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Klamath Falls Selected as a Blue Zone Community
Following an assessm
ent to evaluate Klamath’s readiness, representatives from the Blue Zone Project announced at the Sky Lakes Wellness Center that Klamath Falls has officially been selected as a Blue Zone project community, marking our community as the first in Oregon to take on the nationally-recognized health transformation initiative. The Blue Zone project is a huge opportunity for our area, giving Klamath a chance to grow in community health and well-being.
KCEDA Annual Meeting Recap
The Klamath County Economic Development Association (KCEDA) held its Annual Meeting on June 29th, having several board members and other local leaders in attendance. The meeting was a festive affair, covering certain business items, while also celebrating KCEDA’s accomplishments over this past year, where the organization additionally used the venue as a platform to introduce plans for the upcoming year.
During the meeting KCEDA approved 5 board members into the organization: Sam Porter from REACH Inc., Lauren Jespersen from Edgewood Ranch, Albert Wedam as an individual member, Kelley Minty-Morris from the Klamath County Commissioners, and Nathan Cherpeski from the City of Klamath Falls.
After the approval of these members, former KCEDA President, Joe McBride, began elections of board members from Regular, Silver and Gold Level memberships, officers and members of the executive committee. KCEDA voted Sam Porter, Lauren Jespersen, and Albert Wedam onto the Board from the Regular Level membership. KCEDA then voted Kendall Bell onto the Board from the Silver Level membership, and left the Gold Level Board seat vacant for the time being. The KCEDA Board voted in officers Lauren Jespersen as President, Mark Wendt as Vice President, Albert Wedam as Secretary, and Ann Cavanaugh as Treasurer. Officers were automatically placed on the Executive Committee, and the Board elected Matt Hurley, Sam Porter, Todd Andres, Jason Nash, Russ Carter, Stan Gilbert, and Randy Shaw to fulfill the remaining Executive Committee slots.
Following elections, KCEDA’s new Executive Director, Greg O’Sullivan, offered his thanks to the community figures in attendance for all the effort and resources that they have been put in, acknowledging that the investment of their time and talents has put the organization in a position to make a major impact on further enhancing the county’s business environment. O’Sullivan then continued into a presentation regarding his vision for KCEDA in the upcoming year, identifying development opportunities by discussing where Klamath is strong, areas in which our county can improve, and strategies that will help advance our community’s economy forward. During O’Sullivan’s presentation, he placed emphasis on providing support and strengthening relationships with public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the area through active collaboration. He proceeded to discuss KCEDA’s mission to develop a comprehensive marketing and business attraction plan within the next few months. O’Sullivan summarized his vision, stating, “KCEDA will lead an effort to recruit, retain, and grow quality jobs. We will create a thriving and diverse Klamath that is attractive to businesses and industries, and we will push for the retention and expansion of existing businesses.”
Discover Klamath: Tourism Adds Economic Value
By: Jim Chadderdon, Discover Klamath
According to a recently released report by the Oregon Tourism Commission, the value to Oregon’s economy of inbound tourism is $10.3B annually. Additionally, over 100K jobs are supported by tourism in Oregon. Here in Klamath County, inbound tourism revenues have grown from $128M to about $150M in recent years. Over 1850 local jobs are supported by tourism. People are discovering Klamath more and more as a result of our less congested area, broad recreational opportunities, emerging cultural offerings, and friendly people. Your local tourism office, Discover Klamath, promotes the region throughout the year to prospective visitors in the western United States and Western Canada using a multi-media approach of TV, Tradeshows, Web and Print Advertising, Public Relations, and Printed Collateral materials. Tourism is a key element to both attracting and retaining new and existing businesses to our area. For more information: www.DiscoverKlamath.com
KCEDA Hires New Executive Director
Following several mo
nths of interviews with candidates from across the nation, KCEDA is very pleased to announce the hire of our new Executive Director, Greg O’Sullivan. Greg began work on June 1st, and is very excited to help KCEDA lead improvements to our county’s economy. KCEDA will host a “meet-and-greet” event for Greg in the near future, so that our community can get more acquainted with him. We ask that you please watch out for this invitation in the upcoming weeks. For information about Greg and his professional background, please refer to our press release and his bio using the underlined links just below.
KCEDA Meets with Blue Zone Representatives
During the middle of May, KCEDA met with Blue Zone representatives to discuss the potential of implementing a “Blue Zone” in Klamath County. The Blue Zone is a nationally recognized program; the concept originates from endurance bicyclist and entrepreneur, Dan Buettner, who traveled globally to examine the geography and demographics of regions that had longer life expectancy rates. Buettner identified correlations between these areas, finding that each possessed characteristics of family orientation, physical activity, social activity, dietary focus, and smoking less. From his research, Buettner developed Blue Zones as a way for communities to establish and measure goals for improving and sustaining healthy habits physically, mentally, financially, and socially. Currently there are 26 Blue Zones across the United States. Blue Zones will be completing their readiness report in early July. KCEDA representatives at the meeting were excited about the economic potential that Blue Zones could bring to the community in terms of workforce health and wellness. Who wouldn’t want to be known as the healthiest community in Oregon! For more information regarding Blue Zones, please feel free to refer to their website in the underlined link below.
Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) Videos
During KCEDA’s recent meeting with the County Commissioners, our presenters introduced these videos created by EDCO, Central Oregon’s economic development organization. Although KCEDA recognizes that Klamath County has unique benefits, opportunities, and needs compared to Central Oregon, we have found it important to explore other successful organizations models. Over the course of our research efforts, findings related to EDCO have given us great ideas for setting a foundation that KCEDA can thrive on. If you click on the underlined links provided below, you can access the videos that were shown. These videos offer profound input on how economic development organizations are a key function to an area’s success.
