Greetings and welcome to the first Friday in February! January was already a long year – let’s hope for a smoother February.

 

SO much going on this weekend – the OCCA annual meeting and “Party-Gras”… the Winter Waters events on the coast including the Blue Line event (https://www.winterwaterspnw.com/events/blue-line)… the Super Bowl (Seattle vs New England)… the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, plus early games competitions.

 

In a fun Olympic connection, Paul became friends with Snow Cross Olympian Nick Baumgartner during his work in the Upper Peninsula (Paul’s wife Susan even beat him in a cooking competition!). He won a gold in the last Olympics, and this will be his 5th games, making him the oldest snowboarder ever to compete at this level (and Team USA’s oldest athlete). He’s a true home-grown hero – here’s a great video on his DIY training regimen:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFqNakkfZWw

 

Thanks to everyone who attended our February Board of Directors meeting yesterday afternoon. As always, great discussions and great updates from the Board. A loud Huzzah to Sarah for her presentation on the upcoming Lincoln County Economic Summit. And an extra loud Huzzah to our three new EDALC Directors, who were voted onto the Board yesterday: Lisa Norton, Lynlei Brown and Nina Vetter. Welcome to the journey!

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • Newport – Leslie and Paul met with Newport’s Willow Ryon and consultant Kristin Dahl for a working dinner to discuss innovative ways to use TLT dollars on projects that align with both visitor promotion and resident quality of life.
      • OCCC – Marshall and Paul attended the quarterly Oregon Community College Association board meeting – the key item was a review of education-related legislation in the short session and which bills the OCCA, as a group, supports.
      • Take Action Lincoln County – Stacie updated the project plan for the online donation portal for the 2026 Nesika Illahee Pow-Wow (8/7-9). She and Leslie met with CTSI PIO Andy Taylor and Cultural Education Manager AJ Warren in Siletz today to review last year’s project and align on deliverables for this year. The call for sponsors/donations will be open to the public in early May. See Leslie’s update for more details!
  • Entrepreneurship
      • Cascades West Innovation Hub – Paul attended the monthly CWIH Regional Leads meeting today. The team discussed enhancing CWIH awareness in the region and next week’s much larger stakeholder meeting (and our individual presentations). Stacie provided Summit details to be included in the February issue of the CWIH newsletter.
      • EDA Disaster Supplemental – Paul met with Rural Prosperity Partners to review a close to final grant narrative draft, which will be going to Wes Cochran at the EDA for review next week. Letters of support continue to come in for our application.
      • Rural Opportunity Initiative – Stacie and Paul attended the ROI kick off meeting this afternoon. This biennium, 18 projects have been funded through ROI. We learned about reporting requirements, included consulting hours (50 per organization) and learned about all the projects across the state.
  • Broadband
      • BEAD – From an Oregon Broadband Office release this week: “The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved Oregon’s Final Proposal for the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, authorizing the state to move forward implementing the largest broadband infrastructure investment in Oregon’s history. Through this approval, Oregon will invest $689 million to expand affordable, high-speed, and reliable internet service across the state. The initiative is expected to connect 104,654 unserved and underserved households, healthcare facilities, and businesses, with a strong focus on rural communities, tribal lands, and other historically underserved areas. This investment will not only bridge the digital divide but also create new opportunities in education, healthcare, agriculture, business, and daily life.” It’s been a long time coming and so much hard work across the state – great to see the light at the end of the tunnel (slight disclaimer on the optimism: 46% of the new connections will be via Low Earth Orbit satellites from Starlink – it’s still unclear if that tech can provide true broadband at that scale).
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • 2026 Lincoln County Economic Summit – Sarah worked on summit speaker invites and coordination, resource table and event venue coordination, the press release, and the summit presentation she gave at the board meeting. The team used their Wednesday meeting for menu planning and supply decision-making.
  • Community and Economic Development Grant Program Paul presented the BoD’s recommendations to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday. Per the Commissioners’ request and the consensus of EDALC’s Directors he will be providing additional information to support award decision-making at an upcoming BoC meeting. Stacie noted requests for historical context and process clarification for next year’s grant cycle.
      • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings and added new ones.
  • Community Connecting
  • Cape Perpetua Collaborative 2026 Land & Sea Symposium Success – Last Friday’s Land & Sea Symposium, “Cape Perpetua for All,” was a success on many fronts. Robert Kentta from CTSI and Jesse Beers from CTCLUSI opened up the event with action-oriented and educational Land Acknowledgements. This community-first dual presentation alone was an honor to witness in person. The capacity-maxed event attendees enjoyed abundant (and incredible) food, as well as presentations, fundraisers, and films that raised laughter, cheers, and even verklempt tears from the large audience. All evening long and afterwards, CPC and its support team heard that this year’s event was head and shoulders above all previous years. For those unable to join, click here for the live stream recording on YouTube. For best views of the last two films (that caused wide ranges of emotional responses from the audience):

Click here for “Reclaiming the Coast: A Journey of Discovery and Belonging.”
Click here for “What We Lost Along the Way”

Cheers to Talaina King for all her work, not only on last week’s successful and inspiring events, but also for her extraordinary first year as Executive Director of Cape Perpetua Collaborative! Cheers also to CPC’s staff, board members, partner organizations, volunteers, donors, artists, businesses, and supporters, who all make CPC the Central Oregon Coast anchor for coastwide Land to Sea education, inspiration, collaboration, and celebration.

  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication Paul and Stacie finished up the Winter 2026 issue of the newsletter which was sent out on Tuesday. Stacie created new graphics for newsletter social media announcements, and managed EDALC social media as a whole. 
  • Admin
      • After a long game of phone tag Stacie connected with the Xerox repair point of contact who will be visiting us in Waldport next week. 

 

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)