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Thursday, March 25, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Officials investigate
‘mystery’ of five
dead wolves
Union rancher Bob Huffman contends
management of wolves is ‘shoddy’
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Chris Aldrich cleans the front end of a Cat engine Monday, March 22, 2021, in the Freightliner Northwest service shop in La Grande. Gordon Truck Cen-
ters, which owns the dealership and 13 others, recently purchased the Western Idaho Freightliner dealership in Nampa, Idaho.
Lucky number 14
UNION COUNTY —
Officials continue to inves-
tigate how five wolves
found Feb. 9 in Union
County died.
On Feb. 9, the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife reported a GPS
collar on a wolf emitted a
“mortality signal” in the
Mount Harris area near
La Grande. Officers with
the Oregon State Police
Fish and Wildlife Division
found five wolves dead.
The carcasses were
taken to a U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service forensic
lab to determine a cause of
death. Results have yet to
be released.
OSP Capt. Tim Fox
said he could not imme-
diately provide additional
details about the dead
wolves, such as their size,
sex and pack. Roblyn
Brown, wolf program
coordinator for ODFW,
also declined to com-
ment, citing the pending
investigation.
Oregon has a minimum
wolf population of 158, as
of the most recent ODFW
survey in 2019, though the
actual number is likely
higher. Most packs are
concentrated in the state’s
northeast corner, including
Union County where the
five dead wolves were
found.
Kathleen Gobush,
Northwest pro-
gram director for the
See, Wolves/Page 2B
Trucking company with La Grande ties expands Forecast for spring:
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A
large Northwest truck
company with a strong
La Grande connection is
boosting its Interstate 84
presence.
Gordon Truck Centers,
which owns the Freight-
liner Northwest dealer-
ship in La Grande, recently
purchased the Western
Idaho Freightliner dealer-
ship in Nampa, Idaho. It
began doing business as
the Freightliner Northwest
dealership in Nampa on
March 13.
The Nampa dealership is
among the largest of the 14
that Gordon Truck Centers
has in the Pacific North-
west and Hawaii. All sell
Freightliner and Western
Star trucks, parts and
service.
The Nampa Freight-
liner Northwest site has $1
million in parts inventory
and more than 20 techni-
cians, said Bob Kautz, the
regional operations director
for Freightliner Northwest’s
dealerships in La Grande
and Hermiston. Freightliner
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Bob Kautz, the regional operations director for Freightliner Northwest
in La Grande, pauses for a portrait Monday, March 22, 2021, in his office.
Kautz has worked in the trucking industry more than three decades and
spent the last six years working for Freightliner Northwest in La Grande
before his promotion.
Northwest of Nampa is
the first dealership Gordon
Truck Centers has had in
Idaho.
“Adding the Boise
market is a natural fit and
expands our service cov-
erage area east on I-84 into
the greater Boise area,”
said Gordon Truck Centers
President Scott Gordon in a
press release.
Gordon Truck Centers
now has three dealerships
along Interstate 84. The
company also has dealer-
ships in Albany, Coburg,
Redmond and Medford,
plus six in Washington in
Ridgefield, Mount Vernon,
Pacific, Olympia, Yakima
and Spokane. The compa-
ny’s Hawaii store is on the
island of Oahu in Kapolei.
Gordon Truck Centers’s
La Grande dealership has
15 employees including
seven technicians. The
vehicles it services and sells
parts for include more than
Western Star and Freight-
liner trucks. Buses, motor-
homes and agricultural rigs
for hauling produce also are
among the vehicles it ser-
vices and provides parts for.
Freightliner North-
west dealerships often
service buses and motor-
homes because many have
a Freightliner chassis, said
Kautz, who lives in La
Grande.
Gordon Truck Centers in
2015 purchased the Freight-
liner Northwest dealership
in La Grande. Before the
acquisition it was an Eagle
Freightliner dealership.
Prior to taking his
present position Kautz
was the branch manager of
Freightliner Northwest’s La
Grande dealership. He has
been the regional operations
director for Freightliner
Northwest’s dealerships in
La Grande and Hermiston
since 2019.
Kautz said his job is
fulfilling.
“I just love working with
the teams at both locations
and the customers,” he said.
Nasty drought worsens
for much of U.S.
NOAA expects the
drought to hit 74
million people
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
With nearly two-thirds
of the United States abnor-
mally dry or worse, the
government’s spring fore-
cast offers little hope for
relief, especially in the
West where a devastating
megadrought has taken
root and worsened.
Weather service and
agriculture officials
warned of possible water
use cutbacks in Cali-
fornia and the Southwest,
increased wildfires, low
levels in key reservoirs
such as Lake Mead and
Lake Powell and damage
to wheat crops.
