Greetings and welcome to the last Friday in May! Just a few more weeks and our fiscal year is wrapped up!

 

Let’s get right to it – here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
  • AOB – Sarah talked with Charlie from Timbers about some event details, reached out to the petting zoo group again, and did some additional reach outs to potential art vendors. Stacie worked on a new color palette and brand guidelines for the event, and followed up on action items with the Toledo Chamber and the City.
      • CWEDD – This week, Paul had several meetings with COG/CWEDD staff to discuss potential regional grant applications (and available resources for grant writing). Paul also chaired a CWEDD Executive Committee meeting to prepare for the quarterly full board meeting on June 11th in Lincoln County. Local presentations in that meeting will include the Economic Report update, Andrea Forma presenting on the economic impact of GP and Seth Lenaerts discussing Lincoln City’s brownfields grant results.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • SMTP – Paul received word this week that the Mango Materials demonstration project grant request into Schmidt Marine Technology Partners was approved for $500,000 (both EDALC and Hatfield will be subcontractors for this project). Paul and Mark Farley met with Don Gerhart of Challenger Biosciences to begin project planning and next steps beyond this 12-month grant. Soon, Mark and Paul will meet with Carrie to explore some potential exciting Aquarium partnerships in this work.
  • Economic Mobility
  • City of Newport Economic Mobility Co-design planning meeting – After Leslie added her recommendations to shared documents this week, she met with Allyson and Gia Jensen on Thursday afternoon to prioritize the spreadsheet of potential Newport Economic Mobility Co-design team members and interviewees. They discussed the outreach letter and plans for rounds of invitations and scheduling processes. Throughout the week, Leslie also connected with potential co-designers about the concept.
      • Contract – Allyson has been working with the new Newport contract person to get our contract processed to provide funds for Leslie to work with Allyson and Gia on the Co-design process (as well as other EDALC team work on the Economic Mobility project). That should be completed and paid out before the end of the fiscal year.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • OEN/OMIC – Paul worked with the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) to secure Primal Tones as the site of their October 14th PubTalk. Earlier on the same day, the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC) will be hosting a workshop for local businesses at the OCCC (in partnership with the SBDC).
      • ROI – Paul attended a Rural Opportunity Initiative cohort learning event – the topic was Business Oregon’sInnovation Hub program. A few ROI partners (like EDALC) are involved in both ROI and the Innovation Hub programs, and they got to share examples of overlap and effort amplification.
      • Stacie and Sarah made plans to start outlining the ROI-funded entrepreneurial video series next week.
      • Stacie attended this month’s Rural CREATOR workshop.
  • Broadband
      • BAT – Paul attended the monthly Broadband Action Team. On the BEAD front, 7 Oregon contracts have been signed, 10 are in process, and two have been declined and will be sent out for a new bid (from any eligible ISP). Attendees also heard the second part of a Cascadia presentation – this time focusing on communications and how and when it can recover. One recommendation for families and businesses – invest in a solar battery backup and a base-level Starlink satellite system.
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Major Employers Report – Sarah continued to reach out to local businesses for their employment numbers.
  • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings and added new ones – lots of price changes happening in the market!
  • Community Connecting
      • City of Newport Sustainable Destination Management Plan Advisory Team Meeting – On Thursday, the City of Newport gathered Advisory team partners to share the City’s next steps on the final plan created by Crosscurrent Collective. The plan will be shared with Newport City Council in a work meeting on Monday, June 1. Depending on the Council’s input, the plan may be up for Council adoption at the June 15 regular City Council Meeting.
      • See Leslie’s full weekly update here: May 29, 2026 EDALC CC Weekly Report
      • TFFF Next Round Update – Paul and Leslie received word from The Ford Family Foundation that we can submit our final report (Leslie is cranking on this now) and can then immediately submit for the next round of funding – which we learned was increased by $10K to a total of $55,000.
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie managed social media, updated the media tracker, and finished the Q1 media report.
  • Project Work
        • Annual Meeting – Stacie finalized the contract and menu with Myril and managed the RSVP list. Paul paid the event deposit.
  • Admin
  • Draft Budget – Paul completed work on the draft FY2026-27 draft EDALC budget. Paul and Lesley Ogden met this morning to review. Paul will meet with the rest of the Executive Committee early next week to review.
  • Team Meeting – Team went over annual meeting plans, AOB branding, and shared general updates/

 

Reminder: EDALC’s June Board of Directors meeting will be next Thursday, June 4th at 3:30pm, via Zoom. Remember that this is our SUPER fast (Majalise – are you going for a record here?) budget and officer slate approval meeting. The draft budget and proposed officer slate will go out next week.

 

Here is the Zoom link:

 

Topic: EDALC June Budget Approval Meeting

Time: Jun 4, 2026 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09&omn=88116975118

 

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)