Chamber schedules coffee chat with Mayor Cail in Tell City

A coffee, a small room on Main Street and direct access to Mayor Chris Cail gave Perry County Chamber members a practical way to press Tell City on the issues that shape daily life, from downtown activity and permits to infrastructure concerns and budget questions.

The Perry County Chamber of Commerce scheduled “Mornings with Mayor Cail” for Friday, June 5, at 601 Main Street Suite A in Tell City. The gathering ran from 9 to 9:45 a.m. and invited chamber members to sip Magnolia Coffee & Co. coffee and talk with Cail about Tell City in an exclusive member setting. Attendees were asked to RSVP by email.

The format pointed less toward a speech than a conversation. In a county where residents and business owners often want quick answers on pending city decisions, road conditions, public safety, events and economic development, the chamber’s first-Friday forum gave them a direct line to the mayor outside a formal council chamber. That kind of setting can make it easier to surface concerns early, before they grow into larger public disputes.

The event also fit a broader pattern. The Pick Perry County calendar listed “Mornings with Mayor Cail” as a recurring first-Friday gathering, with multiple dates shown for 2026 and a description that said the series has run monthly since 2024. The chamber conference room at 601 Main Street Suite A has become the regular meeting place for that conversation, tying local business outreach to city leadership in a space that is small, familiar and easy to reach.

Tell City already has more formal public meetings on the calendar. The city’s meeting schedule lists Common Council meetings on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. and Board of Public Works meetings on the first and third Monday at 6 p.m. The chamber’s coffee chat sits alongside those meetings as a more informal access point, one that can help residents and employers raise questions before they reach the agenda stage.

Cail’s presence in those conversations carries added weight in a city of 7,506 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Tell City’s own history reaches back to a meeting in Cincinnati in November 1856, and the city was established in 1858. Its comprehensive plan, adopted April 18, 2022, was developed over ten months from April 2021 through April 2022 with continuous community input, showing that Tell City has been using public engagement as part of its planning process. Friday’s chamber forum fit squarely into that same tradition of keeping city government close to the people who live and work there.