Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Economic Development Group membership re-elected two members and elected one new member of the Board of Directors during its annual membership meeting last week.
Joining the board during the meeting, held on March 21, is Bryan Kimball. Re-elected were Heather Search and Rob Mullins. All will serve three-year terms. Approximately a dozen members of SHEDG, including board members, attended the meeting, held at the Sweet Home Police Department Community Room.
SHEDG is a grassroots organization dedicated to leading efforts to enhance and promote thriving and diverse economic development in the Sweet Home community.
SHEDG owns and operates the Oregon Jamboree, an annual three-day camping and music festival first held in 1992 to raise funds for economic development projects after the listing of the northern spotted owl as an endangered species and its subsequent impact on the local timber industry.
Membership is open to the public for a $15 fee.
Additional board members include President Ron Moore, Wendi Melcher, Jared Cornell, Ginny Wood, Skip Marler and Michael Hall.
Kimball grew up in Sweet Home and attended college at the University of Idaho, earning a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.
He and his wife made their home in Sweet Home from 2000 to 2010, where they raised their two sons, before moving to Lebanon.
Kimball is the environmental health and safety director for the Murphy Company and is currently based at the veneer plant in Foster.
While living in Sweet Home, Kimball was a volunteer firefighter and Oregon Jamboree volunteer.
He serves on the National American Plywood Association Safety and Health Board.
He enjoys outdoor activities, such as golf, alpine skiing, off-road riding, hunting and fishing.
Search has lived in Sweet Home for more than 20 years and has been a licensed tax consultant and accountant for nearly 30 years in Lebanon.
She has served on the SHEDG board since March 2015 and has been treasurer since 2016, and is involved in a wide variety of other community activities as well.
Mullins is the director of business development for Samaritan Health Services.
He has been a member of the SHEDG board since June 2015. A Corvallis resident, Mullins said that he is an “adopted son of east Linn County.”
He said he sees tourism opportunities as a high traffic area and the last stop before the Sisters-Bend area. He said he believes SHEDG must sell this area to others, creating connections that will help bring economic growth to the Sweet Home area.
In his annual report to the membership, Moore said “a lot of positive things” are happening with the Jamboree this year.
“As the board and Robert’s (Shamek, festival director) management team works through our process, we’re making some changes that are making us stronger.”
The organization has changed the way it handles expenses, and it’s doing a lot better than it has been, Moore said.
Shamek reported that he is “100 percent done” signing headliners for the 2018 event – Brett Eldredge on Friday, Clint Black on Saturday and Brantley Gilbert on Sunday.
“There is a much different tone than last year,” he said during a report on the Jamboree.
The Jamboree last week published the lineup schedule, which has been moved later in the day to help combat the effects of hot August days that reached three digits last year – keeping people off the grounds earlier in the day, which adversely affected vendor sales.
Gates open at 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 3; 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 4; and 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, while headliners play at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 3 and Aug. 4 and 7 p.m. on Aug. 5, an hour later than in recent years. The schedule is growing this year, with a more formalized free concert schedule for Thursday, Aug. 2.
Shamek noted that the Jamboree also returns Cloverdayle, who are a “great” repeat act “that fans love.”
“For the past four years, we’ve never been above 60 percent of our budget for selling tickets (at this point in the year),” Shamek said. “We’re up to 64 percent,” even though ticket sales are down slightly.
The Jamboree hosted its eighth annual Mystery Concert two weeks ago, with Darryl Worley at the LaSells Stewart Center in Corvallis, announcing at the time his slot in the 2018 lineup, 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 5.
The Jamboree will host a spring concert May 17 at the LaSells Stewart Center, with three singer-songwriters performing.
“We’re really pleased with Robert’s doing,” Moore said, and the board’s goal is to be able to help with community projects. “We clearly support all organizations in our community any way we can.”
The Jamboree does a great job providing a place for nonprofits to sell products and raise funds during the Jamboree, Moore said.
The high school ice crew raised more than $24,000 last year, for example, Shamek said. The Jamboree gives a huge amount back to a variety of programs, helping people all over the community, the two said.
The increased span of activities keeps people in town spending money in the community longer, Moore said.
“We love the fact that the three-day weekend is turning into a four- or five-day weekend,” he said.