February 2018

February 2018

In this issue: GROWTH Economic Analysis AllCare Health in Southern Oregon Bend Tech Companies Hiring 300

Fixing Insolvent Cities How Big are Petabytes and Yottabytes?

HYDROPOWER DOMINATES Touring Antarctica Burns, Oregon

Growth The twelve counties of Southern Oregon comprise an area larger than thirty U.S. States. Over 1,700,000 people call this region home, a population greater than what you will find in eight states. In addition, 45,000 businesses have set up shop in southern Oregon.

Those numbers are very impressive; for a state. Southern Oregon is a fraction of one.

Secretary of State Dennis Richardson toured the Parrott House in Roseburg with the owner, Heidi Lael, and me. He was quite impressed. We talked about economic development over glasses of orange and cranberry juice. It seems the enthusiasm Heidi has on full display is being seen around the state. Small town Oregon, like we have in this end of our state, is in full bloom. Growth, expansion, and small business launchings are happening everywhere we turn. Large or small, businesses are growing.

Encouragement by dozens of journal readers has convinced me that the Southern Oregon Business Journal must be made available in printed form and not just the on-line version. So, the option to receive the monthly edition of the journal by mail is available with the March 2018 edition. Simply go to the website www.southernoregonbusiness.com and click on “subscribe”, fill in a few customary blanks and click send.

Wah-lah! You’re done and the next edition will arrive in your mailbox as promised.

I believe 2018 is going to be extraordinary in southern Oregon. Construction projects are everywhere. We will be sharing information about the goings on across all twelve counties over the next year. Infrastructure will be getting much needed repairs across the region. Schools, colleges and universities are adding on, new businesses are being built, homes are popping up unlike anything we’ve seen since the Great Recession and our agricultural sector is getting just attention for new and innovative things going on in that industry.

And then there’s our timber and wood products industry. Add to that architecture and construction and you will see that new and better ideas abound in an industry that’s been around 200 hundred years. You will keep hearing about CLT and Mass Plywood as they are applied to Tall Buildings stretching 12 stories and probably more. The excitement in the industry is rumbling in British Columbia all the way down and through Oregon.

Energy; big enough to have its own space every month in the Southern Oregon Business Journal.

Watch this space.

Get your rest, you’re going to need it.

Greg Southern Oregon Business Journal

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A JOURNAL FOR THE ECONOMICALLY CURIOUS, PROFESSIONALLY INSPIRED AND ACUTELY MOTIVATED

Table of Contents PUBLISHERS NOTE 2

Growth

OTHER BUSINESS 21 Terabytes & Gigabytes

ECONOMICS

24 Infrastructure Financing

4 Personal Income 5 Poverty Rates Improve

ENTREPRENEURS

8 Employment in Central

26 Startups in Lane Couty

Oregon

27 American Entrepreneurship

COMMUNITY & BUSINESS

ENERGY

10 EDGE—AllCare Health

28 Hydropower

12 City Commentary

30 NW Hydropower Dominates

16 Coos History Museum 17 Bend Tech Hiring

18 12-Step for Insolvent Cities

Tourism 31 Extreme Tourism— ANTARCTICA 36 Burns, Oregon COVER PHOTO Creative Commons

703 Divot Loop Sutherlin, Oregon 97479 www.southernoregonbusiness.com 541-315-6127 Southern Oregon Business Journal

http://freedesignfile.com/38145-technicaldesign-elements-vector-backgrounds-03/

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Per Capita Personal Income in Oregon

by Felicia Bechtoldt

Quality Information, Informed Choices

In 2016, Oregon had a per capita personal income (PCPI) of $45,399.

Oregon’s PCPI ranked 29th in the United States and was 92 percent of the national average, $49,246, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In Oregon, the 2016 PCPI increased by 2.4 percent from 2015, faster than the nationwide PCPI growth rate of 1.6 percent. In 2006, Oregon’s PCPI was $34,721 and ranked 28th in the United States.

Between 2006 and 2016, the average annual growth rate of PCPI in Oregon was 2.8 percent, which is slightly above the average annual growth rate for the nation (2.6%).

Personal income is the sum of three main components: net earnings (wages, salaries, employer contributions); personal current transfer receipts (retirement, Medicare, unemployment insurance); and dividends, interest, and rent. PCPI is calculated by dividing the area’s personal income by its total population.

Oregon’s PCPI has generally risen with the United States’ PCPI, aside from recessionary times. Despite the increase, the gap has widened between PCPI for Oregon and the United States during the past few decades. Oregon’s PCPI is lower than the national figure for a few reasons. First, Oregon’s industry pay is less than the national average. This affects the upper half of the PCPI fraction (personal income). At the same time, Oregon’s population is increasing at a faster rate (+11.5% since 2006) than that of the nation (+8.3% since 2006), which means the lower half of the PCPI fraction (total population) is increasing faster than the nation’s. Both of these factors contribute to a lower PCPI in Oregon.

