Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week, and Paul is just out of gas when it comes to delivering an interesting opening for this update… so let’s let our artificial intelligence overlords at ChatGPT give it a shot:

 

It’s been a week rich in insightful meetings and productive discussions, and we’re excited to share the highlights with you. From strategic planning sessions to deep dives into key projects, this week has been a whirlwind of valuable information and collaborative energy.

 

So on with our (very human-created) weekly update:

 

    • Partner Support/Community Support 
  • ART Toledo – Sarah and Paul attended an Art, Oysters & Brews reflection meeting with the ART Toledo team. Sarah also made a draft of a promotional video of the event this year and put together the vendor survey results for the team to review. 
      • Embarcadero – Paul met with several board members to discuss much-needed upgrades to the marina there and potential sources of funding (spoiler alert: it’ll be tough). 
      • OCCC – Paul conducted reference check interviews with “direct reports” for the three OCCC presidential finalists. Finalist interviews with the Board of Education will take place next Monday.
      • OCVA – Paul met with Arica Sears to plan the opening keynote presentation for the OCVA conference in October. Leslie is also exploring a “Take Action” session and Mayor Rod Cross will be presenting on Art, Oysters & Brews at the same conference.
      • United Way – Paul and Lesley Ogden met on Wednesday to brainstorm how our regional United Way (Benton, Lincoln and Linn counties) can gain some traction locally.
  • Blue Economy/O2IH
  • CCFW – Sarah attended a CCFW executive committee meeting and provided them with some updated documents on available funds to them through O2IH.
  • Stacie created the outline of the RFP for O2IH website development. Team will flesh out the requirements and timeline in the coming weeks. 
      • Paul met with the team from Colpac (the north coast economic development district) to review their initial work for blue economy economic data modeling. They are under contract with us to develop a north coast snapshot of the blue economy, and also help us define the process and scope so similar work can be done for the central and south coast. It’s impressive work so far, and we’ll share it out when we get a more polished draft. One positive observation is that it looks like Oregon is “punching above its weight class” when looking at Blue Economy activity through a per-capita lens.
  • Broadband
      • Breaking Point Solutions – Today, local stakeholders and ISPs met with Breaking Point Solutions (BPS), the company that developed the “rapid design studies” for broadband deployment that were part of our regional EDA grant. The grant provides access to their services through May of 2025. Yesterday, the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) released the state’s final BSL (Broadband Serviceable Locations) map (which now needs to be approved at the federal level). BPS will be integrating this latest data into their design studies to help ISPs evaluate potential costs for BEAD applications. The process with the OBO has nearly doubled the number of BSLs in Lincoln County – up to a total of 2940 (which probably means additional funds available as well). We’ll keep you posted.
  • Core Economic Development Services
      • Oregon Prospector – Sarah updated Oregon Prospector listings, we’re now up to 84 listings (the most ever)!
  • Community Connecting
      • Tacíta de Café – I joined Wednesday evening’s gathering that included presentations from Rubi and Christina from Lincoln County Health and Human Services Department. As community members and kids worked on Tenango embroidery and other art projects, they also discussed tobacco and drug use prevention, chronic disease awareness, the importance of addressing mental health, mental health support options, and family-friendly mindfulness and health-improving practices. I was grateful to help by bringing snacks, getting Conexión Fénix’s new wireless headset and speaker system to work, and handing out Spanish Tidepool guides from the Cape Perpetua Collaborative after a mother shared that exploring the forests and beaches was a healthy activity her family enjoys. This brought my Wednesday full circle, as my Tidepools, Trails, and Tenango day spanned South to North Lincoln County, and included multiple free, mental/physical/social-health-improving, and community-improving experiences. I slept very well Wednesday night!
      • Learn all about Tidepools & Trails, and all my other CC projects, meetings, and activities this week:August 23, 2024 EDALC CC Weekly Report
  • Organizational Management
  • Marketing & Communication
        • Stacie completed the first quarterly media report based on Q2 data (bulk of the hours this week), posted the weekly community social media roundup to fb and ig stories, and created + scheduled posts for upcoming DEQ workshops and promoted Leadership Lincoln.
  • Project Work
      • Major Employers – Sarah continued to call and email local businesses for their employment numbers. 

 

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)