Business Oregon News

September 2009

Partners
I am growing more optimistic about our state's economic prospects lately as federal stimulus dollars begin to flow and help Oregon businesses both retain and create new jobs for Oregonians.

As you may have heard, the federal government recently announced its stimulus battery and electric vehicle grants and selected Oregon as one of five test markets nationwide for electric vehicle deployment and the development of charging station networks. Specifically, Nissan and the firm eTec received approximately $99 million to locate and deploy a fleet of up to 1,000 Nissan EVs here in Oregon and to build, operate and analyze the use of a network of approximately 2,500 charging stations that will be installed at homes and businesses. The Nissan EVs are scheduled for deployment in the fall of 2010 and installation of the charging stations is scheduled to begin next summer.

The deployment of vehicles and infrastructure will focus initially on the Portland-metro area and then expand to other areas in Oregon, likely including Eugene, Salem and Corvallis.

In other stimulus funding: Johnson Controls, Inc., partnering with Entek of Lebanon, received $299 million to fund the production of nickel-cobalt-metal battery cells and packs, as well as production of battery separators (produced by Entek) for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Albany-based Oregon Freeze Dry—which manufactures raw materials for energy storage devices—is part of a partnership led by EnerG2, Inc., which received $21 million for the production of high energy density nano-carbon for ultracapacitors.

Cascade Sierra Solutions of Coburg received $22.2 million to fund the deployment of truck stop electrification infrastructure at 50 sites along major U.S. Interstate corridors and provide 5,450 rebates for truck modification to idle reduction technologies.

In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced plans signed a 20-year lease to move their Pacific Research Fleet and its new west coast headquarters in Newport beginning in 2011. This deployment will mean that 175 crew members and 75 support staff and their families will relocate to the Oregon Coast. The positive economic impact of this decision cannot be underestimated and reflects the hard work of local economic development and port officials as well as several state legislators.

Finally, some good news from a hard-hit industry sector—RV manufacturing: Drew Industries Inc., of White Plains, N.Y., announced plans to open a recreational vehicle window and door manufacturing plant in Pendleton employing approximately 70 employees. At the same time, the company’s McMinnville subsidiary—Zieman Manufacturing, announced it will add 35 new jobs as part of an expansion of its production chassis for RVs and manufactured homes.

All in all, not a bad month for our state and I remain convinced more good news is on the way.

I also want to take this opportunity to urge you all to register and attend OEDA '09 Mission: Business Oregon. The annual conference will be held October 12-13 at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville.

The conference will highlight the most innovative practices and programs around the state. Including:

• LEAN High Performance 101 Training
• New State Incentives
• Creative Financing
• The New Supply Oregon Program
• Measuring Your Organization’s Success
• Regional Employment Lands Project

For more information go to: http://www.oeda.biz/training/b2b2009/b2b2009.html. I look forward to seeing you at this exciting conference.


News and Updates
A reminder that the Oregon Business Development Commission will be meeting at 8 a.m., Friday, September 18, 2009, at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, The Dalles, in the “Class Room.”


Infrastructure Finance Authority
Under the newly restructured Business Oregon model, our community development activities are now performed by the new Infrastructure Finance Authority directed by Lynn Schoessler. The Governor will name six of the nine Infrastructure Finance Authority Board members and we have been in contact with the constituent groups identified in HB 2152 that represent the future membership composition of the board. We have received names for the Governor’s consideration from the cities, counties, ports and special districts. We also are receiving names of municipal finance and economic development interest individuals.

Early in September we hope to present the candidates for the Governor’s consideration and hope to have the Governor’s appointments named by the middle of the month. The State Treasurer also names a member of the board and similarly, we hope to have that individual named by mid-September as well.

The Senate President has identified that the Senate representative to the board will be Senator Frank Morse from Albany. We are awaiting the naming of the House member of the Board. (Senate and House members of the Board are nonvoting members.)

We hope to have the first meeting of the IFA Board in early October.


Community Development Block Grant Workshops Scheduled
Please consider attending the first 2009 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) public works, water and wastewater project development workshops. Each workshop will be a half day. The workshop will provide a detailed review of the CDBG program and associated federal requirements, as they relate to public works water and wastewater system projects. The workshop is free to all attendees, but pre-registration is required. For more information or questions please contact Mary Baker by phone at 541-882-1340 or by email. All attendees must register by no later than October 7, 2009.

