OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Overtime:
Continued from Page A1
How to get around it?
He said he and brother
Kurt have been discuss-
ing how to get around the
regulations. One way is to
become more mechanized,
chiefl y by installing more
automated center pivots for
irrigation to eliminate the
need for the hand-moving of
wheel lines.
Another way would be to
give up valuable farmland,
which Melville said was vir-
tually out of the question.
Dan Butterfi eld, of But-
terfi eld Farms east of Joseph
that raises mostly hay and
wheat, agreed.
“We will be mechanizing
more. We’ll put more pivots
in,” he said. “The equipment
will get bigger so less hired
help is needed for that, but
that’s been going on last 50
years or so.”
He employs four to fi ve
workers during the peak
summer season, but has
worked things around to
avoid overtime.
“We try keep it down,” he
said. “But it will defi nitely
harm some people.”
He and others inter-
viewed said the producers
in Oregon the law will most
likely hurt are ones such as
dairies, which require 24/7
care of cows, and row-crop
Lathrop:
Continued from Page A1
to court records. The elder
Lathrop died in December
2018. Betsy Lathrop was
not his legal guardian, but
did she have power of attor-
ney for him, her attorney
said.
The charges on which
Lathrop was convicted
involved the purchase and
installation of fl ooring and a
washer and dryer in her Los-
tine home and the appropri-
ation of money for expenses
she said was for her father’s
benefi t.
During the sentencing,
Betsy Lathrop asked Collins
for some leniency in report-
ing to jail. She is to serve
the 40 days at the Uma-
tilla County Jail in Pend-
leton with which Wallowa
County has a contract. Lath-
rop asked for the leniency
primarily because of her
poor health. Collins allowed
her to wait until March 21 at
5 p.m. to report to the jail.
He also allowed her to have
medical furloughs for doc-
tor’s appointments while in
jail. The delayed reporting
to jail also allows Lathrop to
arrange for someone to look
over her Lostine home and
animals while she is in jail.
Merkley:
Continued from Page A1
He also said the recently
passed infrastructure bill
provides much-needed fi nan-
cial dollars for rural develop-
ment, especially in the areas
of transportation, broadband
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Dakota Bly, an independent mechanic, left, helps Kurt Melville
replace wiring on a tractor Thursday, March 10, 2022, at the
Melville family-owned Cornerstone Farms Joint Venture near
Enterprise.
producers, which are labor
intensive.
Coppin said another
option would be to change
the way workers are paid,
such as putting them on sal-
ary rather than an hourly
wage.
“That’s one way every-
body’s’ talking. … There
are other ways around it,”
he said. “It’s just a regula-
tion that’s been thought up
by bunch of city people who
are not business people.”
Or, Butterfi eld said, split
the work between more
workers.
“We’ll have to hire two
people to do one person’s
job,” he said. “I don’t know
as the employees will be
happy about that.”
Several farmers said they
just have diffi culty fi nding
those extra employees.
For and against
Both the prosecution —
headed Friday by Christian
Stringer — and the defense
had witnesses to support their
cases.
For the prosecution, Bet-
sy’s brother, Nick Lathrop,
recounted what he believed
were wrongs she had done to
their father.
“I will not ever forgive
her for what she did to our
dad for two years and how
she treated him,” Nick Lath-
rop said.
Speaking on Betsy Lath-
rop’s behalf, Kathleen Wecks,
who had submitted a letter
to the court, explained how
she had only known Lathrop
since 2017 and had a limited
knowledge of the situation.
“I came in pretty objec-
tively without any precon-
ceived opinions,” Wecks
said. “What I heard from
the prosecution witnesses as
well as the defense was that
Mr. Wayne Lathrop was in
poor condition and he’d call
Betsy and have her come.
There were various testimo-
nies of his improved hygiene,
nutrition, demeanor and no
complaints from community
members about the care or
that Mr. Wayne Lathrop had
complained about the care.”
She said Betsy Lathrop
seemed to be the one giving
her father the best care. She
said others expressed con-
cern, “but they chose not to
do anything — they didn’t
spend any money, they didn’t
repair, they didn’t off er food
or transportation — all the
things that Betsy did when
she was living with her
father. She received no com-
pensation and when she was
asked to leave, she left and
they immediately paid for
a live-in caregiver and then
paid for him to be in a res-
idential facility, so they
acknowledged his needs for
a paid attendant, yet she was
not compensated at all. I
watched her prepare Sunday
meals and such for the family
and care for them.”
Betsy Lathrop’s brother,
Jack Lathrop, joined his
brother in denying the quality
of care that Betsy gave their
father. He said he had to “fi le
for guardianship to get Betsy
out of there.”
