TONASKET – In an informative Tonasket City Council meeting last Tuesday evening, members heard a comprehensive presentation from Economic Alliance Executive Director, Roni Holder-Diefenbach, who outlined the organization’s programs and what is available for local businesses and communities.

The Okanogan County Economic Alliance was established in 2005 and promotes economic development in the region through planning, research, small business advising and development. The Economic Alliance aims to facilitate partnerships with private, government, and tribal entities to create an environment to nurture, support and recruit businesses and industry in Okanogan County.

The organization offers a variety of programs and services to support local communities, businesses, and other organizations in the Okanogan County service area.

Diefenbach said Okanogan County has designated The Economic Alliance as the agency responsible for implementing the Associated Development program through the Washington Department of Commerce. Primary responsibilities include business recruitment, expansion and retention, and assisting start-up businesses.

“When I was hired in 2007, one of the first things my board challenged me with was to go back to Okanogan County and work with county commissioners to redevelop a program and process so that the city could also access those dollars again,” said Diefenbach.

Diefenbach explained to the council how The Economic Alliance is funded from federal, state and local sources in the form of grants and contracts for services.

The Economic Alliance offers a Small Business Development Center, a resource for expert advising, management training and market research. The Okanogan County’s SBDC advisor, Lew Blakeney provides one-on-one confidential advising at no charge to help businesses or potential businesses make informed decisions.

Also provided is the administrative support services for the Okanogan County Tourism Council, which does not have dedicated office space. Services offered by the Tourism Council include keeping files, use of a copy machine and computer and other essential items for operations. The Economic Alliance office is also used as a source for answering questions from tourists and others with tourism issues.

“My team has been expanding, which is awesome,” said Diefenbach.

According to Diefenbach, there are various challenges that rural businesses and communities face.

“This is pretty consistent across the board when we are out talking to communities and we are talking to businesses. We are rural. We are not just rural, we are frontier one designated,” said Diefenbach.

Some of the challenges facing rural Okanogan County are significant challenges with infrastructure, paying for infrastructure, housing, lack of child care, available workforce, transportation costs, and capacity. Being rural, Diefenbach said, “Is part of our story.”

Diefenbach said the Economic Alliance team has met with several of the smaller communities and discussed some of these challenges.

“With that, we try to structure our program and the services we offer, to address these issues we are hearing from these communities,” she said.