OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, April 28, 2022
BMCC:
BMCC 2022-23 BUDGET
Continued from Page A1
positions the college cut in recent
years. Those were “paper people
that existed only on the pages of the
budget,” he said, and had no effect
on the actual ending fund balance
nor on students served.
“Most of the real cuts were clas-
sified,” he continued. “I know of
14. By grouping classified together
with administration he obscures
the fact that only a small number
of FT administrators were actually
relieved of their positions. I know
of only two.”
Science instructor Sascha
McKeon provided the board
with a “broad compilation of the
beginning year revenues and top
five expenditures for the last five
years.” She said there has been a
drastic reduction in faculty wages
and questioned why faculty should
“shoulder the burden of low enroll-
ment?”
She told the committee the
projected revenue for next year is
down 6%, yet the administration is
seeking to cut 33% of the faculty.
“That does not track, when reve-
nue is projected to be up next year
by $300,000,” McKeon said.
Gary Parker, Blue Moun-
tain math and computer science
coach, told the board, “Many of the
programs scheduled to be cut have
low overhead and generate excess
revenue,” including math, English
and adult basic education. And if
Blue Mountain doesn’t have what
students want, they will not come
here.
A number of other faculty also
spoke, but for the public tuning in
via the streaming platform Zoom,
this portion of the meeting was
difficult to follow. The audio was
poor in quality and there was no
video. After instructors made their
presentations, the college restarted
the Zoom meeting, which then had
video showing the boardroom and
the rest of the meeting.
For the next two hours the
budget committee, the rest of
the college board, Browning and
several administrators discussed
the budget proposal and kicked its
tires, including its $17.2 million
general fund.
During the course of the discus-
sion, the board asked about roughly
$627,000 in money from Amazon
the college was to receive from
Morrow County. The board of
Blue Mountain Community
College’s budget document is
available online at www.bluecc.
edu/about/administration/
finance.
commissioners there, however,
voted last week not to send the
money to Blue Mountain. Board
member Chris Brown, who
represents Morrow County, asked
the administration to explain what
happened.
Browning said Morrow County
commissioners on a 2-1 vote pulled
the plug on providing the funds to
the college because they wanted to
keep the money in Morrow County.
“I think there was some politics
in play with some of this,” he said,
“and the information in the wind
didn’t help.”
Browning didn’t specify what
“information,” but the East Orego-
nian in recent weeks has reported
the college was closing the indus-
trial systems technology program,
and Morrow County Commissioner
Melissa Lindsay during the county
board’s meeting last week said
BMCC is not going to fund its part
of the Workforce Training Center
in Boardman, so the county could
direct the money to the center. (For
more on that development, see
Page A3.)
The college president said he
wasn’t giving up on receiving the
funds, but he wasn’t counting on it,
either.
Board member Kent Madison
said it comes down to the college
having too many tools — teach-
ers — in its toolbox for the work
it has to do. He said it’s important
the college remains flexible in its
educational mission.
Browning near the end of the
meeting said it was his impres-
sion the board needed more time
to digest all the information they
received, and the board agreed,
deciding to meet again May 10.
Before that, the college board
of education meets May 2 to
take action on notifying faculty
on May 3 about layoffs.
The budget committee can meet
once after that, May 12, to vote on
the proposal.
———
Editor’s Note: East Oregonian
news editor Phil Wright taught part-
time for Blue Mountain Community
College in the early 2000s.
East Oregonian
Farm:
Continued from Page A1
Registered,
commercial flocks
Twilight lapped across the hills
like a quiet tide near Pilot Rock,
south of Pendleton.
Krebs, with help from a Border
Collie, led a pair of 300-pound rams
through a gate.
These rams belonged to the
farm’s registered flock, comprised
of sheep with fine wool and white
faces that meet Pendleton’s wool
standards.
Each year, Krebs said, he sells
about 100 top-quality rams as breed-
ing stock.
Animals that don’t meet the stan-
dards are in a commercial flock,
many of which end up as meat.
Krebs keeps track of each
animal’s pedigree with electronic
ear tags, which the farm started
using four years ago. He said the tags
provide him with data for targeted
breeding.
Plus, Krebs said, he anticipates
the meat market is moving toward
consumers demanding more trace-
ability — tracking with ear tags that
animals have received antibiotics,
for example.