The National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric
Administration’s offi-
cial spring outlook March
18 saw an expanding
drought with a drier than
normal April, May and
June for a large swath of
the country from Loui-
siana to Oregon. including
some areas hardest hit by
the most severe drought.
And nearly all of the con-
tinental United States is
looking at a warmer than
normal spring, except for
tiny parts of the Pacific
Northwest and south-
east Alaska, which makes
drought worse.
“We are predicting
prolonged and wide-
spread drought,” National
Weather Service Deputy
Director Mary Erickson
said. “It’s definitely some-
thing we’re watching and
very concerned about.”
NOAA expects the
spring drought to hit 74
million people.
Several factors go into
worsening drought, the
See, Drought/Page 2B
Oregon businesses endured unprecedented year: ‘What’s next, locusts?’
ness failures did not mea-
sure up to initial fears.
Thanks to a ban on foreclo-
sures and evictions, bank-
ruptcies actually decreased
in 2020.
There were even clear
signs of optimism, and not
just because of the vaccines.
New business formation
actually increased last year.
And Helmer remains
open for business.
“I’m hardened,” he
said. “I often think of my
great-grandfather get-
ting through the depres-
sion and I feel like I could
get through just about
anything.”
By JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian/OregonLive
PORTLAND — You
can’t blame John Helmer
for being a sunny opti-
mist. The third-generation
proprietor of John Helmer
Haberdasher in down-
town Portland will cel-
ebrate the family store’s
100th birthday this year. It
has survived depression,
world war, and the advent
of Amazon.
But life — and business
— as he knew it ended last
March. Like thousands of
other business owners in
Oregon, Helmer had to deal
with the global pandemic
and a whole new lexicon
of disaster — stay-home
orders, social distancing,
PPE, super-spreading
events and the virtual work-
place. None of it was good
for business.
Downtown Portland
emptied out as employers
sent their workers home
to ride out the COVID-19
disaster. Tuesday, March
23, marked one year since
Oregon issued a stay-home
order that forced many
businesses, including bou-
tiques like Helmer’s, to shut
down.
The list of horribles con-
tinued. Demonstrations and
civil unrest gripped the city.
‘People are genuinely
fearful’
Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian/OregonLive
Protecting employees became a priority for businesses as the pandemic took hold. Here, Dustin Anderson wears
a face mask and gloves, and stands behind a plastic barrier, while working at the Cedar Mill Liquor Store in Port-
land in March 2020.
In September, the skies
above Oregon turned a nox-
ious orange when wild-
fires roared down just about
every major river valley on
the west side of the Cas-
cades. Then came the ice
storm in February which
cut electricity to hundreds
of thousands and paralyzed
the Portland area.
“What’s next,” Helmer
asked himself, “locusts?”
Though estimates vary
widely, hundreds of thou-
sands of businesses failed
nationally. Hotels, airlines,
and restaurants and bars
were among the hardest
hit. In Oregon, proprietors’
income fell a devastating
20% while unemployment
surged to an unprecedented
13.2%.
At the same time, a
rather remarkable trend
began to emerge. Thanks
in part to a massive fed-
eral assistance program,
businesses survived. Some
thrived.
By early this year, it
became apparent that busi-
Harsch Investment Prop-
erties manages millions of
square feet of industrial,
office and retail space all
over the West Coast.
When the pandemic
hit, tenants reached out
to Harsch CEO Jordan
Schnitzer in unprecedented
numbers begging for help.
“We got 850 requests for
rent relief and we cut more
than 400 deals,” he said.
The concessions cost
Harsch more than $2 mil-
lion. But Schnitzer said it
was only fair.
“Yes, it’s a financial
issue,” he said. “But it’s also
a moral issue. Our tenants
have paid a lot of rent and
they’ve been really loyal.”
One year since Oregon’s
stay home order
Harsch manages 28 mil-
lion square feet throughout
the West. It’s difficult
everywhere, Schnitzer said.
But it’s particularly prob-
lematic right here in Port-
land. For the local real
estate industry, the big, out-
rageous story of 2020 is not
the pandemic, it’s the stun-
ning decline of downtown
Portland and the inability
of city hall to do anything
about it.
“Between the home-
less, the demonstrations,
the looting and boarded up
windows, and tax increases
on top of that … It’s like
the city of Portland couldn’t
write a worse script,”
Schnitzer said.
Mike Holzgang, a real
estate broker with more
than 25 years of experience,
is an old hand at the down-
town tour. For years it was
an easy sell – the city was
vibrant, beautiful, green.
It’s a different story these
days. Holzgang said he
recently helped a potential
See, Year/Page 3B