Sen. Arnie Roblan (D) Coos Bay, release – On behalf of the members of the Oregon Legislature’s Coastal Caucus and our Summit partners – the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians and the City of Florence – please accept my heartfelt thanks for your participation in our recently concluded 2019 Oregon Coastal Caucus Economic Summit (OCCES). Your attendance did much to make this Summit yet another outstanding success. OCCES is designed to provide opportunities for business and academic leaders, government officials and a broad range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors to explore issues that can lead to positive legislative action and promote economic development in our coastal and rural communities. We hope you took advantage of the many opportunities to network and make connections that will be beneficial to you in your own work. Have no doubt that your voice at these Summits is very important. The success of this annual event and our success as legislators is dependent, for so many reasons, on your continued engagement and sharing with us for the upcoming legislative session. We want to offer a special acknowledgement to the many vendors who helped to make our “Taste of the Oregon Coast” one of the highlights of the Summit. The contributions of delicious seafood and local flavors from the Oregon Coast; the tastings from Oregon’s renowned wineries, breweries and distilleries; and the wonderful donations from our state’s famous cheese factory and creamery – which supports our multi-generational dairy farm families – were among those that made the event such a success. Some of those vendors traveled from as far away as Bend, because they were so eager to share their products with you.  Again, thank you so much for joining us at the 2019 OCCES. We are well aware of the considerable potential of our region. That potential can only be carefully and judiciously developed as a result of the constructive discussions and dialogues that meetings like the OCCES are designed to cultivate. Your contributions are a vital component in sustaining those discussions and dialogues. We hope that when we begin our planning for next year’s Summit we can call on you to, once again, be part of one of Oregon’s most successful and important annual meetings.