Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, September 9, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
‘It’s
tough for
everybody’
LIZ
WESTON
ASK LIZ
Reaching
a higher
tax bracket
As COVID hits again,
businesses plod along in
Wallowa County
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Dear Liz: I owe $360,000 on my
mortgage. I have sufficient funds
in my IRA to pay this amount off
without depleting income distri-
bution for the next 20 years. I am
currently paying $1,100 monthly
on an interest-only loan, but I have
to start making much larger prin-
cipal payments in November 2022.
Would you advise withdrawing IRA
investment monies (and taking a tax
hit) to pay off the full loan amount,
or simply getting a conventional
mortgage and live with a higher
payment ($1,500) each month? I am
77 and retired now for four years.
Answer: Making that large a
withdrawal will almost certainly
hurl you into a much higher tax
bracket and increase your Medi-
care premiums. Refinancing the
mortgage while rates are low likely
makes the most sense, but con-
sult a tax pro or a fee-only finan-
cial adviser before making any big
moves with retirement funds.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Frank Corcoran of CAM DeSigns holds a piece of raw material steady as a router cuts out placards to use in a
local restaurant’s front-facing sign on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. The family-owned company is now based on Island
Avenue in Island City.
A labor of love
CAM DeSigns staff
enjoy helping customers
transform product plans
into reality
Worker considers retiring,
worries about health
coverage
By DICK MASON
Dear Liz: I am 55 and have
health issues that I don’t talk about
at work. I want to retire soon. I
know that getting health insurance
is going to be hard. I am just at a
loss as to how I am going to keep
working when I don’t feel well.
What are my options?
Answer: In the past, getting
health insurance could be difficult
or prohibitively expensive if you
had even relatively minor health
conditions. That changed with the
Affordable Care Act, which requires
insurers to extend coverage without
jacking up the premiums for pre-
existing conditions. In addition,
most people qualify for tax subsi-
dies that reduce the premiums, and
those subsidies were expanded this
spring when President Biden signed
the American Rescue Plan into law.
You can start your search for cov-
erage at HealthCare.gov.
Before you quit, however, con-
sider whether your employer could
make accommodations that would
allow you to continue working.
Many people at 55 don’t have
enough saved for a comfortable
retirement that could last decades.
Shifting to part-time work, if your
employer allows it, could help you
continue to save or at least reduce
the amount you need to withdraw
from your savings.
———
Liz Weston, Certified Financial
Planner, is a personal finance col-
umnist for NerdWallet. Questions
may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel
Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA
91604, or by using the “Contact”
form at asklizweston.com.
ISLAND CITY — Frank
Corcoran is always on the
lookout for inventors.
Corcoran is a co-owner of
CAM DeSigns, 11401 Island
Ave., Island City, a sign and
construction company that
also converts people’sideas
into reality.
“We can take any idea,
even ones written on napkins,
and turn them into products,”
he said. “We like inventors.”
Almost all of the prod-
ucts Corcoran and his staff
produces are made of wood,
metal or plastic or some com-
bination of the three.
“If it involves plastic, metal
or wood, we can build it,” he
said.
CAM DeSigns has been
making products designed by
people with dreams of getting
patents ever since the family
owned company began oper-
ating about 15 years ago in
Cooperstown, New York. The
firm, which Frank Corcoran
owns with his wife, Shasta,
and their two oldest children,
Rylee and Ana, moved to La
Grande six years ago from
Cooperstown and switched to
Island City in July.
Products CAM DeSigns
has made from the plans of
others include an ice cream
flavor board with embedded
magnets for The Local, the
new La Grande coffee and
ice cream shop. Its features
include wooden boards that
can easily be put up and
The Observer
WALLOWA COUNTY — As
the latest surge of coronavirus hits
Wallowa County, few businesses
have been forced to close but there
is a renewed interest in requiring
face masks and sanitizing business
premises.
This comes at the end of a
summer when many people were
feeling the need for masks was nearly
at an end and many businesses had
stopped requiring them.
Enterprise’s Safeway grocery store
was one that had the strictest mask
requirements for most of the pan-
demic and then relaxed it early in the
summer. But the store is requiring
masks again.
“Our Enterprise Safeway began
requiring masks following the gov-
ernor’s reinstatement of the mandate
that required businesses to do so,”
said Jill McGinnis, director of com-
munications and public affairs for
Safeway, in an email. “We will con-
tinue to put our associate and cus-
tomer safety first and follow local and
state guidelines.”
On Aug. 11, Gov. Kate Brown
ordered masks be worn indoors in
public places by everyone age 5 and
over beginning Aug. 13, the Chieftain
reported. Brown urged — but did not
mandate — the wearing of masks in
crowded outdoor situations and that
private companies and organizations
enact their own indoor mask policies.
Masks annoying
advertising messages.
Corcoran believes car wraps
are one of the best ways to get
the word out about a business.
“It is hands down the most
effective way to advertise in a
local market,” he said.
Corcoran said anyone who
has their vehicle wrapped will
give their business or mes-
sage an optimum amount
of local visibility in Union
County.
“At some point, in two or
three months, almost every
eyeball in the county will see
it. It is very, very effective,”
he said.
Corcoran said in big
cities companies pay people
to drive vehicles that
have been wrapped with
advertising messages.
Many find the return to a mask
mandate annoying, if nothing else.
Mike Goss, owner of the Dollar
Stretcher in Enterprise, said he’ll tell
customers they should have a mask,
but limited time and staff preclude
a 100% compliance with Brown’s
mandate.
