JOBS
“They fl at out told me
they’re making more on
unemployment than they
would working for me.”
Continued from Page 1A
Some candidates were leery
of returning to work due to
concerns about the virus, she
said.
Marvin Wood Products’
Baker City plant hasn’t had
any COVID-19 outbreaks,
which the Oregon Health
Authority defi nes as fi ve or
more cases.
Fuller said a few employees
have been infected, or been
close contacts with someone
who was infected, but there
was no spread within the
plant.
“We’ve been really careful,
and it’s paid off,” she said.
Fuller said another factor
is one that many frustrated
employers have cited as their
jobs go unfi lled — unemploy-
ment benefi ts that are more
generous than in the past
due to federal subsidies, both
in dollar amounts and in the
length that people are eligible.
“The whole dynamic has
changed,” Fuller said.
In March 2020, the Oregon
Employment Department
suspended the requirement
that people receiving unem-
ployment benefi ts actively
seek work.
That waiver is set to end
July 31.
The current $300-per-
month boost in jobless
benefi ts — half the amount
included in the federal
CARES Act passed in late
March 2020 — is set to expire
Sept. 4, 2021.
Fuller thinks those are
positive steps in helping
struggling businesses.
“I believe that will help
people who are hesitant to get
back in the workforce to start
job hunting,” she wrote in her
email to the Herald.
Businesses reduce
operations
In the meantime, though,
some Baker City businesses
have had to cut days, or hours,
due to a lack of employees.
Kari Raffety, who with her
dad, Jay Raffety, owns The
Main Event Sports Bar and
Eatery in Baker City, and the
Main Frontier in Haines, said
she has had trouble even get-
ting people to apply for open-
ings for cooks and bartenders.
Kari said she’s been work-
ing every day — both restau-
rants are open seven days a
week — and other employees
have had to work extra hours.
“They’re all burned out,”
she said.
The staff shortage has
persisted, and recently Kari
decided to close The Main
Event during the day on
Tuesdays and be open only for
dinner from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
that day.
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
LOCAL & STATE
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
— Shelly Cutler, executive
director, Baker County
Chamber of Commerce,
talking about applicants for
a $15-per-hour job at the
Chamber
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Dairy Queen in Baker City is advertising job openings on
a window at the restaurant.
She said this is the fi rst
time she’s had to reduce hours
due to a lack of employees.
Tyler Brown, who owns
Barley Brown’s Brew Pub
and Tap House, separate
establishments in Baker
City, said he struggled last
summer to entice employees
who had been laid off, due to
restaurant closures during
the spring of 2020, to return
to work.
Some had moved away
from Baker City, Brown said.
Brown said he understands
why workers might choose to
receive unemployment rather
than come back to work —
especially in the restaurant
industry, which has endured
a series of changing limits
on indoor dining and other
restrictions.
“There’s that yo-yo effect,”
Brown said. “There’s still
that distrust. I couldn’t really
blame the employees.”
Brown said he retained a
core group of his longest-ten-
ured employees, even though
he had to cut their hours in
some cases and have them
do deferred maintenance
because business was slow.
In the past, Brown said he
could usually rely on current
employees to spread the word
when he had a vacancy, and
he usually had little trouble
hiring new workers.
But this spring he has had
openings, for a dishwasher in
one case, for which he didn’t
even receive an application.
“I think unemployment
is working well enough that
people don’t need to work,”
Brown said.
He said his family, which
also owns the Sumpter
Junction restaurant near
Interstate 84, would like
COUNTY
to eventually reopen the
business, which has been
closed since March 2020. The
family company’s business,
which prior to the pandemic
employed about 50 people,
now has approximately 20
workers.
Because he’s struggling
even to staff the pub, Brown
said operating the Sumpter
Junction isn’t feasible now.
“We would need to double
our current crew just to start
thinking about opening the
Junction,” Brown said. “So
we’re just in a holding pat-
tern.”
That’s disappointing, he
said, because with Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown poised to
cancel COVID-19-related
restrictions, including limits
on restaurant capacity, within
the next two weeks, he’d like
to be able to take advantage
of the additional seating
capacity.
Baker County restaurants
have been limited to 50% of
capacity for indoor dining —
and at times less than that —
since last fall.
Brown said the challenges
will continue even when more
people start applying for jobs.
He worries about replacing
experienced workers with
ones who need to be trained.
“All that continuity is gone,”
he said.
Hiring challenges
widespread
Shelly Cutler, executive
director of the Baker County
Chamber of Commerce, said
the issues that Raffety, Brown
and Fuller cited are common
across Oregon and, indeed,
the nation.
