SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
A changing demographic
By BILL BRADSHAW and
ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
WALLOWA COUNTY
— It’s no secret that em-
ployers across the state are
struggling to fi nd workers.
Business owners collectively
furrow their brow at the
trickle of job applications as
more and more businesses
open and the share of work-
ers seems to be vanishing
into thin air.
For some, that means clos-
ing restaurants entirely —
but far more often the effects
on a tightening labor market
mean that expansion of op-
erations becomes diffi cult.
“It’s pretty much across all
industries,” said Stacy Beck-
man, general manager of
Wallowa County Grain Grow-
ers in Enterprise. “Managers
I’ve talked to are having dif-
fi culty trying to get help.”
He said the business he
runs didn’t actually lose any
workers to the pandemic, but
expanding his workforce has
been a challenge.
ROBBERY
Continued from A1
On the morning of Sept.
17, police responded to a
report of a robbery and
burglary at 1305 Seventh St.
The homeowner told police
that upon returning home, a
person wearing a mask was
Boomers retiring at a
faster rate
Eastern Oregon saw only
negligible gains in popula-
tion over the the past decade,
according to U.S. Census
Bureau data. And looming
within the numbers is a
certainty that has taken the
back seat to pandemic woes
and commentary: The boom-
ers are retiring.
In Eastern Oregon, the
working population is aging
out much quicker than in
previous years. The Oregon
Employment Department
reported in May 2021 that
the working population in
Eastern Oregon had grown
younger staff than in normal
years, though the restaurant
industry has historically been
staffed by younger workers
and those looking for part-
time work, and the data from
the U.S. Census Bureau and
Oregon Employment Depart-
ment indicate there hasn’t
been any signifi cant changes
in the employment level for
those under the age of 18.
Angelica Zurita, who with
her husband, Jose Lopez,
owns the La Laguna Family
Mexican Restaurants in En-
terprise and Joseph and the
Rusty Spur Saloon in Joseph,
said they employ about 15
people at the three establish-
ments.
During the summer tourist
season, they were fortunate
to fi nd college students who
were eager to work. But now,
as the students return to
campus, fi nding reliable help
The impact
“One of the other factors is is a problem.
“They really don’t want a
that boomers are retiring at
job,” Zurita said of some of the
an enormous rate, which is,
locals who have applied. “They
in a way, sucking everybody
show up drunk, call in sick,
up the the corporate ladder
or corporate world,” said Matt don’t show up at all or they
Scarfo, a Union County com- show up late.”
Still, as the tourist season
missioner and owner of Long
ends, she’s optimistic the
Branch and Benchwarmer’s
restaurants and saloon will
Pub & Grill in La Grande.
“Everyone’s getting the bump manage.
“It’s slowing down to where
up to those higher positions, if
they did have them, and so it’s I think we’ve got it covered,”
causing a vacuum down to the she said.
The trades, too, are hav-
X, Y, Z generation.”
ing a tough time fi nding
On the ground, restau-
workers. Jared Hillock, man-
rants and service industries
reported having to hire much ager and co-owner of Hillock
inside, and pointed a gun at
the homeowner before fl ee-
ing.
Police determined that
the gun was stolen from
the home.
Baker City Police detec-
tives and offi cers, including
members of the Baker County
Narcotics Enforcement Team,
investigated and tied the
Sept. 17 robbery with the
Sept. 15 burglary, according to
the press release.
Police obtained a search
warrant for a travel trailer
parked at 2260 Wabash St.
in south Baker City, where
police believed Griffi n was liv-
ing. Police executed the search
warrant the evening of Sept.
17 and found several items
“Trying to add (workers)
is tough,” he said. “It’s even
tougher in a smaller commu-
nity like we are.”
Cindy Ellis, who owns and
operates Heavenly’s Restau-
rant in Enterprise, switched
to takeout only when the pan-
demic fi rst struck, but was
able to resume indoor seating
as businesses were allowed
to reopen. But then reliable
employees became scarce.
“We had to cut our indoor
seating because someone we
hired didn’t show,” she said.
Ellis said Heavenly’s was
open for indoor seating when
interviewed on Thursday,
Sept. 16.
“We got a lot of folks from
Elgin,” she said, and de-
spite a small workforce, “we
were swamped.”
signifi cantly older from 2010
to 2020. That increased share
means the number of workers
age 55 and over makes up
26% of the overall workforce.
