Greetings and welcome to Friday! Looks like a rainy weekend – time to get that first Fall pot of chili bubbling on the stove!

 

Like the entire EDALC team, I’m sure you’ve been following the developments relating to a potential ICE detention facility in Newport – from the lease queries, the septic system queries and the Coast Guard helicopter moving to North Bend. As it stands currently, the Texas firm has pulled back their lease request, but the situation remains fluid. Paul had a conversation today with Nina Vetter and they discussed ways that EDALC can support Newport going forward.

 

It was announced today that all Rogue operations were suspended (Newport, Portland, Astoria and Salem), affecting 47 local positions. Paul had been in conversations with their leadership (as was Paula) over the last few months, though this closure was sudden and unexpected. Paul reached out to Paula and Heather at Northwest Oregon Works first thing this morning (he was alerted at EoD yesterday). NOW is prepping their Rapid Response team.

 

On the good news front, Paul received word today that our Business Oregon Rural Opportunity Initiative grant was funded for $140,000 (which was pretty close to EDALC’s ask of $150,000 and significantly higher that what we put in the budget!). The contract will be signed later this month and work can commence on ROI projects in December. Huzzah!

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • CWEDD – Sarah interviewed Paul from OCWCOG and the mayor of Cottage Grove for the CWEDD video.
      • Lincoln City Rotary – Paul presented an update on EDALC and Lincoln County economic development on Wednesday afternoon.
      • City of Yachats – Paul met with the Yachats grant review committee on Wednesday night to score and discuss applications to Yachats’ first ever community development grant program.
      • Creative Economies Playbook for Lincoln County (funded by Northwest Oregon Works) – Stacie met with Carol Shenk, president of the Coastal Arts Guild, on Thursday to learn more about the successful effort to establish a new, small-scale light manufacturing use category for “Custom Creative Work” in Newport.
    • Entrepreneurship
      • Cascades West Innovation Hub – Paul participated in two finalist interview panels today for the CWIH’s Partnership Manager position. Paul also signed the subgrant agreement with RAIN Catalysts for Lincoln County innovation support work. Stacie wrote an EDALC profile which was provided to CEDO along with logos for the first innovation hub newsletter which will be coming out before Thanksgiving. She also cleaned up our hub project folder which will help us focus on the next phase of work.
    • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • Stacie worked on this month’s Blue Story for the O2IH website.
    • Core Economic Development Services
      • Community and Economic Development Grant Program – Paul and Sarah ran an online grant workshop for potential applicants on Wednesday afternoon. This year’s workshop had 36 registrations – far more than any of EDALC’s past workshops. Stacie added the recording to the EDALC grant resources page and updated the project on Monday.com. 
  • Lincoln County Economic Report – Sarah started to review the most recent draft of the Lincoln County Economic report.
  • Oregon Prospector- Sarah updated old listings and added new ones to Oregon Prospector.
    • Community Connecting
      • RDI and Center for Women’s Leadership Turn Up Your Voice Cohort in Salem – In the middle of a challenging but power-aligning week for this community, Leslie joined 25+ Women from across Oregon for a two-day session in Salem. The cohort practiced Power Mapping in a session led by Andrea Cooper of March Strategies (who has a LOT of previous legislative/government experience). Then members met in small groups to plan and forward aligned efforts and ideas (so many connections from communities across the state – both new and rekindled). On Thursday the group gathered at Business Oregon’s headquarters to meet and connect with the Director of Business Oregon, Sophorn Cheang (who Leslie thanked for EDALC’s historical ROI funding and support, without knowing the most recent grant acceptance email would be sent to Paul the following morning). Like the majority of the work Leslie accomplished this week, most of these details are best shared in person – there were too many great tangents and rabbit holes to concisely recap here. Leslie’s state-wide network was reinforced, strengthened, and improved at this two-day session. While she had to miss Wednesday night’s Newport City Council meeting, Leslie has a feeling this experience came at just the right time for the many marathon-pace community response efforts ahead. 
      • See Leslie’s full weekly update here: November 14, 2025 EDALC CC Weekly Report
      • Community Connector Weekly Report Archives 2024+
    • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication –  Stacie created a Veterans Day post, re-posted/shared relevant partner/regional posts on various social media channels, and created the usual IG + FB story roundup of central coast goings on for Friday. She also began to get a handle on Hootsuite reporting functionality to support the Q3 media report.

 

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!

 

Cheers,

 

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