2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021
BUSINESS & AG LIFE
Biden signs $15 minimum wage for federal contract workers
By JOSH BOAK
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
President Joe Biden signed
an executive order Tuesday,
April 27, to increase the
minimum wage to $15 an
hour for federal contrac-
tors, providing a pay bump
to hundreds of thousands of
workers.
Biden administration
offi cials said the higher
wages would lead to greater
worker productivity, off set-
ting any additional costs to
taxpayers.
“This executive order
will promote economy and
effi ciency in federal con-
tracting, providing value
for taxpayers by enhancing
worker productivity and
generating higher-quality
work by boosting workers’
health, morale, and eff ort,”
the White House said in a
statement.
The liberal Economic
Policy Institute estimates
Evan Vucci/Associated Press, File
In this Feb. 24, 2021, fi le photo, President Joe Biden pauses after signing an executive order relating to U.S. supply
chains, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Biden is preparing to sign an executive order
to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors. Administration offi cials say it will provide
a pay bump to hundreds of thousands.
as many as 390,000 low-
wage federal contractors
Keeping the history
State honors Salem woman for preserving
work of trailblazing landscape architects
By SAPHARA HARRELL
Salem Reporter via AP StoryShare
SALEM — For Bobbie
Dolp, the gardens at Gaiety
Hollow are a laid out in a
complex, extraordinary way
that’s hard to convey.
She said they’re built
around the concept of
rooms, much like a house.
“It feels much bigger
than it really is. People are
always amazed,” Dolp said.
The gardens were
designed by Elizabeth Lord
and Edith Schryver, the
pair behind the fi rst wom-
en-owned landscape archi-
tecture fi rm in the Pacifi c
Northwest. The women’s
infl uence can be seen in
various gardens around
Salem.
For nearly two decades,
Dolp has made it her mis-
sion to preserve their legacy.
Now, her work is being rec-
ognized with a state historic
preservation award.
After Dolp retired from
teaching chemistry and
physics at Central High
School in Independence,
she had quite an extensive
garden.
Over time, Dolp said she
shifted from vegetable gar-
dening to planting more
fl owers.
“I’ve always loved being
outdoors and being active
and working with my
hands,” she said.
She was drawn to the
uniqueness of Lord and
Schryver’s story, two
women from diff erent
backgrounds and educa-
tion levels who met in 1927
while abroad in Europe
studying gardens.
They had both gone to a
school in Massachusetts for
women in landscape archi-
tecture, but attended years
apart. They moved west to
establish their business in
1929, in Lord’s family home
in Salem.
“They certainly blazed
a trail and left a signifi cant
legacy,” Dolp said.
She said their skills
blended well, with Schryver
doing the engineering,
design and layout while
Lord excelled at plant
combinations.
“It’s interesting to see
how they developed their
business sense as well as
incredible aesthetic sense”
Dolp said.
She and another gar-
dening friend began to envi-
sion a group that would
explore the story of Lord
and Schryver, who designed
more than 200 landscapes
and gardens in the region
from 1929 to 1969.
They brought garden
preservation specialist Bill
Noble to see Gaiety Hollow,
Lord and Schryver’s per-
sonal home, garden and
studio located at 545 Mis-
sion St. At the time, the
garden was privately owned.
Dolp said Noble told
them there was no garden
like it on the West Coast.
“Well, we better get
organized,” Dolp recalled
thinking.
She helped establish the
Lord & Schryver Conser-
vancy in 2005, with an eye
on one day purchasing the
garden where the women
did their work and opening
it to the public.
Dolp said she had no
idea when that opportunity
would come about.
Pam Wasson, execu-
tive director of the Lord &
Schryver Conservancy, said
Dolp is “a real go-getter”
who worked hard to get
Gaiety Hollow listed on the
National Register of His-
toric Places.
“She really had the pas-
sion and drive to go through
all these steps and pro-
cesses,” Wasson said.
She said accomplishing
what Dolp has for the his-
toric property took a lot of
work.
In the intervening years,
the nonprofi t raised money
to hire a fi rm to document
what the garden was like
in its “period of signifi -
cance.” It also rehabilitated
and maintains the historic
gardens at the Deepwood
Estate, also designed by
Lord and Schryver.
Dolp said Lord and
Schryver did all the work
themselves in a studio
above the garage. There’s no
record of an intern or secre-
tary helping them.
In 2015, the conser-
vancy purchased Gaiety
Hollow after 18 months of
fundraising.
Through the decade-long
process, Dolp said, “It’s
just one foot in front of the
other.”
On April 29, Dolp will
be recognized for her work
establishing the Lord and
Schryver Conservancy
during the Oregon Heritage
Excellence Awards.
Awards are for those who
“have made outstanding
contributions to preserving
Oregon heritage.”
