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SPORTS, A9
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137th Year, No. 24
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Chief Joseph Days court for 2022 named
Queen will be
determined in
the spring
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
David
McCullough
Enterprise
He wants
to keep
county’s
population
low
ENTERPRISE — David McCullough
has lived in Enterprise “much of the year,”
operating his business here and oper-
ating it all over the West the rest of the
year.
McCullough runs Bio Resources
doing wildlife surveys, permitting and
“things like that all over the western U.S.”
He’s had the business here about 17
years.
McCullough recently shared his
thoughts about living in Wallowa
County.
JOSEPH — Three
young Wallowa County
gals were selected and
introduced as the 2022
Chief Joseph Days court
Sunday, Sept. 19.
Bailey Vernam, Mia
Salerno and Maggie Zach-
arias will compete in the
spring to see who is queen
and who are the prin-
cesses for next year’s Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo. Their
applications were reviewed
and they were interviewed
to get this far. They said
they’ll do more interviews,
public speaking, sell tick-
ets — and display their
skills as horsewomen in the
spring before the queen is
selected.
Vernam is the daugh-
ter of Shannon Vernam of
Enterprise. She has pre-
vious rodeo royalty expe-
rience as the queen of the
Elgin Stampede, she said.
Zacharias, the daugh-
ter of Luke and Merilee
Zacharias of Joseph, was
a princess for the Elgin
Stampede.
Salerno, the daugh-
ter of Damian and Kristan
Salerno of Joseph, is in her
fi rst experience as a mem-
ber of a rodeo court.
“I’m brand new,” she
said.
The three were intro-
duced during a thank-you
dinner for volunteers who
helped at this year’s 75th
anniversary Chief Joseph
Days, which ran July
27-Aug. 1. The dinner was
held at the Thunder Room
of the rodeo grounds.
A farewell was made
to the outgoing court of
Casidee Harrod, Brianna
Micka and Destiny Wecks.
They served the unique
function of two years on
the court — all as queens
— since last year’s Chief
Joseph Days was canceled
because of the coronavirus
pandemic.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
The Chief Joseph Days court for 2022 was introduced
Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021. They are, from left, Bailey Vernam,
Mia Salerno and Maggie Zacharias. The queen will be
determined in the spring.
Next year’s Chief
Joseph Days will be July
26-31. The new court
expects to serve just the
usual one-year term.
“Unless
something
crazy happens,” Zacharias
said.
Bringing
in a
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
The weather, the people, the moun-
tains, the streams; I like a lot of things
about the county. I like the people a lot.
It’s been 20 years since 9/11.
How did it change your life?
It’s a lot more diffi cult to ride on air-
planes. It’s certainly a lot more diffi cult to
do things like that. There are a lot more
wars we’ve been in that I think we don’t
need to have been in.
Are you concerned about the
recent coronavirus spike?
I am. I’ve been concerned about it
the whole time. That’s why I’m wearing a
mask right here. (He’s been vaccinated.)
What do you think of
government mandates on face
masks and vaccinations?
I think it’s great. I think it’s awesome.
We should all be vaccinated. There
shouldn’t be a person outside who is not
vaccinated. (Government) requires vac-
cinations for kids in elementary schools
… and there aren’t a lot of complaints
about that.
As summer nears end, what was
your favorite experience?
Hiking in the mountains.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
Don’t. Stay away. It’s a beautiful
place, but when you get too many peo-
ple, it starts turning into something else.
I don’t want to sound like someone who
says “Stay off my lawn,” or now that I’ve
got what I want, you don’t get anything,
but the more people there are it stops
being what it was.
kosher harvest
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Tim Melville, of Enterprise’s Cornerstone Farms, drives a combine harvesting spelt Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, as Rabbi David rides along to ensure nothing
that isn’t kosher gets caught up in the harvest.
Hasidim fi nd quality wheat for matzah; beautiful scenery in Wallowa County
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Why
is this wheat diff erent from
all other wheat?
Because it can be made
into matzah, the thin, crisp
unleavened bread, tradi-
tionally eaten by Jewish
people during the Passover
seder — when a child will
ask the fi rst of four tradi-
tional questions from the
Haggadah, — “Why is
this night diff erent than all
other nights?” The answer
is that it was the night the
God had the angel of death
“pass over” the homes of
the ancient Israelites while
they were still in bondage
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Kevin Melville, of Cornerstone Farms near Enterprise,
left, and Samuel Porgesz, a kosher bakery manager from
Brooklyn, New York, examine recently harvested spelt
Monday, Sept. 13, 2021.
in Egypt.
Since at least 2008,
Orthodox Hasidic Jews
from Brooklyn, New York,
have traveled to Wallowa
County to inspect and pur-
chase wheat — and this
year, spelt — from Corner-
stone Farms Joint Venture,
one of the largest grain pro-
ducers in the county oper-
ated by Tim and Audry
Melville and their sons,
Kevin and Kurt.
Samuel Porgesz, the
manager of a kosher bak-
ery in the Williamsburg
neighborhood of Brook-
lyn, said the Hasidim have
meticulous requirements to
make sure the wheat they
use is absolutely kosher
for Passover under Jewish
dietary laws.
“The kosher law is that
whenever we start the har-
vest, it has to be under
rabbinical
supervision,”
Porgesz said. “Before we
start the harvest, we make
sure all the combines and
all this equipment are clean
of any previous grains. We
want to make sure it’s not
contaminated with any
other grains. The second
it’s harvested, it’s always
going to be under rabbini-
cal supervision.”
He’s not a rabbi, but he
knows what the rabbis will
be looking for and makes
sure conditions are ripe for
their approval.
“I know the rules of
what’s supposed to be
done,” he said. “The rab-
bis inspect the grain before
See Harvest, Page A15
Manufacturing, hospitality among worst-hit industries
Editor’s Note: This
is the third in a fi ve-part
series by EO Media Group
looking at the issue of the
lack of workers for jobs in
Central and Eastern Ore-
gon — why workers are
not returning to previously
held jobs and how busi-
nesses are pivoting to func-
tion without being fully
staff ed.
By JAYSON JACOBY,
SAMANTHA
O’CONNER and ALEX
WITTWER
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — Tyler
Brown’s family owns
one restaurant in Baker
City that hasn’t served a
meal since before the fi rst
COVID-19 case was con-
fi rmed in Baker County.
But the Browns’ chal-
lenges to keep enough
workers to run their two
other restaurants are so
daunting that they can’t
begin to plan the reopening
of the closed business.
That’s the Sumpter Junc-
tion restaurant, off Camp-
bell Street near Interstate
84. The Browns closed the
restaurant in March 2020.
Inside rest the memories
of customers who once fre-
quented the restaurant, told
quietly by a single butter
knife resting on the edge of
a booth table.
A newsstand is stacked
high with Baker City Her-
ald issues blaring the head-
line “Coronavirus Clo-
sures.” They’re dated
March 14, 2020. It was
three days before Gov.
Kate Brown banned dining
inside restaurants. It was
the last paper delivered to
Sumpter Junction.
During much of the rest
of that year, and continuing
into 2021, the number of
customers at Baker Coun-
ty’s various restaurants was
limited due to the county’s
COVID-19 risk level.
Those
restrictions
meant it wasn’t feasible to
reopen Sumpter Junction,
Tyler Brown said.
Risk levels and restau-
rant limits ended June 30,
but Brown said it remains a
struggle to keep a suffi cient
workforce to operate Bar-
ley Brown’s Brew Pub and
Tap House, separate estab-
lishments, both owned
by the family’s Windmill
Enterprises LLC, on Main
Street in downtown Baker
City.
In fact, Brown said the
situation has worsened in
the past month or so since
the governor required peo-
ple to wear masks in most
public indoor settings,
including restaurants.
Brown said he has lost
a couple employees who
simply refuse to continue
working while required to
wear a mask throughout
their shift.
“I know it’s frustrating
for everyone,” he said.
Wearing masks isn’t the
only thing that discourages
workers, Brown said.
See Workers, Page A5