Just more than an hour after meeting with a congressman and gubernatorial candidate about a pressing lake issue, Joe Maltese and Dick Timmerberg arrived at the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce annual meeting prepared to give an update on West Point Lake.

The pair were an important part of the agenda, but not for the update.

“I’m going to ask you for forgiveness, but you’re not giving a lake report tonight,” Patrick Crews, chairman of the chamber’s lake advisory committee, told them.

Instead the two were surprised with the chamber’s highest honor, the Jane Fryer Award.

Timmerberg, executive director of the West Point Lake Coalition, and Maltese, LaGrange’s point-man on the lake, both said they were surprised and humbled by the honor and appreciative of the chamber’s recognition. The award, created last year, honors recipients who exemplify the work ethic, dedication and community service of the chamber’s former director, who retired in 2009 after 35 years with the organization.

Crews noted that although both men are retired - Maltese from the city last year, Timmerberg from General Mills 10 years ago - both continue to work on lake and water issues around the state.

“We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love the lake,” Timmerberg said.

The focus of Monday night’s annual meeting was small business, from the centerpieces on each table, provided by local merchants, to the guest speaker, Cinda Baxter, an advocate of small businesses.

Baxter, a former retail business owner, founded Always Upward and the 3/50 project, which can be used in any community to revitalize small business. Her movement has been praised on Fox Business News and in other trade journals as a “buy local” campaign that could save some local businesses that may not otherwise survive the recession.

In the 3/50 project, which can be found at http:/ /the350project.net, people are asked to pick three business they would not want to see close, then spend $50 there.

Baxter said she’s never been one to believe “the glass is half-full with a hole in the bottom.”

“I’m the kind of person that says if something’s broken, let’s fix it,” she told the crowd at Monday’s gathering.

For every $100 spent locally, $68 is returned to the community through salaries to local employees, she said.

Through her site, which also is on Facebook and Twitter, merchants can receive promotional materials, network with other small businesses and learn ways to promote the 3/50 plan and get customers talking - and buying.

“This program is working in ways I would not have imagined,” she said.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.