Business
Ag Life
B
Thursday, April 1, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Ambulance
service
answers the
call for fires,
COVID-19
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Phil Wright/The Observer
Cecil stays still as Debbi Larson grooms him Tuesday, March 30, 2021, at her La Grande business Best of Breed. She is no longer taking new clients because her business has been
so busy during the pandemic.
Where’s the stimulus?
Local businesses may not be feeling injection from personal stimulus money
By PHIL WRIGHT
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The latest
round of personal stimulus
money may not be making its
way into local businesses.
Most people nationwide are
using the latest round of stim-
ulus payments to cover the costs
of food, utilities and household
supplies, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau’s Household
Pulse Survey. Paying down debt
and paying for housing and vehi-
cles also are among the top ways
the survey indicates people are
using the funds.
Spending on household items,
such as TVs and furniture, giving
to charity or family and pur-
chasing recreational goods are at
the bottom of the list.
But some La Grande business
owners said there is more to the
stimulus spending picture.
Shaun Daggett and his father,
Mike Daggett, own and run
Northwest Furniture & Mattress.
Shaun Daggett said their big
issue is not a lack of customers
looking to spend stimulus money.
“If we had inventory, I’m sure
that would help us,” he said.
The pandemic has led to a
slowdown in production. Trying
to maintain social distancing in
manufacturing, he said, means
furniture makers are not pro-
ducing as much. The La Grande
store usually has 36 sets of living
room furniture, he said, but
Tuesday, March 30, there were
only four.
Other factors are com-
pounding the inventory shortage.
Nearly 50 ships carrying
goods for stores across the
United States are stuck in
Southern California. A spike in
coronavirus cases among dock-
workers there is creating a bot-
tleneck of goods as more ships
Maria Vazquez said she has
noticed a slight increase in sales
the last couple of weeks at her
pizza and sandwich shop, New
York Richie’s. Rather than a
surge, she said, it seems more
like a steady climb. And while
business remains slow overall,
“We’re definitely doing OK,
but I think if we could get
product, we would be doing
phenomenal.”
— Shaun Daggett, co-owner Northwest Furniture and
Mattress, La Grande
come in while goods are going
out at a trickle. Add to this, Dag-
gett said, the massive container
ship that blocked marine traffic
through the Suez Canal for nearly
a week. All of that means delays
in getting goods to people.
Just the other day, he said,
customers came in looking to
buy a sofa. But if they want
something not on the floor, that
means ordering and waiting
seven or eight months.
“So we’re waiting until
October, November of this year,”
he said.
Still, Daggett said, business is
not taking a downturn.
“We’re definitely doing
OK,” he said, “but I think if we
could get product, we would be
doing phenomenal.”
sales are good.
She also said the stimulus
payments are a boon to the fam-
ilies who needed it to keep their
homes and pay for essentials,
such as clothing.
Debbi Larson said she cannot
tell if stimulus money is making
a difference for her business, Best
of Breed, which provides pet sup-
plies, food and grooming, but the
pandemic sure has.
“My business has increased
probably 30% since the pandemic
started,” she said.
She attributed the uptick to a
few situations.
More people have sought pets
during the pandemic. Dog own-
ership nationwide jumped, she
said, as people bought “pan-
demic puppies.” And people are
spending more time with their
pets, so grooming services have
increased.
“I groom two days a week,”
she said, “and my service is
booked through the end of the
year.”
She said she had to stop taking
new clients. Another groomer
who uses the space at the shop
three days a week, Larson said,
has appointments for the next
seven weeks.
Whit Hartz at his busi-
ness Mountain Works Bicycles
doubted he has seen a surge, but
then again, it could be hard to
tell. Mountain Works, he said,
has been “unprecedentedly
busy.”
The pandemic forced gym
goers and exercise enthusiasts to
seek out new ways to work out,
and that meant going outdoors.
Ski and bicycle shops, Hartz
said, have stayed busy during the
pandemic.
While the business has
not noticed an uptick in local
spending from stimulus pay-
ments, he also said spring is just
starting in the Grande Ronde
Valley and even more business
could come with the change in
weather.
As COVID-19 cases continue
to trend down, Hartz and some of
the other local business owners
said they see some light at the
end of the coronavirus tunnel and
a greater return to normalcy.
“I think people are ready
to be people again,” Hartz
said. “I hope.”
ENTERPRISE — An ambu-
lance service based in Eastern
Oregon that often helps with wild-
fire victims has turned its atten-
tion to the still-raging COVID-19
pandemic that, unlike last year’s
wildfires, has not yet subsided.
Owned by Chris Arvidson, of
Baker City, Med Transport is a
privately held ambulance service
that responds to calls — in addi-
tion to Oregon — in California,
Texas, Maryland and New Jersey.
Arvidson said he has a pool of
45 paramedics and a handful of
emergency medical technicians
who can be deployed.
“We have changed the ser-
vices offered by our service and
have been fortunate to send out
the experienced personnel to rep-
resent our community and our
service throughout the country,”
Arvidson said in a press release.
In Eastern Oregon, para-
medics reside in Enterprise, Baker
City, La Grande and Pendleton,
Arvidson said.
Arvidson spoke highly of
his Enterprise paramedic, Sean
Cariss, who has worked on fires
and disaster-relief assignments
with the service.
“I spent a good part of
October on an ambulance with
See, Ambulance/Page 3B
Researchers
study spent
hemp biomass
as animal feed
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — Hemp already
is touted for its healthful and ther-
apeutic benefits in humans.
Researchers at Oregon State
University now are studying
whether the plant also could
be part of a nutritious diet for
livestock.
The project, which received
a nearly $300,000 USDA grant
in February, aims to determine
whether “spent hemp biomass”
can be fed to animals including
lambs, chickens and dairy cows,
and whether any residual cannabis
compounds are present in the
meat and milk.
Spent hemp biomass is the
leafy byproduct left over after
processing hemp for cannabidiol,
or CBD, oil, which makes up the
vast majority of Oregon hemp
production.
The research team, led by Mas-
simo Bionaz, has found this mate-
rial is similar in both appear-
ance and chemical composition to
See, Hemp/Page 3B
Pilot project vaccinates hundreds of agricultural workers
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — Maria
Corona knew she wanted to get
the vaccine. Three months ear-
lier, eight of her family members
tested positive for COVID-19. So
had many of her coworkers and
neighbors.
“I was really concerned,” said
Corona, who, at 49, spends half
the year working in food pro-
cessing plants and the other half
working in the fields near her
home in Boardman. “You hear
a lot in the news that people are
dying, so you get afraid.”
The day after Corona learned
through Facebook that she and
her coworkers were eligible to
receive the COVID-19 vaccine,
she hopped in her Dodge Car-
avan and made her way down to
the SAGE Center, where state
and county health officials were
offering doses to farmworkers in
a four-day clinic that was the first
of its kind.
“In order to not infect other
people, to feel safe with your family
and to be secure is what’s most
important,” Corona said through a
translator after getting her vaccine
on Wednesday, March 24.
Akiko Saito, deputy director
for the COVID-19 response
and recovery unit, a joint divi-
sion between the Oregon Health
Authority and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Human Services, said
the clinic was a “pilot project”
specifically geared to immunize
a community long understood
to be especially vulnerable to
COVID-19.
In all, officials vaccinated over
See, Vaccines/Page 3B
Maria Corona receives
her first dose of the
COVID-19 vaccine
during an event for
farm and food process-
ing workers at the Sage
Center in Boardman
on Wednesday, March
24, 2021. State and
county officials offered
doses of the vaccine to
farmworkers during a
four-day clinic.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian