THE DALLES, Ore. — The Columbia Gorge may be one of the most beautiful regions of the Pacific Northwest, but as rural people know, scenery doesn’t always translate into prosperity. Forty years ago, logging and aluminum plants were major drivers of the economy in Klickitat and Skamania counties in Washington and Hood River, Wasco and Sherman counties in Oregon. But those days are long gone and the business community has diversified, partly with the assistance of the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District.

The MCEDD (pronounced like “McKedd”) puts its efforts into three buckets, said MCEDD director Jessica Metta: regional coordination, technical assistance and business assistance.

“Regional coordination is bringing partners together to solve problems that affect more than one jurisdiction or that we would better solve by working together, things like broadband, the regional transit system,” Metta said. “We also develop the regional economic development strategy, which is a five-year plan. There’s (also) a list of infrastructure projects, priority projects, that we update every year … That process itself can be really helpful in helping to get some clarity for the region about what we’re working on.”

Technical assistance consists of building up the infrastructure in the region to enable businesses there to be successful, Metta said.

“Do we have water and wastewater systems?” she said. “Do we have the electrical systems? Broadband and (similar) things can also fit under that. And that’s where sometimes we can help with turning an identified need into an actual project, and then writing the grants and administering the grants to make the project happen.”

Business assistance, Metta said, includes a small business lending program that helps out startups that can’t swing a commercial bank loan.

“That’s where we can step in and provide a loan, prove that the business is bankable, and then help them graduate out of the program,” she said. “That is a revolving loan fund that we’ve had since the ’80s. It was seeded with dollars from the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Rural Development and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. We actually have metrics to make on defaults; they want us to be making risky loans. But I think our default rate is actually not significantly higher than a bank’s.”

One way to find businesses that can use a little startup help is through the MCEDD’s PitchFest event, which was launched in June 2023. Twenty-eight small businesses put their plans in front of a panel of judges, and three walked away with some startup capital. The first-place winner, Woodsy Craft Company, won a prize of $7,000 from the judges and another $500 as the crowd favorite for its business making do-it-yourself craft kits in The Dalles. The second prize went to a chia seed pudding maker called Bad Nutrition, and third prize to Monkey Brittle, which makes an organic snack from dried bananas, nuts and raisins.

One area where the MCEDD has been successful is in establishing public transit, no mean feat in an area where the landscape is largely vertical.

“Over the last five to seven years, there’s been a huge increase in transit options in the Gorge with a lot of new regular bus routes being created,” Metta said. “Each county has its own transit provider and we bring them together to learn and work together through what’s called the Gorge TransLink alliance. Through that work, now we have a four-county transit pass that lets you ride any of the regular bus routes for $40 a year. That even gets you all the way from The Dalles to Portland.”

Joel Martin may be reached by email at [email protected].