Business AgLife
B
Thursday, April 9, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
True Value faring well in new location
COVID-19 restrictions
means some people
have extra time for
home improvement
J
Easterday Farms Dairy
in Boardman would
have up to 28,300 cattle
J
By Ronald Bond
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — One area of
business, at least locally, seemes
to be immune from the effects of
the coronavirus.
In fact, the mitigation steps
that have forced much of the
population to stay home the vast
majority of the time has been a
boon of sorts for Jefferson True
Value.
The La Grande hardware
store, previously named Jef-
ferson Street Supply, moved
March 30 to its new location at
214 Greenwood St., just down
the road from its former home at
1507 Jefferson Ave.
“Right now, considering what
we’re going through, our num-
bers as far as individuals coming
in the store are up compared
to where we were at the other
store,” assistant store manager
Jimmy Burgess said. “There’s
been a lot of people coming
through the front door.”
Burgess, who has been at the
business nearly five years, noted
that curiosity of the new location
is part of what led to an uptick in
customers.
But more than that, having
extra time at home as a result of
COVID-19 has given many the
opportunity to work on projects
— whether new or long overdue
— which has brought customers
into the store at an even higher
rate than usual.
Burgess said this is true even
in his own home.
“I think what is going on right
now is that, myself included,
if there have been some home
projects sitting on the (back)
burner, it’s allowed everyone to
take advantage of that time to
get those done,” he said. “My
wife and I did some remodeling
(recently). We had planned a
vacation and couldn’t go any-
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
Photo by Ronald Bond/EO Media Group
Jefferson True Value assistant store manager Jimmy Burgess, right, looks up information Wednesday
for customer Chris Haefer. The hardware store, formerly known as Jefferson Street Supply, is in its sec-
ond week at its new location in La Grande.
Photo by Ronald Bond/EO Media Group
James Welley looks through plumbing supplies Wednesday at Jef-
ferson True Value, 214 Greenwood St., La Grande.
where due to COVID-19, and we
remodeled our bathroom down-
stairs. Everyone is taking advan-
tage of being home and the time
being presented to them.”
The purchases made have
ranged from single items for
small fix-ups to larger hauls for
major undertakings.
“I had a couple people coming
in looking for a handle for a
screen door,” he said. “(We’ve
sold) indoor plumbing. We have
contractors still coming in able
to work and buying stuff to seal
up windows they’re installing.
It’s a wide range.”
Burgess pointed to several
reasons why the business elected
to move into the space that pre-
viously housed Golden Harvest
and a beauty salon.
“More space and we just
collectively thought there was
something we needed to do
in order to make the business
better,” he said. “As soon as we
looked and saw an opportunity,
we needed to find someone that
was going to be able to help us
create this move.”
That led to the merger with
True Value — an American
wholesaler with more than
4,600 independent retail loca-
tions worldwide — and, thus, the
name change.
“True Value ended up being
that buyer we needed to get
going,” Burgess said.
The remodel began last
summer, and a lot of work went
into transforming the building
into a hardware store.
See, Location/Page 2B
Crafting joy in a time of pandemic
Enterprise glass artist
works toward
community Easter egg
hunt
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By Ellen Morris Bishop
EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — Stirling
Webb has a grand plan for the
resurrection of weary psyches
and spirits: an Easter egg hunt
unlike any other, whenever the
shroud of social distancing lifts
and life begins to have a glimmer
of normal.
Webb, a glass artist who owns
Moonshine Glass in Enterprise,
has been making eggs. Glass
Easter eggs to be more precise.
He originally planned to hide the
eggs around Wallowa County
for a public Easter egg hunt on
Easter, April 12.
“It would be an event
everyone could participate in,”
Cleanup
plan goes to
new owners
of big dairy
he said. “Maybe there would
be some hints about where to
look. It would all be in pub-
licly accessible places. It would
be a fun community event for
everybody.”
Last year, Webb and his assis-
tants at Moonshine Glass hid 40
eggs around the Wallowa County
countryside.
“It was a hit,” he said. “All the
eggs were found, and there were
a lot of really happy kids and
families.”
It was finders keepers, too.
This year’s “Easter egg hunt
on Easter” plan collapsed when
social distancing became a
necessity.
Rather than give up, Webb is
pushing for a bigger, better egg
hunt.
Webb has hatched a Kick-
starter fund drive to augment his
nest egg and ensure he can make
enough of his bright, colorful
Photo by Ellen Morris Bishop/EO Media Group
Four of Stirling Webb’s Easter eggs for 2020 reflect in Wallowa Lake.
