Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, May 20, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Wright departs
The Observer,
returns to EO
Andrew Cutler will fill
in as La Grande editor
on interim basis
The Observer
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Kokanee Inn owners Eric Makela and Michelle Britt, at right, chat with customers Alan and Janice Gaylord, of Portland, after breakfast on Monday, May 17, 2021, on the upper
deck of the inn in Joseph.
Inn with the new
Kokanee Inn makes additions for third season
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — The Kokanee
Inn in Joseph is offering some-
thing new this summer — bike
rentals and limited alcohol sales.
The inn is not exactly a bed
and breakfast, but the distinc-
tion is minimal.
“We call ourselves an inn,”
co-owner Eric Makela said.
“We’re basically an inn that
serves breakfast.”
“This summer, we added the
bike rentals,” wife and co-owner
Michelle Britt said.
The former Chandler’s Inn
has been owned by the Make-
la-Britt couple since 2018. Last
year, like most businesses, the
inn was hurt by the COVID-19
pandemic and resulting
closures.
But now, Makela said,
“People are starting to travel
again.”
The couple said that most
of their customers come from
the Portland area and the Wil-
lamette Valley, but they also
draw from all over the country.
Monday, May 17, there was a
car there from south-central
Idaho. He said they also get cus-
tomers from as far away in this
country as New York, and also
have drawn an international
crowd. They’ve had customers
from Germany, France, the
United Kingdom and Belgium.
“We have such a wide variety
of people. Right now, we have
one couple who are 19 and a
couple on the upper deck in
their 80s,” Britt said. “We have
families and couples and singles
and hunters and backcountry
skiers — just across the gamut
that’s really fun.”
In fact, the 27-bed inn has
handled quite a crowd. During
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Michelle Britt prepares a customer’s breakfast Monday, May 17, 2021, at the Kokanee
Inn in Joseph, which she owns with husband Eric Makela.
one wrestling tournament in
Joseph, a team from Port-
land basically filled in the inn,
and they had to squeeze them
in with a shoehorn. Fortu-
nately, some of the rooms come
with pull-out beds in couches,
Makela said.
Among the two-dozen-plus
beds are suites, single rooms
and those that come with their
own bathrooms or share bath-
rooms with others.
“We can mix and match,” he
said.
The inn also does family
reunions, weddings and other
events.
But now, they’re getting
ready to expand their offer-
ings. Makela said they have
10 mountain bikes customers
can rent. He said that although
there are bicycles for rent at the
south end of Wallowa Lake, he
doesn’t believe those rentals are
as active and thinks the inn can
offer more in the way of places
to ride.
As for the addition of
alcohol, that’s being done on a
limited basis. The Joseph City
Council recently approved their
application. In that applica-
tion, the inn will serve mimosas
— breakfast drinks of cham-
pagne and orange juice — from
7-9 a.m. and they plan a happy
hour 4-6 p.m. on weekends.
“We’re trying to limit it for
now, because we want to see
how it goes,” Makela said.
Britt agreed.
“We’re not trying to compete
with anyone,” saying they will
eagerly refer people to down-
town establishments for more
alcoholic offerings. “We’re
trying to keep it family friendly
and we realize that not everyone
wants a cocktail. We don’t want
to be a drinking destination.”
Although their license only
allows them to serve breakfast
at present, they’re investigating
what they can do to expand their
food offerings to go with happy
hour. For now, they’re envi-
sioning some sort of snacks, as
well as nonalcoholic drinks.
The couple has a son who
lives in Enterprise, a daughter
staying with them while she
waits for college to resume in
Michigan and two other daugh-
ters. They moved here most
recently from the Boise area,
after working in full-time con-
sulting jobs developing energy
codes for businesses. But those
jobs and the inn were too much.
“It’s hard to work two full-
time jobs and run the inn,”
Makela said. “We decided we
needed a life change, so we
worked our way out of the full-
time jobs and are doing this full
time.”