There are a number of other factors that play into Oregon’s lower PCPI, and it makes for a complex issue.

These factors include lower earnings by proprietors, a net outflow of commuter wages, a shorter average workweek, more part-time work, cost of living, and more.

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Quality Information, Informed Choices

Southwestern Oregon Poverty Rates Improved in Recent Years

by Annette Shelton-Tiderman Recently released estimates of poverty rates from the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Program (SAIPE) show continuing improvement in the percent of the Southwestern Oregon population living in poverty. From 2015 to 2016 the all-age poverty rate declined from 18.7 percent to 17.5 percent in Coos County; 17.2 percent to 14.1 percent in Curry County; and 19.5 percent to 15.6 percent in Douglas County. During this same period, the state’s poverty rate declined from 15.2 percent to 13.4 percent.

Current rates are notably lower than the peak rates, which were reported a short time after the recession officially ended.

In 2011 a peak rate of 17.3 percent of Oregonians were living in poverty. In 2012 a peak rate of 20.6 percent of Coos County residents were in poverty and 21.3 percent of Douglas County residents were living in poverty. In 2013 a peak rate of 18.7 percent of Curry County residents were in poverty.

Percentages aside, looking at the number of people living in poverty provides added perspective. At Coos County’s peak rate (2012), there were 12,700 people living in poverty. By 2016 this had decreased to 10,946.

However, in 1998 when the county’s poverty rate was 17.5 percent, there were 10,835 people living in poverty – statistically, within the same range as the most recent survey findings. Curry and Douglas counties show the same general trends. In 2016 Curry County had 3,171 people living in poverty, down from the 2013 peak rate when 4,148 lived in

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poverty. Yet, in 2007 when the rate was at the 2016 rate (14.1%), the number of people living in poverty was 3,044 – statistically within the same range as the most recent data. Douglas County reported 16,692 living in poverty in 2016; 22,537 in 2012; and 15,598 in 1998. The rates and the number of people living in poverty during these years are statistically within the same range. This suggests that although it appears the numbers have substantially improved, the margins of error associated with the estimating processes indicate the shifts may not be as great as they appear to be.

Youth Poverty Rates The Census Bureau also provides poverty rate estimates for youth, for those ages 18 and under and the typical school-age population for those ages five to 17. Focusing on the 18 and younger age group, the rates are higher than the overall population. However, youth poverty rates also show a noticeable drop in recent years. Also, as found with the all-age poverty values, for most years, the estimated count of those in poverty isn’t changing much over time.

Coos County’s youth poverty rate declined from 29.8 percent in 2015 to 25.5 percent; the number of individuals dropped from 3,377 to 2,924. The peak rate occurred in 2012 (30.6%) when an estimated 3,460 youth were living in poverty. Curry County’s youth poverty rate shows a decline in recent years, 27.0 percent (969 individuals) in 2015 to 22.9 percent (807) in 2016. At the peak, there were 969 youth in poverty (2013) – a rate of 28.0 percent. In 1998, when Curry County’s rate was 24.8 percent, there were 994 youth estimated to be living in poverty. Douglas County’s youth poverty rate peaked in 2012 (32.8%) when an estimated 6,773 youth were in poverty. Today’s rate of 23.2 percent (4,734 youth) is nearly the same as in 1998 when it was 22.9 percent; at that time 4,772 youth were estimated to be living in poverty.

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Unemployment Rates Peak Ahead of Poverty Rates Although there have been several recessions in the last 20 years, the Great Recession, which officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, affected nearly every industry and was felt across the nation and throughout our area. Oregon’s southwestern counties, like many rural areas, entered the economic downturn as early as 2006 and experienced delays in their recoveries.

Oregon’s unemployment rate peaked in 2009 with an annual average of 11.3 percent. Coos County’s rate peaked in 2009 at 13 percent; Curry County’s peaked in 2009 at 13.2 percent; and Douglas County’s peaked in 2009 at 15.7 percent. As expected, as unemployment increased so did poverty rates. However, poverty rates in Coos, Curry, and Douglas counties’ peaked between two and three years after peak unemployment rates.

Although there may be a number of reasons behind this lag, it seems likely that the kinds of jobs initially added post-recession were predominately lower wage and potentially not sufficient to pull these wage earners out of poverty.

For more information and data for other areas see: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html.

