Greetings and welcome to Friday. What a gorgeous day out there!
Here’s our EDALC update for the week:
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Sarah’s Update:
This week was my first full time week serving you as the Project Manager! It was a great week, and I am so excited to start full time work. I started on Monday updating the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider on the EDALC website, afterwards, I read and signed my new contract! Later, I uploaded all this past year’s Board meeting minutes and agendas to a new folder to be added to the EDALC website. Later, I added more onto the September newsletter. Afterwards, I packed up some of our office for the move and updated the average rent of commercial buildings in Lincoln County. Next, I continued to edit the newsletter and edited the ART Toledo website. At the end of the day, I emailed the three remaining businesses I need employment numbers from for the major employers report.
On Tuesday, I worked on the Board meeting minutes from September’s meeting. I also talked with Mr. Lawson about aerial photos and then sent him some aerial photos I found for his property. Later, I worked on the ART Toledo website and researched some small commercial airports. Paul met with Ms. Ackerman about a potential hotel, and since we were all in the same room, we both got to talk about all the awesome resources and businesses that make Lincoln County great! Later, I packed up more of the office and worked on the ART Toledo website.
On Wednesday, I had my first Leadership Lincoln class at OCCC!
On Thursday, I went to the ART Toledo meeting in the morning and then worked on the website based on requests from that meeting. Next, Paul took me to my first Rotary lunch. Afterwards, I worked on the newsletter and called the remaining businesses again.
Today, I finished the Board meeting minutes and updated the opportunities for entrepreneurs slider. In addition, I worked on the ART Toledo website and took a behavior test for Leadership Lincoln. I got the report back immediately, and wow, it was very detailed and accurate! It was great to learn more about what motivates me professionally and how I best communicate with others. At the end of the day, I updated Oregon Prospector and added to the average lease rate of commercial land and buildings.
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Leslie’s Update:
Hello and Happy Friday!
This week I attended the quarterly Lincoln County Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) Meeting. These collaborative meetings bring healthcare representatives together to network and share projects that are forwarding the CHIP’s three work group efforts: Healthy Living, Mental Health Promotion and Community Resilience, and Substance Abuse Prevention. Every time this group gathers, it’s amazing to hear the wide range of programs happening in Lincoln County – I wish my mediocre note taking skills kept up with everything that was shared this week! If you’d like to join these quarterly meetings to network with healthcare community leaders and learn about efforts underway, please contact Callie Lamendola-Gilliam: clamendola-gilliam@co.lincoln.or.us for more information and an invite to the quarterly zoom meetings. You will also gain access to the CHIP Basecamp account where members share information and fliers about their CHIP-forwarding programs. See a few updates from this week’s meeting below, click the blue underlined links for fliers/more information.
After years of hearing about this incredible effort on the south side of the Yaquina River, I finally explored some trails with Kellly Perry (Lincoln County Parks) and Irene Bailey (Temenos Rising). The team working on the preserve sought new-to-the-site volunteers to give feedback on trail signage, and it was an amazing opportunity to explore the evolving network of trails and features that JoAnn and Bill Barton are creating. I encourage you to click on the Yakona website link to learn more about this project. It felt wonderful to explore a location that reminded me of my outdoor & experiential education roots.
Continue the deep dive with Leslie’s full report here (as always, so well worth the read):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNL3JWwkJCCdrM4urTqKgUF-HCXdP9AOLbaKKMiCjk4/edit?usp=sharing
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Paul’s Update:
Project Manager – This week, Sarah was promoted from Project Associate to Project Manager! She is now a full-time EDALC employee (remember, 50% of her salary is being covered by our CDS award). I’m so thrilled about the team we are building here, and we will certainly be needing her full time efforts in the months (and years) to come!! Huzzah!
Blue Economy – Mark Farley and I met with Dan Lara (OCCC) this morning to talk through the initial steps in the Dacum (Developing A CUrriculuM) process for some potential certification and micro-credential courses of study. This is part of our O2IH work to meet with industry leaders to determine what sorts of skills and credentials are needed for their upcoming workforce needs. I also signed off to get the first sub-project rolling: working with Sequoia Consulting to officially set up the O2IH 501(c)(3) nonprofit. And our new checking account is now active and funded – next week, it’ll be accessible within our online banking toolset (thanks to Carrie and Lesley for doing the sig cards!). Finally, I’m meeting with Nate and Conor of RAIN at the end of the day… to talk collaboration and also to see if we can untangle a little “territory stomping” they have been doing without permission.
Toledo – I had a working lunch today with Mayor Cross to talk about economic development issues in Toledo (and across the whole county). We also discussed ways in which we can help train their new RARE AmeriCorps member.
Waldport Office – We’re nearly done packing up the office. We’ll finish it up on Monday, and movers will take stuff over on Tuesday. We’ll still have some clean up to do and Habitat for Humanity will be coming on Thursday for the furniture we’ll be donating. We’ll “officially” occupy our offices on September 26th. We’re also working with Dave Price and the Waldport Chamber to host a Chamber breakfast and ribbon-cutting event at the new digs in late October (just verified: Tuesday, October 25th from 7:30am – 9am). Dave Price sent over a draft press release and I’ll do a few edits and we’ll all review before it goes out. We also received preliminary phone information and instructions on how to set up our new voicemail.
Broadband – Yesterday morning was our monthly BAT meeting. This session, we were joined by the team from Solarity, the consulting firm that was awarded the broadband planning grant for Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties (powered by an EDA grant). It sounds like they’ve got a great action plan in place. In early October, I’ll be joining other local stakeholders for our first advisory team meeting to help them prep for their upcoming work.
Newport Hotel – This week, I met with Isabel Ackerman of Brandt Hospitality Consulting – she’s working on some feasibility research on the potential new Newport hotel in South Beach. She’s not doing number crunching, but rather trying to understand the visitor experience and the travel patterns. We had a great conversation and she may (or already may have) reach out to a few of you for some numbers and data). She was doing Local Ocean that night and I recommended the grilled peach dish (since it’s seasonal) – she emailed back to say it was one of the best meals she’s ever had in her life. Wahoo local seafood!!
Progressive Chamber After Hours – Yesterday evening, the Newport, Lincoln City and Depoe Bay Chambers all got together and hosted a progressive Business After Hours event at Otter Rock, near Devil’s Punch Bowl. It was an awesome event that had attendees traveling through and learning about all the business there, from Mo’s to the Pura Vida Surf Shop. SO awesome to see this types of collaborations and celebrations!
Upcoming – Conference season will soon be here, and we’ve got a full schedule shaping up. In early October, I’ve been invited to be a panelist for the “Oregon and Pacific Northwest Aquaculture Development Conference” – I’ll be discussing business plan fundamentals. Mid month, I’ll be heading to North Bend to serve on a “High Impact Projects” panel for the Oregon Economic Development Association 2022 conference. Sarah will be heading to Yachats to attend the People’s Coast Summit.
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
In a some exciting news, my wife Susan will soon be joining the LCSD team as a communication specialist, writing and sharing district stories across multiple media formats. She’s pretty psyched! I told Karen yesterday that she’s now in charge (or partially in charge) of 75% of the Schuytemas in the state of Oregon 🙂
This may be old news to many of you, but was pretty cool to me:
https://boingboing.net/2022/09/15/enormous-smiley-face-appears-in-oregon-forest-every-fall.html
Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