Representatives of Brownsville, Lebanon and Sweet Home spent Thursday learning about Sweet Home and its history as part of an effort to begin looking regionally at the three cities in economic development.
The group is calling itself the Cascade Gateway.
“It’s comprised of representatives of Brownsville, Lebanon and Sweet Home,” City Manager Craig Martin said. “The theory being that the more we know about each other and each other’s communities, the better we’re able to collaborate and work together.”
The group has already been involved in a couple of regional issues, including the effort to have the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training site its new police academy in Sweet Home. Members of the group wrote letters in support of it. The area overall would see a traffic increase and probably improved commerce.
The group also is beginning to work on declaring a scenic byway along Highway 20, which would put the route on state brochures and attract tourism to the area.
The new group’s roots date back to meetings with the Oregon Economic Development Department with its suggestions to begin looking at issues regionally, Martin said. The governor also has placed that emphasis on state agencies.
With a regional mindset, a business may consider locating in one community, Martin said. That community may not fit its needs, but another close by may. If community members know something about their neighbors, they could direct interested businesses to another community close by.
Before the communities started talking together, one community might not meet the needs of a prospective business, and that business would just move on, Martin said. Representatives of each community are going through a 10-month leadership training program to learn about each community’s culture, history, perspectives and challenges “so if opportunities come up, we’ll be in a better situation to help each other.”
The Lebanon Chamber of Commerce was largely behind the program and the formation of the Cascade Gateway, Martin said. “Cascade Gateway is an ad hoc name that the group has adopted to define the area and communities of Brownsville, Lebanon and Sweet Home.”
Martin sees Cascade Gateway as a future opportunity to develop a marketing plan, recruit businesses and improve the East Linn County Community.
The group has already toured and discussed government facilities, and last week history was the topic. Coming up next month are visits to local businesses in the communities “to see what’s ticking in their world,” Martin said.
The Cascades West Council of Governments is generally project or task specific, Martin said. Cascade Gateway is looking more generally at things developing relationships to take more advantage of opportunities as they come up.
“The value of this is somewhat intangible at this point,” Martin said. “We’re developing relationships that in the future will lead to tangible benefits.”