The couple are finding their
new venture satisfying.
“It’s been an amazing place
to open a business,” Britt said.
“We get to play in the woods
as much as we want and at the
same time, make a living in an
amazing location.”
But the customers are No. 1,
as any good innkeeper knows.
“We want to make sure
they’re fully fed and caffein-
ated,” Makela said.
LA GRANDE — The opportu-
nity to return home proved too much
for The Observer editor Phil Wright to
ignore.
Wright is returning to Pendleton
to take over as news editor at the East
Oregonian, beginning Monday, May
24. Wright replaces Wyatt Haupt, who
left to become editor of The Daily
World, in Aberdeen, Washington.
“I was not expecting
this opportunity, so when
it came my way I was
surprised, sure,” Wright
said. “But then I gave it
careful scrutiny over a
Wright
couple weeks. While I’m
returning to the EO, the
coronavirus pandemic
has reshaped the news-
room I left. This really is
a new challenge for me.”
Cutler
Wright returns to
Pendleton after 18 months as editor
of The Observer. Prior to La Grande,
Wright had been a reporter for the
East Oregonian for nearly 15 years,
covering Umatilla County govern-
ment, public safety and courts.
Wright said leaving Union County
was a decision he wrestled with once
the offer was made, but the oppor-
tunity to return to the newsroom he
spent the bulk of his career in was too
much to ignore.
“To paraphrase a certain action
movie, I have a particular set of skills,
and I honed those to a greater degree
See, Wright/Page 3B
Dairy farmer,
seed producer
new to Oregon
Board of Ag
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A dairy farmer and a
seed producer are the newest members
of the Oregon Board of Agriculture,
which advises regulators at the state’s
Department of Agriculture.
Chad Allen of Victor
Dairy has worked in the
Tillamook dairy industry
his entire life and was
appointed by Gov. Kate
Brown to replace Marty
Myers, manager of
Allen
Threemile Canyon Farms,
who died last year.
Randi Svaty of R&R
Seed Farms in Ontario
operates the farm with
her husband, Ryan, and
Svaty
serves as the local branch
manager for Northwest Farm Credit
Services. She was appointed to replace
Grant Kitamura, an onion producer
who moved out of state earlier this
year.
Allen said the new role will help
him communicate the realities of
farming to the urban community,
See, Board/Page 3B
Anti-animal ag initiative raises alarm among farm groups
Effort would strip most protections for livestock
producers under the state’s animal abuse laws
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — Animal agriculture
could soon be considered animal
cruelty under a proposed ballot
measure in Oregon.
Farm groups are pushing back
against Initiative Petition 13,
which would strip away most pro-
tections for livestock producers
under the state’s animal abuse
laws.
The result would effectively
criminalize everything from
slaughtering livestock to basic
animal husbandry, including
branding and dehorning cattle,
castrating bulls and docking
horses, sheep and pigs, said Mary
Anne Cooper, vice president of
public policy for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
The initiative also seeks to
re-classify livestock breeding and
artificial insemination as sexual
assault of an animal — a Class C
felony.
“It’s a very different tack than
we have ever seen before,” Cooper
said. “Basically, they’re looking to
ban anything with animals that is
not doctoring.”
Initiative Petition 13 was filed
Nov. 2, 2020, with the Oregon
Secretary of State’s office.
The chief petitioner is David
Michelson, a Portland animal
rights activist.
A similar proposal, called the
Protect Animals from Unneces-
sary Suffering and Exploitation,
or PAUSE, Act is also being pur-
sued in Colorado.
The Oregon campaign recently
cleared its first regulatory hurdle,
submitting 1,000 sponsorship sig-
natures for verification on April
28. If approved, supporters will
need to collect 112,020 signa-
tures to place the initiative on the
See, Initiative/Page 3B
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press, File
An initiative being circulated targets animal agriculture, hunting, rodeos and wildlife
management, among other activities.