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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2021)
FROM PAGE ONE Wallowa.com Workers: Continued from Page A1 up 26% of the overall work- force. That’s up nearly 4% from its 2010 numbers. As well, the population of older workers has started declining since 2017, when it reached its peak, accord- ing to U.S. Census Bureau data. The rate at which the baby boomer generation has been retiring is accelerating, according to Pew Research Center. From 2019 to 2020, approximately 28.6 million baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — retired; a 3.2 million uptick from 2019. On average, that number had previously been increasing by around two million retirees per year. The impact “One of the other factors is that boomers are retiring at an enormous rate, which is, in a way, sucking every- body up the the corporate ladder or corporate world,” said Matt Scarfo, a Union County commissioner and Braden: Continued from Page A1 mental health situation. “The school counselor is on the front line and help- ing to get the kid to the right place for their needs,” he said. Coming home The brother of former Joseph city Administrator/ Recorder Larry Braden, Landon and his wife, the former Vanessa Johnson, are both alumni of Joseph High School from the early 2000s. They have three children, ranging in age from 5 to 10, and numerous family members in the area, including both sets of their parents. “It’s great for our kids to grow up with cousins around and going to the same school,” he said. “My wife and I have never had the support of our fam- ily around. … It’s great — our kids having cousins in their classrooms, some- thing they haven’t experi- enced before. We’re related to lots of folks. I’m fi nding new relatives all the time. It’s a great place to raise a family and a great commu- nity to be a part of.” He even reconnected with former teachers of his. “We got to the point where the desire to raise our kids in the same com- munity where we grew up became bigger and big- ger and bigger every year,” he said. “Then the oppor- tunity came up. I saw the job posting at Enterprise High School. (EHS Princi- pal) Blake Carlsen was my fourth-grade teacher, so I called him up and asked about the job. He said, ‘You’re not interested, are you?’ I said I might be.” So he interviewed and was off ered the job. “It was the right time for us,” Braden said. Many hats Braden knows that as a counselor, he has to reach out to kids who may have problems. “Especially in a small Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Cindy Ellis, co-owner of Heavenly’s Restaurant in Enterprise, greets customers through the take-out window Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. At times, take-out has been the only way Heavenly’s could serve, partially due to the lack of employees to man the inside seating. owner of Long Branch and Benchwarmer’s Pub & Grill in La Grande. “Everyone’s getting the bump up to those higher positions, if they did have them, and so it’s caus- ing a vacuum down to the X, Y, Z generation.” On the ground, restau- rants and service indus- tries reported having to hire much younger staff than in normal years, though the restaurant industry has his- torically been staff ed by younger workers and those looking for part-time work, and the data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Ore- gon Employment Depart- ment indicate there hasn’t been any signifi cant changes in the employment level for those under the age of 18. Angelica Zurita, who with her husband, Jose Lopez, owns the La Laguna school, you’re going to wear several diff erent hats,” he said. “But the bigger piece is helping kids who struggle with social and emotional needs that aren’t being met somewhere.” The counselor must reach out and not expect kids to just come on their own. “The work starts way before they need you,” he said. “You’re building rela- tionships and connecting with kids on their best days, on good days. So when they have a bad day, they have that comfort relationship and want to come talk to you.” One of those “extra hats” he’s wearing at present is that of acting principal for Enterprise Elementary School. In fact, he virtu- ally traded jobs with for- mer Principal Erika Pinker- ton — who also was district superintendent — and now holds his former job as director of student services with the La Grande School District. As principal, he’s in charge of discipline, though he doesn’t look upon that role in a punitive sense. “My approach to that was what I call ‘restorative justice,’ so rather than a disciplinarian assigning a punishment, I started with, ‘What do I want the kid to learn?’ and then work back- wards to how I’m going to help him learn,” he said. “For example, we caught some kids vaping in the bathroom (in La Grande). The counselor at the time had them take a class on the damaging eff ects of the vapors that come out of their vape pens and the long-term consequences of that. Then they wrote a paper to me on what they learned and then also to potentially the victims of that as a victim incident, meaning, let’s say that while they were in the bath- room, they vandalized a stall. What they probably don’t think of is how is that going to aff ect the custo- dian. Is it fair I’m creating this extra work for them? … So we’d have them write a letter to the custodian apologizing and explaining what they learned.” He said they also had the off ending kids clean up any damage done. “In La Grande, chew- ing gum was a major issue. With 500-600 kids in a building, gum ended up everywhere,” he said. “We had a pretty strict no-gum policy.” One time he had a kid he’d talked to several times. “He just kept it up. So I talked to his parents and I talked to the custodian and the next time he did it, I had him scrape off the bottom of all the tables in the caf- eteria,” he said. “That was the last time I ever had to write him up for chewing gum.” state regulations requiring face masks and — for adults — vaccines. But he under- stands some may object to the state mandates. “Whether or not you believe in the masks, our staff accepts that if we want to keep kids in our build- ing, we’ve got to wear the masks,” he said. The vaccine issue can be more complex, he said. “We have teachers in both camps, of willing to be vaccinated or not,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I want to see teachers in classrooms and kids in seats learning. Whatever we need to do to make that happen, we need to do it. I think that viewpoint is not uncommon among the staff here.” First month Wednesday, September 29, 2021 Family Mexican Restaurants in Enterprise and Joseph and the Rusty Spur Saloon in Joseph, said they employ about 15 people at the three establishments. During the summer tour- ist season, they were fortu- nate to fi nd college students who were eager to work. But now, as the students return to campus, fi nding reliable help is a problem. “They really don’t want a job,” Zurita said of some of the locals who have applied. “They show up drunk, call in sick, don’t show up at all or they show up late.” Still, as the tourist season ends, she’s optimistic the restaurants and saloon will manage. “It’s slowing down to where I think we’ve got it covered,” she said. The trades, too, are hav- ing a tough time fi nding workers. Jared Hillock, man- ager and co-owner of Hill- ock Electric, said the biggest problem is a lack of quali- fi ed electricians around. “There are just not enough people in the trades right now,” he said. “I think it’s important we get kids Braden’s fi rst month at Enterprise has come with a few additions, he said. Amy Stangel, the social-emotional preven- tion coordinator, also ful- fi lls the counselor role in the elementary school, educating kids on how to express their emotions and successfully convey their frustrations. Dakota Hull is the super- visor of K-12 online learn- ing and the truancy offi - cer for the district. Braden works with both. “With them together, we are developing a whole new behavior system for Enterprise Elementary,” he said. “It’s going to be less punitive and more base on encouraging, build- ing and rewarding positive behavior.” in trades and not preach so much college.” He said a starting electri- cian right out of high school — after a four-year appren- ticeship — can make $32 an hour, with benefi ts. “We’re trying to push more kids think about trades,” he said. “You can make a good family wage right out of high school.” He does have an opening for a counter person, which he’s not gotten many ade- quate applications for. “We get a lot of random resumes dropped off , which guess is people trying satisfy job-search requirements,” Hillock said. Renaissance Design, Fabrication & Powder Coat- ing, which opened in May in Joseph, has had numerous well-paying positions avail- able but that still are not fi lled, owner Rick LaFave said. “I’m still trying to hire three or four more welders,” LaFave said. “People don’t want to work, I guess. … I’ve talked to several people who’ve put feelers out, but I’m not getting people who want to go to work.” inside every Inside Wednesday every hursday m on.co g e r O stern GoEa art arts event events entertainment entertainmen Addressing COVID regulations As principal, Braden is required to see that stu- dents and staff comply with Save 50% on heating costs this winter with Rinnai Propane Heaters!* VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Wallowa County Humane Society is in search of foster homes for the recent increase of new feline mothers, new kittens and feral cats in the County. If you are interested in cat/kitten foster care... 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