That’s up nearly 4% from its
2010 numbers.
As well, the population
of older workers has started
declining since 2017, when it
reached its peak, according to
U.S. Census Bureau data.
The rate at which the
baby boomer generation has
been retiring is accelerating,
according to Pew Research
Center. From 2019 to 2020,
approximately 28.6 million
baby boomers — those born
between 1946 and 1964 —
retired; a 3.2 million uptick
from 2019. On average, that
number had previously been
increasing by around two mil-
lion retirees per year.
COVID
Continued from A1
Of the other 23 residents,
the youngest are two men,
both age 59. One died in
February 2021, the other in
July 2021.
“I’m so sorry for her
family and friends’ loss,”
Baker County Commis-
sioner Mark Bennett said in
a press release announcing
Cleo’s death. “Please keep
her family and friends in our
thoughts and prayers.”
Cleo’s death was the
fourth reported this week
among Baker County resi-
dents, and the fi fth during
September. That’s the most
in any week during the
pandemic.
Statewide during the
pandemic, 27 people age 29
or younger have died after
testing positive, according
to OHA. That’s 0.7% of the
3,661 deaths through Thurs-
day, Sept. 25. Almost 71% of
those who have died were 70
or older.
September has set a
record for the most cases
in Baker County, with 379
through Sept. 23. The previ-
ous record was 300 cases
during August 2021.
Summer Carr/Contributed Photo
Cleo Shepherd, left, on graduation day at Ontario High
School with her younger brother, Gavin.
was the head teacher for tod-
dlers, Summer said.
“She was a natural born
mother,” Summer said.
It was an experience with
another child — Alanna, the
daughter of one of Summer’s
friends — that “changed the
course of what she wanted
to do with her life,” Summer
said.
Alanna had cancer at age
4, and she died at age 6.
That prompted Cleo to
pursue a career as a pediat-
ric oncology nurse, Summer
said.
Cleo, who struggled with
obesity for much of her life,
was planning to have gastric
‘She loved children’
bypass surgery, and then
Cleo, who was born in
to enroll in nursing school,
Kansas City, Kansas, lived
for about a decade in Ontar- Summer said.
“She had dreams,” Sum-
io, graduating from Ontario
mer said of her daughter.
High School, before moving
“We just never got that far.”
to Huntington, where her
Summer said Cleo “suf-
grandmother lives, about two
fered a great deal” as a child
years ago, Summer said.
due to her weight, dealing
Cleo was like a second
mother to her three younger with bullying in middle
school and high school.
brothers and two younger
“She didn’t have the
sisters, Summer said.
typical teenage existence,”
Cleo contracted CO-
VID-19 at the Payette, Idaho, Summer said.
Cleo’s favorite diversion
day care center where she
was listening to — and sing-
ing along with — the pop
singer Pink.
“She had the voice of
an angel,” Summer said of
her daughter. “She always
wanted to be famous, to be
a singer. I regret that she
never got to meet Pink, or to
see her in concert.”
But after a diffi cult child-
hood, during which she was
also the victim of sexual
abuse, Cleo had begun to
“blossom” in the several
months before her death,
Summer said.
“She had just started
to come out of her teenage
shell,” Summer said. “The
last six months of her life
were probably the best six
months she had.”
Summer said she was
concerned when she learned
that her daughter had tested
positive for COVID-19 be-
cause she knows that people
who are obese have a greater
chance of having a severe
illness.
Summer said Cleo was not
vaccinated “due to personal
and closely held religious
convictions.”
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A customer enjoys the outside seating Wednesday,
Sept. 15, 2021, at La Laguna Family Mexican
Restaurant in Enterprise. The restaurant, along with
a similar one in Joseph and the Rusty Spur Saloon
in Joseph, got by through the summer largely with
college students as employees.
Electric, said the biggest
problem is a lack of qualifi ed
electricians around.
“There are just not
enough people in the trades
right now,” he said. “I think
it’s important we get kids
in trades and not preach so
much college.”
He said a starting electri-
cian right out of high school —
after a four-year apprentice-
ship — can make $32 an hour,
with benefi ts.
“We’re trying to push more
kids to think about trades,”
he said. “You can make a good
family wage right out of high
school.”
He does have an opening
for a counter person, which
he’s not gotten many ad-
equate applications for.
