PENDLETON ROUND-UP MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
153rd Year • No. 35 • 14 Pages • $1.50
Where are the workers?
Workers in short supply amid year of great job growth
MyEagleNews.com
Can John
Day and
Grant County
offi cials bury
the hatchet?
Police services in the
city hang in the balance
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
management, you have a hard time retaining
workers.
“It’s common for people to come and begin
training and then get another job off er that
competes with wages,” Keatman said. “There’s
no allegiance. It’s a compet-
itive market for employers.”
During a year of record
job growth in Oregon,
employers like Keatman
have had the hardest time
fi nding workers to fi ll posi-
tions. Companies, particu-
larly in the leisure and hos-
pitality industries, across the
state are scrambling to fi nd
workers.
The hospitality, hotel,
restaurant and tourism-re-
lated industries added 6%
more jobs this year, econ-
omists say. Hiring is more
competitive than ever as
employers raise wages, off er signing bonuses,
referral bonuses, improved benefi ts and even
subsidies for housing. But those incentives also
In their fi rst city council meet-
ing after a local option levy to fund
police failed to garner enough votes
last month, John Day’s elected offi -
cials weighed their options about how
to move forward Aug. 24.
The city now plans to disband the
police department Dec. 31 unless
it receives a fed-
eral police grant. In
the meantime, the
city may work out
a law enforcement
services agreement
with the county sher-
iff ’s offi ce for more
Heather
police coverage.
Rookstool
John Day City
Councilor Heather
Rookstool said she would like to
see the levy go back on the ballot in
May when a double majority — more
than 50% of registered voters return-
ing ballots and more than 50% in
favor of passing the measure — is not
required.
Grant County’s Emergency Com-
munications Agency Dispatch Man-
ager Valerie Maynard said she agreed
with Rookstool.
She said, historically, measures
typically fail in special elections
because of the required double major-
ity. In the meantime, she said, the
city could fi ll the budget holes with
COVID-19 relief dollars.
Additionally, Maynard asked that
the city look at a law enforcement ser-
vices contract between the county and
the city.
“That would at least give us some
coverage,” she said. “The sheriff ’s
offi ce can’t provide coverage without
some additional funding.”
Pam Durr, the wife of John Day
Police Cheif Mike Durr, said the
mentality of many of the voters in
John Day was to vote no on the levy
because they were mad at City Man-
ager Nick Green.
Durr said Glenn Palmer, former
Grant County sheriff and a John Day
resident, urged voters to oppose the
levy.
In a post last month on Facebook,
Palmer said he was “attempting to
gain support in asking people to look
at the option of voting no, or not vot-
ing in this election to defeat the levy.”
City Councilor Gregg Haberly
said, if the city of Sisters could not
aff ord to keep its police department,
how could John Day?
See Workers, Page A14
See Police, Page A14
EO Media Group/Dean Guernsey
Help wanted signs are popping up all over Bend as local businesses seek to fi ll jobs that workers are choosing not to return to.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part one of a series of articles by EO Media Group to publish over
the next fi ve weeks, looking at the issue of the lack of workers for jobs in Central and Eastern Ore-
gon, why workers are not returning to previously held jobs and how businesses are functioning with-
out being fully staff ed.
By Suzanne Roig
EO Media Group
W
EO Media Group/Dean Guernsey
Robin Clement and her husband, co-owners of
Monkless Belgian Ales in Bend, opened the pub just
four months before the pandemic shut it down to
reduce the spread of COVID-19.
ith record job growth in
Oregon, Whitney Keatman
never imagined she would
have problems fi nding work-
ers for her Scott Street loca-
tion of Sparrow Bakery.
And she didn’t. It was
getting them to stay that has
plagued her long-time Bend
business.
In the past year Keat-
man, a co-owner, made 117
job off ers and most were
accepted. But after just three
months, only about 42 work-
ers remained. The bakery
needed at minimum of 20
workers at the Scott Street
location, and by the end of
this summer there were six.
So last week, she made a
hard decision: She will close
the bakery at the Old Iron
Works Arts District.
“We’ve been struggling for seven years with
moments of success,” Keatman said. “Over the
years we’ve had on again and off again good
managers. When you don’t have the right
Wyden defends River Democracy Act in virtual town hall
Opponents say only 15% of
waterways to be designated
are actually ‘rivers’
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
Legislation that would add nearly
4,700 miles of wild and scenic rivers
across Oregon would have no impact
on private land or existing property
rights, according to the bill’s chief
architect, Sen. Ron Wyden.
Wyden, an Oregon Democrat,
introduced the River Democracy
Act in February based on more than
15,000 public nominations from all
corners of the state.
On Aug. 31, Wyden defended the
bill during an hour-long virtual town
hall. The legislation has faced opposi-
tion from rural counties over whether
it would add new restrictions on graz-
“PROTECTING EXISTING RIGHTS
WAS PART OF OUR EFFORT TO
STRIKE A BALANCE.”
—U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon
ing, timber harvest and recreational
access.
Speaking from Hermiston in East-
ern Oregon, Wyden pledged the bill
would not go forward without “loop-
hole-free, airtight” protections for pri-
vate property.
Rather, he said it applies only to
federal lands and was written specif-
ically not to interfere with existing
property, grazing and water rights.
“Protecting existing rights was
part of our eff ort to strike a balance,”
Wyden said.
If passed, the River Democracy
Act would roughly triple the number
of wild and scenic rivers in Oregon.
The National Wild and Scenic Riv-
ers System was established in 1968 to
preserve rivers with outstanding nat-
ural, cultural and recreational values.
The bill also widens protective
buff ers from a quarter-mile to half-
mile on both sides of designated
streams, adding up to 3 million acres
of protected land.
Earlier this year, the American
Forest Resource Council, a regional
timber trade association, conducted
its own analysis of waterways nom-
inated for inclusion in the bill. The
group found that just 15% were
See Wyden, Page A14
Contributed photo/Nick Smith
AFRC
Bear Gulch in Southern Oregon was
nominated as a Wild and Scenic River
under the River Democracy Act intro-
duced by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley. Eastern Oregon counties op-
pose the bill.