The Business of the Year award was established in 2014 in honor of Billy Ray Cleghern for his contributions to the community.
Billy Ray Cleghern served as Chairman of the School Board and served as a board member of the Erin Housing Authority. He was a volunteer firefighter. He was a member of Erin United Methodist Church and a U.S. Air Force veteran. Cleghern was a member of the Austin Peay State University Alumni Association and was a Scottish Rite Mason, as well as a Boy Scout leader and a past president of the Civitan and Erin Rotary clubs. He was Lord High Mayor of the 1975 Irish Celebration and received the Chamber’s 2011 Emerald Award for outstanding community service.
Cleghern’s Piggly Wiggly has been honored for its community support, especially youth-related programs and activities. The store employs a number of young people in the community and many community residents show it as their first job.
2021 Largent Sawmill
2019 Teresa Meyer Tax & Bookkeeping
2018 Save-A-Lot
2017 Southernaire Restaurant & Motel
2016 Rye’s Automotive
2015 Signature HealthCare of Erin
2014 Paul’s Pizza and Shamrock & Shenanigans
2013 Traditions First Bank
2012 Mitchum Drug Co.
2011 Cleghern’s Piggly Wiggly