He said it appeared she
was operating the house she
shared with him “as a board-
ing house for Betsy and her
friends.”
Jack Lathrop said drug
paraphernalia was found in
rooms Betsy’s friends were
using.
In her statement to the
court, Betsy Lathrop said
family relationships were far
from the best.
“The closest thing my
and water projects.
He cited, for example,
$50 billion in the bill to help
with water infrastructure.
“We did get a tremendous
amount of funding that we
never have had in this infra-
structure bill,” he said.
He was also asked about
dam removal on the Snake
River, and said Washington
Sen. Patty Murray is chair-
ing a research project to learn
more about that possibility.
“Can and how do we
address the transportation
issues, the fl ood control
issues, irrigation issues, the
recreation issues if we were
to pursue dam removal?” he
said of some of the questions
that need to be addressed.
Can’t pass along costs
Melville said agricultural
producers can’t just pass
along their increased costs,
as they have to accept what-
ever the market off ers.
“Oregon’s already a
high-labor state. That’s
another thing that puts an
Oregon producer at a dis-
advantage,” he said. “I
have to take whatever price
they off er.”
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Butterfi eld said lawmak-
ers just don’t seem to under-
stand rural life.
“The problem with farm-
ing is it’s so seasonal. If they
could, we could average the
time out, but there are times
they have to work more
than 40 hours a week,” he
said. “It’s too bad they don’t
understand that when they
pass these laws.”
Melville and the other
producers agreed they don’t
want to see their workers put
at a disadvantage because of
the new law.
“You want to make sure
your workers are well paid,”
Melville said. “I think it’s
going to work out little dif-
ferently than most people
expect.”
Russ Eoff , one of Corner-
stone’s few year-round, full-
time employees, agreed with
his boss.
He spends much of the
winter working on equip-
ment in preparation for the
growing season. He also
drives tractors and trucks for
the farm all year long.
He had one simple state-
ment on HB 4002:
“It’s not right,” he said,
adding that it hurts both the
farmers and their employees.
It won’t leave him unem-
ployed, but it will cut his
wages as the Melvilles have
to curtail overtime.
“If I wasn’t doing this, I’d
be home with my feet up,”
he said.
father and I had was our rela-
tionship, because attempts to
have relationships with other
parts of the family dwin-
dled,” she told the judge.
In Collins’ statements on
sentencing, he said violation
of a family member’s trust is
the most disturbing.
“This involved a breach of
trust, and that’s pretty signif-
icant,” the judge said. “The
jail sentence is meant to be
the ‘just desserts,’ if you will,
for the breach of trust in this
case.”
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Wallowa County Chieftain, File
This building is among those at the home of the Wallowa
History Center. The center is set to receive $500,000 in
funding from the general fund following the passage of
HB 5202 Friday, March 4, 2022.
Funding:
Continued from Page A1
to arrive is uncertain.
Both Hansell and Rep.
Bobby Levy voted in favor
of the legislation, which
now heads to Gov. Kate
Brown’s desk.
Wallowa County Com-
missioner Todd Nash, who
is also a member of the fair
board, said he was excited
about the funding.
“Our deferred mainte-
nance on the fairground is
substantial,” he said. “The
newest building we have
was built in the late ‘60s
… the Cloverleaf Hall. To
make some upgrades, to
replace some things and do
some long-needed mainte-
nance (is) really important,
and that million dollars is
going to go a long way to
helping do that.”
The county recently
received $500,000 in fund-
ing from Levy’s portion
of ARPA funding, which
also was allocated for the
fairgrounds.
Nash said the money
from the general fund
would be much less restric-
tive than ARPA funding —
the only major restriction
being that it is dedicated to
infrastructure.
“The million has very
few strings attached to it,”
he said.
He added it will be
“pretty easy” to fi nd ways
to use the added resources.
“We have some plans,
and we are going to go
through a process. This is
all pretty new to us,” he
said. “We’ll go before the
fair board and we’ll start to
identify those places we’ll
spend the money.”
David Weaver, pres-
ident of the board for the
Wallowa History Center,
said the money will pri-
marily go into convert-
ing the warehouse at the
four-building
complex
into an interpretive center.
“For the $500,000, all
of (it) is basically is going
to go toward getting that
warehouse up and run-
ning, including us kicking
off our capital campaign
for more,” he said.
Weaver said more — as
much as another $500,000,
though he said that was a
guess — will be needed
between renovation and
adding of exhibits to com-
plete the interpretive
center.
“By the time we get our
exhibits in, it’s going to
take all the $500,000 and
then some,” he said. “We
(do) have a line on a con-
tractor who specializes in
historic restoration.”
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