THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 3 FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2016 Business & Ag Sherman retires from Blue Mountain Design — Weekly Hay Report — Friday, June 24, 2016 — Eastern Oregon Prices trended generally steady compared to week ago prices in a very limited test. Some hay produc- ers are starting to cut, market and sell new crop hay. Some areas of Oregon have experienced some recent rains, delaying cutting and harvest. Still no new sales reported. Three weeks ago: Tons Price Range Wtd Avg Alfalfa/Ochard Mix —Small Square Premium 20 165.00-165.00 165.00 Four weeks ago: Alfalfa — Mid Square Good 150 190.00-190.00 190.00 Alfalfa — Small Square Premium 23 170.00-170.00 170.00 USDA Market News Service—AMS.USDA.gov — Cattle Market Report — Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Vale, Oregon Cattle sold through the auction: 318 David Conn / The Baker County Press L-R: Blue Mountain Design staff Elaine Morin, Leslie Jones, Jim McElroy, Joan Sherman, Erin Torres. BY DAVID CONN David@TheBakerCountyPress.com Travel and spending more time with her husband and family are goals of retir- ing Joan Sherman who is currently office manager at McElroy Printing and Blue Mountain Design in Baker City. Joan will retire June 30 after working nearly 30 years for Jim McElroy who owns a printing and em- broidery business on Court Avenue. Born in Baker City, Joan attended Baker High School but was graduated from another high school in California. Her husband, Jim, left the military in 1969 after serving in Vietnam. The couple have resided in Baker City since 1976 and have three children — James, Eric and Tanya. Joan started working for Jim McElroy in 1985 when he operated a print shop on First Street. Typesetter, office man- ager and bookkeeper were some of her duties while learning to use computers as the business required. McElroy purchased Blue Mountain Design in 2004, then located at 1937 Washington Avenue in Baker City. In 2005 he combined the two businesses, Blue Mountain Design and McElroy Printing, and moved them to their pres- ent location at 1920 Court Avenue. Joan remained office manager but took on addi- tion tasks such as advanced computer work involv- ing design and setup for embroidery and creating business forms. She also continued the billing and bookkeeping operations. “It’s a blast creating designs and watching them come to life,” she said, referring to embroidery for a large variety of school items, clothing, hats and jackets. Joan uses her imagina- tion to create the basic design which is then digi- tized for the embroidery machines. Retired life for Joan will include spending more time with her husband who is suffering from several health issues. He was circulation manager at The Baker City Herald 30 years, and is skilled at tying fishing flies. Joan will also work in some camping, travel, and seeing more of her children and five grandchildren. Joan comes from a fam- ily of 10 siblings, nine of whom are still living. There is plenty of travel in store because her family resides in various parts of the country. Over the years Joan helped McElroy maintain several rentals in Baker City, including collecting rent for him. Joan will be greatly missed McElroy said, noting how they have been good friends over the last 30 years. McElroy will lose two employees July 1 because Leslie Jones is also retir- ing. Two Safeways in one town? • THE SAFEWAY / ALBERTSONS SAGA CONTINUES BY TODD ARRIOLA Todd@TheBakerCountyPress.com Last month, Albertsons announced plans to remod- el and reopen its leased building at 1120 Campbell Street in Baker City in the fall, as an Albertsons (Albertsons merged with Safeway), with “...plans to begin hiring 50-80 people this summer to work at the remodeled location,” according to a press release issued by the company. In a new announce- ment just last week, the company revealed plans to operate the to-be-remod- eled store under the same name as the already exist- ing store, directly across the street, at 1205 Camp- belL—Safeway—rather than as an Albertsons, with current Baker City Safeway Store Director Amber Krantz tasked with managing both locations. On January 30, 2015, AB Acquisitions, LLC (Albertsons) merged with Safeway, Inc., and as a condition of that merger, the Federal Trade Commis- sion (FTC) ordered Albert- sons and Safeway to sell 168 stores, 146 of which were acquired by the gro- cery store chain Haggen, in order to avoid violating antitrust regulations, by creating monopolies in 130 different markets, includ- ing Baker City (Baker City had only Albertsons and Safeway as the sole, local major grocers). Haggen then leased the former home of Albertsons, at 1120 Campbell Street, in the spring of last year. In May 2015, after ac- quiring and converting the building, Haggen opened its doors to customers, and the company was sued in July 2015 by Albertsons for more than $41 mil- lion in damages, for the claim of unpaid inventory. As a result, Haggen then sued Albertsons for more than $1 billion in dam- ages in September 2015, claiming