Numbers are up and search continues for new director By Jack Criss The Bolivar Bullet Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce and CEO, Lara Bowman, gave a positive presentation to the City’s Mayor/Board of Alderman meeting held July 6. Bowman provided an update on the search for a new Director of Tourism for the Cleveland Tourism Commission.  “We’ve been without an Executive Director on the Tourism side since mid-May,” said Bowman, who became the new CEO of the Chamber in November of last year. “The Chamber operates the Tourism Commission on behalf of the city. We’re using a Mississippi search firm, Logan Development Group, to identify candidates for us who will then bring us a pool of qualified applicants to choose from. If you go to our website, clevelandmschamber.com, there’s an ‘Apply’ tab where the full recruitment profile can be viewed as well as Logan Development Group’s contact information. Logan is very familiar with the Cleveland area which is why we chose to go with them to assist us in the hiring process.” The goal is to have a new Director of Tourism in place by September 1. “But, we realize we might have to be flexible, especially if our selection is having to relocate to Cleveland,” said Bowman. Operations have not slowed down at the Commission in the absence of a Director. “No, not at all. I’ve pitched in as has another fairly recent new hire, Cade Holder, our Director of Community Programs and Main Street Director, to keep things flowing smoothly.”