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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 2021)
Business AgLife B Thursday, March 4, 2021 The Observer & Baker City Herald Boise real estate fi rms opens offi ce in Baker City By LISA BRITTON For EO Media Group BAKER CITY — An Idaho real estate fi rm is expanding to serve Eastern Oregon. Keller Williams Realty Boise is basing its new offi ce, Keller Williams Four Rivers, in Baker City to cover Baker, Union, Wal- lowa, Grant, Morrow, Umatilla and Wheeler counties. “We’re super excited about this expansion,” said Stacie States, co-owner and president of Keller Williams. The Four Rivers Smith branch will have fi ve agents, including Jeff Anderson, who grew up in Baker City. Mary Smith is the designated broker. “We couldn’t be States more excited to launch our new Oregon brokerage,” Smith said. The offi ce will be virtually based, meaning the agents will work out of their own spaces. “At this point we don’t have plans for a brick and mortar,” States said. A company press release stated Keller Williams “expects to see con- tinued rapid growth as they sup- port top agents and teams, as well as expand their luxury, commercial, and farm and ranch divisions.” States said the real estate market is booming more than she’s seen in her 16 years in the business. “It’s the wildest ride we’ve ever seen,” she said. “And I don’t see an end in sight.” In line with the virtual approach to the Oregon expansion, States said Keller Williams focuses on tech- nology and training. She described it as a “coaching, education and tech company” that is involved in real estate. “Everyone can plug in — wher- ever they are,” States said of the training. See, Real estate/Page 3B Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Angus bulls mill around the feedlot Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021, after Botts Angus Ranch’s fi rst bull sale at its new facility just outside of Enterprise. LOTSA BULL AT BOTTS ANGUS RANCH By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain E NTERPRISE — There was plenty of bull just west of Enterprise, last week, as Beau Botts held his fi rst bull auction at his new auc- tion warehouse at the family ranch. Botts and wife, Kristen, hosted what they plan as an annual event Thursday, Feb. 25, after con- structing the new facility over the past year. They have previously worked with a feedlot in Pilot Rock where they used to haul their bulls for sale. He said they wintered and fi nished their bulls there in pre- vious years. “We’ve been involved as part- ners in Rollin’ Rock Genetic Part- ners in Pilot Rock for the past eight years and we decided to go off on our own,” Botts said. “We built a new facility here in the past year and it’s our fi rst sale here this year. We’ll be back every year.” Of the 90 Angus bulls listed in the buyers’ brochure, 74 were sold, Botts said. About 150 buyers came from Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming and other states. “We had buyers from all over the country,” he said. The buyers were greeted with lunch and snacks prior to the 1 p.m. sale, presided over by auctioneer Joe Goggins. Prospective buyers were able to view the bulls from early morning. Those purchased See, Auction/Page 3B Giving a lift to business ventures Eastern Oregon nonprofit partners on angel investing workshop By PHIL WRIGHT The Observer LA GRANDE — A local non- profi t is looking to fi nd some wings to help entrepreneurial enter- prises get off the ground in Eastern Oregon. Eastern Oregon Ventures has teamed up with Oregon Tech- nology Business Center in Bea- verton to host a free virtual workshop on angel investing. Wilson Zehr, business faculty at Eastern Oregon Uni- versity, La Grande, owns and operates Zehr EOV, which has funded the activities of the EOU Entrepre- neurship Club and Pub Talk. Angel investing, he said, is another way to support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. “The majority of the research shows that it is diffi cult for new ven- tures to thrive in isolation,” Zehr said. “We need investors, entrepre- neurs, advisers, skilled employees, service providers, heroes and a number of other elements.” Oregon Technology Business Center has been offering a suc- cessful program like this in Bea- verton for many years, Zehr said, and it is similar to successful pro- See, Investing/Page 3B Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Buyers mill around in the new auction facility at Botts Angus Ranch after its fi rst sale there Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. Botts plans an annual sale of registered Angus just outside of Enterprise each year. Hammond Ranches loses grazing permit New administration rescinds rights for Eastern Oregon operation By MAXINE BERSTEIN The Oregonian/OregonLive WASHINGTON — A senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Interior on Friday, Feb. 26, rescinded the January decision by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to grant Hammond Ranches Inc. a 10-year grazing permit and directed the Bureau of Land Management to further consider the matter. The maneuver came as Congress was moving to confi rm President Joe Biden’s pick of Deb Haaland as the new Interior secretary and followed a day after four environmental advocacy groups fi led a federal lawsuit to block the grazing permit for the Hammonds. It also came just days before the cattle were expected to be turned out on the more than 26,000 acres of public lands neighboring Malheur National Wildlife Refuge about 45 to 70 miles south of Burns. The action marked the latest twist in a yearslong saga surrounding the grazing rights of Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven Hammond after they were convicted of set- ting fi re to public lands and served prison time. The new memo from the Interior secre- tary’s offi ce found that the Trump adminis- tration hadn’t allowed for suffi cient time to receive and consider public challenges to the permit. A proposal to grant the permit was dated Dec. 31 but the public wasn’t immediately alerted to it until days later “resulting in con- fusion” about how the department would cal- culate an authorized 15-day protest period, according to the memo from the Interior sec- retary’s offi ce. Friday’s memo was signed by Laura Dan- iel-Davis, a senior adviser to the secretary exercising delegated authority of the assistant secretary of land and minerals management. “Because the protest period had not prop- erly concluded” before the fi nal Jan. 19 decision was issued, “I am rescinding the See, Hammond/Page 3B