that Albertsons had engaged in efforts to eliminate competition, and made false representations to Haggen, and the FTC. A week later, Haggen declared bankruptcy, filing for Chapter 11 protection, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, in Delaware. In mid-November 2015, Albertsons submitted a winning bid of $300,000, at the Global Auction held in Los Angeles, reacquir- ing the property, a 46,000 square-foot building, constructed in 2001. In January 2016, Alb- ertsons/Safeway Portland Division Communications Manager Jill McGinnis announced that Safeway would be moving from its current location, a 36,000 square-foot building, which was constructed in 1977, to the larger build- ing across the street. The current Safeway location, 1205 Campbell, is man- aged by KIN Properties, of Boca Raton, Florida, and the property at 1120 Campbell is managed by Greg Sackos, of Baker City, through BTS II, LLC. In January 2016, McGinnis stated that the new location would be a Safeway store, “... to better serve our cus- tomers in a significantly larger building, which is the biggest benefit. In the meanwhile, we will begin housing some back stock there to allow our current store much needed storage (hence, improved in-stock conditions),” she said. At the time, Krantz said the move would probably be in August, and the new store would be operated under the name Safe- way, but that the current Safeway location would be closed, with its products dispersed to various other Safeways (this is the infor- mation she was provided at the time). Krantz said recently that she wasn’t certain of the details of how the current plan would work, includ- ing how her days manag- ing two stores would look, and she couldn’t provide further comment. In March 2016, dur- ing a Baker County Economic Development Council (EDC) meeting, Baker County Economic Development Director Greg Smith expressed his opinion that a letter should be written, from the EDC, to the FTC, requesting information regarding the FTC’s plans, relating to a local grocer monopoly (Safeway was then, and currently is, the sole, local major grocer), and to make the FTC aware of the situ- ation at the time, i.e., one company having control of two prime grocer locations, resulting in issues with prices, and stock, among other items. The letter was approved by the EDC. Earlier this week, Smith said, “We met with the legal counsel for the City at the time (attorney Drew Martin), whom Mike (Kee, Baker City Manager at the time) offered. We went so far as getting the draft letter completed, and then, no sooner than we had the draft letter completed, we received notification, and I received a personal phone call, that Albertsons was going to open up an Albertsons, and a Safeway. As soon as I heard that, I pulled back on sending the letter.” Smith said the EDC didn’t send the letter, because, while there was talk in the community regarding the issues of a monopoly, the reality was, there would be two stores, with at least 50 jobs cre- ated in the process. SEE SAFEWAY PAGE 5 Steer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk N/A Top N/A 500-600# Bulk 144.00 - 153.00 Top 160.00 Heifer Calves 300-400# Bulk 148.00 - 163.00 Top 165.00 400-500# Bulk N/A Top N/A 500-600# Bulk N/A Top N/A 600-700# 700-800# 800-900# 900-1,000# Yearling Steers Bulk 134.00 - 143.00 Top 145.25 Bulk 127.00 - 134.00 Top 137.00 Bulk 116.00 - 127.00 Top 128.00 Bulk 108.00 - 117.00 Top 120.00 Yearling Heifers 600-700# Bulk 123.00 - 128.00 Top 129.00 700-800# Bulk 117.00 - 124.00 Top 125.00 800-900# Bulk N/A Top N/A 900-1,000# Bulk N/A Top N/A Thin Shelly Cows 54.00 - 66.00 Butcher Cows 68.00 - 77.00 Butcher Bulls 78.00 - 91.00 Pairs Yng. 1235.00 - 1710.00 Hfretts. 92.00 Stock Cows Young - 1225.00 - 1500.00 ProducersLivestock.com 541-473-3136 — Log Price Report — Price per 1,000 board feet: Northeast Oregon Currently the local log market is flooded with fire salvage logs. The log buyer for Malheur Lumber Co. stated they have all the logs they need under contract and are not accepting any new purchases. BCC/LLC of La Grande has receive so many burned fire salvage logs they are no longer accepting logs at the La Grande log yard. Any additional pine logs have to be delivered to the Elgin Log yard cut in plywood lengths and to a 8 inch top. For these pine logs cut in plywood lengths, BCC is offering $280.00/mbf. They are also paying $420.00/ mbf for Doug Fir & Western Larch. For White Fir they are offing $325.00/mbf. At the Pilot Rock Saw Mill BCC is offing $360.00/mbf for a 12 to 15 inch top, for 16 to 19 inch top $400.00/ mbf & offing $425.00/mbf for 20 inch plus top Courtesy of Arvid Andersen, Andersen Forestry Consulting — Precious Metals Report — Price per ounce, USD Gold: $1,327.60 Silver: $18.37 Platinum: $1008.40 Palladium: $590.17 Bloomberg.com — Ag Commodities — Corn: $379.00/bu/USD Wheat: $445.50/bu/USD Soybeans: $1113.00/bu/USD Oats: $200.50 bu/USD Rough Rice: $10.94/cwt/USD Canola: $487.20 CAD/mwt Live Cattle: $113.75/lb./USD Feeder Cattle: $143.30/lb./USD Lean Hogs: $83.50/lb./USD Bloomberg.com