State lottery funds will be used to fund an economic coordinator for Sweet Home.
A four-county Regional Investment Board recommended approval of a $30,000 grant to the Sweet Home Economic Development Group to fund the position, with a match of $15,000. County boards of commissioners in Linn, Lane, Benton and Lincoln counties all approved the project, and SHEDG learned of the approval last week.
SHEDG Board Member Erland Erickson is drafting a job description for the position, SHEDG President Jean McKinney said. SHEDG will hire for the position as soon as it can, possibly advertising for the position as early as this week when the organization can get official commitments on the matching funds, some of which are pledged by the City of Sweet Home and SHEDG.
SHEDG is looking at posting the position in the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center. The person will help out with the Chamber, which is operating at this time without paid staff.
The economic development coordinator will develop business recruitment materials as well as put together survey work about who shops in Sweet Home and why they do.
The position also would coordinate between the Jamboree and local businesses, so businesses can profit more from the Oregon Jamboree, a three-day country music and camping festival held in August.
McKinney would like to see the position capture more of the tourists that pass through Sweet Home each year, she said. A 1994 study showed that 600,000 to 1 million tourists travel through town in a year, but Sweet Home does not seem to get many of them to stop.
That study recommended hiring an economic development coordinator to work on stopping traffic to shop in Sweet Home.
“I think it’s something we’ve needed for a long time,” McKinney said. “The fact that we can now hire a full-time person to do it, that’s wonderful.”