Wednesday, June 1, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
EDCO: Loan program
is under consideration
in Sisters
Continued from page 1
focus on helping companies
do the following:
• Move: They guide
employers from outside
Central Oregon through the
process of relocating their
business locally. EDCO acts
as a resource for regional
data, incentives, talent, site
selection, and more.
• Start: They mentor and
advise scalable young com-
panies from concept to exit
on issues such as access to
capital, critical expertise, and
strategy.
• Grow: They partner with
local traded-sector compa-
nies to help them grow and
expand. Traded-sector com-
panies are those that pro-
duce goods and services for
markets outside the region in
which they are produced.
Forty-six public and busi-
ness leaders from across
the tri-county area serve as
EDCO’s board of directors.
The paid staff includes Lee
and five staff members who
handle the marketing and
communication, membership,
operations, and so on in their
main office in Bend.
The six main Central
Oregon population centers —
Bend, Redmond, Prineville,
Madras, Sisters, and La Pine
— each have an EDCO man-
ager for their city. The Sisters
manager, Caprielle Foote-
Lewis, was hired by EDCO
in November 2013 as a part-
time manager and became
full-time in April 2015.
Foote-Lewis is an EDCO
employee whose position is
funded by the City of Sisters
and Deschutes County. In
other Central Oregon cities,
the manager position may be
funded by a chamber of com-
merce, a county, a city, or an
independent nonprofit orga-
nization. Foote-Lewis main-
tains her office at Sisters City
Hall and works with busi-
nesses that might be attracted
to locate in Sisters.
One of the ways EDCO
can assist an area in improv-
ing their economic vitality by
attracting new businesses or
growing existing ones, is by
helping the city establish an
Economic Development Loan
Fund. This fund is commonly
called a “forgivable loan”
program.
Such a program is under
consideration in Sisters.
If a company qualifies
for the program, they will be
loaned a certain amount of
money by the city to provide
jobs by either relocating here
or growing jobs in an already
existing business. If the com-
pany meets all of the require-
ments agreed to in a contract
with the city, and in the allot-
ted time, the loan becomes a
grant and does not have to be
repaid. The idea behind the
program is that the return on
investment (ROI) to the city
from increased job growth
benefits the economy, the
schools, and the community.
Before a loan is approved,
...the Economic
Development Loan
Program is not a tool
to be used for
every project.
— Roger Lee
a due diligence commit-
tee objectively evaluates the
potential risk/reward of spe-
cific projects and provides
recommendations. They do
not negotiate with the com-
panies on award amounts or
lobby on their behalf. They
forward their recommenda-
tions to the city council, or
whatever body is awarding
the loan, which makes the
final decision.
Six years ago EDCO
assisted Deschutes County
in establishing an Economic
Development Fund to
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provide incentives to busi-
ness to move, start, or grow
in the county. Since its incep-
tion, the fund has granted 21
awards totaling $714,000.
“Those awards facili-
tated the creation of 1,032
jobs paying an average sal-
ary of $47,947,” reported
Lee.
To date, all but three
companies have met and/or
exceeded their contractual
obligations for economic
development loans. Of those
three, two have fully paid
back to the county amounts
owing from their loans, plus
interest. The third is in the
process of paying back a por-
tion of their loan plus interest.
Lee summed up the role of
the Economic Development
Loan Program this way:
“As with most incentives,
the Economic Development
Loan Program is not a tool
to be used for every project,
nor are incentives needed
for every project to succeed.
Over the same period noted
above for Deschutes County’s
program, EDCO helped
more than 100 companies
23
complete projects and cre-
ate jobs within the County’s
borders. Clearly, most of
these projects did not require
a loan fund for the company
to choose to locate here, com-
mit to stay, or grow. They (the
loans) also cannot make a bad
business or location decision
good.”
Lee concluded, “With all
this said, locally controlled
programs can absolutely
make the difference in win-
ning the ever more-competi-
tive race for jobs by making
a good business location deci-
sion better. Local incentives
are highly valued by employ-
ers because they indicate
that the community is truly
interested in the success of
their enterprise and willing
to invest in its future success
… (the loans) create a mutual
bond between the business
and city/county/state mov-
ing forward. Communities
that understand this reality
are winning the race to bet-
ter diversify their econo-
mies and provide more and
better-paying jobs for their
citizens.