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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2016)
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 3 FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2016 Business & Ag Prairie City hosts LOC meeting — Weekly Hay Report — Friday, July 22, 2016 — Eastern Oregon Prices trended generally steady compared to week ago prices. Most demand lays with the retail/stable hay. Recent rain storms has slowed movement this past week. Many hay producers are selling or have already sold most of their first cutting hay, and are working on second cutting resulting in higher vol- umes of hay moving. Tons Price Range Wtd Avg Alfalfa — Large Square Good/ Premium 1850 125.00-125.00 125.00 Timothy Grass — Small Square Premium 20 185.00-185.00 185.00 USDA Market News Service—AMS.USDA.gov Eileen Driver / The Baker County Press — Cattle Market Report — This quarter’s meeting was held at the Senior Center in Prairie City. BY EILEEN DRIVER Eileen@TheBakerCountyPress.com This quarter’s League of Oregon Cities (LOC) Eastern Oregon Region 8 Small Cities Support Network meeting was held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 21 at the Prairie City Senior Center at 204 N McHaley in Prai- rie City, Oregon. The meeting was called to order by Prairie City Mayor Jim Hamsher who thanked everyone for mak- ing the trip to Prairie City. He then turned over the meeting to Scott Winkel, the Intergovernmental Re- lations Associate for the LOC. Winkel reminded those present of the City/County Insurance Services (CIS) online learning center that has free classes for elected officials and city work- ers on a wide range of topics such as interacting and communicating with community members and public meeting laws. Next on the agenda was Kurt Chapman from CIS, where he works as a senior Human Resources Consul- tant and has 30 years in the field, to discuss issues that have arisen with personnel handbooks and changes that must be made to job applications. He talked about the new sick leave laws and how they affect small cities, the “Cadillac Tax,” which is a tax on high-cost medi- cal plan and has been put off going into effect until 2020, and the issues sur- rounding “Ban the Box,” which prohibits the ques- tion concerning criminal records on job applica- tions. After Winkel’s presenta- tion, each City was asked to give a 23-minute talk on what is happening in their town. Prairie City reported that they have a new restaurant in town that supplied the meal for the luncheon meeting, that planning and preparation is under way for the influx of tourist expected for the Solar Eclipse in 2017 and a new information kiosk has been erected. They also are working on a DEQ mandated sewer project, looking into add- ing a composting facility at their landfill, have a possible land sale to a chip plant that would create new jobs and the possibil- ity of their local sawmill reopening. Nyssa Mayor Ross Ballard started his talk by saying, “ First off I would like to commend Hunting- ton for having the courage to do what was necessary to save their town. My city would never allow mari- juana business but I admire your bravery in being the first to take that step and make the hard choice.” He then went on to tell the assembly that Nyssa has finished fixing their sewer lines and is working on building a storage shed for the public works depart- ment and chip sealing. Hines’ City Adminis- trator Judy Green talked about their struggles to keep their town going since the timber industry is all but gone. They did not optout and currently have a hydroponic marijuana grow trying to get estab- lished and are working on the city water master plan. Hines currently has three City Council positions as well as the Mayor position open and has gotten no ap- plications to fill them. Huntington Deputy City Recorder Shellie Nash reported that Huntington is currently bustling with activity between the new business in town and the windmills going up and have had several more inquiries from businesses wanted to come to town. The sewer project is on track and the City just completed the repair and relining of its water tank. She also announced that due to the vast quantity of calls to City Hall inquir- ing on Huntington’s Time, Place & Manner Ordi- nance, Business License Ordinance and Tax Ordi- nance by the small towns in Eastern Oregon who are now reconsidering their stance on marijuana busi- nesses, Huntington will be holding a workshop on these as well as arranging tours of said businesses for all City officials who wish to learn on August 11 at 11 a.m. and sent around a signup sheet for all inter- ested in attending. Monument City Re- corder Dorothy Jordan was pleased to say they have filled the empty seats on their City Council, their sewer project is almost complete and they are dis- cussing their water project and looking into grants to finance it. She was happy to have received a grant from ODOT of $50,000 to chip seal their streets. A representative from Sumpter told the attendees that they are all trying to recover from the latest round of recalls which have plagued the city in the past year. They