NEWS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Shortage of employees leads to altered business models
Worker
Shortage
SECOND
5-PART SERIES
SERIES
FIRST IN IN A A 5-PART
Editor’s Note
This is the second in a
fi ve-part series by EO Media
Group 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
pivoting to function without
being fully staff ed.
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
AND ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Enter-
prise isn’t the largest town
in Eastern Oregon, with a
population of 2,052. But
it’s just a few miles from
the ever-popular town
of Joseph and its vistas
across Wallowa Lake to
the peaks of the Eagle Cap
Wilderness.
In a normal summer,
Terminal Gravity Brewing
in Enterprise would be busy
all days of the week serv-
ing local, handcrafted beers
to patrons and traditional
brewpub fare. But due to
a labor shortage this sum-
mer the company had to
cut hours during its lunch
rush, and close altogether
on Tuesdays.
Natalie Millar, chief
executive offi cer of the
Wallowa County brew-
ery, said it’s an inevitabil-
ity that they’ll have to close
for even more days as their
skeleton crew of cooks,
servers and hostesses return
to school — high school, to
be exact.
“Heading into fall it is
looking like we’re going
to have to cut an addi-
tional day and probably cut
lunches,” Millar said. “It is
pretty brutal.”
Demand for restaurant
meals soared over the sum-
mer as restrictions lifted
across Oregon. Nearly all
restaurants saw a huge
uptick in customers. But
where demand reached new
heights, a new challenge
appeared — staffi ng the
restaurants that have bal-
anced narrow margins and
threats of closure since the
pandemic hit.
In order to keep employ-
ees from burning out, Mil-
lar cut operating hours and
closed down the brewery
on Tuesdays to keep what
employees she has from
becoming overwhelmed in
No chance for profi t
Millar is not alone. Sev-
eral restaurants across the
region have reported chal-
lenges with hiring work-
ers over the summer. Some
blamed expanded federal
unemployment benefi ts as
the culprit for lower work-
force participation, even
though the region has seen
lower unemployment ben-
efi ts claims now than it had
before the pandemic started.
Others recognized the high
cost of living, taxes and low
supply of housing that has
made rents and home prices
balloon.
Millar explained that
while business picked up
considerably over the sum-
mer, the lack of staffi ng and
overburdened industry has a
cascading eff ect with other
restaurants, causing a feed-
back loop of demand and
short supply. As one busi-
Sports Bar and Eatery was
experiencing severe worker
burnout in June due to staff -
ing shortages, which led to
closing the restaurant on
Tuesdays.
The situation there has
changed little. While the
sports bar is open seven days
a week, it’s had to cut eve-
ning hours, close earlier and
open later throughout the
week.
“On Sundays and Mon-
days we’re one of the only
restaurants open on Main
Street, so we’re extremely
busy, but extremely short
staff ed,” said Jessica East-
land, manager at Main Event
Sports Bar and Eatery. “If
we had an adequate staff ,
it would be a very profi t-
able time for us but that’s
the thing — we’ve got peo-
ple who are working over-
time hours when we could
have had other employees
working those hours, so that
we weren’t paying more in
wages. Our wages right now
are through the roof because
we have so many employees
that are working overtime
every single week because
we are so short staff ed.”
Rolling with the punches
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Alonso Mendoza, a server at Terminal Gravity Brewery and
Pub, Enterprise, clears a table and returns empty glasses
during pre-dinner rush on Sept. 2, 2021.
an industry well known for
its high turnover rate and
low wages.
“I think we’ve reached the
mindset of ‘we have what we
have,’” she said. “We’ll keep
hiring as much as possible,
but we need to understand
that we’ve got to adjust with
what the situation is instead
of waiting for the situation to
adjust itself.”
ness cuts its hours, patrons
look elsewhere for a meal.
“It’s a funny, weird thing
where I think we would all
be excited if there were three
more restaurants because we
just need more places to send
people to eat, so it’s a unique
situation over here,” Millar
said.
Earlier this summer,
Baker City’s Main Event
For
Bruce
Rogers,
COVID-19 has presented
the challenge of keeping
two businesses profi table.
He and his daughter, Harvest
Rogers, own both Timber’s
Feedery in Elgin and Local
Harvest in La Grande.
The COVID-19 pan-
demic has presented unimag-
inable challenges in staffi ng
for both restaurants. With
the shortage of workers and
revolving mandates for pub-
lic dining, the owners have
adjusted to rolling with the
punches.
“This far into it and with
what we’ve seen, the rules
have changed and the rules
are diff erent and will change
again,” Bruce Rogers said.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Head manager Caitlyn Foley
plates up dishes in the
kitchen at Terminal Gravity
Brewery and Pub, Enterprise,
on Sept. 2, 2021. In a normal
summer, Terminal Gravity
Brewing would be busy all
days of the week serving
up local, handcrafted beers
to patrons and serving up
traditional brewpub fare, but
due to the labor shortage the
company had to cut hours
during its lunch rush and
close down on Tuesdays.
