Greetings and welcome to a rainy and damp Friday! And just like that (apologies to HBO), we’re halfway through August!

 

EDALC received word this week that our grant application to the Ford Family Foundation (supporting Leslie’s Community Connector work) has been “internally approved” and Leslie and Paul worked with the TFFF team to update deliverables verbiage for the new contract. So glad to get that locked in!

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • CCFW – Sarah attended a CCFW executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
      • Oregon Economic Development Association – Last week the team put together a tentative itinerary for an “Adventure Day” as part of the OEDA conference in October. On Wednesday, Paul chauffeured a team from the OEDA conference committee around to preview the potential activities for October 28th.
      • Creative Economies Playbook for Lincoln County (funded by Northwest Oregon Works) – Stacie researched creative economy friendly municipal ordinances.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • Challenger Biosciences – Paul and Mark Farley met with Don Gerhart of Challenger Bisosciences to strategize next steps moving forward without going the SBIR/STTR route and instead relying on private philanthropical innovation foundation funding.
      • Stacie reached out to Maggie at OOC for an update/next steps for the Seafood Butchery Program for an upcoming blue story for the website.
  • Entrepreneurship
      • Rural Opportunity Initiative – Paul worked this week to provide receipts to Business Oregon in support of EDALC’s ROI final report. They generally pick two expense categories from the grant budget to request receipts/invoices. Late last week, the ROI Request for Applications for the next biennium went live and the team has begun conversations on which projects should be part of our ROI application (due at the end of September).
      • Entrepreneurial Kitchens – In the first weekend in August, the Central Coast Food Web held a ribbon cutting for their new commercial/entrepreneurial kitchen (Sarah is the president of the CCFW board and EDALC provided significant funds, through both ROI and CDS funds, to the effort). The commercial/entrepreneurial kitchen that Lesley Ogden spoke about in several BoD meetings is now fully licensed and available for rental at their Newport Center for Health Education. Paul is working to coordinate a tour of that space with both the EDALC team and the SBDC. Both of these assets are vital tools to help local food entrepreneurs test, develop and produce products. We’re SO excited!
  • No Wrong Place to Start Video – Sarah coordinated the final details for the Business Oregon “No Wrong Place to Start” video and got the final draft from TZOM! Now we are waiting for a 30 second version of the video and then will post both to the EDALC youtube page.
  • Core Economic Development Services
      • Major Employers – Sarah began working again on the major employers report, emailing and calling the remaining businesses on the list.
      • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings.
  • Community Connecting
  • Cape Perpetua Collaborative and Trailkeepers of Oregon Tidepools to Trails Day – Leslie joined this collaborative day that brought locals and visitors together to learn about the ocean’s edges in Yachats and give back to improve the Cape Perpetua trail system. Visitors from as close as Florence and as far as Chicago took part in this free opportunity unique to southern Lincoln County. A bonus opportunity arose with the unintentional long break between the tidepool and trail activities, so Leslie also got to enjoy two stops on the annual Yachats River Valley Farm Tour, to see local foods, plants, and products from the farms, nurseries, bakers, craftspeople, and artists of Yachats. Wedged in between my trips to Pow-Wow, this only-in-Yachats Saturday experience reminded Leslie of the uplifting power of well-applied behavioral tourism concepts that bring visitors and locals together for mutual benefits.
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie completed the Q2 2025 media report. She also shared relevant partner/regional posts on various social media channels – as well as the usual Friday roundup of central coast goings on.
  • Admin
  • Grant Planning – Paul met with Rural Prosperity Partners and the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association to dial in the proposed projects for a collaborative Business Oregon Technical Assistance grant application. Paul and Greg will meet early next week to talk costs for the SBDC to deliver some of the TA support.
  • Team Retreat
        • Stacie met with Paul to discuss the agenda for the retreat and shared a draft of the agenda with the team.
        • Sarah worked on her presentation and questions on the economic summit for her section of the team retreat next week.
      • Stacie completed the minutes for the 8/7 BoD meeting.

 

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)