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Employment Department News Release - Page 2 concentrated in professional and business services; construction; health care, and manufacturing. Losses were largely concentrated in leisure and hospitality, however a subgroup of this sector, accommodation and food services, posted strong job growth from last December. In other words, restaurants and hotels are doing well, but other tourism-related businesses are down from last year.

Jefferson County: The unemployment rate was little changed at 5.3 percent in December. The rate is down from last year when it was 6.0 percent, not a statistically significant decline.

Jefferson County shed 50 jobs in December, fewer losses than typically expected this time of year. Typically Jefferson County would expect to lose over 100 jobs in December.

Employment levels are up 4.7 percent (+290 jobs) compared to this time last year. The rate of job growth was amongst the fastest in the state and the fastest in the tri-county area. Employment levels are now only about 60 jobs shy of the previous peak in 2005. This rapid growth is being driven by hiring in manufacturing (+180 jobs), but also strong gains in retail and leisure and hospitality.

Next Press Releases The Oregon Employment Department plans to release the January county and metropolitan area unemployment rates on Tuesday, March 13th and the statewide unemployment rate and employment survey data on Tuesday, March 6 th.

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PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Joni L. Eades, Rentals & Marketing Coordinator - CHM, Email: rentals@cooshistory.org Susan Tissot, Executive Director – CHM, Email: director@cooshistory.org Phone: (541) 756-6320 Website: www.cooshistory.org

Coos History Museum to Host: First Tuesday Talks Tuesday - February 6, 2018 6:00pm – 8:30pm The First Tuesday Talks on Tuesday, February 6 will feature speakers Joshua Hirschstein and Maren Beck, Authors and Textile Experts, SE Asian Textiles.

The speakers will also be available to do a book signing of their publication, Silk Weavers of Hill Tribe Laos, and display SE Asian textiles that will be for sale that evening, with 20% of sale proceeds to benefit the museum.

The lecture will begin at 6:30pm.

The museum, galleries, and store will be open for extended hours during the event.

Cost for the event is $7.00 for adults.

Admission is free for museum members.

The Coos History Museum creates a better understanding of life in Coos County and Oregon’s South Coast, past and present. The Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and receives no direct government support. The museum survives on donations, memberships, grants, museum store sales, special event rentals, and legacy/bequest gifts. The Coos History Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free for CHM members, active duty military, and NARM members.

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Bend Tech Employers Plan to Hire Nearly 300 Tech Employees in 2018 TECH

By Kelly Kearsley If you plan on job hunting in 2018, it looks like there will be a slew of tech openings. The Technology Association of Oregon put out a survey last month to area tech employers, asking about their hiring plans.

Twenty-nine companies responded, noting that they planned to hire a cumulative 280+ people into tech-related positions, says Teri Hockett, VP of TAO and head of the Central Oregon TAO office.

What kinds of jobs are these? Teri notes that the positions in demand include high-level CIO and CTO positions, as well as software developers, web developers, product managers, IT support, network security and more.

This is kind of a good news/ruh-roh situation–or as the optimist in me likes to say: good news plus an opportunity. The upside: Bend’s tech community continues to grow. Existing companies are getting bigger and new ones are popping up all the time. It’s heartening to see this community strengthen and improve, and to know that it’s only getting better.

The opportunity? Well, Teri notes that “there are more openings than we have the pipeline for.” That works in your favor if you’re a tech person job hunting, but it’s definitely a challenge for the companies hiring. (It’s also a problem not necessarily unique to Bend).

We’ve already seen some local workarounds to the talent gap, including hybrid remote and local teams, overseas outsourcing and of course, supplemental help from contractors.

At the same time, several Central Oregon organizations including TAO, EDCO, East Cascades Workforce Investment Board, OSU-Cascades and more are exploring ways to permanently boost the tech talent pool.

For instance, the Apprenti program recently launched in Central Oregon, providing one-year apprenticeships for people wanting to dig into technology careers, with a focus on recruiting women, minority and veteran applicants.

Teri told The Bulletin, that the first 10 to 12 people in the Bend program should start their software development training by February. OSU-Cascades is also growing its CS program, with instructor Yong Bakos working closely with local tech employers as well.

Last note and shameless plug: If you are job hunting, check out our jobs board for openings. And if you’re employer, take advantage of our FREE or low -cost postings. You’ll reach a lovely audience of thousands, who are passionate about living and working here.

https://startupbend.com/

Kelly Kearsley, the co-founder of StartupBend.com is passionate about startups, entrepreneurship and Bend. In addition to writing this blog, she creates content and manages content projects for global financial companies, tech firms and startups. She began her career as a newspaper journalist and later worked as a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in WSJ.com, Money Magazine, CNNMoney, MSNBC and Runner's World. See her work at kellykearsley.contently.com or kellykearsley.com.