Cutler said she works with
the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce, and “they’re seeing it
all over the U.S.”
Cutler said she has heard
that employers are having
more success at fi lling vacan-
cies in states that, unlike Or-
egon, are no longer accepting
federal subsidies that boost
unemployment benefi ts.
She believes the unemploy-
ment quandary is actually
more harmful now than the
pandemic itself.
“It is killing our small busi-
ness owners,” Cutler said.
She has personally expe-
rienced the diffi culties that
local business owners have
reported.
Cutler said that while
trying to hire an employee
at the Chamber of Com-
merce, for $15 per hour — the
minimum wage is $11.50 in
Baker County and much of
rural Oregon — she spoke
with several people who, after
learning the wage, declined to
apply.
“They fl at out told me
they’re making more on un-
employment than they would
working for me,” Cutler said.
She said that based on
her conversations with local
business owners and manag-
ers, the hiring dilemma has
worsened since about spring
break.
That includes restaurants
and motels, some of which
have had trouble hiring
enough housekeepers.
“That’s very concerning to
me,” Cutler said.
Rajinder Chahal, who
bought the Eldorado Inn mo-
tel in Baker City in October
2017, said the past 15 months
have been challenging in
multiple ways.
Business travel hasn’t
rebounded since it plummeted
early in the pandemic, and
although people are begin-
ning to travel on vacations
again, he has struggled to hire
employees.
“People are not applying
for jobs,” Chahal said. “The
struggle is on for all small
business. There is nothing
small in small business — it
takes a lot of effort to keep the
doors open.”
Chahal, who also owns
motels in Idaho, Montana and
Nevada, said jobs in Baker
City should be attractive since
Oregon has a higher mini-
mum wage than each of those
states — Idaho, $7.25; Mon-
Lawmakers want state to
end unemployment benefi t
By Davis Carbaugh and Bryce Dole
EO Media Group
SALEM — Eastern Oregon lawmakers are calling for
the state to end supplemental unemployment benefi ts
to help out-of-work Oregonians endure the pandemic,
saying the programs have spurred a workforce shortage
that is hurting regional business economies.
Commissioners from 14 Eastern Oregon counties,
as well as three state representatives and one senator,
signed a letter and sent it Monday, June 7, to Gov. Kate
Brown’s offi ce, asserting “unemployment recipients,
especially those receiving additional federal unemploy-
ment benefi ts, are choosing to stay home rather than
look for work.”
The letter stated the benefi ts are “creating a labor
shortage that is impacting our most vulnerable commu-
nities and will not be sustainable long term.”
“There’s a disincentive to work,” said Sen. Bill Han-
sell, R-Athena, who signed the letter. “You get paid as
much, or nearly as much, to not work as you do to work
with the federal dollars coming in.”
“It’s really hurting the economy right now,” said
Donna Beverage, a Union County commissioner who
signed the letter. “There are some people that need to be
on unemployment, certainly if they have to do childcare
and that sort of thing. But, it’s really discouraging a
lot of people from going back to work when they make
more money by being on unemployment.”
Workforce shortages felt across Eastern Oregon
For weeks, Eastern Oregon offi cials have voiced con-
cerns over the workforce shortage. In a letter to Brown
“on behalf of Morrow County employers” in late May,
Kalie Davis, director of workforce development for the
Port of Morrow, listed 25 employers in the county that
had more than 200 job openings total.
The letter from the lawmakers concluded with the
exact same language used in Davis’ letter: “The benefi t
of being unemployed should not outweigh the benefi t of
working.”
The letter comes as COVID-19 cases decline while
vaccinations rise statewide, signaling the pandemic is
largely waning. That’s why some offi cials decided to call
for an end to the federal benefi ts now, even as several
Eastern Oregon counties with disproportionately high
infection rates have reported some of the lowest vac-
cination rates in Oregon (see related story on Page 5A).
Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock
said there’s “no question” that federal unemployment
relief was “a great deal” during the pandemic’s earlier
stages.
“At that point, businesses were closed, people were
not going to work, and people were laid off,” he said.
“That’s changed. They’re now open, they have jobs
and people who are worried about COVID have had
multiple opportunities to get vaccinated. Our businesses
are struggling because so many people don’t want to go
back to work.”
tana, $8.75; and Nevada, $9.
But with unemployment
benefi ts boosted by the $300
monthly federal aid, Chahal
said there seems to be little
motivation for people to take
jobs.
Chahal, who is replacing
the indoor swimming pool and
making other upgrades at the
Eldorado Inn, said he’d like to
have long-term employees be-
cause he can pay them more
than new workers who have
to be trained.