“We are trying to comply with the
governor’s mandate but I’m not going
to be the city cop and force all cus-
tomers to comply,” he said. “People
have to police themselves.”
But another store is holding off.
An assistant manager at the Market
Place in Joseph said the mask
requirement isn’t officially law yet.
“We’re just waiting for (the gov-
ernor) to actually put it into law and
that’ll force us to do it,” Clint Lion
said. “We’ve been waiting for the
government mandate (on the public)
to be signed and she hasn’t signed it
yet.”
But KATU-TV reported Aug. 24
that the Oregon Occupational Safety
and Health Administration will
enforce the mandate.
For the most part, businesses that
were contacted were reviving the pre-
cautions taken early in the pandemic
that began in March 2020, although
See, Signs/Page B2
See, COVID/Page B2
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Frank Corcoran of CAM DeSigns on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021, holds open a
printed sign his family’s multifacted company made for a local business.
The Island City shop, which makes car wraps and signs, also creates prod-
ucts based on customer ideas.
replaced magnetically.
Frank Corcoran said he
relishes the mental gymnas-
tics needed to convert plans
into new products.
“I enjoy trying to figure
things out,” he said. “I like
multidisciplinary projects.”
This is fitting. CAM
DeSigns is a multidisciplinary
company that also makes cus-
tomized wraps for vehicles.
“One of the more common
requests we get is for car
wraps,” Corcoran said.
Car wrapping is a way of
changing the look of one’s
vehicle without having to
repaint it. A vinyl film wrap
completely or partially covers
a vehicle, very often topped
with a message advertising a
product or service.
The car wraps CAM
DeSigns produces all have
Coronavirus assistance program includes all grass seed
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C.
— Add Kentucky blue-
grass seed to the list of eli-
gible commodities under
the USDA’s Coronavirus
Food Assistance Program,
or CFAP.
The agency announced
on Aug. 24 it is updating the
second round of CFAP pay-
ments to include Kentucky
bluegrass seed, which was
previously left out.
All types of grass seed
are now included in CFAP
2, said Josh Hanning, acting
Oregon state director of the
Farm Service Agency.
Ninety percent of all
Kentucky bluegrass seed
in the U.S. comes from the
Pacific Northwest. It is used
primarily for turf grass
and sod, and can be found
growing in lawns, golf
courses, sports fields and
pastures across the country
and worldwide.
On Jan. 15, the USDA
Farm Service Agency
announced that CFAP
would cover turf and sod
producers.
Kentucky bluegrass seed
growers, however, were
initially told they could
not apply since the seed
can be used for both sod
and forage. The FSA had
already decided that crops
intended for grazing would
not be considered.
Members of the North-
west congressional dele-
gation intervened, sending
a letter June 30 to Zach
Ducheneaux, FSA adminis-
trator, urging him to recon-
sider Kentucky bluegrass
seed.
The letter — signed
by Rep. Cliff Bentz and
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley of Oregon, as well
as Reps. Mike Simpson
and Russ Fulcher and Sens.
James Risch and Mike
Crapo of Idaho — argued
that locally grown vari-
eties of Kentucky bluegrass
seed are bred, contracted
and produced for the turf
and sod industries, not for
forage.
Seed breeders carefully
select traits ideal for lawns
that are mowed at a 1-2 inch
height, and that require min-
imal water and pesticides
to remain healthy, the law-
makers added.
“The grass grown from
the Kentucky bluegrass
seed our farmers produce
was never contracted for
or intended to be grazed or
used for forage,” the letter
underscores. “Therefore, we
believe that FSA has made
an honest error in finding
bluegrass seed for turf and
sod ineligible.”
The FSA ultimately
agreed, adding Kentucky
bluegrass seed to the list of
eligible specialty crops that
also includes fruits, honey,
tree crops and vegetables.
“Over this past year,
agricultural producers have
been hit hard by drought
as well as the coronavirus
pandemic,” Bentz said in a
statement. “This program
provides vital assistance to
farmers who experienced
market disruptions in 2020
due to COVID-19.”
The USDA also
announced changes in
CFAP payments to contract
producers of certain live-
stock and poultry, including
broilers, pullets, layers,
chicken eggs, turkeys, hogs
and pigs, ducks, geese,
pheasants and quail.
Payments for contract
producers were to be based
on a comparison of eligible
revenue for the periods of
Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec.
27, 2019, and those dates
in 2020. Producers may
instead elect to use rev-
enue from the same period
in 2018, as opposed to 2019,
if they believe it is more
representative.
Ducheneaux, the FSA
administrator, said both
adjustments were made
after listening to feedback
and concern from producers
about gaps in pandemic
assistance.
“The pandemic has had
a tremendous impact on
agricultural producers,”
Ducheneaux said, “and we
have made significant prog-
ress since announcing our
ELIGIBLE
COMMODITIES
For a list of commodities that
are eligible under the CFAP 2
program, go to farmers.gov/
cfap2/commodities.
plans in March. While addi-
tional pandemic assistance
remains to be announced in
the coming weeks, USDA is
also ramping up its efforts
to make investments in the
food supply chain to Build
Back Better.”
CFAP is one part of the
USDA’s broader Pandemic
Assistance for Producers
initiative, which has pro-
vided approximately $7 bil-
lion in aid for farmers and
ranchers since March.
Producers have until
Oct. 12 to apply for CFAP
funding, or modify their
existing applications.