The West Columbia Gorge Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the cities of Cascade Locks, Corbett, Fairview, Troutdale and Wood Village, has selected David Eatwell to fill the newly created post of Economic Development Director.
The consortium of regional cities, along with the Chamber, collaborated to fund the position which will help strengthen existing businesses, recruit new businesses and spearhead the development of available commercial land in the region.
Eatwell, 59, brings experience in community and economic development and media production to his new position.
A native of Lebanon, Oregon, Eatwell was raised in the agricultural and logging communities of the Cascades. He attended Willamette University and served seven years in the U.S. Air Force as a meteorologist and broadcast information specialist.
He worked for 20 years in government, corporate and commercial media and sold his Houston-based media company in 1991 to return to Oregon to work in community development.
Eatwell served as executive director of the Portland-based Kenton Action Plan, which he incorporated in 1993. He was a member of the Kenton Neighborhood Association and charter member of the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, founding the Columbia Slough Small Craft Regatta.
He served on the Portland Mayor’s Reclaiming Our Streets Implementation Team, the Multnomah County Jail Sitting Advisory Committee and the Metro South/North Light Rail Citizens Advisory Committee. Under Eatwell’s leadership, Kenton was named “Neighborhood of the Year” by Mayor Vera Katz for its success in reducing crime by 32 percent, tripling property values and converting more than 1,200 rental properties into owner-occupied homes.
In 2001 Eatwell relocated to Centralia, Washington to serve as that city’s Downtown Economic Development Coordinator. His work focused on revitalization of the city’s historic downtown and lead to its recognition by the National Register of Historic Places. He recruited and incorporated the Lewis County Performing and Fine Arts Council and has worked with representatives from Lewis County and the City of Chehalis to form the Lewis County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Since 2007 Eatwell has worked with the Puyallup Main Street Association, procuring more than $320,000 in operational and project grants and initiating a Façade Improvement Program restoring eight downtown commercial buildings.
Eatwell’s office is located at the West Columbia Gorge Chamber of Commerce in Troutdale.
Contact:
Alice Freuler, Executive Director
503-669-7473
afreuler@westcolumbiagorgechamber.comwww.westcolumbiagorgechamber.com###