You can reach Kelly by email at kelly@startupbend.com.

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by Charles Marohn I’ve been to far too many local meetings where dire financial numbers are presented to an elected body, only to watch as the information is ultimately dismissed. Our backlog of road maintenance requires a 4x increase in the road budget to catch up. Our city hall is crumbling and is going to require xx millions we don’t have in repairs. Our pension fund is underfunded to such a degree that, even with unrealistic projections for future returns, we will never catch up. We need double the number of maintenance workers we have if we are to provide basic maintenance to all the park space in the city…

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“They were already keenly aware that they were in a lot of trouble. What they needed, and what the community as a whole needed, was more akin to an intervention.”

I’ve heard these all, and more, throughout my professional career. The most troubling thing is not that they are dismissed but the reason why: nobody knows what to do. City after city is struggling with massive budget shortfalls – structural insolvency resulting from years of bad development and investment practices – and the numbers are so overwhelming that they are paralyzing.

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There are many times I sat there listening to this conversation play out, thinking that these public officials didn’t really need another report at all. They were already keenly aware that they were in a lot of trouble. What they needed, and what the community as a whole needed, was more akin to an intervention.

Twelve step programs are an important way for those who have hit rock bottom to set themselves on a different course in life. Here’s how leadership in a struggling place can adapt that thinking for a community that wants to come to grips with financial insolvency.

1. Admit that there is a problem.

With our city struggling with financial insolvency, we must admit that there is no amount of growth that can reasonably be anticipated, no level of taxation that we can apply and no amount of debt we can assume that will solve the financial problems we face. We can’t grow, tax or borrow our way out of the mess we are in. We need a change in approach.

2. Understand that there is no simple solution.

The change in approach we seek is not going to involve one or two policy tweaks but will require a broad rethinking of policies, programs and priorities.

The change should feel more like adopting a healthy diet with regular exercise than like a discovering a wonder drug.

3. Decide that this situation can only be addressed by the broader community being served.

There is no way to force a lifestyle change on people who do not want it. The change that is required of us can’t be made by public officials alone; it requires the deep commitment of the entire community. We must agree to make the conversation theirs.

4. Take an honest inventory of the community’s financial condition.

It is our challenge to make an honest account of the city’s financial condition. What are the promises we have made – infrastructure we will fix, pensions we will pay, parks and buildings we will maintain, services we will provide – and how much does that Southern Oregon Business Journal

really cost? What are the revenue sources we can confidently rely on and how much will they provide?

5. Acknowledge to the community how bad the financial gaps are.

We must share with the broader community our inside knowledge of just how difficult the financial situation is. The goal is not to scare people to action, but to provide a sober and honest assessment of the extent of our promises and the revenue shortfall we have to face up to. The community needs to have a shared understanding of our financial condition.

6. Be ready to address specific failings that led to the present situation.

It is our collective actions that have brought us to this situation. The elected and appointed officials of the community, past and present, broadly representing the will of the community, made commitments that the community is not able to honor. In general, these decisions were accepted practice for cities like ours, within the community and across the country, but that does not make them right. We have a new understanding now, and with fresh eyes, will reexamine the decisions of the past that brought us to this point.

7. Commit to a new approach to community prosperity, one that is based on financial solvency.

We must publicly state we will make the long term financial health of the city this community’s top priority. If we cannot meet our commitments, if we default on the promises we’ve made to our people, if we are not reliable stewards of the public’s trust, the people of the community will suffer for it. Therefore, we must commit to finding ways to improve the prosperity of the community without compromising our financial strength and resiliency.

8. Identify those who were hurt by prior policies, as well as those who will be challenged by a change in approach.

Our inability to fully meet our past promises has harmed, and will in the future harm, members of our community. We must acknowledge this and work to identify those who have suffered, and will suffer, 19

because of our financial insolvency and the choices we are making to address it.

living within the community. Our top objectives are policies and programs that strengthen the city’s financial health while simultaneously improving the quality of life for residents.

12. Support other communities as they struggle with their own financial insolvency.

We are one place in a nation of communities struggling under the weight of decades of bad fiscal management at the local level. Once we are on a healthy track, it is our duty to share what we’ve learned with others and to support other cities as they travel a similar path .

9. Communicate directly with those who have been hurt, and those who will face challenges with a change in approach, listening more than explaining.

As we take action to address our community’s financial insolvency, we must not shelter ourselves from the pain that our past actions, and our present situation, cause others. We must acknowledge their suffering, work to understand the extent of their pain and seek ways to minimize the harm being done.

