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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Workers
Continued from Page A1
County saw an increase of 3%, or 10
workers during the same time period,
and Umatilla County saw the largest
total decrease of employment in the
sector, losing 180 jobs from July 2019
to July 2021.
Across all industries in Eastern
Oregon, leisure and hospitality saw the
biggest decrease in employment from
July 2019 to July 2021, dropping 8.2%
from its 2019 levels for a total loss of
570 jobs. The second hardest hit indus-
try was manufacturing, which saw a
6.6% decrease along the same time
period for a total loss of 570 jobs as
well. Compared to the rest of the state
in regards to employment, however,
the leisure and hospitality industries
were in far less dire straits in Eastern
Oregon — Oregon overall saw nearly
a 20% decrease in employment within
the sector; far above any other industry
with regards to job losses.
Other Eastern Oregon counties
didn’t fare much better. Union regis-
tered a 10.3% drop in leisure and hos-
pitality workers since July 2019. Mal-
heur County, which borders Idaho and
remained open for much of the pan-
demic, saw a 9.75% decrease in the
sector, while Umatilla County saw a
6.8% drop, beating out the regional
average. Surprisingly, Wallowa County
saw only a marginal decrease from its
July 2019 numbers; it lost just 10 jobs.
Unsurprisingly, the manufacturing
jobs lost aren’t affected by seasonal
employment changes normally seen in
the leisure and hospitality industries.
Still, manufacturing in Eastern Oregon
Co-op
Continued from Page A1
is if the combined enrollment
pushed Grant Union into the
3-A level.
That is not the case in this
situation, he said. Workman
said the combined enroll-
ment, according to the Oregon
School Activities Association,
is 200. He said 206 would
reclassify Grant Union as a
3-A school. Even if the num-
ber was over 205, Workman
said, OSAA has an exemp-
tion based on the number of
participants from each school.
For example, he said, Grant
Union has 20 players. Prairie
City has two. The exemption
would be allowed, according
to Workman.
Workman said Prairie City
has not failed at a high school
baseball team in 15 years,
except for a co-ed team in
2014.
In other words, he said,
Prairie City had not fielded
a competitive baseball team
since 2006. Likewise, he said,
the school had never fielded a
softball team or even a dance
team.
Workman said Prairie City
restarted its little league pro-
gram after a roughly five-year
EO Media Group/Alex Wittwer
An acryllic painted ‘closed’ sign reflects in the mirror at the Sumpter Junction
restaurant in Baker City on Wednesday, Sept.15, 2021. The restaurant has been
closed for 18 months due to the pandemic and inability to find workers.
lost 200 jobs from the start of the pan-
demic in March 2020.
Morrow County saw an 8.4%
decrease in workers in the manufactur-
ing industry since July 2019; a drop of
160 workers. Not to be outdone, Uma-
tilla County registered a neat 10%
decrease of workers within the same
sector, within the same time period,
numbering 340 lost jobs. Baker and
Union counties saw a 5% decrease in
the sector during the same period, cor-
responding to 30 and 70 workers lost,
respectively.
At Behlen Mfg. Co.’s plant in
Baker City, where 110 employees weld
and otherwise assemble gates, panels,
troughs and other livestock equipment,
maintaining a full workforce during
the pandemic has been “challenging,”
said Stacy Delong, the plant’s human
resources manager.
Only 30 jobs were lost in the Baker
hiatus, and some local kids
have gone on to play in John
Day.
He said youth sports not
only teach fundamentals of
the game, but they also bring
kids together.
The kids, Workman said,
develop relationships with
others from neighboring
communities.
Workman said these
friendships continue to grow
into their high school years,
partly because of the co-op
agreements.
“High school sports are not
so much about winning and
losing,” he said. “It’s about
learning life lessons, build-
ing character through sports-
manship, hard work and
responsibility.”
Likewise, he said, rural
communities need coopera-
tive agreements to help give
young people opportunities
they wouldn’t have otherwise.
In emotional testimony,
Cyrus told the board that doc-
tors had cleared him to play
baseball and basketball; it
means much more to him to
play. He said head coach RC
Huerta and his teammates
made him feel at home last
season through their friend-
ship and the respect he gained
for the Grant Union program.
County manufacturing industry from
July 2019 to July 2021, representing a
5% decrease.
However, Delong said Behlen, a
Nebraska company that opened its
Baker City factory in 1996, has been
“fairly successful recruiting new appli-
cants the last couple of months.”
Among the company’s techniques
was setting up an electronic reader
board on Campbell Street, Baker City’s
busiest thoroughfare, advertising a job
fair at the factory on Aug. 18.
“We found that to be successful,”
Delong said.
She said she hopes that the end of
the federal unemployment payments
will persuade more people to apply for
jobs at the Baker City plant.
Behlen’s goal is to add about 40
workers, to a total of 150, by the end
of 2021.
“Our approach has been to broaden
“To have it taken away
from me breaks my heart,”
Cyrus said.