Dates and Locations

October 15, 2009
Salem Employment Auditorium
875 Union Street NE
Salem, OR 97311

October 21, 2009
Justice Center
Jefferson Conference Room
4700 NW Pioneer Place
Pendleton, OR 97801

November 4, 2009
Rogue Valley Council of Governments
Jefferson Conference Room
155 N First St.
Central Point, OR 97502

In addition, Business Oregon-IFA will hold full and half-day CDBG training workshops in Salem on September 15-16 and in Pendleton on September 17-18 for city and county officials and grant administrators as well as CDBG-funded construction contractors. For more information please visit our Web site. The registration deadline is September 7.


CDBG Stimulus Awards; Quarterly Funding Announced
We recently awarded $3.56 million in federal recovery dollars to three Oregon communities under the Community Development Block Grant program.

The federal grants, funded from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), will help construct a senior citizens center in Silverton, improve the wastewater system in the city of Haines and provide a new drinking water reservoir for the Hebo Water Authority in Tillamook County.

The Recovery Act grant of $1.2 million will allow Silverton to construct a 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot senior center with modern and efficient commercial kitchen, larger dining area and offices for center staff. The city, in partnership with Silverton Area Seniors, currently serves the city's senior population in a leased 800-square-foot space located downtown. The existing facility is too small and not conducive for redevelopment.

The city of Haines in northeastern Oregon will use $1.25 million in recovery funds to make mandated improvements to its wastewater system in accordance with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality standards. The improvements include: wastewater treatment and storage improvements, effluent disposal system replacement and irrigation pumping, improved piping and valve repairs, dike repairs, new chlorination system and primary lift station upgrades.

The Hebo Joint Water and Sanitary Improvement Authority, located in Tillamook County, currently has inadequate and unsafe drinking water storage and treatment. Currently, the authority utilizes three, welded steel tanks salvaged from the Mt. Hebo Air Force Base which together provide 133,333 gallons of storage, but are estimated to be over 40 years old. The $1.216 million in recovery grant dollars will fund construction of a new 310,000-gallon reservoir, chemical feed building and replace equipment, a transmission line, pressure reducing valves, as well as water meters.


Community Development Block Grants 2nd Quarter 2009 Project Summaries
In addition to the Recovery Act Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) awards, Infrastructure Finance Authority also announced regular quarterly CDBG awards totaling $2.39 million to six Oregon communities.

City of Klamath Falls—$800,000
The city of Klamath Falls is proposing to assist Klamath Family Head Start acquire the building they currently lease in order to make improvements. Acquisition of the building will lower their monthly operating expenses and allow for further improvements. The city will combine the $800,000 grant with $1,419,500,000 of matching funds to acquire the property.

City of Amity—$1.0 Million
The city of Amity owns and operates a municipal wastewater treatment which has exceeded the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The DEQ approved wastewater facilities plan identifies several improvements needed to comply with the NPDES permit. The city will combine the $1,000,000 grant with $406,160 in matching funds to design and construct these necessary improvements.

City of Glendale—$54,000
The city of Glendale operates a municipal wastewater treatment and collection, which receives an excess amount of infiltration and inflow which has caused numerous National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit violations. The city of Glendale previously applied for and received a $96,000 CDBG grant for the completion of a wastewater facilities plan needed to fulfill a requirement mandated by Oregon DEQ. The city will combine this $54,000 grant increase with $1,000 of locally committed funds to complete the environmental report and geotechnical analysis on the wastewater treatment plant site.

City of Richland—$101,200
The city owns and operates a municipal non-discharging lagoon and collection system operated under a Water Pollution Control Facilities (WPCF) permit. The original wastewater system was constructed in the 1970's. The pumps are old requiring continual maintenance and the lagoons are near capacity. The city needs a wastewater facilities plan to develop recommendations of upgrading and improving the system. The city will use this award to procure the services of a professional engineering firm to prepare a DEQ approved wastewater facilities plan.

City of Port Orford—$134,309
The city of Port Orford has a small water impoundment area on the North Fork of Hubbard Creek. This water source is inadequate in meeting the needs of the city residents, especially during the summer months when the creek runs dry and the water level with the impoundment decreases. This project is part of the city's approved water master plan. The city needs to complete the preliminary engineering for a larger impoundment area in the same location. The city will combine the award with $62,591 in matching funds to complete the necessary engineering work.

City of Rogue River—$300,000
The city has requested the award to fund improvements to their downtown plaza including streets, lighting, curbs, gutters, sidewalks and tree wells. The proposed project will complete improvements identified in the Downtown Conceptual Design in the city's Revitalization Plan prepared by Oregon Downtown Development Association.

Business, Innovation and Trade
As part of our agency’s new strategic focus and our commitment to change the way we do business, the Business Innovation and Trade team will roll out more than a half dozen key initiatives over the next 18 months. These initiatives will focus on our newly indentified key industry sectors and will be presented to the Business Development Commission this month.