“We get a lot of random
resumes dropped off, which
guess is people trying satisfy
job-search requirements,”
Hillock said.
Renaissance Design,
Fabrication & Powder Coat-
ing opened in May in Joseph.
The business has numerous
well-paying positions that
are not fi lled, owner Rick
LaFave said.
“I’m still trying to hire
three or four more welders,”
LaFave said. “People don’t
want to work, I guess. …
I’ve talked to several people
who’ve put feelers out, but I’m
not getting people who want
to go to work.”
Though he doesn’t have
concrete evidence, he has his
opinion on the cause.
“My opinion is because
the (unemployment) money
hasn’t run out,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get people
wanting to go back to work
once that runs out.”
that had been stolen from the
Clark Street home, and the
gun stolen from the Seventh
Street home.
Police also found other
items that they suspect were
stolen elsewhere, possibly
from local storage units over
the past year. Police also
found methamphetamine
and “items indicative of drug
traffi cking,” according to the
press release.
Police arrested Griffi n the
evening of Sept. 17. He was
taken to the Baker County
Jail on a parole violation
charge. He had been re-
leased from the jail recently
after spending three days
there on a separate parole
violation charge.
On Thursday, Sept. 23, a
Baker County grand jury in-
dicted Griffi n on the robbery,
burglary, menacing and felon
in possession of a fi rearm
charges.
The grand jury did not
consider possible drug traf-
fi cking charges, but that could
happen in the future, accord-
ing to the press release.
After she tested positive,
Cleo quarantined in a travel
trailer parked at her grand-
mother’s property in Hunting-
ton, Summer said.
After about fi ve or six days,
during which Cleo complained
about how much her chest
hurt, she called Summer one
day saying she was struggling
to breathe.
A Baker City Fire Depart-
ment ambulance took Cleo
to Saint Alphonsus Medical
Center in Ontario.
Summer said she was not
pleased with the care Cleo
received at the hospital dur-
ing the four or fi ve days she
was there.
But the experience was
quite different at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Cen-
ter in Boise, Summer said.
There, nurses and other staff
treated Cleo, braided her hair
and treated her “as if she
was their own child,” Sum-
mer said.
Cleo’s condition, however,
continued to worsen.
The disease affected her
kidneys, and she had to un-
dergo constant dialysis.
Although Cleo wasn’t able
to communicate, Summer said
she was able to play Pink’s
music through the video chat.
Cleo’s funeral is scheduled
for Saturday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m.
MDT at the First Christian
Church, 906 Second Ave.
North in Payette. She will be
interred next to her grandfa-
ther at Riverside Cemetery
in Payette. A viewing is
scheduled for Friday, Oct. 1
from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. MDT
at Shaffer-Jensen Memory
Chapel, 112 N. Ninth St.
in Payette.
“She was the most beauti-
ful girl,” Summer said.
Breakthrough cases have
been less common in Baker
County than in Oregon as
a whole.
According to OHA, the
rate of breakthrough cases
statewide has been 20.2%
since Aug. 1. That includes
a breakthrough case rate
of 23.2% from Sept. 12-18,
the highest weekly rate on
record.
Cases in schools
The latest OHA weekly
report, dated Sept. 22, lists
Breakthrough cases
recent cases in Baker County
schools, including the date of
The Oregon Health Au-
thority (OHA) on Thursday,
the most recent case.
Sept. 23 released its weekly
• Baker High School:
report of breakthrough cases eight students, one staff
— infections in people who
member, latest onset Sept. 16
are fully vaccinated.
• Baker Middle School:
In Baker County, break-
seven students, no staff,
through cases accounted for
Sept. 15
10.8% of cases from Sept.
• Haines Elementary: fi ve
12-18. Of the 139 county
students, one staff, Sept. 14
residents who tested positive
• South Baker Intermedi-
during that period, 15 were
ate: fi ve students, one staff,
fully vaccinated.
Sept. 14
From Sept. 5-11, the
• Brooklyn Primary: fi ve
county’s breakthrough case
students, no staff, Sept. 8
rate was 12.5% — 14 of
•Baker Early Learning
112 cases.
Center: four students, no
From Aug. 1 through Sept. staff, Sept. 9
10, the county’s breakthrough
• Pine Eagle Charter
case rate was 9.5% — 45 of
School, Halfway, nine stu-
474 cases.
dents, two staff, Sept. 14
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