The Observer., December 16, 2019, Page 5, Image 5

LOCAL
MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019
THE OBSERVER — 5A
LIBERTY
Continued from Page 1A
transformed into a space for retail businesses. Oc-
cupants of its space included Western Auto, which
operated there for many years. The retail space had
a false ceiling and fl oor that prevented customers
from realizing the old Liberty was both above and
below them, said Dale Mammen of La Grande, who
initiated the effort to restore the Liberty.
Mammen began the work to save the Liberty
Theatre after fi rst taking a tour of it about a decade
ago. He had a sense of urgency after seeing the
theater.
“I knew that it would either be restored or be torn
down and become a parking lot,’’ Mammen said.
Phase III, the fi nal act of the restoration project,
will involve restoring the balcony and the basement.
Fundraising is beginning for phase III. For informa-
tion on making donations, visit the Liberty Theatre
Foundation’s website at www.libertyonadmas.org.
At Friday’s open house, people had an opportu-
nity to see the walls in the theater, which have been
painted or covered with materials of various colors
throughout the building’s history. Small patches
of these hues and its bricks will remain exposed
when the restoration is fi nished. This will add to the
historic fl avor of the theater.
“It will be like stepping into a time capsule,” said
Jeff Clark, a member of the Liberty Theatre Foun-
dation Board.
TREES
Continued from Page 1A
Club tree stand, in the parking
lot of the Hermiston Community
Center, has been selling Christ-
mas trees as a fundraiser since
the 1970s. Tree sales help pay for
a variety of Kiwanis programs,
including college scholarships,
dental screenings and community
improvement projects, such as the
new lighting at Kiwanis Park in
Umatilla this year.
Like other vendors, Christmas
tree shortages were a concern, but
the Hermiston Kiwanis Club sever-
al years ago locked onto to a steady
supplier that has helped them
maintain their sales numbers.
“About four or fi ve years ago we
had to scramble to fi nd enough
trees,” Barak said. “Since then, we
have been relatively consistent and
our customer base seems used to
the type of trees we’ve had.”
The club started with 400
Christmas trees and sold roughly
300 in the fi rst week of operation.
BILL
Continued from Page 1A
down each year gradually in
order to get to where we need
to be in the future,” Dembrow
said. “And industries or sec-
tors that can’t be below that
amount will have to purchase
allowances to continue to
emit above that amount.”
The earlier proposal would
have created a new state
bureaucracy to manage the
program.
The current concept,
instead, puts the oversight
role under the Department
of Environmental Quality,
Dembrow said.
It also takes a different
approach to a major point
of contention last year: its
impact on prices at the gas
pump. Republicans argued
rural Oregonians would
feel the effects of a carbon
policy more acutely because
of the longer distances
they must drive to get to
work, school and to other
duties of everyday life.
Fuel suppliers would have
faced added costs under
the original proposal that
would have been passed on
to consumers.
The new proposal would
instead mean companies
importing gas into the state
would only adhere to the
emissions system in the Port-
land area at fi rst, starting in
2022, and then, three years
later, metro areas with popu-
lations of 30,000 or more.
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Michael Frasier, left, a member of Liberty Theatre Foundation Board, talks Friday during the open house of the old theater
in La Grande with Randy Tweten, center, and Ben Heckman. The trio are standing in front of the area for the theater’s lower
level seating.
Barak said he expected to sell off
the remaining trees and close the
stand Sunday evening.
“It’s just a great fundraiser for
us, and a great family experience
to go and fi nd the perfect tree,” he
said.
Barak also said community sup-
port always is a key in their efforts
to sell trees.
“We work really hard to keep
our costs down so that as much as
possible can go back into the com-
munity,” he said.
Keeping down cost also was a
factor for the Union County group,
Browne said, which sold trees for
$65. She said that was a good sight
better than vendors in California,
where trees were selling for $140
or more.
Brothers Tom and Jeff Hepler
have been selling Christmas trees
for the eight years at their stand
on the corner of Southwest Frazer
Avenue and 12th Street, Pendleton,
Tom Hepler, however, began selling
Christmas trees nearly 30 years
ago as a way of raising money to
“That’s a big change,”
Dembrow said.
While the details aren’t
“quite there yet,” he added,
it’s generally an idea he
supports.
“I think it really does
address a lot of the concerns
that we heard that the bill
would put inordinate costs
on our rural residents,”
Dembrow said, “So delaying
the implementation for the
most rural parts of the state
is an acknowledgement that
we’re trying to address those
concerns.”
Dembrow said the current
concept doesn’t include what
he feels are important as-
pects of last year’s proposal,
such as worker retraining
for those who could be im-
pacted by economic changes
wrought by a new climate
policy.
The Oregon AFL-CIO, a
federation of unions rep-
resenting about 300,000
Oregon workers, issued a
rejoinder to the draft on
Friday.
Graham Trainer, Oregon
AFL-CIO president, said the
current draft doesn’t help
workers whose industries
could be affected by a climate
policy and doesn’t direct
proceeds from the policy to
creating “family wage, qual-
ity jobs.”
