Sean C. Morgan
City Council members agreed to renew an agreement with other local cities and the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network to pay $7,124.76 over the next fiscal year to keep RAIN operating in the area.
Caroline Cummings, Oregon RAIN venture catalyst and executive director, told council members that her organization has been partnering with Sweet Home and seven other cities to support entrepreneurship in the area.
Sweet Home last year joined with Lebanon, Brownsville, Philomath, Harrisburg, Halsey, Adair Village and Monroe, known as the Linn-Benton Collaborative, in a memorandum of understanding to secure a $70,000 Business Oregon Grant to support RAIN with a venture catalyst.
Venture Catalyst Corey Wright’s job is to connect local budding entrepreneurs to the resources they need to build successful and lasting businesses through mentorship, funding, education and other support as needed, she and Wright said.
Cummings said RAIN has been working on creating asset maps for Sweet Home and other communities, and has been holding a variety of events here and elsewhere in the area represented by the participants in the MOU.
Wright has held approximately half a dozen events with potential start-ups during the last year and said he expects to maintain that pace in the coming year.
He and Cummings said that economic development is a process and the process needs to be deliberate and patient.
“One thing I want to emphasize is how this type of work is long-term investment,” said Cummings, who noted that both she and Wright have been successful entrepreneurs in their own right.
Wright told the council he is hosting a learning game, “Last Founders Standing,” in Sweet Home on the evening of June 12, at the Linn-Benton Community College Sweet Home Center, 1161 Long St.
Participants will form teams of two to four people and will be given a fictional start-up idea. The game facilitator will guide the teams through 10 challenges and decisions that real entrepreneurs face. Each phase teaches an important start-up concept and allows teams to earn points. Everyone wins something, Wright said.
“We’ve done this in four cities. Everybody had fun with it.”
He said RAIN’s focus is to build a culture of entrepreneurship, which is essential, not just locally but nationwide, “if we want the country to advance.”
Wright said he also is working on a micro-grant program that would provide funding for needs like laptops and website development – things traditional banks or venture capitalists won’t fund, but are often necessary to a startup.
“We’re trying to create solutions,” he said.
Cummings urged the council to consider return on investment in RAIN’s activities.
She said the $7,124.76 investment connects Sweet Home to a regional entrepreneurial support system in which participants “feel like they’re connected to a mentor” and that often those relationships extend beyond local geographical boundaries.
“We’re reducing boundaries for entrepreneurs in your community,” he said. “We’re keeping people in Sweet Home or bringing people in from the outside area. That’s a return on investment.”
The city’s contribution, she said, goes directly toward funding Wright’s position.
Wright told councilors in the initial year he’s had interaction with three people in Sweet Home, and to a lesser extent, with others. One, he said, is moving forward.
Cummings said RAIN’s focus is on “anybody who wants to create products to sell nationally or internationally.”
She said those types of start-ups typically take about five years before they’re ready to hire employees, which, she said, would be an indication of success.
“At the end of five years, if we can find two manufacturing businesses in each of these communities who are employing three to five people, that would be success.”
She said RAIN’s activities also include visits to high schools to talk about entrepreneurship.
In response to a question from Councilor Lisa Gourley regarding how they get the word out, Wright said he has used outreach events and media coverage.
“Every event had attendees,” he said.
Community support is key, he said.
“The more you guys, the Chamber of Commerce, engage, the more successful we are,” he said. “It’s critical that we have you guys’ buy-in and support. Where the community is really engaged, we see a lot more success.”
The council voted 6-1, with James Goble voting no, to approve the expenditure and MOU.
Goble said he voted no based on answers to his questions. Of about 9,000 people in Sweet Home, 42 had showed up to training sessions, with one that had gone to the next level but had not gone any further.
“Unfortunately, I was shown no real proof by RAIN that after a year-plus that $7,000 was a smart investment for the city,” Goble said. “The vote to give them appriximately $7,124 was not justified.”
In other action, the council:
n Held a public hearing to consider a 2019 Community Development Block Grant from the Oregon Business Development Department for the Linn County Housing Rehabilitation Partnership Program.
Liza Newcomb, housing rehabilitation manager for Corvallis-based Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, told the council that the city is eligible to apply for a maximum of $2.5 million out of $12 million that will be awarded to Oregon non-metropolitan cities and counties this year.
She said the state has identified mobile home parks as “a critical housing option for low- and moderate-income homeowners. Eligible homeowners can get up to $100,000 in grant funds, in addition to up to $400,000 in loans, she said.
Former mayor and longtime Budget Committee Chair Dave Holley urged the council to make sure adequate staffing is available to administer grant money.
“Where we’ve run into trouble before was administration – who could administer, help people walk through the process,” Holley said.
“As good as programs were before, when we ran out of people to take care of paperwork and all of that, we were unable to utilize what was available.”
Newcomb told the council that WNHS is a “sub-grantee” and that the organization has been handling CBG funds successfully for 12 years.
n Approved resolutions asserting that the city provides services necessary to receive $344,846 in state revenues and that it wants those revenues, per requirements in state law. Such city services include police protection, water and sewer, street maintenance and more.
n Presented Holley with a certificate and the first-ever City Hall commemorative coin for his work as Budget Committee chair.
In making the presentation, Mayor Greg Mahler noted that serving on city committees or the City Council, “most of it is a thankless job.
“Mr. Holley’s knowledge and experience is going to be surely missed. He has a passion and commitment to this community that has never wavered.”
Council member Dave Trask added, semi-jokingly, “We’ll see you again next year.”
n Approved a revision to the city’s employee policies that would allow new employees, who are already participating in the health insurance program used by the city, to forego an otherwise mandatory 30-day waiting period.
A second revision restores language left out of the 2019 policy that clarifies procedure on how the city conducts salary studies.
n Approved revisions to the city’s Youth Advisory Committee bylaws, which advises City Council members on matters of interest.
The revisions include changing eligibility requirements for two of the seven positions on the committee to include members who are in seventh through 12th grades, rather than limiting them to seventh- or eighth-graders.
Councilwoman Lisa Gourley, who oversees the YAC, said that it has proved difficult to get some junior high-aged members to meetings on a consistent basis. She said the revisions were made based on suggestions and input from YAC members.
Also, elections of officers will be held in May to begin filling positions vacated by departing seniors, with no deadline for new members to join.