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