A10
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
’62 Days
Young
‘62 DAYS
CELEBRATION
Continued from
Page A1
Farrell, born and
raised in Canyon City
and in his early 40s,
said teachers, many
of whom were locals,
had the history passed
down to them.
“We learned a lot
of Grant County, Can-
yon City history in
school,” he said. “ I
don’t think there’s as
much of that. Younger
people just don’t
know how much of a
history Canyon City
has.”
In passing down
the history, organiz-
ers brought back the
“Teen Costume Dance
Party” the second
night of the event this
year.
Farrell said there
will be two high
school
reunions
during that weekend.
He said he knows of
people coming from
the East Coast just for
‘62 Days.
Farrell said the fes-
tival looks like it will
be the county’s first
social gathering with
no COVID-19 restric-
tions in over a year.
“This is really
important that it could
be the kick-off event
in getting back to nor-
mal,” he said. “It’s a
chance to get together
finally after all of this
time and get back to
being a community.”
Before the offi cial ‘62 Days
Celebration, festival musical
act Copper Ridge will be at
the Ugly Truth Bar and Grill in
John Day from 7 to 10 p.m.
Thursday, June 10, for an
acoustic show.
Friday, June 11
• The 100th ‘62 Days Celebra-
tion kicks off at 5 p.m. Sels
Brewery opens at 5 p.m. with
live music from Copper Ridge.
Saturday, June 12
• Kids events, a chili cookoff
and bed and stick horse races
are planned during the day in
Canyon City.
Contributed photo/Joni Kabana
Whiskey Gulch Gang members celebrate the ‘62 Days Celebration in 2020.
• Gold Rush Run, 8 a.m. at
Sel’s Brewery with registration
from 7-7:45 a.m. The cost is
the $20 to register the day of
the race and $18 before. Reg-
istration forms are available
at the chamber of commerce
offi ce.
• Parade, 11 a.m. Floats will
begin to line up at 9:30 a.m.
in the Humbolt Elementary
School parking lot. More
information about the parade
can be found at the Whiskey
Gulch Gang Facebook page or
by calling Melissa Galbreath
at 541-620-0898.
• Mock gunfi ght and hanging,
2 p.m. at Sels Brewery.
• Cornhole tournament, 5 p.m.
with registration at 4:30 p.m.
inside Sels Brewery. The buy-
in is $20, and the tourney will
pay out winnings to the top
three winners.
Contributed photo/Whiskey Gulch Gang
• Live music from Copper
Ridge at Sels Brewery.
A past ‘62 Days Celebration parade motors through Canyon City.
Labor
“There needs to be a point
where all these people need to
get back to work,” he said.
Shawn
Duncan,
the
Squeeze-In Restaurant and
Deck owner, said the staff
shortage forced her to reduce
her hours.
Like other restaurant own-
ers in the county, Duncan is
trying to staff up ahead of the
busy summer season. Typi-
cally, she said she would have
a crew of 20 servers and cooks
at this time of year. How-
ever, she said nobody wants to
work.
Duncan said she got so des-
perate that she recruited a cus-
tomer to pick up a couple of
lunch shifts a week.
Shannon Adair, the owner
Continued from Page A1
“In smaller communities,”
he said, “there is not as much
foot traffi c, and there is not a
bunch of employees that want
to work.”
He said he knows several
people making more money on
unemployment than they would
if they worked a full-time job.
“Good for them, they are
making more money,” he said.
“But still, it’s the moral concept
of you work for what you get.”
Hubbard said unemploy-
ment should be a temporary life-
line for someone when they lose
their job.
of 1188 Brewing Company,
said while she has a full staff ,
she needs a few part-time
workers to allow for more
fl exibility within the schedule.
Pandemic-related
unemployment
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief
and Economic Security Act
passed early in the pandemic
provided a $600 per week fed-
eral unemployment insurance
supplement, in addition to regu-
lar state unemployment benefi ts,
which expired in July.
