Greetings and welcome to Friday! Our newsletter is going out early next week, so reach out to Sarah or myself if you have any info to share or have an 11th-hour story idea!
Here’s our staff update for the week:
Blue Economy::
Mark Farley and I continue to refine what a potential NOAA economic impact study might look like, if done in partnership with the Eastern Research Group. We continue to work on some of the RAIN Startup Blue wrap-up projects. We also received just under $10K today from RAIN for our work through August so far. – Paul
Broadband::
I’m having ongoing meetings with various stakeholders, consultants and ISPs to “test the waters” for potential local and regional projects. There will be an upcoming training for local stakeholders on the “rapid design study” tool that was developed for the region (and each of the three counties). Also, it was announced this week that Pioneer Telephone Cooperative was successful in a second USDA ReConnect application. Their two projects together will provide new and improved access in southeaster and eastern Lincoln County as well as our neighboring counties, with build-out expected to start in 2024 and a total investment of over $40 million in the region. – Paul
Communications/Marketing::
This week I posted on the EDALC Facebook page about the Oregon Coast SBDC’s class on using AI for small businesses and for the Tuna Fishery Day the Oregon Coast Aquarium was hosting with the Oregon Albacore Commission. – Sarah
Community Connecting::
I spent some time this week pulling together the last of the information needed for the Ford Family Foundation (for them to be able to grant to us as a 501c6). Leslie and I also met to review her draft proposal and her budget for a continuation of the Community Connector position and project work. – Paul
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week I created multiple videos of the Michael Gibbons mural dedication that happened during the last Art, Oysters & Brews. I also updated the website and put together the surveys from the vendors at the last event as well. In addition, I began to create the video of the Chalk the Block event that happened last Saturday. – Sarah
Enterprise Zone::
This week, I continued my research on a “tactical” Enterprise Zone focused on hotel construction – it makes sense if we could apply it to multiple communities in one fell swoop (Lincoln City, Newport, Toledo, etc.) – it also might create an opportunity for communities who are not participating in our EZ to take advantage of that incentive. As always, I’ll keep you posted! – Paul
Events::
Paul and I discussed plans for the Lincoln County Economic Summit and I reached out to some more potential locations for the event. – Sarah
We’re looking at a January 2024 date for the event and have a pretty solid concept on the flow, subject matter and some potential speakers. Sarah is also reaching out to a potential out-of-state keynote that would be awesome! – Paul
Project Work::
I made updates and additions to the summer newsletter, created and sent our invoices to RAIN for the Startup Blue work, and continued to call and email my last employer for the major employer report. I updated Oregon Prospector listings, looked into potential locations for a Business Oregon RFP, and updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website. – Sarah
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
So if you are interested in “nerding out” to the history of first person shooter game development, you can check out my interview that appeared on Apogee Entertainment’s Twitch channel earlier this week… after watching host Trisha Hershberger destroy some enemies in Turbo Overkill – or you can skip to the interview at the 41 minute mark:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1905685910
Quick note: I’ll be out of the office on Monday – I’m doing a few night’s camping at Blackberry in the Siuslaw – no campfires allowed, but I’ll have my guitar and butane stove for cooking!
Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all. Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