“We have always believed
that workers must be at the
center of policy when debat-
ing how their work could be
impacted, and especially in a
buy presents for his wife and fi ve
children.
Although he sells trees to make
a profi t, he said, he tries to keep his
prices as low as possible, something
that has become more diffi cult in
recent years. The Heplers are one
of many Christmas tree sellers
that use farm-raised trees, mak-
ing them reliant on farms that set
wholesale prices. While the Heplers
said they haven’t had any issues
getting the number of trees they
need by using family and friends’
farms, they have run into increased
prices.
“The prices have gone up nearly
double,” said Jeff Hepler. “They
went from $3 a foot to nearly $8 a
foot for wholesale.”
The Heplers said the Great
Recession in the late 2000s led to a
drop in demand for trees, causing
many farmers to go out of business
or tear out tree operations in favor
of other crops, a change that led to
fewer available trees. Despite this,
the Heplers feel as though the tree
glut is improving.
cap and invest program that
has the potential to produce
major shifts in Oregon’s
economy,” Trainor said in a
written statement Friday.
“Any climate action that
leaves behind workers and
communities disproportion-
ately impacted by the effects
of climate change is a policy
and a process that should be
rejected,” Trainor said.
Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stay-
ton, considered to be a point
person for Senate Republi-
cans as they negotiate a new
climate policy, couldn’t be
reached for comment Friday
afternoon.
Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontar-
io, who is resigning to run for
Congress in early January,
has taken a step back from
his previously front-and-
center role in carbon policy
for Republicans, and said
Friday he hadn’t seen the
latest proposal.
Senate Republican Leader
Herman Baertschiger Jr. of
Grants Pass said he hasn’t
been involved in the discus-
sions over the policy, and
said he hadn’t gotten very
far into reading the 60-page
Serious speed!
proposal Friday.
But he said it was “mad-
ness” to consider sweeping
climate legislation during
the fi ve-week legislative
session. The session starts
Feb. 3.
“We think that trying
to run these huge policies
that’ll affect every Oregonian
in fi ve weeks is craziness,”
Baertschiger said.
Brad Reed, a spokes-
man for Renew Oregon, a
coalition of businesses and
nonprofi ts pushing for state
policy to address climate
change, emphasized the
concept is an early “starting
point.”
But Reed said the concept
is missing “key components”
the group pushed for last
session, and doesn’t go far
enough to make all major
polluters pay or invest in
moving the state to a clean
energy economy.
“I want to stress that we
consider this as where they
will start negotiating,” Reed
said. “This is not a piece of
legislation that the Renew
Oregon coalition would be
able to support.”
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Communications Corporation
WRIGHT
Continued from Page 1A
wage jobs on the eastern side of
the state, something she said is
keeping younger people away.
“We need young people in
the area, but we can’t afford
them,” Wright said. “I want
to work on fi nding family
wage jobs to bring young
people back to Eastern
Oregon, rather than being a
retirement community. And
nobody should have to fi ght
and scrap for a pay raise.”
Democrats haven’t fi elded
a candidate in the 58th
District primary since 2014,
when state Rep. Greg Bar-
reto, R-Cove, won his fi rst
term. Barreto declined to
seek a fourth term, opening
up a seat that covers Union
County, Wallowa County and
a part of Umatilla County.
“I’m not reliant on the tree
farms,” he said.
Unlike farm-raised trees, the
trees on Walker’s lot vary greatly in
height and width and are less “full”
than many are used to, he said.
Walker said his trees are exactly
what his clients want.
“My clientele is people that
grew up and went to the forest to
get their own tree,” he said. “My
biggest competition is people who
can make it to the mountains to get
their own tree.”
Walker sells trees to fi ll the win-
ter lull in his landscaping business
and said he can sell anywhere from
300-450 trees depending on the
year, although sales fl uctuate more
than he’d like. Walker said sales
have been good in recent years, and
he is prepared to keep selling trees
right up to the end of the week
before Christmas.
“If I get close to running out, I
can just go harvest a few more,” he
said. “I really love what I do.”
“As far as getting trees, it’s going
to get better,” said Tom Hepler. “The
larger trees have been an issue
though, so if you want a big tree,
you better come early.”
While access to trees appears
to be improving, the brothers said
the shortened holiday season and
rise in artifi cial tree sales will keep
their sales lower than last year. The
brothers said they expect to sell
roughly 500 trees this year, down
from a record 540 sold last year.
“Financially, artifi cial trees are
taking over,” said Jeff Hepler. “But
it’s the smell, and the ambiance
and the whole Christmas tree
atmosphere that keeps our custom-
ers coming back.”
While most local Christmas tree
vendors get their trees from com-
mercial tree farms on the west side
of the state, Ward Walker harvests
all of his trees by hand from nearby
forest land. Walker, who runs Walk-
er’s Christmas Trees on Southgate
in Pendleton, said the only thing
that could hurt his tree sales would
be a widespread tree disease.
Phil Wright of The Observer
contributed to this report.
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