The Bulletin., June 08, 2021, Page 9, Image 9

A9
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021
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BRIEFING
Oregon details plan
to lift restrictions
Oregon’s workplace
safety agency said it
will lift face covering
and distancing rules for
businesses and other in-
stitutions when 70% of
Oregon adults are at least
partially vaccinated.
That means most em-
ployees in public work-
places, such as stores, and
private ones, like offices
or factories, could take
off their masks and work
in close quarters — as-
suming employers don’t
maintain their own mask
or distancing rules.
The announcement
aligns the Oregon Oc-
cupational Safety and
Health agency with Gov.
Kate Brown’s announce-
ment Friday that she
would lift all occupancy
limits and masking re-
quirements, for both the
vaccinated and unvac-
cinated, in most public
places once the state hits
the 70% threshold. Ex-
ceptions would include
health care facilities, air-
ports and public trans-
portation, and the state
has not decided on rules
for K-12 schools.
If present vaccination
rates continue, Oregon
could hit its target as
soon as the end of the
month.
Auto, student loans
fuel borrowing
U.S. consumer borrow-
ing rose by $18.6 billion in
April, fueled by a big rise
in auto loans and student
loans that offset a drop in
credit card use.
The April gain reported
Monday by the Federal
Reserve was the third
straight month of strong
increases in consumer
borrowing. It followed a
similar $18.6 billion in-
crease in March.
The latest increase
reflected a $20.6 billion
increase in the Fed’s cate-
gory that covers auto and
student loans. It was the
biggest increase in those
loans since a $22.7 billion
rise in June 2020.
The category that
covers credit cards saw
a decline of $2 billion.
Credit card borrowing is
down 12.2% since hitting
a peak in February 2020
right before the pan-
demic struck with force.
Consumer borrowing
is followed closely for
signals it can send about
households’ willingness
to finance consumer
spending, which accounts
for more than two-thirds
of economic activity.
Jeff Bezos will ride
rocket into space
Outdoing his fellow bil-
lionaires in daredevilry, Jeff
Bezos will blast into space
next month when his Blue
Origin company makes its
first flight with a crew.
The 57-year-old Am-
azon founder and rich-
est person in the world
by Forbes’ estimate will
become the first person
to ride his own rocket to
space.
Bezos announced his
intentions Monday and,
in an even bolder show
of confidence, said he
will share the adventure
with his younger brother
and best friend, Mark, an
investor and volunteer
firefighter.
Blue Origin’s debut
flight with people aboard
— after 15 successful test
flights of its reusable New
Shepard rockets — will
take place on July 20, a
date selected because it
is the 52nd anniversary
of the first moon landing
by Apollo 11’s Neil Arm-
strong and Buzz Aldrin.
— Bulletin wire reports
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Sisters bistro fined for
skirting COVID rules
BY MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
Cork Cellars Wine and Bis-
tro, a restaurant in Sisters, has
been fined $17,800 for violat-
ing COVID-19 rules designed
to protect the public during a
health emergency.
The bistro, owned by Ob-
structed View Inc. , “willfully
chose to allow indoor dining
despite a public health order
limiting capacity to zero in De-
schutes County,” according to
a statement from Oregon Oc-
cupational Safety and Health,
also known as OSHA.
The bistro has appealed the
citation. The appeal document
states that “a $17,880 penalty is
not proportionate to the harm.
The investigator did not test
for or find COVID on site and
no employee tested positive for
COVID.”
The appeal adds: “There is
no scientific basis for the stan-
dards created by the Governor
in her Risk Classification Ma-
trix; therefore, inside dining
closure is arbitrary and capri-
cious.”
See Fine / A10
Bulletin file
In this file photo, patrons have wine and meals at Cork Cellars Wine and
Bistro in Sisters.
REDMOND
Washington
orchards grow
into the world
of hard cider
Private equity
firms buy
Medline for
reported $34B
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
Construction will continue on the expansion
of Medline ReNewal in Redmond despite a ma-
jority purchase of its parent company by a trio of
firms.
