Greetings and welcome to Friday! Don’t forget that Sunday is Mother’s Day (though if you walk through Fred’s, you’ll be so bombarded with last-minute gifts you will not be able to forget!).

 

This weekend (today at 4pm at the VAC and Saturday at 2:30pm at the PAC) there are two meetings in Nye Beach to explore the creation of a Nye Beach Cultural District. You can learn more here: https://coastarts.org/events/ The event details also link to a survey that allows you to provide a short SWOT analysis. Paul will be attending today’s event.

 

We still need to get a few more inputs on the Doodle poll for EDALC’s Executive Committee to schedule a virtual meeting to discuss the FY25-26 budget. The Doodle poll link is here: https://doodle.com/meeting/organize/id/epLLpx6e

 

Here’s our team update for the week:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • Business Oregon/Regional Solutions – Paul had a working lunch meeting on Monday with Heather Stevens, our Regional Development Officer for Business Oregon and Courtney Flathers, who heads up our Regional Solutions Team. They discussed broadband, the CW Innovation Hub and other local priorities.
      • Lincoln City – On Tuesday, Paul met with Alison Robertson, Seth Lenarts, Richard Townsend and Daphnee Lagarza at Lincoln City city hall. They discussed potential Enterprise Zone modifications (and convening a meeting of local city managers for more in-depth discussions), EZ and incentive marketing and the new 23rd street industrial/commercial Urban Renewal District.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • O2IH website – Web developer Shawn Livengood presented the almost final O2IH website to the EDALC team this week. There are a few final tasks left to complete on both sides and next week, Shawn will train the team on the site’s backend.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • Cascades West Innovation Hub – After a rather surreal online meeting facilitated by Business Oregon on Tuesday which included a “vote now for who runs the hub” without warning or a chance for anyone to prepare, it looks like RAIN Catalysts will be managing the next CWIH grant application and project for the next biennium (pending BizOR funding). Paul met with RAIN CEO Rachel Jagoda Brunette on Friday to both offer support and ensure that EDALC remains a vital part of the hub work (as well as being resourced for said work).
      • ROI Video Project – Sarah continued coordination with the TZOM crew about filming the “No Wrong Place to Start” video later this month.
      • Youth Entrepreneurship Program – Sarah worked on the program, presentation, and edited the “Advice for Future Business Owners” video for the Youth Entrepreneurship Shark Tank pitch event. She also did a tech run through and sent out additional eventbrite emails for marketing. On Wednesday evening, the finale and Shark Tank style pitch event was held at the Cultural Center in Lincoln City. The place was packed to hear six students pitch their business ideas from non-allergen baking mixes to custom skateboards. Sarah served as the audio and visual tech for the event, Paul was the emcee and the whole team was there to help with crowd, food and judge wrangling. Cover $7,500 in prize money was given out. Here’s a quick video overview put together by Dave Price: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VSnSPvyW_g
  • Core Economic Development Services
      • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated listings on Oregon Prospector and added new ones.
  • Community Connecting
  • Leslie is off for a few days – look for her report in next week’s update
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
  • Stacie posted Friday community roundup and shared relevant partner/regional posts on various social media channels throughout the week. She also completed the Q1 2025 media report and prepped for #EconDevWeek.
  • Project Work
      • Stacie updated the project boards for the O2IH website and the Annual Meeting. She continued to work out annual meeting details with Primaltones and is waiting for confirmation from Raised by Wolves’ ability to cater before reaching out to other potential vendors. Stacie and Leslie worked on some updates to the TALC website.

 

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, and don’t be stingy with your ideas – we love hearing from you!

 

Cheers,

 

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