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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2021)
BUSINESS & AG THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 CARES Continued from Page 1B E.J. Harris/East Oregonian, File Clint Sexson, right, uses an electric branding iron to brand a calf as Tyler Potter, center, holds the animal’s leg and Jack Taylor looks on outside Stanfi eld in March 2015. Ranchers want lawmakers in the 2021 Legislature to consider an al- ternative proposal to the brand inspection fee increases the Oregon Department of Agriculture has proposed. BRAND Continued from Page 1B 2015,” said Todd Nash, Wallowa County com- missioner and OCA’s president-elect. Nash said he understood the brand inspection pro- gram is facing tough fi nan- cial times but cited Pres- ident John F. Kennedy’s observation that farmers buy at retail, sell at whole- sale and pay the freight both ways. “We just don’t have a way to capture it at this point,” he said of the fee increase proposal. The economic situa- tion is especially diffi cult for young ranchers and too many fee increases may discourage some from even participating in the program to the industry’s detriment, Nash said. “I know some people who just don’t brand any- more,” he said. “If we have a disease outbreak, that’s what we have to trace back.” The Oregon Farm Bureau is backing the OCA’s proposal, noting that natural resources agencies are asking for fee increases “across the board” during the econom- ical fallout of the corona- virus pandemic. “Their cumulative impact on the sector will be substantial,” said Mary Anne Cooper, the organi- zation’s vice president of public policy. “We think the Oregon Cattlemen’s compromise is more than fair.” Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ash- land, said the committee isn’t planning to vote on the fee increases anytime soon and urged ODA to discuss the compromise proposal with the livestock industry. Sorrels said the county did a fi ne job distributing the money in a timely manner. “Although we have had a fairly successful takeout business, which continues to grow, the money we take in does not cover all of our expenses, considering that we have an empty restau- rant,” she said. Ten Depot’s Paycheck Protection Program funds ran out in November, Sor- rels said, and the CARES grant enabled the estab- lishment to keep paying staff and provided money for utilities, insurance and inventory. “It would have been a lot harder to survive without it,” she added. Tim Osterloh owns and operates Clank-Tronix in La Grande. The business received a Tier 2 grant. “It helped out dramati- cally,” he said. “Without the funding it would have been diffi cult — I’ve been able to not just stay in business, but it helped me to expand a little bit.” Osterloh has been THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B remodeling a back-section of the businesses at 315 Fir St. to add more space for customers and what he called an “education room.” “I had noticed a huge boom in home schooling, people calling for home schooling books and just home schooling in general,” he said. “It’s just amazing how much I’ve been able to accomplish. I’ve already got this room fully remod- eled, and I’ve already put in most of the shelves and got (the books) already on the shelves, and now I’m working on just trying to make things more COVID friendly, I guess you would say.” The Eastern Oregon Film Festival and the per- formance arts venue HQ, both in La Grande, each received Tier 1 grants — $7,500 to the festival and $11,103.25 to HQ. Chris Jennings, who helped found each and helps operate them, said the grant to the fi lm fes- tival was “a great help to fi ll in the gaps.” The festi- val’s member program “is just nonexistent,” he said, and the sponsor program is likely to net 50% of what it usually does. Jennings said that is pushing EOFF to change its fundraising model dramatically. “That $7,500 bucks from the county is just a huge saving grace in terms of keeping general oper- ations moving while we try to fi gure out how to re-leverage donation sup- port or approach different foundations, things like that, and kind of pivot,” he said. The grant has helped the festival “keep paying the bills,” he said, “pushing out ad campaigns and pro- moting the fact that we’re still gonna be trying in October.” HQ’s grant also is helping it keep the lights on. “As far as I can tell that’s kinda the goal of the grant, too,” Jennings said. “Keeping baseline — keeping businesses intact and keeping them func- tioning and staying. If we shuttered our doors we won’t be coming back, that’s for sure. We’d unplug everything and turn off the lights, and call it a day — it’s not like that business or ourselves would be coming back when it’s time.” MEAT Continued from Page 1B of major meat packing facilities and increased demand for local slaughter and processing options. “The COVID-19 pan- demic revealed a break in the marketing chain for all livestock producers, as there has been an overall lack of capacity to pro- cess livestock into meat in Oregon, said Carol Lorenzen, head of OSU’s department of animal and rangeland sciences. The ODA’s previous state inspection program was eliminated for bud- getary reasons fi ve decades ago, and the agency expects time and money will be needed to get the program up and running again. Aside from the $10 million grant proposal, lawmakers are also con- sidering bills that would require state regulators to study “barriers to fami- ly-scale meat production” and the possibility of permitting animal ren- dering facilities in Oregon. 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