Greetings and welcome to Friday! Also, welcome to the gateway to Memorial Day weekend – a trifecta of a holiday: a holiday of remembrance, a much-needed three-day-weekend and the kick-off of our summer tourist season!
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Sarah’s Update:
No update from Sarah this week – she had a medical procedure earlier this week. All went fine and she’s recovering at home now and should be back at it soon. Get well Sarah!
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Paul’s Update:
Blue Economy – This week, Mark Farley and I met with the CCD Business Development Corporation – they serve as the south coast Economic Development District. It’s part of our first-pass connecting with coastal Blue Economy players. I also met with our rep from the Small Business Administration to discus the logistics of our Congressionally Directed Spending. In typical Federal fashion, I was provided with our digital “paperwork” on Tuesday morning, with a small note that said it is to be completed by June 1. So that’s my life for today and Tuesday, but we’ll get it done and submitted.
Newport Chamber – This week, the hiring committee started initial interviews with the top candidates for the Director of the Newport Chamber. We’ll finish up first round interviews next week – it looks like there are indeed some strong candidates.
County-wide Strategic Plan – Mayor Cross and I had a working lunch on Wednesday, laying out the groundwork and approach we’ll be taking to developing a grass-roots county-wide economic development strategic plan, focusing on higher level strategic objectives and key performance indicators. We’ve already received some strong buy-in on the process and Rod will champion the efforts and pull in the key stakeholders (as a working group evolving out of our monthly SBDC COVID calls that Dave Price has been running), and EDALC will work on developing those objectives with the group (and we’ve already got a great start).
Newport – Leslie Palotas and I wrapped up our formal proposal for a grant funded position at EDALC (with funds coming from the Ford Family Foundation through Newport – with the FFF’s blessing) and submitted our proposal to Spencer and Peggy at the city.
CO.STARTERS – On Tuesday evening, we sponsored the graduation ceremony for the first-ever Lincoln County CO.STARTERS cohort. It was a ten-week entrepreneurial and start-up course – heavy on involved and engaged homework. The course is a great first step in validating and market-testing a business concept. Thirteen folks participated in the ceremony that we held at the Waldport Interpretive Center (thanks to Tom at the Waldport Chamber). As part of our ROI grant funds, we sponsored the program and covered the tuition for all participants.
Regards to Rural Conference – Birgitte, Sarah and I attended the Rural Development Initiatives Regards to Rural Conference in Pendleton last Thursday through Sunday. What an amazing event that was 100% sold out (at 350 in person attendees)! It was at the Wild Horse casino’s convention center. They had a great array of programs, panels and speakers, including a keynote talk from a rural demographer who challenged us to question the “tried and true” rural narrative and presented some pretty eye-opening stats that had all of our heads spinning – still processing the implications and opportunities. Sarah and I got to attend as part of our ROI participation, and it was great to connect with the other ROI communities. It was also wonderful (and a bit strange) to be back at an in-person event of that scale (the last one I attended was in October of 2019!). And that Columbia River Gorge drive – wowza!
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
Another reminder – next Thursday is our June EDALC Board of Directors meeting AND required annual meeting. Here is a link to the Zoom:
Time: June 2, 2022 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all.
Have a wonderful, long weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