10. Continue to take account of the community’s changing financial health, ensuring financial solvency is central to the community’s ongoing conversation.

We must continually account for the ongoing revenues and expenses of the community, weighing our present actions against our long term financial solvency, honestly measuring the impacts of our policy decisions against projected outcomes, and publicly holding ourselves accountable for results. We must make this conversation central to our community’s dialogue.

11. Seek ways to improve the quality of life while continuing to improve the financial health of the community.

With the long term financial health of the community as our top responsibility, we must continually seek ways to improve the quality of life for those

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Charles Marohn is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He is the Founder and President of Strong Towns. Marohn has a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

Marohn is the lead author of Thoughts on Building

Strong Towns — Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 — as well as the author of A World Class

Transportation System. He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America and in 2017 was named one of the

10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen.

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Terabytes, Gigabytes, & Petabytes: How Big are They?

An understandable guide to everything from Bytes to Yottabytes

by Tim Fisher Without a doubt, one of the more common technology questions we get asked about surround those data storage metrics, like terabytes, gigabytes, petabytes, megabytes, etc.

You've probably heard most of the terms before, but do you know what they mean? How many gigabytes are in a terabyte? What does one terabyte actually mean in the real world? These are all things you need to know before you buy a hard drive or memory card, choose a tablet based on the memory it has, etc.

Fortunately, as confusing as it all might all seem at first glance, all of these units of measurement are easily convertible from one to another, and are simple concepts to grasp thanks to the examples we've provided below.

Let's start with the basics.

All of these computer technology storage units of measurement are based on the byte, which is the amount of storage required to store a single character of text:

• • • • • • •

An exabyte (EB) is larger than a... petabyte (PB), which is larger than a... terabyte (TB), which is larger than a... gigabyte (GB), which is larger than a... megabyte (MB), which is larger than a... kilobyte (KB), which is larger than a... byte (B)

Less helpful in the real world is the smaller bit (there are 8 bits in 1 byte) and the larger zettabyte and yottabyte, among some others.

We won't be sticking yottabyte size memory cards in our cameras anytime soon so consider those some impressive words to throw around at your next party.

To convert from one unit to another, just know that for every level you go up, you multiply by 1,024.

Don't worry if that's confusing - you'll see enough examples below that you'll have the math down in no time.

The table at the bottom of this article is helpful too.

Terabytes, Gigabytes, and Petabytes: Which is Bigger?

Right away, knowing which is bigger and which is smaller, as well as the abbreviations that represent these numbers, is probably the most helpful thing to get down.

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Note: You'll see many sources online say that each

new level is 1,000 times greater than the smaller, not 1,024. While true in some cases, in practical terms, considering how computers use storage devices, 1,024 is the more realistic multiplier to do your calculations with.

Now on the most practical stuff…

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How Many Gigabytes (GB) in a Terabyte (TB)?

There are 1,024 GB in 1 TB.

How Many Megabytes (MB) in a Gigabyte (GB)?

There are 1,024 MB in 1 GB

How Big is a Terabyte?

The terabyte (TB) is the most common unit used to measure hard drive size and a number you might actually run into from time to time.

A single TB is a lot of space. It would take 728,177 floppy disks or 1,498 CD-ROM discs to store just 1 TB worth of information.

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As of 2017, most new, average priced computer hard drives were in the 1 to 3 TB range.

render those graphics.

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It's estimated that the human brain can store around 2.5 PB of memory data.

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Over 3.4 years of 24/7 Full HD video recording would be around 1 PB in size.

As of late 2016, the Wayback Machine was storing 15 PB of data!

1 PB is equivalent to over 4,000 digital photos per day, over your entire life.

A single PB is 1,024 TB... you know, that number we already established was enormous even at one!

In yet a more impressive view, 1 PB is equal to over 1 quadrillion bytes!

How Big is an Exabyte?

Many ISPs cap monthly data usage at 1 TB.

Talking about even a single EB seems a bit crazy but there are situations where the world really does run into this level of data.

The Hubble Space Telescope generates about 10 TB of new data every year.

Yes, it's comical, but heading back to the previous comparisons: to get to just a single EB would take 763 billion floppy disks or 1.5 billion CD-ROM discs.

Around 130,000 digital photos would require 1 TB of space... close to 400 photos every day for a year!

IBM's famous Watson game-playing supercomputer has 16 TB of RAM. As you saw in the GB to TB math above, 1 TB is equal to a little more than one trillion bytes.

How Big is a Petabyte?

The petabyte (PB) is just a crazy large chunk of data but it actually comes up more and more these days.

To store a single PB would take over 745 million floppy disks or 1.5 million CD-ROM discs, clearly not an efficient way to collect a petabyte of information, but it's fun to think about!