Here is a brief description of five these initiatives:

Wind Energy Supply Chain Project
This project, led by Amanda Lowthian, with Chad Freeman as the industry expert, will link Oregon companies to opportunities in the Wind Energy industry by building out the supply chain for the 9,000 electrical, mechanical and structural parts that make up a wind turbine with an initial emphasis on replacement parts, service and repair.

Already, staff helped bring together area firms at the NW Energy Summit in June to discuss industry collaboration. Other project strategies will include:

• build and manage a robust industry database and to facilitate efficient and effective communication with industry and firms about immediate opportunities relative to industry growth and individual buyer-supplier relationships;
• forge partnerships with other organizations interested in strengthening and growing Oregon’s wind industry via supplier-buyer matchmaking; support the industry’s consideration and possible establishment of a Northwest Wind Industry Coalition;
• research options and secure necessary technical assistance to deconstruct and profile materials requirements and certifications for 9,000 wind turbine component parts plus services and repairs;
• secure a consultant to perform onsite assessments and vetting of potential new suppliers to the wind energy industry;
• understand and define the needs of utilities and independent power providers for the purpose of informing the supply chain build-out;
• And consider imposing first-source supplier agreement for Oregon products when state incentives and packages are offered to firms or new wind farms established.

High Tech Extension Service Project
This project will be led by John Doussard and will strive to connect Oregon businesses with the R&D resources available through Oregon InC’s three Signature Research Centers—ONAMI, OTRADI and BEST—and their roster of faculty scientists at the state’s four research universities. We also will work to connect Business Oregon staff with the resources available through the SRCs and enhance the sustainability of the SRCs by diversifying their business and funding model.

Project strategies will include:

• Creation of external awareness through marketing materials; SRC outreach; integration with trade show and other external efforts; and
• Development of connections between state university Business schools and SRCs.

The effectiveness of this approach has already been proven in the partnership between McMinnville’s NW UAV Propulsion Systems and research scientists associated with ONAMI. The private company, which manufactures drone aircraft, needed help developing a new fuel injection part for their product and ONAMI researchers were able to adapt existing technology to a new and successful use in their products.

Wood Products and Green Building
This project, to be led by Amanda Lowthian, with Chris Claflin as the industry lead, will focus on the Wood Products and Green Building industry sectors with the goal of growing additional markets for the wood products industry by linking its supply with the growing demand for green building products.

In addition, the initiative will aim to grow the number of wood products firms producing and/or selling green-certified products and services; provide international wood products export training for producers and continue the close collaboration with forestry industry representatives and sister agencies to maximize economic development results for wood and forest product firms.

Clean Tech
This project, led by Mark Brady, Chad Freeman and Bruce Laird, aims to build on the success and lessons learned from the previously employed Team Oregon approach to attracting solar energy companies to Oregon. The project will create an effective, collaborative marketing team, using solar as a pilot and source of lessons learned, that will leverage resources and maximize results from trade shows.

The project will develop a refined strategy for how to use the Team Oregon model more effectively in the future and looking for opportunities to apply the model to sectors other than solar. Specific steps in the project include:

• delineating Business Oregon’s internal strategy for solar recruitment;
• collecting feedback from partners in previous efforts;
• synthesizing lessons learned;
• designing and vetting a refined model of Clean Tech/Team Oregon; and
• laying out a roadmap of when & where to implement this new model of Clean Tech/Team Oregon.

Supply Oregon
The purpose of the project, led by Lisa Ansell, is to enable and help build Oregon supply chain networks to help companies find suppliers in Oregon. We will support the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition (PNDC)’s initiative to build a Pacific Northwest version of the Connectory database, which will contain detailed online profiles of Oregon companies’ current and potential technical, product-line and staff capabilities. The database will have a searchable web-based interface that will provide customers with up-to-date information about Oregon companies and help other companies looking for cost-effective and high-quality suppliers in Oregon.

The expected results of the project include:

• Staff, economic development partners and companies will have access to a robust, searchable database that centralizes and links information about Oregon companies’ technical, product-line and staff capabilities;
• Business Oregon will have an additional tool in our business development toolbox that we can use to establish proactive partnerships with local economic development partners to identify companies for profiling;
• Staff will be able to use the tool to identify and broker new supply chain connections on behalf of Oregon businesses.

Finally, I traveled to southern Oregon this week as part of our continuing effort to visit different areas of the state to highlight our successes and discuss the needs of our business and public sector customers. I was joined on the trip by IFA Executive Director Lynn Schoessler as well as other key members from the Business Oregon and IFA teams. We held two successful forums for local business leaders in Medford and Roseburg; attended a board meeting of our partner Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc.; and visited the editorial boards of the daily newspapers in Roseburg and Medford.

Thanks,



Tim McCabe