“The sale has no impact on our plans with Re-
Newal, its personnel, expansion or how we run
the company,” said Jesse Greenberg, Medline pub-
lic affairs director, in an email to The Bulletin.
“We’re still as excited about our growth in this im-
portant area of healthcare as we ever were.”
Construction plans call for doubling the size of
the Redmond facility. The work should be com-
pleted later this summer or early fall, Greenberg
said.
A consortium of private equity firms has
reached a deal — reportedly worth about $34 bil-
lion — to acquire family-run Medline, the med-
ical supply and equipment company announced
Saturday.
The leveraged buyout’s value was reported by
The Wall Street Journal, which said the acquiring
firms — Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and
Hellman & Friedman LLC — had beat out a rival
bid from Brookfield Asset Management, a Cana-
dian investing firm.
See Medline / A10
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
The “Pinkheart” cider from Union Hill Cider Co. contains a blend of Red Fleshed,
Cripps Pink and Dabinett apples.
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
BY SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN • Capital Press
EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Andy Handley, 58, and his son An-
drew, 29, are second- and third-gen-
eration orchardists leading a
movement in the tree fruit industry:
cidermaking.
The family’s hard cider venture
started in 2012.
Andrew Handley, a young apple
grower, and his then-roommate, a
beer fanatic, decided to try making
cider, which they fermented in their
closet. The first batch was far from
glorious — Handley describes it as
“bland, yeasty-tasting, boozy water.”
But the friends didn’t give up.
As Andrew perfected his ci-
dermaking technique, his dad,
Andy, took a gamble. The Hand-
leys had been growing apples in the
Wenatchee Valley since the 1960s,
and up to that point had mainly
grown “dessert” fruit — sweet apples
for the fresh market.
In 2016, Andy planted 50 acres of
old heritage European varieties ideal
for cider. These bittersweet and bit-
tersharp apples included Dabinett,
Census survey
data shows how
Oregonians spent
stimulus checks
Porters Perfection, Kingston Black,
Yarlington Mill, Muscat de Lense,
Snowdrift Crab and Red Fleshed.
By volume, Handley Orchards still
sells 90% of its fruit — cherries and
apples — to the fresh market. But
the newer cidermaking side of the
business, though smaller by volume,
has significantly boosted the family’s
profits.
“It’s been amazing,” said Andy
Handley. “It makes work a little more
exciting. And the industry hasn’t
been exciting in a lot of years.”
The heady scent of fermenting
fruit filled the room where he stood.
The past few years, the Handleys
have invested in cidermaking equip-
ment and created beverage lines us-
ing a combination of dessert and ci-
der apple varieties.
They named this side of their busi-
ness Union Hill Cider Co., and it’s a
family affair.
Tori Handley, Andy’s daughter,
designed the company’s watercol-
or-style labels.
See Orchards / A10
The federal government paid out $5.5 billion in
stimulus money to Oregonians during the pan-
demic’s first year.
The money was a crucial lifeline early in crisis,
propping up households facing lost jobs, school
closures and months of financial insecurity. It
also helped prop up the broader state economy by
boosting consumer spending, which dipped enor-
mously in the first months of the pandemic but
quickly returned to levels approaching normal.
Oregonians used the first checks, approved in
March 2020, just to keep their households run-
ning, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey.
They bought groceries and paid their rent and
utility bills with the money, which paid $1,200 per
adult and another $500 per child (upper-income
households got less, or nothing at all.)
That kind of direct spending is what econo-
mists like to see, and why these are described as
stimulus payments. They don’t just bail out strug-
gling households — they stimulate the broader
economy and keep it running through the down-
turn.
As time went on, though, Oregonians used two
subsequent payments quite differently.
According to the Census survey, 16% of Orego-
nians reported they saved most of that first stimu-
lus check in spring 2020. But 47% said they saved
most of the December payment ($600 per person)
and 45% saved most of this past March’s stimulus
($1,400 per person.)
Only 17% used most of that first stimulus check
to pay off debt, according to the survey. Roughly
a third of Oregonians said they used most of their
next two checks to pay down debt.
See Stimulus / A10