Hello! 

Paul sent in his update from DC- he, Allyson and Nina are attending the ICMA’s Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EMO) Conference. This national conference also includes sessions for the “special assistant” cohort – the multi-year grant funded by the Gates Foundation. Newport is the only awardee from the Pacific Northwest, out of 16 small to mid-sized cities across the country. There are a lot of best practice and data sessions covering initial steps in this relatively new field within economic and community development. The whole crew sends their thanks to Carrie for her recommendation of Jose Andreas’ Zaytinya restaurant – they enjoyed a Wednesday dinner at that huge, loud and boisterous Mediterranean tapas restaurant.

 

Here’s our weekly team update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
      • Central Coast Food Web – Sarah held the August board meeting for the Central Coast Food Web.
      • CWEDD – Paul met twice (Gregory was part of one of those meetings) to lock in the agenda of the November 3rd regional convening in Linn County. Gregory and Paul were part of the small team looking at regional priorities that could be aligned with upcoming grant opportunities (and will also be a session at the event).
      • GP – Paul will be presenting on Monday on our local and regional economy at GP’s quarterly Community Advisory Panel meeting. He’s been working on the presentation between sessions in DC, and Sarah has put together some insightful slides on the updated economic report and insights from her work on this year’s Major Employers Report.
  • Partnership for Lincoln Lands & Waters – Sarah attended the North County Natural Resource Tour put on by the Partnership for Lincoln Lands & Waters. The group toured the Steere Cattle farm, the Cedar Creek Quarry, had lunch at Beachcrest Brewing and finished the day at the Lower Drift Creek Restoration Site that MidCoast Watersheds Council just completed the first phase of restoration work.
  • AOB – Stacie followed up with City of Toledo re: scheduling a project retrospective.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
      • Challenger Biosciences – Paul met with Don Gerhart on Monday to discuss future opportunities as well as several newly made inroads to the Oregon Community Foundation and EcoTrust. They also discussed a public-facing event focused on introducing the nitrogen removal demonstration project.
      • ETIFF – The DOE has opened its Sixth Annual Technical Assistance Application for Coastal, Remote, and Island Communities – the program provides $25-50K planning grant. EDALC applied for this program in 2024 and narrowly missed (it was well scored). We will look at revising the previous application for resubmittal.
  • Website – Stacie created a new blog post and reviewed completed CDS-funded projects (pending partner approval) and local Blue Economy news for potential inclusion in future Blue Stories articles.
  • Economic Mobility
      • Paul attended the EMO conference in D.C. with Allyson and Nina.
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Fail Fest 2026 (11/12) – Stacie began working on the list of potential speakers, drafted the invite email, and updated the project plan.
  • Core Economic Development Services
  • Major Employers Report – Sarah is still reaching out the last few businesses for the Major Employers Report.
      • CommEcDev Grant Program –  Stacie began compiling the team’s recommendations for review during the next Board meeting, and updated the project plan.
      • Newport Facade Program – Stacie updated the project plan and set up a meeting with Paul and Sarah to finalize the proposal next week.
  • Community Connecting
      • Oregoniana Cultural Presentation, hosted by Arcoíris Cultural and Oregon Coast Ballet Folklorico – I was invited to join this conversation that spanned arts, culture, history, and creative/cultural/multilingual economy support opportunities from Instituto de Cultura Oregoniana (ICO). I enjoyed networking with local community members and the statewide representatives who shared their artisanal, performing, and writing offerings. One of my favorite multilingual business support resources is the Open Abierto project (see details here). The network also provides free Oregoniana history books in Spanish and English (see digital versions here: Spanish and English) This event corresponded with Rural Organizing Project’s Stephanie Hunter’s visit to present at CTSI’s Tribal Council Meeting, so it was a pleasure to loop her into this learning and networking opportunity (that included food, live music, and dancing – of course). 
      • See Leslie’s full update here: August 21, 2026 EDALC CC Weekly Report
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication – Stacie managed social media.
  • Admin 
      • Stacie, Sarah, and Leslie used Wednesday’s team meeting time to review and update Leslie’s Café Aquarium passport and post-event survey.

 

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)