Business
LIZ
WESTON
ASK LIZ
AgLife
B
Thursday, August 4, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Construction got underway
at the Legacy Ford
dealership on March 1, 2022.
Greg Colozzi/Contributed Photo
What’s
the safer
banking
alternative?
Dear Liz: My wife
keeps over $60,000 in her
checking account at a brick-
and-mortar bank. I think
that is a bad idea. Too easy
for possible fraud. I have
tried to convince her the
safest place to keep the
bulk of her cash is in a sav-
ings account, preferably
in an online bank, which I
believe provides added pro-
tection against fraud as long
as we maintain good com-
puter health. What do you
think?
Answer: Many people
have the opposite convic-
tion, which is that online
banks are somehow less
safe than brick-and-mortar
versions. In reality, both
types off er encryption
and other safety measures
to deter fraud. Accounts
are insured by the Fed-
eral Deposit Insurance
Corp. and covered by fed-
eral banking regulations
designed to protect con-
sumers against fraud.
Your wife’s money
wouldn’t necessarily be
safer in a savings account,
but she’d earn a little more
interest. Many online
banks currently off er rates
of about 1% on savings
accounts. If she moved
all but $10,000 out of the
checking account, she could
earn about $500 a year in
interest and perhaps more
if the Federal Reserve con-
tinues to raise rates.
Dear Liz: Does the
Social Security Administra-
tion still allow a person to
start taking Social Security
benefi ts at age 62 and then
later return the full amount
received and begin taking
the higher delayed bene-
fi ts? For people who don’t
need the income, this seems
like a smart strategy as they
could obtain the invest-
ment income on the ben-
efi ts received from age 62
to 70 as well as the higher
benefi ts amount starting at
age 70.
Answer: Social Security
closed that particular loop-
hole in 2010.
As you know, Social
Security retirement benefi ts
increase each year you put
off applying between age 62
and age 70, when benefi ts
max out.
█
Liz Weston, Certified Financial
Planner, is a personal finance
columnist for NerdWallet. Questions
may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel
Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA
91604, or by using the “Contact”
form at asklizweston.com.
REJUVENATING
LEGACY OF SALES & SERVICE
La Grande’s Legacy Ford
Motors renovates its Island
Avenue dealership
By SHANNON GOLDEN
The Observer
L
A GRANDE — A quick drive past
Legacy Ford dealership on Island
Avenue and you may see more than the
usual inventory — construction equipment,
trailers and contractors in hard hats. And
although it’s business-as-usual, big changes
are in the works.
The dealership, which began its renova-
tion project at the beginning of March 2022,
is hoping to bring its showroom, lot and shop
into the 21st century. Greg Colozzi, the deal-
ership’s owner and general manager, said it’s
been a long time coming.
“It was just something we just couldn’t
prolong anymore,” he said. “I decided to just
go for it and do it.”
Colozzi and General Sales Manager Chris
Huxoll both began as salesmen more than
20 years ago. They both noted that the talks
of renovations have fl oated around for years.
When Colozzi bought the dealership fi ve
years ago, revamping the space was one of
his top priorities.
“He’s never afraid to take chances,”
Huxoll said of Colozzi.
From the outdated aesthetics to the
space’s functionality, the old building was a
far cry from what the new blueprints have
in store. Colozzi aff ectionately describes the
old building as a “potato shed” complete
with slow internet, dated fi xtures and subop-
timal heating and cooling.
The fi rst phase of the project — a reno-
vated facade, bright new showroom, land-
scaping and a newly asphalted lot — is pro-
jected to be done at the end of September.
The building itself, built in 1970, has
always been an auto dealership. It’s changed
hands and names throughout the years, from
Tamarac Ford to Roberts Ford.
Legacy Ford’s 50-member team may
not be operating out of the showroom this
summer, but they’ve stayed close by. Four
trailers are stationed in front of the construc-
tion site, each as temporary housing for var-
ious departments. Aside from typical hic-
cups, Colozzi said the transition was fairly
smooth.
“If anything, it’s helped us streamline a
few processes of things that we had maybe
gotten too cumbersome,” he said, noting that
the dealership had to pair down in prepara-
tion for the revamp.
With more than 40 years of clutter purged
from the space, Colozzi said the dealership is
poised to be more effi cient and streamlined
upon the showroom’s completion.
For him, the renovation is as much about
bringing the dealership into the 21st cen-
tury as it is about the people behind the com-
pany’s success. Colozzi credited the staff
— especially those with decades of ser-
vice under their belt — for toughing out the
quirks of the old building, and is looking for-
ward to giving them a new space.