One of the criticisms of the
cooperative agreements was
that Prairie City students had
taken playing time away from
Grant Union students. For her
part, Grant Union student and
softball player Paige Weaver
told the board that the times
she was benched for a Prairie
City student was because that
person was “better-fitted for
that job at that time.”
She said she did not think it
was for “political reasons” or
because the other player was
from Prairie City.
Weaver said the whole
county needs to be included
when people talk about the
community.
“We are too small of a
town,” she said. “Not only
here, but Dayville, Mon-
ument, Prairie City, Long
Creek, and when we talk com-
munity, we mean everybody
in our county.”
She said the board could
not exclude those players
from neighboring towns who
rely on sports for scholarships
to go on to college.
Zach Williams, Grant
Union’s softball coach, told
the board that he had never
heard one of his players com-
Committee Volunteers Needed
Grant County is now recruiting volunteers to serve on active
boards and committees.
Obtain an Application to Volunteer from County Court,
201 S. Humbolt, No. 280, Canyon City OR 97820;
(541-575-0059) GCCourtAdmin@grantcounty-or.gov
Applications are due by Thursday, October 7, 2021
Committees are formal public bodies required to comply with
Oregon Public Meetings Law ORS 192.610 .
Extension & 4-H Service District Advisory Council
Eleven members serve three year terms and meet semi-annually to provide guidance
and assistance to local OSU Extension staff in planning, developing, and evaluating
balanced educational programs directed to high priority needs of county residents.
Membership is limited to one re-appointment.
Extension & 4H Service District Budget Committee.
Members include two advisory members and a member-at-large serving three year
terms. Annual meetings include the County Court and are held to receive, deliberate,
revise and approve the annual budget as provided by the District Budget Officer. Any
proposed programs are discussed and considered.
Fair Board
ORS 565.210. Seven members serve three year terms and meet monthly to facilitate
exclusive management of fair business operations, the fairgrounds, and other proper-
ty devoted to the County Fair. Responsibilities include public relations and other work
for the fair as needed.
Planning Commission
Nine members serve a four year term and two alternates serve a two year term,
meeting as needed to review land use and zoning applications and discuss city and
county growth issues and siting new facilities. Members must be residents of various
geographic areas within the county and no more than two voting members shall be
engaged in the same kind of business, occupation, trade or profession with agricul-
ture designations of livestock / forage crop production and horticulture / specialty
crop production. Commissioners serving in this capacity must file an Annual Verified
Statement of Economic Interest with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
Members must re-apply to the County Court before their term ends if they wish to be
re-appointed. The commission is a formal public body required to comply with Ore-
gon Public Meetings Law ORS 192.610.
Senior Citizens Advisory Council
ORS 410.210. Five members serve three year terms and meet semi-annually to de-
fine the needs of older adults, promote special interests and local community involve-
ment, and represent senior citizens as an advocate to the local, state and federal
government and other organizations.
Wolf Depredation Advisory Committee
OAR 603-019-0015. Members include one County Commissioner, two members who
own or manage livestock and two members who support wolf conservation or coexis-
tence with wolves. These members agree upon two business representatives to serve
as additional members. The committee oversees the procedure established by Grant
County for its Wolf Depredation Compensation Program. The current vacancy is for a
business representative.
S261074-1
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
community outreach through commu-
nication and to best utilize our cur-
rent advertising resources and simply
engaging current employees to encour-
age friends and family to apply,”
Delong said. “Fortunately, Behlen
Country offers excellent benefits and
competitive wages. This does give us
slight edge over other employers not
able to offer such benefits. We are not
there yet, there is a lot of work to do.”
Delong said demand for the com-
pany’s products has continued to
increase, “and we don’t foresee any
kind of decline anytime in the future.”
Out of woodwork
Another of Baker City’s larger
manufacturing employers is Marvin
Wood Products.
The company, which employs
about 170 workers at its factory, would
like to hire about 30 more employees,
plant manager Sandi Fuller said in June
of this year.
To entice people to apply for jobs,
Marvin Wood Products earlier this
year boosted its entry level wage to
$17.73 per hour, plus a 50-cent bonus
for people who accept rotating shifts,
and other incentives including signing
bonuses of $500 and up to $1,500 to
help people move to Baker City.
Shelly Cutler, executive director of
the Baker County Chamber of Com-
merce, said she has recently heard
“positive feedback” from some busi-
nesses that have struggled to retain
their workforce, although she said she
doesn’t know of any local restaurants
that are fully staffed.
Cutler cautions that she believes the
county is in the “very early stages of
recovery.”
She is optimistic that the cessation
plain about losing playing
time to a Prairie City athlete.
He said that the notion of
them losing playing time to
a Prairie City student came
from an adult.
Williams, who did not
sign the letter with the other
coaches, said he did not do
so because he disagreed with
the letter. He said it had been
said that he benefits from the
co-op. Williams said he strug-
gles with that because he likes
to win.
