Greetings and welcome to Friday and welcome to April!

 

Thanks to all who could attend our April Board of Directors meeting yesterday, and thanks for all of the constructive feedback on our 2026 Economic Summit and our update to EDALC’s bi-annual organizational report.

 

Gregory shared some WAY exciting news with the Board yesterday – the Oregon Coast SBDC was awarded the 2026 Small Business Development Center Excellence and Innovation Award by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). It’s for Region 10, which includes WA, ID, AK, and OR. They are going to have an award ceremony at the OCCC Newport campus on May 5th – invitations will be going out soon. Huzzah!!

 

The Lincoln Chronicle posted a great story yesterday on the update of the 2014 Lincoln County Economic Report – read it here: https://lincolnchronicle.org/first-study-of-lincoln-countys-economy-in-10-years-shows-growing-impact-of-retirees-moving-to-the-coast/

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
  • AOB – Sarah continued to work on AOB coordination, she finalized the artist vendor page and mailchimp email to recruit artists that will be sent out early next week. Paul has recruited three of the six needed musical performers for the event.
  • CCFW – Sarah met with Jim King and Kaety Jacobson about CCFW’s strategic plan update.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
  • Feasibility Study – Yesterday Paul received the final draft of a feasibility study to develop a commercial kitchen and cold storage hub at the Port of Garibaldi – it was prepared by Norpac Consulting and paid for by EDALC’s CDS Blue Economy funding.
  • Schmidt Marine Technology Partners – EDALC participated with other partners to draft and submit a short Natural Nitrogen Removal demonstration project proposal to a division of The Schmidt Family Foundation.
      • Stacie created a blog post for the O2IH website.
  • Economic Mobility
      • Sarah put together some data on small business ownership in Lincoln County to support Allyson West’s economic mobility work.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • CWIH – Paul attended the monthly Regional Lead meeting for the Innovation Hub. The team discussed a regional service provider database under construction (the one under development by Business Oregon isn’t yet ready for prime time), coordinating innovation-knowledgeable mentors across the region and upcoming access to capital events.
      • EDA Disaster Supplemental – Our grant application is complete and ready to submit (it’s a rolling deadline) – we are just waiting for final comments from the EDA’s Wesley Cochran on our narrative for the grant, and then it will be submitted.
      • Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) – The U.S. House voted 345-41 on March 17, 2026, to pass S. 3971, the “Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act,” reauthorizing the SBIR/STTR programs through September 30, 2031. Following unanimous Senate approval, the bill awaits presidential signature to end a five-month, post-2025 lapse that paused new funding. 
  • YEP – Stacie, Sarah and Kelliane met to discuss event coordination for the Youth Entrepreneurship Pitch Event on May 13th. Sarah began working on the eventbrite page, press release, and monday project board.
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated listings on Oregon Prospector and added new ones.
  • Community Connecting
  • Juntos en Colaboración – Leslie facilitated this week’s meeting which included a presentation from Zaira and Jen of Oregon Child Development Coalition (see their presentation slide deck here). As Leslie mentioned in yesterday’s EDALC board meeting, they are connecting with Lincoln County organizations and community members to see which early childhood education gaps their programs may fill in Lincoln County. Leslie’s connecting them with community events and organization leads. If you/your organization can speak to the childcare needs of Lincoln County, potential summer program facilities (they would rent), or any adjacent opportunities, please fill out this survey, which will advise their funding and programming for Lincoln County. Please share it with others in your network who can help.
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie updated the website and added the Microsoft Clarity plugin. The plugin was a recommendation from the SBDC Accessibility class and will help evaluate the current site and inform future changes related to improving user experience. She also managed social media, updated the media tracker, and worked on the quarterly newsletter as well as a summit recap for the Cascades West Innovation Hub newsletter.
  • Admin
      • The team spent a few hours preparing for the BoD meeting. Stacie is finalizing the meeting minutes.

 

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)