“Traceability is coming,” said
Krebs. “We’re trying to get ahead.”
The sheep business’ main profit
comes from selling lamb through
Stan Boyd, based in Eagle, Idaho,
the farm’s broker for the Rocky
Mountain Sheep Marketing Asso-
ciation.
Krebs said he’s pleased that
demand for lamb is on the rise.
“I’m really optimistic,” he said.
He was interrupted by an uproar
of dogs barking.
Cunningham Sheep Co. has
about 40 farm dogs, each with
different roles — working, herding,
guarding — across a range of breeds
including Border Collies, Turkish
Kangal Shepherds and Great Pyre-
nees.
Some of the dogs protect sheep
from predators.
Main challenges
Predator pressure is one of the
main challenges the farm faces.
Last year alone, the farm had 17
confirmed sheep kills and two dog
injuries from wolves. Those were
just the confirmed cases. Accord-
ing to Corey, “It’s tough to get a wolf
predation confirmed.”
The family said the farm is
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
A group of ewes in a holding pen outside the lambing barn at the Cun-
ningham Sheep Co. ranch in Nolin.
affected by the state’s decisions on
wolf management.
“It’s not us making those rules.
We just live and deal with them as
best as we can,” Corey said.
To repel wolves, the farm has
increased its number of guard dogs.
Krebs, the foreman, said the dogs
take different roles. Some chase.
Others bark. Yet others remain
close to the sheep. Krebs said he
doesn’t assign the dogs their roles;
they decide.
“It’s like they have a coffee every
morning and say, ‘You go here, I’ll
go there,’” Krebs said.
The farm faces other challenges,
too: the economy’s unpredictabil-
ity, environmental regulations, the
ongoing agricultural labor short-
age and concern over the new farm-
worker overtime pay law.
Despite the challenges, Krebs
said he’s fortunate to have a team
of about six H-2A migrant guest-
workers who follow the sheep on
the range.
“We’ve got a terrific team,
couldn’t have better,” said Krebs.
“They’re just go-getters.”
Lambing barn
The next morning, Corey, Krebs,
the herders and a veterinary student
met at the lambing barn in Nolin
between Pendleton and Echo.
Beside the farm’s Nolin head-
quarters, the Umatilla River, brown
from rainstorms, meandered past
cottonwoods and hills that buckled
into each other.
In the river valley stood a grain
elevator and nearby, the lambing
barn.
According to the Oklahoma
State University Extension Service,
when Rambouillets lamb, only 20%
to 35% have twins. This spring,
Cunningham Sheep Co. birthed
between 4,500 to 4,800 lambs out of
3,800 ewes — a good rate consider-
ing the breed and last year’s drought.
Inside the barn, Leah Swan-
nack, a Washington State Univer-
sity veterinary student doing a
mixed-animal rotation at the farm,
was moving between jugs — stalls
holding a single ewe and her young
— checking their health.
The Coreys and Levys said
they’re intentional about surround-
ing themselves with good veterinar-
ians.
While Swannack did health
checks, migrant workers labeled
ewes and lambs with colored chalk-
paint: blue for singles, red for twins.
The farm also uses letters with
different meanings: for example,
“A” for “ayuda,” Spanish for “help,”
painted on a lamb needing attention.
Even bummer lambs have their
own warm, clean space with indi-
vidual pens. Krebs jokingly calls
this “The Hilton.”
With such a large operation, it’s
crucial to be organized, he said.
The future
With younger faces on the family
board and council, Corey said he
looks forward to seeing how the
farm innovates in the future.
Younger family members have
bounced around ideas that may take
shape, including harvesting more of
the farm’s timber, acquiring a small
lumber mill and buying more land
to expand pheasant hunting. Young
family members have also talked
about marketing lamb differently,
with more direct sales under a brand
name such as “Cunningham Lamb.”
At this point, those ideas are still
just that: ideas. But as new genera-
tions of the family take leadership,
Corey anticipates the farm will
adapt with the times.
In the meantime, consumers
continue to see the farm’s ripple
effects far and wide: at the grocery
store, on the landscape and woven
into cloth in Pendleton Woolen
Mills’ 35 retail stores.
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