“Nobody likes to lose as a
head coach,” he said.
Williams, whose team has
already been approved for a
co-op this season, said if his
team were not co-oping with
Prairie City, he would have a
roster of 17.
Which, he said, is the
“worst” number of players to
have on a softball team. He
told the board that it is way
too many for one team and not
enough for two.
Shanna Northway, Grant
Union’s volleyball coach and
a teacher, said she signed
onto the letter from “a place
of emotion” and said she was
on the verge of retracting her
name.
Northway said she is in
the “kid business” and did
not want to impact the few
kids who would lose out if the
schools did not have an agree-
ment in place.
That said, Northway told
the board that Grant Union
is “constantly slandered” by
Prairie City community mem-
bers, staff, and students when
they go to Prairie City.
Northway said the issues
with the co-op agreement are
not a “kid problem.”
“The kids aren’t the ones
that are causing this prob-
lem,” she said. “There’s a
lot of adults that need to get
together in a room, sit down
and hash it out and become a
partner.”
of federal jobless benefits, combined
with higher wages and incentives some
businesses are offering, will entice peo-
ple to re-enter the workforce.
Cutler also said she has been send-
ing an increasing number of relocation
packets to people who might be inter-
ested in moving to Baker County —
including younger people who would
need a job.
Anna Johnson, a senior eco-
nomic analyst at Oregon Employment
Department, wrote that difficult-to-fill
positions were largely unrelated to the
pandemic.
“The phrase ‘no one wants to work
anymore’ was already a common rea-
son given for why vacancies were diffi-
cult to fill,” Johnson wrote. “Now, with
lack of applicants and lack of quali-
fied candidates still being a major fac-
tor in hiring difficulties, the reason has
expanded to become ‘no one wants
to work anymore… because of high
unemployment insurance benefits.’ ”
Johnson reported that between
April and June of this year, only 14%
of difficult-to-fill vacancies had rela-
tively high jobless benefits reported
as the primary reason employers had
trouble filling job openings.
Johnson also noted that leisure and
hospitality was the top industry for
the pandemic-related, difficult-to-fill
vacancies. Among the hardest to fill
jobs were restaurant cooks.
Reasons for the vacancies vary —
among those offered up include lack of
child care, high unemployment benefit
pay and low wages at leisure and hos-
pitality jobs. According to the report,
the number of employers citing low
wages as the reason for the vacancies
grew to 15% in spring 2021.
Vaccine
Continued from Page A1
Hospital
Last week, Blue Moun-
tain Hospital CEO Derek
Daly said the hospital’s
vaccination rate mirrored
the overall rate among
health care providers in the
county, which is at 53%
overall. That’s up from 46%
but still the third-lowest in
all of Oregon.
Daly said he and his
peers in the rural health
care industry are “obvi-
ously” concerned about the
impacts after Oct. 18. How-
ever, he pointed out that
they have seen an uptick
in vaccinations since the
requirements came out.
He also said that in small
rural hospital districts such
as Blue Mountain, there are
valid religious exemptions
and that his organization is
doing its “due diligence” to
follow the law and respond
to those requests.
Daly said that the hos-
pital BMHD belongs to an
Eastern Oregon Association
of Hospitals peer group
that can help mitigate a
potential staff shortage.
He said the group has extra
traveling nurses and medi-
cal personnel throughout
the state.
Education
Grant School Disrict 3
Superintendent Bret Upt-
mor told the Eagle on Sept.
7 that he is still in the pro-
cess of collecting informa-
tion from staff. However,
he said he is sending out a
survey asking if employees
have rolled up their sleeves
yet and if they would share
their vaccination cards.
For those who have not
been vaccinated, he is ask-
ing if they have obtained
COVID-19 BY THE
NUMBERS
An average of five cases
per day were reported in
Grant County last week,
a 16% decrease from
the average two weeks
ago. Since the begin-
ning of the pandemic,
about 10.5% of Grant
County residents have
been infected, a total of
755 reported cases. The
statewide infection rate
is roughly 7.5%.
According to its web-
site, St. Charles Bend,
a major hospital in
Grant County’s Region
7, as of Sept. 20, has 97
COVID-19 patients. The
website said that 15 of
those patients are in the
ICU, and 14 are ventila-
tors.
The hospital reports
that five patients in the
ICU are under 60 and
are not fully vaccinated.
Additionally, 84 of the 97
inpatients are not fully
vaccinated, and nearly
half are under 60.
a religious or medical
exemption.
Uptmor said he did not
know how many staff within
the district were vaccinated.
As of Sept. 7, he said he had
sent out 35 out of 100 sur-
vey questionnaires.
Uptmor said he was not
sure if he could release the
exact number of vaccinated
staff and would get back in
touch with the Eagle when
he knew. However, he did
not immediately respond to
the Eagle’s phone calls and
emails on Monday.
“If your medical is in
your hands,” he said, “why,
why would I share that
with somebody?”