Orange Working to Improve Welcome for New Businesses

The Town of Orange wants to help new businesses connect with the community — and each other.

In addition to creating an online database of all businesses in town, the Orange Economic Development Corp. is in the process of establishing a "new business visitor" program.

"What we’re essentially looking to put together is when new businesses come to town we want to be able to provide them some information," said Paul Grimmer, executive director of the Orange Economic Development Corp.

The idea is something that the Corp. has been kicking around for a while, but it was an exchange Grimmer and the Economic Development Commission had with a local business owner at their last meeting that really kicked things into gear.

The business owner, Anna Marie Amore, opened Amore Interiors at 507 Boston Post Road about a month ago, Grimmer said. She told the commission how she was looking for a sign company, but didn't know who to contact. Amore ended up getting the sign through a company in another town, Grimmer said, "when four building blocks down there was a local sign shop."

Grimmer said information the Corp. is looking to put together is all already out there — like the Orange Chamber of Commerce website, Orange Life magazine, a list of area newspapers and online media outlets. The Corp is simply looking to formalize and package it in one place, in a way that is useful to new businesses in town, he said.

"It's been something that we've been talking about in the past,” Grimmer said. "And when we met with that local business owner ... her comments reinforced our thought process.”

The project is still in the beginning stages, Grimmer said. And, he noted, the new business visitor would be him.