Dolp said she’s spent “a
lot” of hours in the garden,
and many more getting the
conservancy off its feet
through grant writing and
communicating its impor-
tance to people.
“I haven’t regretted any
minute,” Dolp said.
would receive a raise, with
roughly half of the benefi -
ciaries being Black or His-
panic workers. There are
an estimated 5 million con-
tract workers in the federal
government, according to
a posting last year for the
Brookings Institution by
Paul Light, a public policy
professor at New York
University.
The increase could be
dramatic for workers who
earn the current minimum
of $10.95 an hour. Those
workers would receive a
37% pay hike, though the
increase would be rolled out
gradually, according to the
terms of the order.
The White House said
the workers would include
cleaning and maintenance
workers, nursing assistants
who care for veterans, cafe-
teria workers providing for
the military and laborers
who build and repair federal
infrastructure.
All federal agencies
would need to include the
higher wage in new contract
off erings by Jan. 30 of next
TRADE
Continued from Page 1B
one year when wheat from
Canada and Australia had
an advantage through the
Comprehensive and Pro-
gressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacifi c Partnership,
U.S. Wheat Associates
Japan country director
Kazunori Nakano said.
The U.S. pulled out of the
original TPP agreement,
opting instead to negotiate
a separate agreement with
Japan.
“Flour millers
remained conservative
and did not change their
blending ratio of raw
material despite some
increased cost disadvan-
tage of U.S. wheat during
2019,” Nakano said.
Japan’s Ministry of
Finance year-over-year
import statistics do show
an advantage for U.S.
beef.
Whereas overall
imports of chilled beef
were down 5% from over
274,893 tons in 2019 to
just over 261,510 tons last
year, U.S. product imports
decreased only 1.4%, from
almost 126,908 tons to
125,157 tons.
Conversely, while
overall frozen beef
imports decreased 0.5%
from almost 340,516 to
just under 338,898 tons,
imports of U.S. meat
jumped 14%, from almost
114,162 tons to almost
129,904 tons.
However, Yamashoji
cautioned against making
an assessment based on
statistics only.
“The COVID-19 pan-
demic is a dramatic event
Port of Portland/Contributed Photo
Wheat bound for overseas pours into the hold of a ship at the Port of
Portland. U.S. wheat exports to Japan increased 4.4% last year.
and the impact is ongoing,
so simply looking at year-
over-year volumes is not
a thorough way to eval-
uate the U.S.-Japan Trade
Agreement,” he said.
U.S. beef is heavily uti-
lized by Japan’s foodser-
vice sector, which was hit
hard by COVID-related
restrictions and still is not
operating under normal
conditions, Yamashoji
said.
The growth in imports
of frozen U.S. beef was
partly due to consumer
demand for staples such as
beef short plate, of which
the U.S. is the dominant
supplier in Japan, he said.
“U.S. beef short plate
is heavily utilized by the
gyudon beef bowl restau-
rants and also sold thin-
sliced at retail, for conve-
nient and aff ordable home
cooking,” Yamashoji said.
Unless the overall
demand for imported beef
increases, imports of U.S.
beef will not increase sig-
nifi cantly, said Shiroh
Ohashi, executive director
of the Japan Meat Traders
Association, a grouping
of 30 meat-importing and
year. By March 30, agen-
cies would need to imple-
ment the higher wage into
new contracts. The increase
would also be in existing
contracts that are extended.
The wage would be
indexed to infl ation, so
it would automatically
increase with each year to
refl ect changes in prices.
The tipped minimum wage
of $7.65 an hour for fed-
eral contractors would be
replaced by the standard
minimum by 2024.
Biden has pushed to
establish a $15 hourly min-
imum wage nationwide
for all workers, making
it a part of his corona-
virus relief package. But
the Senate parliamentarian
said the wage hike did not
follow the budgetary rules
that allowed the $1.9 tril-
lion plan to pass with a
simple majority, so it was
not included in the bill that
became law in March.
-exporting companies.
“I just hope the
COVID-19 problem will
be resolved soon,” Ohashi
said.
For their part, whereas
overall wheat imports
increased only 0.8% year-
over-year in 2020 from
over 5,331 tons to almost
5,374 tons, U.S. product
rose 4.4% from over
2,521 tons to almost 2,632
tons.
Since the U.S.-Japan
trade agreement went
into eff ect, the markup
on wheat from the U.S.,
Australia and Canada has
been the same, 21-member
Japan Flour Millers Asso-
ciation Yasuo Sasaki said.
“I don’t think there will
be any action to uncondi-
tionally increase or decrease
the import quantity of wheat
from any of those coun-
tries,” Sasaki said.
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WESTERN AUCTION CO.
EXCAVATION AND CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT AUCTION
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Starts Closing: May 4th @ 2:00 PM (PT)
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