Can you imagine?

Some more mind-bending thoughts around exabytes:

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Way back in 2010, the internet was already handling 21 EB per month.

Almost 11 million movies in 4K format would fit comfortably inside a 1 EB storage device.

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A single EB could hold the entire Library of Congress 3,000 times over.

A gram of DNA can hold 490 EB, at least in theory.

Let that sink in for a minute.

The movie Avatar needed about 1 PB of storage to Southern Oregon Business Journal

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Now for the math: a single EB holds 1,024 PB or 1,048,576 TB. That's over 1 quintillion bytes! We had to look up quintillion - yes, it's a number!

How Big is a Gigabyte?

A single GB is equivalent to a little over 700 floppy disks or just over a single CD. A GB is not a small number by any means, but these days it's a level of data we use up quickly, sometimes several times over each day. It's a number we very much run up against on a regular basis.

1 GB can store almost 300 songs in MP3 format.

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A single HD Netflix movie might gobble up over 4 GB as you watch. A 4K version might run over 20 GB!

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A DVD movie disc holds about 9.4 GB.

The Byte Table Here it all is together, which helps to illustrate just how big some of those big numbers get!

Metric

Value

Bytes

Byte (B)

1

1

Kilobyte (KB)

1,0241

1,024

Megabyte (MB)

1,0242

1,048,576

Gigabyte (GB)

1,024

3

1,073,741,824

4

Terabyte (TB) Petabyte (PB) Exabyte (EB)

1,024 1,0245 1,0246

1,099,511,627,776 1,125,899,906,842,624 1,152,921,504,606,846,976

Zettabyte (ZB)

1,0247

1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424

Yottabyte (YB)

1,0248

1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

“Technology is a like a wire that runs through our lives. When it works, it connects us to friends and family, powers our careers, and keeps us entertained.

When it doesn’t, things can get confusing, tangled, and frustrating, fast. That’s why we made Lifewire, a new site to help you get the most out of your tech, so you can get the most out of your life.”

Tim Fisher, General Manager https://www.lifewire.com/

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Infrastructure Financing Port Planning & Marketing Fund This grant program helps ports fund planning or marketing studies related to expanding their trade and commerce activities. This includes developing and marketing facilities and services that support important industries in the state, including:

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agriculture

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aviation

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fishing

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maritime

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commerce

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transportation

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tourism/recreation

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wood products

Planning and Marketing Fund are reserved for high-priority projects (see list below). These funds are reserved for the first four months of the state fiscal year, after which any remaining funds may be made available for other eligible projects.

Eligible Projects To be eligible, projects must:

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enhance the port's ability to conduct trade and commerce;

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lead to economic diversification, development or new or emerging industry, or redevelopment of existing public facilities;

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be consistent with any applicable county or city comprehensive planning;

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not duplicate the marketing efforts among ports unnecessarily;

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not be used to subsidize regular port operating expenses; and

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not require or rely on continuing subsidies from the IFA.

Who Can Apply?

Any port incorporated under ORS Chapter 777 or 778 may apply for funding.

Funding and Uses Funding is provided through a transfer of the interest earned on the Oregon Port Revolving Fund. The Port Planning and Marketing Fund is primarily a grant program. Grants from the Port Planning and Marketing Fund are capped at $50,000 or 75 percent of the total cost of the project, whichever is less.

A 25 percent local cash match is required for all projects.

High-priority projects The following are considered to be high-priority projects by the IFA:

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Development of strategic business, marketing or financial plans for ports

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Updates to such plans that are required to keep the plans current for a period of five years

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Regional or cooperative projects that benefit more than one port

Half of the funds available annually in the Port Southern Oregon Business Journal

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Projects that leverage other marketing and development efforts by the state or other government units

Note: Projects must meet the standards set by the Peer Review Committee. The Peer Review Committee consists of three representatives from Oregon ports that set the standards for projects and reviews the final products prior to disbursement of final payments.

How and When to Apply Applications for funding through the Port Planning and Marketing Fund are accepted year-round. The following outlines the application process: Step 1: Contact your regional development officer.

A Project Notification & Intake form will need to be completed.

Step 2: Submit the Intake form. The IFA reviews the form to make sure eligibility for the funding program has been met. A financial review will then take place to determine if the applicant has the ability to repay a loan.

Step 3: Award. A letter will be sent notifying the applicant of the award amount, the terms and any conditions of the award. Contract documents will be sent to the applicant for signature. http://www.orinfrastructure.org/Infrastructure-Programs/ PPM/

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Southern Oregon Business Journal

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Startups in Lane County:

Entrepreneurs Wanted

by Henry Fields Many people ponder starting a new business as the year comes to an end. Whether it’s your New Year’s Resolution or you’ve decided you want to be on the selling end of next year’s Small Business Saturday, a new year is a good time to indulge entrepreneurial aspirations.

