Greetings and welcome to the last Friday in January! We enjoyed a few rain-free weeks, but it looks like it’s back to damp for the foreseeable future.

 

On Tuesday morning, we held our “Fueling Growth” Cascades West Innovation Hub event at the OCCC’s Newport campus. We had a great crowd (exactly the number of people we were expecting), great networking before and after the event, an AMAZING and informative panel discussion (a shout out to Gregory for being part of the panel!) and INCREDIBLE breakfast charcuterie (Huzzah! To Sarah!).

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support
      • CCFW – Sarah had a meeting with Jim King and Aaron Huang from Oo-Nee to discuss a potential new project with KelpArk to establish an Oregon seaweed seed bank.
      • Fantasea Hospitality – Paul met with Hope Bouchard (COO of Fantasea) on Wednesday morning. FH currently operates several hospitality businesses (including a cafe and a hotel) in Tillamook county. They are looking to move out of hospitality and into commercial real estate development, and have purchased their first property in Lincoln City. Paul helped Hope get an understanding of Lincoln County’s economy and opportunities.
      • OCCC – Paul met with Marshall and his new Executive Assistant Jennifer Dolphin in Waldport to talk about future OCCC priorities and potential future EDALC/OCCC collaborations.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • Challenger Biosciences – Paul met with Don Gerhart of Challenger Biosciences to explore a potential new approach to a first demonstration project for a Lincoln County biomanufacturing consortium.
  • Economic Mobility
      • Project and Professional Development – Allyson West presented a potential initiative idea for her Economic Mobility main project to Paul and Nina. She’ll also be travelling to Eugene next week to participate in a Strategic Doing seminar at the University of Oregon.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • CWIH Reporting – Paul compiled the required data (business and demographic) for the initial report on CWIH business interactions, to be submitted to Business Oregon. There has been some serious pushback from Hubs around the state at the level of business information Business Oregon is requesting – EDALC reported interactions accurately, but did not provide personal information on the businesses to BizOR – an approach taken by all leads in the CWIH hub.
      • EDA Disaster Supplemental – Paul met with Rural Prosperity Partners to look at final questions remaining in the project narrative. A draft narrative will be going to Wes Cochran and the EDA for preliminary review next week. Paul also started work requesting letters of support for the application.
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Economic Summit – Sarah worked on summit speaker invites and coordination, the press release, and resource table coordination. Stacie created a budget tracker for the event, and facilitated the signing of the photography contract.

 

If you’d like to attend the event, please reserve your tickets using the link here: tinyurl.com/2026LCSummit . Be sure to use promo code EDALCBoard to get your tickets for free!

  • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings and added new ones.
  • Community Connecting
  • Cape Perpetua Collaborative (CPC) Annual Partners Meeting Activity: Collaborative Continuum Pilot Project – Thursday’s Cape Perpetua Annual Partners day activities and meeting went so well! Folks loved the optional trolley Naturalist excursion (a run-through of what a CPC-paid naturalist will provide every Saturday, all summer long). Thanks to the City of Yachats for sharing their much-loved trolley for the day! CPC Partner Meeting attendees’ interest in and enthusiasm about the Collaborative Continuum activity pilot project Leslie designed and led was SO incredible. Folks with all types of learning and communication styles engaged well with the activity. Starting next week, Leslie will process the activity entries and survey feedback, but the positive verbal feedback that she received all afternoon and evening was extremely supportive of the concept. Click here to see the full Partners Meeting slide show (including the pilot activity introduction & details on slides 19-28). 
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication Stacie completed her work on the quarterly newsletter including adjustments for a more mobile-friendly format(will send out early next week) and managed social media.
  • Project Work Stacie updated project boards as needed.
  • Admin Stacie played phone tag with the Xerox repair point of contact and finished the minutes from the January BoD meeting.

 

Reminder: EDALC’s February Board of Directors meeting will next Thursday, February 5th at 3:30pm, via Zoom. Here is the Zoom link:

 

Topic: February EDALC BoD Meeting

Time: Feb 5, 2025 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09&omn=89714415175

 

Meeting ID: 917 810 4987

Passcode: 0NyksK

 

That’s it for this week – thanks for ALL that you are doing out there. Keep us posted if you have anything you want us to share – we love hearing from you! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Cheers,

 

-The EDALC Team (Paul, Sarah, Leslie and Stacie)