HOT AIR BALLOONS FLY HIGH OVER LEFLORE COUNTY
for Release September 13, 2008

Hot Air Balloons will be flying high over LeFlore County, Oklahoma as Poteau kicks off its Fourth Annual BalloonFest Friday Octover 24th and continues through Saturday October 25th.  Mayor Jeff Shockey issued a special invitation to everyone to come to Poteau for this very special event.  "We are especially pleased that last year the Oklahoma Department of Transportation chose the event to be on the cover of the 2008 Official State Map.  It is exciting and we want everyone to come and see what the excitement is all about.  The BalloonFest organizers have worked very hard and result is that this is one of the premier events of the region and one more reason why Poteau is "Above the Ordinary."
"The Oklahoma Centennial Balloon will be returning this year, as well as local favorites from Texas, Arkansas, and OKlahoma,"  said Traci Barnes, BalloonFest chairperson.

A special added attraction this year will be the "Shockwave Jet Engine Truck" which will do three performances.  The Shockwave is the world's fastest truck recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records at speeds of 376 mph.   Shockwave's 36,000 Horsepower engine gives it the power to accelerate at almost 3 Gs vertical, as fast as the space shuttle.

The Balloon Glows that take place each evening at dusk are always a highlight of the program.  The glows are an awesome sight to see and always a crowd pleaser.
Other events offer a little bit of everything.  There will be free Stage Coach Rides, skydivers, a carnival, mud pit races, burn out contest, pet costume show, Little Mr. and Ms. BalloonFest, helicopter rides and lots of food and crafts.  There will be local bands playing from noon Saturday until dusk, including Pottersfield, The Bannister Brothers, CC & the Yankee Dime Band, Southern Attitude, Terri & The Executives and Magic 55.   Bring your lawn chairs and blankets.

Gates open at 4 p.m. on Friday, October 24th and 7 a.m. on Saturday.  Admission buttons are $3.00 in advance and $5.00 at the gate, and are good for both days.  Children five and under get in free.  Advance admission buttons can be purchased at the Poteau Chamber of Commerce, O'Reily Automotive in Poteau, the Poteau Days Inn & Suites or Arlene's Collectibles in Wister.  For more information call the Poteau Chamber of Commerce 918-647-9178

 Poteau Chamber of Commerce Launches Poteau 2.0 Website
July 28, 2008 – Poteau, OK

The Poteau Chamber of Commerce has officially launched their new website, located at http://poteauchamber.com. The site, designed and developed by Eyesocket.net, Inc. of Van Buren, AR, is a complete re-design that integrates the new city logo and brand identity with an easy-to-use content management system for faster delivery of information about upcoming events, Chamber members and sponsors. 

Karen Wages, Executive Director for the Poteau Chamber of Commerce, has been working with Eyesocket.net since February to make the overhaul.

“We took full advantage of the opportunity to organize this new site in a way that visitors and prospective Chamber members can quickly browse and locate information based on three prominent topics: Community, Chamber, and Economics.  Because of this, we are already seeing clear results in the way of new memberships and site interactivity.” 

Some of the new enhancements include a site administrator login, membership signup form, membership directory, calendar of events, local weather broadcast, full site search, and email-a-friend forms. 

Eyesocket.net co-founder, Jason Haynes, started the company in 2001 with his wife, Amy, and has consulted with hundreds of businesses and organizations in the area, including the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and City of Sallisaw.

“The Chamber was in serious need of an update to their existing site as web standards for usability and accessibility have begun to dominate the need for professionally-built and maintained websites.  This tool not only provides the capability for the Chamber staff to quickly login from anywhere in the world and update site content, track visitor interactivity, and keep Poteau on the cutting edge of the latest in web-based technologies for some time to come, but it also delivers a far superior platform for search engine indexing by major web crawlers such as Google™, Microsoft^® and Yahoo!^®  All of this will result in more and more attention being drawn in the direction of Poteau.”

Haynes, a native of the area, is a graduate of Cameron High School, attended Wister public schools from 1984 to 1989 and played baseball for the Poteau American Legion in 1991 before joining the Air Force to serve as a C-5 Galaxy Loadmaster.  He has since earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Interactive Media Design at the Art Institute of Pittsburg Online.