Greetings – but I won’t say “happy Friday” today – with the wildfires out there and the anniversary of 9/11, it is a somber day. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy and hydrated out there.

I still remember following the events of 9/11 like it was yesterday – it’s when I had my software company and our whole team listened in horror together as the day unfolded (one of my artists had an uncle who worked in the World Trade Center, but was able to get out).

Later, I met a fascinating economic development colleague in the cornfields – he was an investor who worked at the WTC and the events so shook him that he moved out of New York and did a career pivot to economic development. I always remember his deep, scratchy voice – made so from breathing in the fiberglass fibers as he fled the collapses.

Here’s our (slightly shorter) update for this week –

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Suzan’s week:

None from Suzan this week – Internet and phone was out on Tuesday, and Suzan sheltered in place the rest of the week due to the poor air quality. Hope to have “the band back together” next week.

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Paul’s week:

Meetings and such – Many of this weeks meetings were canceled or rescheduled, so have a busy couple of weeks coming up!

Reaching Out – I reached out to our North County folks as well as the public information office of the County to see if there was any help I can lend – doing a little info sharing for the Lincoln City Chamber and stand “on deck” to assist the county office over the weekend if need be.

Website Project – With a pile of meetings cancelled, I was able to log some solid hours on the website – a few late work days next week and it might be ready for an initial read through. I also secured the “dot-org” version of our URL (businesslincolncounty.org) and got that set up to forward to our new URL, so we’re covered on the two key domain name fronts.

BoD Bios and Pics – I still need a number of short biographies and headshot pictures for our website (thanks to those who have already sent off the info or links to where I can find it). Remember: no mug shots against cinder block walls! 🙂

Enterprise Zone – I had several communications this week with Art Fish at the State about the process and timeline to re-up our Lincoln County EZ next year – and also to see about adjusting its border to encompass Yachats (something I talked with the mayor about). I have some research to do, plus just received a spreadsheet of EZ abatements to review and compare against our files (to make sure our records are in sync with the State’s).

Stakeholder Input on ED Priorities – Doug Hunt, Greg Wolf and I had a very productive meeting this morning to discuss holding virtual stakeholder economic development priority setting sessions via Zoom. We’ll plan on four meetings with focused attendance. Commissioner Hunt will reach out to Wayne to touch base with the other commissioners and get a sense of stakeholders to invite (we have a straw list started and discussed attendees at length today). I’ve got some tech research to do on how to either load up Zoom polls in real time or use another tool to “vote with colored dots” in a virtual setting – we’ll get it sorted out, and I’ll keep you all posted.

Have a the best weekend possible and our hopes and prayers go out to everyone who has had to evacuate (and to those whose homes have been lost or are at risk). Hopefully the mild winds and higher humidity allow firefighters to get a handle on the local fire (that seemed the optimistic word from the fire chief at the Governor’s press briefing today – at least for the smaller fires). Thanks for all that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all.

Cheers,

-Paul 🙂