Webb has had to postpone his second glass Easter egg hunt due
to the need for social distancing. But he plans a belated egg hunt
as a community celebration once the coronavirus crisis passes. His
Kickstarter campaign to support production of more eggs continues
See, Eggs/Page 3B through Friday.
BOARDMAN — The Oregon
Department of Agriculture has
approved transferring the cleanup
permit at the former Lost Valley
Farm in Boardman, which shut
down in early 2019, to new owners
Easterday Farms based in Pasco,
Washington.
Easterday bought the property
for $66.7 million last year. Lost
Valley Farm opened in 2017 and
was permitted for up to 30,000
cows, making it the second-largest
dairy in Oregon.
However, under previous owner
Greg te Velde, Lost Valley almost
immediately began violating the
conditions of its permit by improp-
erly handling and storing manure.
Te Velde declared bankruptcy
in April 2018 amid allegations of
persistent drug use and gambling.
Later that year, he was stripped
of his control over Lost Valley —
along with two other dairies in
California — and a federal trustee
was put in charge.
The trustee, Randy Sugarman,
decided to close and sell the
dairy but was first responsible
for cleaning up the site. On Dec.
30, 2019, the state ag department
issued a “letter of satisfaction”
for the cleanup, which included
removing all cows, flushing barns
and emptying wastewater lagoons.
ODA recently transferred the
“zero-animal clean-up permit” to
Easterday Farms. Andrea
Cantu-Schomas, a spokeswoman
for the agency, described it as
“essentially the same very pro-
tective CAFO permit that was in
place with the former operator,
minus animals in the production
area.”
“The clean-up permit still
requires the operator to main-
tain all the required reporting and
monitoring because of the waste
storage facilities on site,” she said.
Easterday Farms cannot reopen
the dairy until the state approves
a new Confined Animal Feeding
Operation, or CAFO, permit. The
farm has applied for a new CAFO
permit, which is under review and
expected to go out for public com-
ment this summer.
Oregon’s CAFO program is
jointly managed by ODA and the
state Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
Easterday Farms Dairy would
have up to 28,300 cattle, with
8,000 mature dairy cows and
2,650 heifers housed under roof
along with 1,700 mature cows and
5,950 heifers in open confinement.
The farm plans to invest $15 mil-
lion to bring the operation into full
environmental compliance.
According to the CAFO appli-
cation, the dairy will generate
roughly 5.4 million cubic feet of
liquid manure, 5.9 million cubic
feet of solid manure and 11.7 mil-
lion cubic feet of processed waste-
water annually. The nitrogen-rich
manure will be stored in lagoons
and used for fertilizer.
Coronavirus shears sheep industry as demand plummets
Pendleton Woolen
Mills temporarily shut
down operations
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By Carol Ryan Dumas
EO Media Group
SALEM — Demand for lamb,
wool and pelts is tanking in
response to the coronavirus pan-
demic, industry representatives
say, and prices are following suit.
It’s having a tremendous
impact on the industry, said John
Noh, president of Idaho Wool
Growers Association and a board
member of the American Sheep
Industry Association.
Wool has become unsaleable
because the agency in New Zea-
land that does commercial testing
of U.S. wool has closed due to
coronavirus. Trade to major wool
buyers in Italy and China has shut
down, as has the pelt trade to pri-
mary markets in Turkey, China
and Russia. Some trade was shut
down to a degree before corona-
virus, but it’s even worse now, he
said.
A large portion of the lamb
market is restaurants and cruise
ships, and they aren’t operating.
The timing is particularly diffi-
cult, as Easter is a main event for
lamb sales. Grocery trade is up,
but that’s for the lesser cuts of
shoulder and ground meat. Sales
of the more expensive middle
meats are at a standstill, he said.
On top of that, the sec-
ond-largest U.S. lamb packer,
Mountain States Rosen, filed for
bankruptcy, and its kill rate is
way down.
In addition, Pendleton Woolen
Mills has temporarily shut down
its operations, he said.
“It’s about as rough as I’ve
seen it in my 30 years,” he said.
Mountain States Rosen filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy pro-
tection on March 19 with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Dis-
trict of Wyoming, citing lost sales
See, Sheep/Page 3B
EO Media Group file photo
A band of sheep grazes in the Boise foothills. The coronavirus outbreak
has hurt the markets for lamb and wool.