are working on a marijuana ordinance and tax initiative and resurfacing the road toward Granite. John Day Mayor Ron Lundbom introduced their new City Manager Nicho- las Green who reported that they have hired a new airport manager, have completed the new fire hall and are in the process of changing over to electronic record keeping. They are also planning for the Eclipse in 2017 and will offer 120 RV spaces at their industrial park. Long Creek’s Denise Porter reported that they have no water or sewer problems, their income and outflow are steady and they are also planning for the eclipse. Randy Jones of regional Resource Center/DEQ said, “ He is proud of the Sumpter City Council and employees for sticking it out through all the recalls and trying to get their city back on track.” Next quarter’s meeting is scheduled to be held in Huntington on October 20 and the topic will be Insurance liability & plan- ning for events as well as tourism impacts. Albertsons, Safeway guessing game continues in Baker City BY TODD ARRIOLA Todd@TheBakerCountyPress.com In May, Albertsons an- nounced plans to remodel and reopen its leased building at 1120 Campbell Street in Baker City in the fall, as an Albertsons store, followed by an an- nouncement in June that plans had changed, and that the store would actu- ally be opened as another Safeway, along with the company’s existing Safe- way, across the street at 1205 Campbell. Just last week, after meeting with Baker City Manger Fred Warner, Jr., and Baker County Eco- nomic Development Direc- tor Greg Smith, the duo said the company agreed: there will be an Albertsons and a Safeway. The following statement was released in a Weekly Update from Baker City Hall, on Friday, July 22, 2016: “City Manager Fred Warner (Jr.) and Economic Development Director Greg Smith traveled to Portland on Tuesday (July 19) to meet with senior officials of Albertsons. They presented the com- munity’s concerns about the decision to locate two Safeway stores in Baker City. They shared the lack of competition, number of jobs created, and overall sentiments of the commu- nity. Albertsons agreed to work with Baker City to come up with a solution that fits their economic model, and works for our community. We appreci- ate their willingness to work through these issues. We will keep you posted as plans finalize.” Warner, Jr. said, “Basi- cally, the community is very uneasy. We want competition...We said, ‘At a minimum, we would like, instead of a Safeway, an Albertsons ... And, they said, ‘Okay, we’ll work on it.’” Warner, Jr. was speak- ing about the meeting he and Smith had in Portland, with Albertsons represen- tatives, which included outside legal counsel Gary Oxley, Senior Vice President of Public Af- fairs, Government Rela- tions, CSR, Diversity and Philanthropy Jonathan Mayes, and Communica- tions Manager and Public Affairs Specialist Jill McGinnis. Fred Warner, Jr. said, “Prior to going to the meeting, we had sent a bunch of concerns that we had, to Oxley...We met them, and basically lined out the issues that I had heard about in the community—the lack of competition, if we had two Safeway stores. I talked to them about the number of employees, and how they would handle the number of employees, with two Safeway stores. We talked about what was happen- ing now—the leakage of people, shopping in La Grande, which affected grocery shopping, but also, other restaurants, and re- tail ... I had concerns about two Safeways, that, once they got established, they might attempt to close one of them, and we would be back to the deja vu of one grocery store.” Warner, Jr. said he be- lieves his and Smith’s con- cerns were taken seriously during the hour-long meet- ing, and that the Albert- sons executives expressed the desire to be a good partner to the community. He said that he understood that most likely, the com- pany will reopen the store at 1120 Campbell Street as an Albertsons. SEE ALBERTSONS, SAFEWAY Wednesday, July 20, 2016 Vale, Oregon Cattle sold through the auction: 350 Steer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk 141.00 - 156.00 Top 158.00 500-600# Bulk 142.00 - 149.00 Top 151.00 Heifer Calves 300-400# Bulk N/A Top N/A 400-500# Bulk 124.00 - 135.00 Top 136.00 500-600# Bulk 126.00 - 133.00 Top 135.50 600-700# 700-800# 800-900# 900-1,000# Yearling Steers Bulk 132.00 - 138.00 Top 141.00 Bulk 128.00 - 136.00 Top 137.00 Bulk 119.00 - 127.00 Top 131.50 Bulk 117.00 - 126.00 Top 128.25 Yearling Heifers 600-700# Bulk 123.00 - 130.00 Top 130.50 700-800# Bulk 104.00 - 114.00 Top 116.00 800-900# Bulk 118.00 - 126.00 Top 128.00 900-1,000# Bulk N/A Top N/A Thin Shelly Cows 53.00 - 68.00 Butcher Cows 74.00 - 82.00 Butcher Bulls 72.00 - 84.00 Pairs Young 1250.00 - 1525.00 Hfretts. 84.00-89.00 Stock Cows Young - N/A 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: $1,326.60 Silver: $20.21 Platinum: $1120.97 Palladium: $700.87 Bloomberg.com — Ag Commodities — Corn: $340.70/bu/USD Wheat: $414.75/bu/USD Soybeans: $987.50/bu/USD Oats: $197.00 bu/USD Rough Rice: $9.92/cwt/USD Canola: $455.00 CAD/mwt Live Cattle: $112.80/lb./USD Feeder Cattle: $142.38/lb./USD Lean Hogs: $61.15/lb./USD PAGE 7 Bloomberg.com
