored by the chamber, WorkPlus One-Stop and the coalition.

Right now the groups are recruiting employers for the event. To reserve a space or for more information, call (937) 325-7621.