Greetings and welcome to a holiday-weekend Friday! Looks to be a gorgeous weekend – but then again, Susan told me the weather forecast said zero chance of rain today and I looked out of the office window to see it raining. I love how the coast keeps you guessing!
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Cindy’s week:
* Assisted in finalizing event plans
* Co-hosted member meeting
* Managed Facebook page
* Created and sent feedback survey for event/annual meeting
* Started research on largest employers in LC
* Started work on the overarching EZ re-designation application
* Work on May BoD minutes
* Rearranged part of the office when Paul wasn’t looking (it took him a few hours to notice!)
Paul rebuttal: Yup – like when someone shaves off a mustache, and it takes you a week to notice, but it’s a definite improvement, so Huzzah!
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Paul’s week:
Welcome New Directors – We’d like to welcome our two new EDALC directors: Dr. Karen Gray (Superintendent, Lincoln County School District) and Paula Miranda (General Manager, Port of Newport). Thank you so much for joining our cause and supporting the good work we do – I look so forward to collaborating in the future and learning from your wisdom. Next week, we’ll be shooting out a digital “getting started” packet, plus we’ll do introductions at next week’s BoD meeting.
Also a hearty and loud Huzzah! (used twice in one update!) to our returning directors: Birgitte, Bob, Linda and Tracy. Thank you so much for your continued service and dedication to EDALC!
Enterprise Zone Re-Designation – This week, Paula and I talked through the timing for the support resolution for the Port of Newport (June 22). On Wednesday evening, I presented to the Toledo City Council meeting. I gave them an overview of how the incentive tool works. Cindy prepared a resolution for them to review (with the hotel rider) and our recommendation was to use Toledo’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) as their “zone territory”. They vote on the resolution in mid June. Next week, before our BoD meeting, Cindy and I will be running the required EZ information meeting (via Zoom) for non-sponsoring taxing units.
2020-21 Annual Report – Cindy and I wrapped up the final version of the report (thanks for the feedback!) and it’s on our website on the About Us page: https://businesslincolncounty.com/about-us/
Website (Membership Page) – We completed our update to the Membership page on the website. The previous copy was based heavily on the old website, and it seemed like there was some confusion between actual member benefits and what EDALC does as an organization. That’s now clarified and renewals and new members can pay directly online. Cindy did a little research on other similar member pages and on-line pay portal and ours stacks up near the top. Here’s a link if you want to check it out: https://businesslincolncounty.com/membership/
ART Toledo – The committee came together in Toledo this week for a long roll-up-your-sleeves meeting, reviewing applications from building owners and business owners for Main Street beautification and outdoor dining funds. We had quite a number of applicants, and tackled some very tough questions (like “should a building owner who has been negligent in building maintenance be rewarded with a beautification grant to do what should have been regular maintenance?”). After several hours of deliberations, we were able to allocate $49,000 in grant funds for building painting, repair, new awnings, street beautification and outdoor dining areas. That’s going to make a HUGE difference for Main Street. Next up will be allocating mural grant funds.
A reminder from last week – the first “Art, Oysters and Brews” event is happening in Toledo on June 5th (next Saturday) from noon until 5. It looks like I’ll be playing an hour-long set of Depression-era acoustic blues at the event – gotta get out the old National resonator and practice this weekend! Here’s a link to the event info online: https://arttoledo.com/?page_id=848
Here’s a link an article that came out in the News Times (we’ve got a quote in there!):
https://www.newportnewstimes.com/arts_and_entertainment/art-oysters-and-brews/article_2fc4c668-bf21-11eb-a7f6-47109f2ce0cc.html
(Spoiler alert: most of that article comes from the press release I wrote and Cindy sent out)
COGs (Council of Governments) Grant Program – As I mentioned last week, the Cascade West COGs will be launching a grant program that is focused on project work related to economic development outcomes. Oddly enough, only governmental units can apply (though the grant is trying to make projects happen that are usually done by EDOs, Chambers and SBDCs) – and there has been some strong push back from organizations like ours – but for this round, that’s how it’ll play out, so we all have to find “buddy governmental units” to apply with. We’ll be submitting two grant applications and our “buddies” will be the City of Newport and the City of Toledo (even though the projects are county-wide).
Annual Meeting – This week we had our first event and annual meeting since 2019 – on Zoom rather than in person, but I’ll call it quite successful. We had 23 attendees and all seemed engaged and interested, and the annual meeting portion went very smoothly. We also heard a surprising level of enthusiastic support of the work we are doing and the results we are achieving. I was even blushing at one point when Dave Price got going! Thanks so much for the help from Curt, Michael and Tracy in getting us up to speed and prepped for the annual meeting. And a huge thanks to Cindy for her hard work on Jalene’s portion of the event, getting the word out and pulling together a feedback survey for the attendees. While it was a strong event, I can’t wait until we can do it in person (and also do some meaningful networking – that’s so hard on Zoom!).
Meeting Reminder:
June Board of Directors Meeting:
Time: Jun 3, 2021 03:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting (same Zoom link as past BoD meetings)
https://zoom.us/j/9178104987?pwd=bVJDN0VlUEM3aG9EaFhJQUZjcDJHUT09
Meeting ID: 917 810 4987
Passcode: 0NyksK
Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all. Have a wonderful L O N G weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