Chamber president to follow family south
MILFORD — Chamber of Commerce President Pam Staneski didn’t serve as a Milford alderman, Board of Education member and state representative without learning a thing or two about negotiating. So when her husband got a job offer in North Carolina’s Triangle area, she agreed to the relocation — with a condition.
“I said if this is going to be our last move, I want to be closer to our granddaughter,” Staneski said. “She’s 11 years old, and just started playing softball in the Virginia Beach area. I wanted to be able to finally go and see her games without making an eight- hour drive. So his commute is going to be a little longer.”
Staneski, who has led the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce for the past two years, has lived in Milford longer than anywhere else in her life. She said she knew the city was home from the first time she set foot on the Milford Green 23 years ago.
“We were living in Illinois, and we knew we wanted to get back to the East Coast because we had family here,” Staneski said. “So we were looking for a place to buy a house. It was October and the leaves were in full bloom, and that was a big change from Illinois, which is totally flat.”
The Staneskis found themselves sitting on the Green, sipping coffee and looking at the foliage when future five- term mayor Jim Richetelli walked by, ice cream cone in- hand, Staneski said.
“He said hello and asked us how we were doing, and we said we were thinking of moving here,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘ You can’t find a better place to live.’ We just fell in love with the place immediately.”
Staneski said that was one thing she will always remember about Milford, that after years of moving from place to place as the daughter of a military father and then the wife of a businessman, moving to a place she had never been felt like coming home.
“I remember after we’d lived here about four years, I was visiting my mother and she asked when I was coming home,” Staneski said. “I told her I had finally found home.”
But even as she leaves the city and the business community that she has been part of for decades, Staneski said she is excited for Milford’s future, and especially for the chamber’s future.
“I’m sitting here right now in the chamber office, and there are five people in the conference room, and 20 more on the monitor having the weekly business conference,” she said. “Just a few months ago it would have been just me in the room and five people on the screen. But that’s what this chamber is. It’s people who see the vision, and stay the course.”
Although there is no date for Staneski’s last day, she said it likely would be some time in early April. In the meantime, board chairman Paige Miglio said the chamber would immediately form a search committee to review applicants and recommend a replacement.
Miglio credited Staneski’s personal connections in the area with helping her to leave the Chamber in a better position than it was two years ago.
“Pam has played a critical role in the development and success of our organization with her personal energy, extensive experience and involvement in the Milford community on so many levels,” Miglio said. “We thank her for her dedicated service to the Chamber and specifically for her work alongside our board during our recent move.”
The move, from the historic Taylor Library on the Milford Green to a suite of offices in the Connecticut Post Mall, was necessitated by a surge in membership that marked Staneski’s tenure. In 2019, her first year on the job, 60 new businesses joined the Chamber. Another 42 joined in 2020.
Staneski said she was optimistic that the new president would continue the chamber’s recent run of success.
“The chamber’s been here for 66 years, and it’s survived financial crises, a pandemic, and it’s still here,” she said. “It will be here long after Pam Staneski is gone, and it’s a very lucky person that will get to step into this position, in this community.”