Greetings and happy Friday!

Here’s our update from another busy but exciting and rewarding week.

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Suzan’s week:

* Messages (staff, former director’s email & phone)
* Clean/disinfect office
* Post office/sort mail/mail checks
* Staff meetings
* Cut checks
* Bank – deposit memberships, enter in QuickBooks
* Update database & xls
* Various tasks for director
* Create media contact list
* Distribute board notice
* Submit timecard
* Fill out EDA credit card application
* Meet w/Tracy
* Pay rent
* Memo to M. Smith
* Friday list

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Paul’s week:

Meet and Greets – Still on a whirlwind “meet & greet” schedule. Had great conversations with Commissioners Hall and Jacobson at the County (Doug – I will follow up with you next week), Laura of the Depoe/Waldport Chambers, Ed Dreistadt and Alison Roberson in Lincoln City, several more board members (if you haven’t heard from me yet, next week I’ll be tracking you down), Rian Martinsen of BBSI and a new-to-Newport entrepreneur who is looking to design an exciting educational product and curriculum. I also discovered that our neighbor Paula is Paul Miranda, general manager of the Port of Newport – small world!

Rogue Enterprise Zone Application – Had a few more reach-outs to the state and CJ in the Assessor’s Office and was able to sign off on the approval of Rogue’s EZ application. It’s now off to the Assessor’s Office for their sign-off and then onto the state. Also queuing up a bit of reading and research next week on some potential EZ overlays and also the re-upping process to renew the zone certification in 2021.

Broadband – Attended another Broadband Action Team meeting. There will be an EDA application submitted to try to secure some CARES dollars for a multi-county broadband expansion feasibility study. There will also be a short turnaround grant application to the state (more CARES dollars) to secure more hotspots and funds to provide service (through 12/31/20) to assist students in the region who can’t access distance learning currently. That will be a Lincoln County only application – coordination on the short turnaround and different local needs makes that the way to go.

Lincoln County Recovery Plan – Had several email conversations with Wiley Thompson about our proposed projects that will be included in the recovery plan and how we’ll track and report out progress.

Facebook – I’m waiting to hear back from Misty Lambrecht at the SBDC – she may have been the one to actually set up our FB page and hopefully (knock on wood!) has admin access so we can start using that platform.

Press Release – I’ve put together a draft press release – already had feedback from Tracy (Tracy – I found out the News Times deadline is late Thursday). I’ve attached it here. Let me know any comments – I plan to send out to local news organizations early next week.

Cascades West – I attended the Cascades West Economic Development District board meeting on Thursday. Looks like they are hiring a team at the University of Oregon to update the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) plan.

Why Beef? – I couldn’t resist – I love that “why beef” is the nickname for the Yaquina Bay Economic Foundation! Attended their board meeting this week and it looks like I’m on the board of directors representing the EDALC. Can’t wait to research some past projects and assist with future work!

Oregon Coast Trails – Had a LONG FaceTime meeting with Jesse Dolin about the Lincoln County Oregon Coast Trails project, getting up to speed on past efforts and goals. We feel like we’ve got a solid plan going forward, but we’ll reconvene our conversation on Monday afternoon and then I’ve got a few things to run past Commissioner Hunt and hopefully we’ll be off to the races at full speed.

EDALC Internet – Curt and I were on-hand today for the Spectrum internet install and service upgrade. Unfortunately, they couldn’t complete the task – the cable running into the office is dead and the tech couldn’t find where it came out. I’ve got a call into the landlord – they are either looking for wiring schematics or else permission to make a new cable run (which will need to be done by an electrician since it’ll go through the foundation). More info as we get it. <this just in: no schematics or plans for the building, says owner. But we have authorization to call in an electrician – should we do that? Let me know.>

Strategic Planning – I’ve started the first phase of my strategic planning brainstorming process (goal: a unified economic development strategic plan for all of Lincoln County). I’m beginning the process by creating a mind map in MindNode – it helps me to visualize areas of focus, priorities, interconnections and such. I’ll be spending a few weeks in this mode – shuffling things around, adding, removing, until I start to see a pattern emerge.

Our New URL – Curt and I have had several email conversations and a good, meaty discussion today on our new URL and website direction.

Thinking of the goal (and primary audiences) of our new website, I see it as attraction – business attraction, lifestyle entrepreneur attraction (you can also insert “remote workers” here), and site selector information. I see the secondary audience as our existing business community and governmental partners.

To me, that means definite hard economic info, county/community profiles, incentive catalog and such – but that should be a drill-down (via menu). At the surface, it should paint an active and exciting picture of doing business here (along with the benefits of living here).

To that end, I think a “recruiting worthy” URL/domain, plus visually impactful surface pages is the way to go.

So on the domain name – I’ve probably tried out over 50 so far – some close to winners, but not quite there. After our discussion today, Curt and I want to share with you what we think is the winner domain name (remember – this is not an organization name change, but a URL and branding change):

BusinessLincolnCounty.com

It’s active, informative, easy to remember, riffs off of business Oregon and is available. Please let me know your thoughts on this – if you’re jazzed, then I’ll grab the URL ASAP and we can officially begin the adoption process and website project.

Have a great weekend and stay safe and wear those masks! Now off to make some Friday chicken wings!

Cheers,

-Paul 🙂