The success of high profile startups in recent years might make you think that more and more people are taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Despite recent gains, however, the rate of entrepreneurship is still quite low compared with the historical trend.

The Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting entrepreneurship, found that new firm formation remains at half the level it was a generation ago.

In Lane County, you can see a decline in entrepreneurship from the employees’ perspective. This graph of the percentage of workers in 1992 and 2016 employed at businesses in different age categories shows a notable decline in the proportion employed by startups.

Southern Oregon Business Journal

In both Oregon and Lane County in 2016, around 80 percent of private employees worked at a company that was more than a decade old. Lane County’s employment at young firms saw a slightly steeper drop than the state: the percentage of those employed at firms age five years or younger decreased by half over the time period.

The trend cannot simply be explained by older companies growing larger or new companies getting smaller over time. Fewer new companies have been founded since a recent peak in 2005 and 2006, a fact that gives the impression that entrepreneurs have simply gone “missing” in comparison with historical trends. For example, more new firms were founded in Oregon in 1990 than 2014, despite the fact that the state’s population grew by 40 percent over that period.

This data doesn’t suggest that Lane County is an outlier. There are a lot of economic factors affecting entrepreneurship, and the trend is similar nationwide. The recession set back new company

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formation, as business failures outpaced startups for the first time since the Census Bureau started collecting the data Millennials, despite their entrepreneurial reputation, are less likely to start a business than previous generations were at their age. Millennials face debt burdens, especially from student loans, that far outstrip that of young people of past generations, which may have an impact on their ability or appetite to start a business.

Finally, we might ask whether this matters – as long as employment increases, what’s the problem with

older firms making up an increasing share of it? Quite a bit of economic research finds that entrepreneurship is a critical input to a healthy economy, without which we get less innovation and productivity growth.

Young companies also have an increased impact on new jobs created.

In general, a resilient economy balances innovative and nimble new companies with stable and established older companies. If the rate of new business formation doesn’t increase, that could be cause for concern in a fast-moving economy.

American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive?

by Jim Clifton Let's run some numbers. You will often hear from otherwise credible sources that there are 26 million businesses in America. This is misleading; 20 million of these reported "businesses" are inactive companies that have no sales, profits, customers or workers. The only number that is useful and instructive is the number of current operating businesses with one or more employees.

There are only 6 million businesses in the United States with one or more employees. Of those, 3.8 million have four or fewer employees -- mom and pop shops owned by people who aren't building a business as much as they are building a life. And God bless them all. That is what America is for. We need every single one of them.

Next, there are about a million companies with five to nine employees, 600,000 businesses with 10 to 19 employees, and 500,000 companies with 20 to 99 employees. There are 90,000 businesses with 100 to 499 employees. And there are just 18,000 with 500 employees or more, and that figure includes about a thousand companies with 10,000 employees or more. Altogether, that is America, Inc. Let me be very clear. America, Inc. is far more important to America's security than our military.

Because without the former prospering -- and solvent -- there is no latter. We have enormous military power only because of a growing economy that has, so far, made it possible for the government to pay its bills. When former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Southern Oregon Business Journal

Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was asked in a Senate hearing on June 28, 2011, to name the biggest current threat to the security of the United States, he didn't say al-Qaida. He didn't say Iran's nuclear capabilities. He answered, "I believe our debt is the greatest threat to our national security."

Declining Businesses Mean Declining Revenues for Social Spending Keep in mind that these 6 million businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, provide jobs for more than 100 million Americans and much of the tax base for everything. These small, medium and big businesses have generated the biggest economy in the world, which has allowed the country to afford lavish military and social spending and entitlements. And we've been able to afford all of this because, until now, we've dominated the world economy.

When new businesses aren't being born, the free enterprise system and jobs decline. And without a growing free enterprise system, without a growing entrepreneurial economy, there are no new good jobs. That means declining revenues and smaller salaries to tax, followed by declining aid for the elderly and poor and declining funding for the military, for education, for infrastructure -- declining revenues for everything.

Jim Clifton is Chairman and CEO of Gallup. He is the author of The Coming Jobs War. This commentary is from a 2015 article: http://news.gallup.com/

businessjournal/180431/american-entrepreneurshipdead-alive.aspx

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Oregon and Hydropower Oregon is the second highest hydropower-producing state in the nation, behind only Washington. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, February 2016) Oregon has 34 consumer-owned utilities that rely on the BPA for all or a majority of their power.

