Greetings and welcome to Friday the Thirteenth! Avoid those black cats and don’t step under any ladders!

 

Also a reminder that Sunday is Father’s Day – though I’m sure everyone’s social media feeds have been choked full of ads for “Dad Gifts” like tools and grill accessories and such. If you’re a Dad, revel in rare control of what goes on the grill and what movies and sports get streamed on Sunday. If you’ve got an awesome Father – be sure to let them know!

 

This week, Paul will be out for a few days to do his annual solo-camping trek to Blackberry in the Siuslaw, but will be back for the OCCC Board of Education meeting on Wednesday evening.

 

Tonight is the 37th commencement ceremony for the Oregon Coast Community College at the PAC (the nursing class of 2025 pinning ceremony was this morning) – high-fives to Marshall for his first OCCC commencement!!

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
  • Art, Oysters & Brews – Sarah provided Stacie access to the ART Toledo Google Drive so that both can monitor vendor registration. 
      • CWEDD – This Thursday, the quarterly board meeting for the Cascades West Economic Development District was held in Lincoln County (the board meets in Lincoln County once a year). The meeting was in the Gleason Room of the Aquarium. After the meeting, the in-person attendees got a VIP tour of the aquarium (with some behind-the-scenes awesomeness), plus lunch at Local Ocean. Marshall delivered an excellent update on the OCATT building project to the Board. Paul (chair of CWEDD), Leslie and Stacie were in attendance. Huzzah to the Aquarium for helping us all show off Lincoln County!
      • Newport Chamber – This week, Paul emceed his last lunch as president of the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He is quite happy.
      • Creative Economies Playbook for Lincoln County (funded by Northwest Oregon Works) Stacie continued to work on content.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • Planning Next Steps – Paul met with Mark Farley at Hatfield this week to discuss the wrap up of the last two years of Blue Economy work and talk through some ideas for collaborative efforts over the coming (more fallow) years.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • Patents and Trademarks – Paul met with David Irvin, director of the Guin Library at Hatfield, to learn about the new Patent and Trademark Resource Center that will be run out of OSU (with the homebase being the Guin Library – learn more here: https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/PTRC/home). This resource is meant for the community at large, not just those with an OSU affiliation, and will provide vital resources for entrepreneurs and innovators alike.
  • Broadband
      • BEAD – This week, the Oregon Broadband Office reopened BEAD (the large infrastructure grant program) prequalification, after modifying the program to conform to new guidelines from the NTIA. The new program will be tech neutral (not favoring fiber, but probably favoring low Earth orbit satellite providers like Starlink), all DEI aspects are gone as well as any mention of climate change or environmental stewardship, removed the net-neutrality requirements and no longer will the program require a low-cost broadband option to be provided. In short, the most equitable and most long term benefits of the program have been stripped out. Pioneer Cooperative has already pre-qualified – they are thus far the only ISP prequalified in the program that can serve Lincoln County.
  • Core Economic Development Services
      • Business Incubator – Paul had several meetings this week with Rural Prosperity Partners, as well as with Rozalyn Mock of the Ford Family Foundation’s Community and Economic Development division. This week, the EDA released their anticipated “disaster supplemental” NOFO, and Lincoln County projects are eligible under this program. EDALC is exploring the “readiness path” grant to seek $250,000 for a business incubator feasibility study, hopefully partnering with a tFFF program to provide matching funds.
  • Community Connecting
  • Meeting with Skye Whitney and Kathleen Hackett from the Oregon Coast Aquarium – Leslie met to discuss Skye’s bilingual high school student paid internship program and how to better connect the interns to paid summer internships, other marine interpretation job opportunities, or secondary education aligned with their aquarium training. They also discussed connecting Arcoíris’ summer camp students and families with a visit to the Aquarium and how to support the bilingual interns in guiding them. Leslie also met Kathleen, Outreach Coordinator, who is seeking connections for the Aquarium’s upcoming Rockfish Fisheries Day, August 3rd. If anyone would like to table or lead a presentation, demonstration, or activity for that event, please get in touch with Leslie or directly with Kathleen: Kathleen.Hackett@aquarium.org  
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication – Stacie posted Friday community roundup and created content + shared relevant partner/regional posts on various social media channels.
  • Project Work – Stacie continued to work with vendors to refine details for the annual meeting – the menu is final(ish) and will highlight local produce and seafood.
  • Admin – Stacie completed two LI Learning trainings, one on blog writing (for O2IH purposes) and one on bulk creating Canva content. She also started learning more about Google Analytics.

 

Sarah Update: Sarah has worked on and off remotely this past week, mainly working on the Art, Oysters & Brews event and the Major Employers report. She has been dealing with a lot of family stuff this past week – her mother in law unexpectedly passed away suddenly last Thursday from a horrible complication from the new chemotherapy treatment she was on. Sarah has greatly appreciated the support from the EDALC team throughout this entire process.

 

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! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Cheers,

 

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