“We’re just chameleons at
this point. We just change
and go with the fl ow while
doing our best to remain a
profi table business.”
On top of the shortage
of workers, Timber’s Feed-
ery is facing a hurdle as Har-
vest Rogers takes maternity
leave. She said she typi-
cally works open to close
every day, and her absence
has forced Timber’s to limit
orders to takeout and out-
door dining for the time
being.
Closing indoor dining is
a technique that the own-
ers used on both restaurants
to save costs with a limited
staff during the early part of
the pandemic. They looked
at new ideas in order to stay
afl oat during unstable times.
“When you couldn’t have
inside dining, we switched
over to to-go and delivery
only,” Bruce Rogers said.
“We had to start up a delivery
service to remain competi-
tive at that point, but when
we opened back up again we
shut the delivery off .”
Both Timber’s Feedery
and Local Harvest changed
hours from seven days a
week to fi ve days a week,
and both close an hour ear-
lier than they used to. One
advantage to owning two
restaurants is the ability to
rotate staff from one location
to another if one restaurant
is short.
“We have several employ-
ees that are able to work at
both places, mostly our top
three people are very ver-
satile for us,” Bruce Rog-
ers said. “They fi ll in every-
where for us.”
Filling the gap
With pandemic-related
federal unemployment pro-
grams ending, Bruce Rog-
ers is expecting an increase
in prospective employees.
In addition, students return-
ing to attend Eastern Ore-
gon University in the fall
are promising for fi lling
positions.
To cope with employ-
ment challenges, the owners
have adjusted the scope of
employees compared to who
they would typically hire in
the past.
“The demographics have
changed,” Bruce Rogers
said. “We’ve started hiring
younger people and we’ve
started hiring older people.
When we fi nd people that are
qualifi ed, we try to snatch
them up.”
They hired, for example,
two 16-year-olds in the sum-
mer and had a family friend
who is a retired teacher come
work for the restaurants.
“We’ve leaned on friends
and family to help us
through this time as well,”
Rogers said.
Hermiston artist raps about latest paintings
By ERICK PETERSON
Editor/Senior Reporter
As an artist with a social
media following, Hermiston
resident Amy Fuentes is used
to attention. Now, though, a
new venue is housing her
work.
The Hermiston Public
Library chose Fuentes as
its artist of the month. Her
paintings will be on display
in the library throughout
September.
The 22-year-old artist said
she is fi guring out her future.
Currently a personal banker
at Washington Federal in
Hermiston, she has been liv-
ing in town since the seventh
grade. She graduated from
Hermiston High School, and
she took art classes for three
of her four years there.
But it was back in ele-
mentary school where she
“discovered” herself as an
Kathy Aney/Hermiston Herald
The work of Hermiston artist Amy Fuentes is on display at the
Hermiston Library during the month of September.
artist. Her uncle Gerardo
Zamora, an artist, introduced
art to her.
“I’d watch him draw,
and it intrigued me,” she
said. He showed both her
and her sister how to draw.
He is a pencil artist, but
also does pen and graffi -
ti-style work. She keeps in
close contact with him by
sending him her work. He
responds by telling her how
proud he is of her.
Meanwhile,
Fuentes’
sister also continued her
drawing but began work in
fashion, drawing dresses.
Fuentes draws subjects
that interest her. Music is
a topic to which she fre-
quently returns. She has
drawn JayCool, Kendrick
Lamar and Drake.
She likes the messages
of these rap artists. Jay-
Cool, for instance, speaks
to the meaning of life —
life is more than money and
fame. Little things matter.
Family matters.
When she started paint-
ing at age 19 she was merely
trying to decorate her room.
She viewed decor on social
media and she would use it
for inspiration. This was a
good way to save money.
Painting on canvas,
moving away from pencil,
she developed as an artist.
She continued painting, and
she shared her work on her
own social media. Then,
one day, the library called.
“I was really surprised,”
she said. “I was just post-
ing for myself and maybe
to get my work out there,
but you never know who is
watching.”
She is excited to have
fi ve paintings on display.
They are of the rappers she
likes, people who infl u-
enced her. One work, in par-
ticular, features Kendrick
Lamar and JayCool. Fuen-
tes painted this image from
a concept she saw online.
The image brings Lamar
and JayCool together. She
hopes that this collabora-
tion can happen in real life.
She also is doing non-
rap-related work. She is
working on a mural in Dai-
lyFix Nutrition, a Hermis-
ton store she frequents.
She said working on a
larger canvas, as she is now
with the mural, is daunting.
Still, a person needs to try
new things, she said. The
painting will be something
simple involving fl owers.