In December, Congress
passed an additional relief bill
that included $300 supplemen-
tal payments set to expire in
March.
The $1.9 trillion American
OUTPATIENT EAR
AND FOOT CLINIC
422 West Main
John Day OR, 97845
Unemployment in Oregon
The state’s employment
department reports that it pays
out an average of $670 per week,
including the $300 weekly pay-
ment, according to a paper pub-
lished by the Oregon Offi ce of
Economic Analysis.
The authors said that works
out to roughly $16.75 per hour
for someone working full time.
With Oregon’s minimum wage
in Grant County at $11.50, the
benefi t payments are more valu-
able. However, the authors point
out that the enhanced benefi ts
work out to $34,800 per year,
which is not close to the state’s
median income of $50,700 for
full-time workers.
A regional economist view
Chris Rich, a regional econ-
omist with the state’s employ-
ment department, said Grant
County’s 7.7% seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate is
relatively close to where it was
before the pandemic, and low
compared to historical rates in
the county.
Rich told the Eagle Grant
Regular and High
Risk Foot Care done
by specially trained
RN or CNA.
Ears are examined
and cleaned by
Registered Nurses.
County has the lowest labor
force participation rate in East-
ern Oregon, which was just over
50% percent in 2019.
He said the small number of
people in the workforce is not a
result of the pandemic.
Rich said last week the
county currently had 45 job
postings on the employment
department’s website. However,
he noted that this is not the most
precise picture. He said the job
search tool does not account for
the various ways that employers
might reach out to job seekers,
such as in the newspaper, help
wanted signs, word of mouth,
company websites, social media
sites and referrals.
Over 85% of those jobs in
John Day require some degree
of higher education, certifi cation
and experience, which, he said,
had not changed since the pan-
demic. Rich said these types of
job listings also make up a size-
able share of the listings found
throughout Eastern Oregon.
“These are typically diffi -
cult-to-fi ll openings in general,
harder to fi ll in rural communi-
ties,” he said. “And harder still
in areas of geographic isolation
such as Grant County.”
He said the tight labor mar-
“I was very generous
in the community,” he
said. “If it were not for
the people who live here,
we would not have made
a living here.”
Young said Mer-
ilee was the president of
the Grant Union school
board when the school
district acquired the
land that would later
become the Seventh
Street Complex. He
said at the time some
residents were vocal
in their opposition, but
she and the board were
steadfast in developing
the land.
“She got cussed out
by everybody in town
for spending all that
money,” he said. “It’s
been the best investment
they’ve made.”
Young said events
like ’62 Days pre-
serve the region’s way
of life. Beginning with
the Native Americans
who originally inhab-
ited the area, followed
by the miners, the cat-
tlemen and the loggers,
the event showcases the
“continuity of history.”
Jack said he hopes
more young people get
involved in ’62 Days and
continue to carry on the
tradition and maintain
that continuity. He said,
otherwise, young people
would miss out on a lot
of camaraderie with peo-
ple in the community.
ket in the county is due mainly
to the number of residents 65 or
older in the county. He said the
county has the largest concen-
tration of retirees in the state as
of 2020, at just over 35%.
At the same time, Rich
noted, the county’s share of
18- to 34-year-olds was among
the lowest in Oregon, at 12%.
Thus, he said, a small percent-
age of residents in this younger
age group and a large share of
residents in the older age group
can have a sizeable negative
impact on fi lling many open
positions. In general, he said,
Grant County has the same tight
labor market it had before the
pandemic.
Rich said, nationally, what is
happening in the labor force is
right now diff erent everywhere.
For instance, while leisure
and hospitality were among the
hardest hit industries, the impact
was on the “lighter side” in rural
counties. These smaller, inde-
pendently owned restaurants
have fewer employees, and they
tend to be owned and operated
by a local within the county.
He said these factors allowed
people to pivot and make deci-
sions more rapidly than those in
other places with a large staff .

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Rescue Plan signed by President
Joe Biden extended the $300
supplement to September.
Continued from
Page A1
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