These utilities include electric cooperatives, public utility districts, and municipal utilities. Many of the smaller BPA customer utilities count on the BPA for 100 percent of the power they sell to customers and these utilities have some of the lowest retail power rates in the country.

The BPA is not the only entity to sell power from large hydroelectric facilities. Portland General Electric and the Eugene Water and Electric Board are two examples of Oregon utilities that own and operate hydro facilities and deliver that power to their customers and the wholesale market.

Low-cost and carbon-free hydropower is attractive to new industries that use a lot of power, such as data centers, that want to locate in Oregon.

Balancing Renewable Energy Renewable energy resources such as wind and solar are variable over the course of a day and from season to season, because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Integrating renewable energy can be a challenge for grid operators to keep the supply and demand for electricity in balance.

By increasing or decreasing the amount of water flowing through the generators, the BPA's hydro system has provided much of the necessary balancing service. Currently BPA provides approximately 1,000 megawatts of system flexibility Southern Oregon Business Journal

to the region to balance generation and load (demand). However, hydro facilities are increasingly constrained by restrictions related to allowed spill over or drawn-down reservoirs due to environmental concerns, tribal agreements, and recreation and transportation uses. In addition, hydropower is becoming less reliable due to changes associated with climate change, such as extreme weather events, reduced snowpack, high or low spring runoff volumes, and droughts.

With the potential for greater uncertainty in the availability of hydropower to meet load shortfalls based on seasonal and climate-related variability, the region is looking at more options for balancing generation and demand.

Hydroelectric history Not long after Northwest pioneers established the first cities in the region, they began to capture the power of falling water to make electricity for their homes and industries.

They were the first to tap the great hydroelectric potential of the Columbia River Basin, a region that includes parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and British Columbia. It is an area considerably larger than the country of France.

Today, the Northwest relies on hydropower for about half of its electricity, and 40 percent of all U.S. hydropower comes from the Columbia system.

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The T.W. Sullivan Dam at Willamette Falls in Oregon City was the first hydroelectric dam in the lower Columbia Basin. It was built in 1888, 37 years after the founding of Portland.

Washington Water Power Company built the Monroe Street Dam on the Spokane River in downtown Spokane in 1896, just 15 years after the city of Spokane Falls was platted and seven years after fire destroyed 32 blocks of the downtown business district. In Spokane, as elsewhere in the Northwest, hydroelectric power and progress were linked.

Quick Facts generation

 Oregon has more than 3,200 megawatts of installed wind power capacity at wind farms with about 1,900 turbines.

 The Mist field in northwestern Oregon is the only producing natural gas field in the Pacific Northwest.

 Oregon’s geothermal potential is ranked third in the nation after Nevada and California.

 There are about 500 electric vehicle charging

 In 2016, 71% of Oregon's utility-scale net electricity

hydroelectric power plants and other renewable energy resources.

came

from

conventional

stations in Oregon, with a total of more than 1,200 charging outlets.

http://usaceportland.armylive.dodlive.mil/files/2015/11/LookoutPointDamSpill -web-1024x766.jpg

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Northwest Hydropower Dominates Energy Generation

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Visit Burns, Oregon

Commonly referred to, as the gateway to the Steens Mountains, became a town in 1891. Burns was named after the Scottish poet Robert Burns when storeowner George McGowan turned down the opportunity of immortality by having the town named after him and declared the town be named after the “Poet of the People, Mr. Burns�.

In 1889, legislation was passed splitting Grant County and created Harney County. Burns claimed the right to be the county seat by a narrow margin and it became official on July 7, 1890. Harney County is the ninth largest county in the United States and ranks larger than many states.

A visit to downtown Burns provides opportunity for visitors to meet the friendly people of this western town, and view collections of arrowheads, art galleries and stores. A visit to the Harney County Historical Museum is necessary and provides a history of the old west in Burns and Harney County, with historical Southern Oregon Business Journal

photos, ranching memorabilia and full room restorations of the old western kitchen.

Visitors to Burns will find nature as they visit the Malheur Nations Wildlife Refuge just 30 miles south of the City on US 205. The 185,000 acres provides a Mecca for bird watchers as it is the habitat for over 250 species of migratory birds.

Another highlight for visitors to Burns is Steens Mountain. The mountain, a thirty-mile fault block consists of five separate vegetation zones of glaciated gorges, lakes and meadows. There are many viewpoints for visitors to look into canyons with more than a mile of vertical drop to the valley floor.

Burns offers the visitor breathtaking scenery, outdoor activities of hiking, fishing, hunting camping and backpacking. The City welcomes you to the area and appreciates your visit to our friendly town and wideopen spaces. http://ci.burns.or.us 36