“It’s gonna be nice to kind of give back to
the staff ,” he said.
John Bowling, the dealership’s lon-
gest-tenured employee, has served multiple
generations of customers in over 35 years at
Legacy Ford. Bowling noted that although
many of his original customers have passed,
he’s now selling to their children and
grandchildren.
“Everybody likes to know their car
salesman,” he said with a laugh. “They
need to know a lawyer, they need to know
a doctor and they need to know the car
salesman.”
The second phase of the renovation —
adding approximately 20,000 square feet
of shop space — is projected to be com-
plete in spring 2023. In addition to doubling
the bays in the service department, Huxoll
and Colozzi said they expect to hire more
mechanics.
“I feel like we have some of the best
mechanics in the state of Oregon,” Colozzi
said. “So it’s also gonna be an opportunity to
grow and give them more space to work.”
In another nod to 21st-century innova-
tion, Colozzi said that customers can expect
to see a bank of electric chargers out in
front of the dealership. Although only a
small percentage of their inventory consists
of electric vehicles, Colozzi expects to see
the Ford fl eet grow in that direction in the
coming years.
“Maybe a customer that used to come in
and get their oil changed now comes in and
charges their vehicle on a regular basis,” he
said.
The dealership is working with Derek
Howard and the CB Construction team, as
well as Luke Hines’ LJH Construction, to
complete the renovation. With a team of
local contractors and subcontractors on the
job, even the renovation is a community
eff ort. Some are even past customers and
arrive at the construction site each day in
Legacy Ford vehicles.
“Now they’re pulling in here to work on
our project,” Huxoll said. “That’s been a
really cool part.”
Colozzi assured that he wasn’t phased by
recent inventory shortages, and is confi dent
in the success of the renovation. Once the
work is done, Colozzi hopes to celebrate the
new facade with a grand reveal similar to the
“move that bus” moments on Extreme Home
Makeover: Home Edition.
“I’m happiest for the employees,” he said.
“Secondly, I’m happy for just the public get-
ting to kind of jump into the 21st century in
La Grande, Oregon, and get a nice Ford store
to come to have parts of service and sales.”
Hiring squeeze hasn’t eased across Oregon
Oregon job
vacancies keep
rising even as ranks
of the jobless
dwindle
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon had
more than 106,000 vacant
jobs last spring but counted
just 78,000 unemployed
workers.
It’s the third consecu-
tive quarter that there were
more job openings than
job seekers, and the gap is
widening. That suggests
the hiring squeeze that has
plagued Oregon employers
for well over a year isn’t
easing up.
Nearly a quarter of the
state’s job openings are
in the hospitality sector,
according to new data out
this month from the Oregon
Employment Depart-
ment. Bars, restaurants
and hotels have struggled
to replace the workers laid
off early in the pandemic,
many of whom found other
jobs while their former
employers were closed
by government mandate
to prevent the spread of
COVID-19.
Health care open-
ings were the second-big-
gest category, with more
than 20,000 vacancies.
Demand for medical ser-
vices remains elevated but
hiring hasn’t been able to
keep up. And many workers
have left the profession in
the past two years amid the
extreme pressures wrought
by COVID-19.
It’s nearly unprece-
dented for the number of
job vacancies to outnumber
unemployed workers. Back
in 2013, as the state was
emerging from the Great
Recession, there were
nearly eight unemployed
Oregonians for every single
job opening.
The economy bounced
back from the pandemic
recession much faster than
many businesses antici-
pated, transforming the
job market in the process.
Every state is now facing
similar labor shortages,
The Observer, File
A now hiring sign hangs in the window of Sub Shop 21 in La Grande
on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.
according to federal data.
Oregon employers were
off ering $21.36 per hour,
on average, to fi ll vacant
jobs last spring. That’s a
7.0% increase compared
to a year earlier, even after
accounting for infl ation.
Employers are having to
pay more — a lot more —
to attract workers amid the
ongoing shortage. (Overall,
Oregon wages aren’t
keeping up with infl ation.)
That suggests a robust
job market that defi es rising
costs, falling consumer con-
fi dence and growing talk of
recession.
The worker shortage
could be contributing to
those problems, though.
Rising wages fuel
spending, which fuels infl a-
tion. The same goes for
businesses that have to pay
more to attract workers,
and often passing those
higher labor costs along to
consumers.