Housing challenge
Unemployment payments
and concerns about returning
to work during the pandemic
aren’t the only potential ob-
stacles to fi lling job vacancies.
Cutler said she’s heard from
some larger employers that
prospective workers had to
turn down job offers because
they couldn’t fi nd, or afford,
housing.
Baker County Commis-
sioner Mark Bennett said the
county had the same problem
when trying to hire a planner
for the Baker City-County
Planning Department.
Two candidates interested
in the job had to withdraw, cit-
ing problems fi nding housing,
Bennett said.
Man accused of burglaries at golf course
Continued from Page 1A
The county has not scheduled the meeting Harvey referred
to, but the details will be announced.
County attorney Kim Mosier said the resolution begins a
process under a state law — Oregon Revised Statute chapter
368 — for designating a county road.
“Today, the purpose of signing this resolution is not to take
testimony on the substantive issues regarding the road, this
is intended to begin the process by which you will, at a future
hearing, get information on the road,” Mosier said.
Attending the meeting through Zoom, Pat Rose asked
about the main purpose of the resolution.
Mosier said the process is designed to settle disputes re-
garding the road, including its location.
Harvey said the county doesn’t yet know how much the
survey will cost.
Someone participating in the meeting through Zoom asked
if commissioners’ fi nal intent is to declare Pine Creek Lane a
public road.
“It depends on the outcome of the hearing,” Mosier said.
The road, which leads from the edge of Baker Valley into
the Elkhorn Mountains to Pine Creek Reservoir, runs for
about 2 1/2 miles through property that David McCarty
bought in September 2020. That month McCarty installed a
locked gate across the road at his property boundary, citing
his concern that people were trespassing on his property and
having campfi res despite the high fi re danger.
Commissioners voted Sept. 30, 2020, to have a county em-
ployee remove that lock, which happened Oct. 1.
On April 30 McCarty sued the county, claiming county of-
fi cials have failed to produce documents proving that there is
a public right-of-way on the road through his property.
McCarty, who requests a jury trial, is seeking either a
declaration that the disputed section of the Pine Creek Road
is not a public right-of-way, or, if a jury concludes there is legal
public access, that the limits of that access be defi ned and
that the county pay him $480,000 to compensate for the lost
value of the land based on the legal public access.
bolt cutters
an adult male leaving one of C felony, and fourth-degree
when he was
the sheds where golfers store assault, a Class A misde-
Baker City Police arrested arrested.
their carts. Police arrested
meanor.
a transient early Tuesday,
Among
the man, who was identifi ed
He was scheduled to go
June 15, on charges that
the items he
as Slaney.
to trial on those charges on
he had broken into six cart
is accused of
The investigation contin-
June 22, but that date was
storage sheds at Quail Ridge taking are
Slaney
ues, and golfers who have
canceled.
Golf Course and taken mul- gloves, a key,
had their shed broken into
Slaney now is scheduled
tiple items.
padlock, U.S. currency, shoes, should call Detective Zachary to have a probable cause
Timothy Kelly Slaney,
bags and a range fi nder.
Thatcher at 541-524-2014.
preliminary hearing on the
32, was taken to the Baker
The total value of the items
Slaney was arrested in
burglary, theft and other
County Jail. He is charged
exceeds $100.
early February of this year
recent charges on June 22
with second-degree burglary,
The city-owned golf course, in Baker City and charged
at 1 p.m. in Baker County
second-degree theft, pos-
at 2801 Indiana Ave., has
with strangulation, a Class
Circuit Court.
session of a burglary tool
had more than 20 break-
Annual Youth Trail
or theft device, and second-
ins over the past several
degree criminal trespassing, months, and Baker City
Ride started in
according to documents from Police believe Slaney is
1964 is sponsored
the Baker County District
responsible for most, if
by the
Attorney’s offi ce.
not all, the burglaries
Slaney’s bail was set at
and thefts, according to
Baker County
$20,000.
a press release from Sgt.
Police arrested Slaney
Wayne Chastain.
Mounted Posse
at 2:43 a.m. According to
Police were patrolling
This is an outdoor camp with horseback
documents from the district the area on foot Tuesday
riding and outdoor adventure for youths
attorney’s offi ce, Slaney had morning when they saw
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
ages 12-15 years old.
Jay & Kristin Wilson, Owners
2036 Main Street, Baker City
541-523-6284 • ccb#219615
Cost is $ 2.00
(that's right only $2.00 dollars)
June 26-27, 2021
For more information, questions or an
application please call Jodie Radabaugh at
541-524-9358 or 541-403-4933
All state and county regulations will be followed.