Despite dire economic forecasts in the national and global financial sectors, job creation is up and unemployment is down in Baker County, making the 2008 recession seem tame, so far, compared to some past recessions, according to the November Eastern Oregon Labor Trends report.

While job losses typically pile up during a recession, so far in 2008 the total number of people employed in nonfarm jobs is up slightly in Baker County compared to 2007, which was a record year for job expansion in the county, according to Jason Yohannan, regional economist at the Oregon Employment Division’s La Grande office, and author of Eastern Oregon Labor Trends report.

Hospital turned a profit for the first time in awhile

St. Elizabeth Health Services turned a profit during the previous fiscal year, one of the few times the hospital’s been in the black the past seven years.

The hospital’s annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30 shows net income of $126,350 on revenues of $26,538,017 and expenses totaling $26,411,667.

St. Elizabeth’s governing board president Bob Moon said there are at least two reasons for the hospital’s improved financial performance.

The sign should be in place near Exit 302 within a week to 10 days

A new billboard encourages travelers to get off the freeway and visit Baker City and its historic downtown, which the sign proclaims is “Far From Ordinary, Close To Home.”

“What all the excitement is about is the logo chosen by the Baker County Development Corporation featuring the branding we have used,” said Ann Mehaffy, executive director of Historic Baker City Inc., which has led downtown historic preservation efforts since 1981.

“We are trying to get people off the freeway. If we get them off the freeway to visit Historic Baker City, it will get them to explore the rest of Baker County,” Mehaffy said.

Susan Daggett, a Wallowa County native, will head reconfigured district

Wallowa County native Susan Daggett has been named as the Northeastern Oregon District Manager for the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The newly configured Northeastern Oregon District includes Baker, Union, Wallowa, Umatilla and Morrow counties.  According to a prepared release, the new district will allow the Red Cross to strengthen services, maximize community resources and increase administrative efficiency across the region.  

As district manager, Daggett will be responsible for raising funds for programs and services, pursuing new health and safety training opportunities, developing and implementing emergency preparedness plans, building partnerships with community leaders and organizations, and recruiting and retaining volunteers. 

Daggett will oversee staff in the district’s Pendleton, La Grande and Baker City offices, and ensure that counties without physical offices are well-served and represented.

“As a native Northeastern Oregonian, I appreciate the caring and compassionate attitude of the people of our region, and I am excited to combine these qualities with the Red Cross’ excellence in volunteerism, disaster response and health and safety education,” Daggett said. “Maintaining the vitality of rural Oregon’s communities is extremely important to me, as this is home for my family, friends and neighbors.”

Beef Northwest employees to vote Nov. 6, 7, 8

Baker County rancher Dean Defrees, left, along with Beef Northwest employees, Barry Kane, center, and Mike Phelps, met Tuesday with workers at Beef Northwest’s feedlot in Nyssa. (Baker City Herald/Ed Merriman)

“I think everybody will be happy to vote and get it over with,” said Javier Conchas, a Beef Northwest feedlot worker who attended the meeting where ranchers Dean Defrees of Baker City and Dan Howard of Idaho handed out packets containing election notices, sample ballots and information about why Country Natural Beef got involved in organizing secret ballot elections for feedlot workers to vote on whether or not they want to be represented by United Farm Workers.

Elections are scheduled at Beef Northwest feedlots in Nyssa, Boardman and in Quincy, Wash.

Baker County Commissioners decided Wednesday to take off one of Jason Yencopal’s hats.

Yencopal, the county’s facilities manager, has also been shepherding the county’s application to build a hydroelectric plant at Mason Dam through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s licensing program.

He’s performed some studies himself, filled out scads of paperwork, met deadlines and otherwise kept the proposed 3-megawatt project afloat as it wends through the regulatory process.

But now he can toss his facility manager’s hat away. He’s going to manage the Mason Dam project full-time.

What gave Baker County Commission Chair Fred Warner Jr. the idea to recommend Yencopal for the job, Warner told his two fellow commissioners Wednesday, was the price tag that four consultants were going to charge the county to do the work that Yencopal has been doing as a part of his job.

The estimates ranged from $750,000 to $1.5 million, Warner said.

Yencopal makes $46,488 annually.

A committee composed of Warner, Yencopal and Randy Joseph, chair of the county’s Power Generation Task Force, unanimously decided that the consultants’ higher-than-expected estimates “weren’t in the interest of Baker County,” Warner said.

Rancher Dan Forsea of Richland replaced Cal Ransom as president of the Baker County Livestock Association at the group’s annual business meeting on Saturday.

Forsea is a third-generation rancher running a cow-calf operation with Hereford-Angus cattle on 9,600 acres of private land between Richland and Halfway.

During the next two weeks the family will move about 3,000 cow-calf pairs from 15,000 acres of BLM allotments to the ranch for the winter.

The story of the Forsea ranch begins in 1909, when Dan’s 16-year-old grandfather, who had immigrated to the United States from Romania, met a beautiful young lady named Blanche who was working

as a ranch cook while he was working for the railroad at Huntington.

The young couple married, purchased a small acreage which Dan Forsea figures was around 40 acres, and founded the family ranch.

Dan Forsea’s father, Walt, now 84, and his brother, Bob, returned from serving in World War II to run the ranch.

In 1957, when Brownlee Dam was built, the family moved the ranch from the original site along the Snake River.

A Baker County man plans to build a 12-turbine wind farm near Huntington that would produce enough electricity to power about 800 homes.

Randy Joseph hopes to install the turbines on public land about two miles north of Huntington and one mile east of the old lime plant.

Joseph, who is chairman of the Baker County Planning Commission and Baker County Renewable Energy Committee, estimates the project will cost $5 million.

His goal is to start generating electricity from the turbines by the end of 2009.

The BLM, which manages the property, today started a 30-day period during which the public can comment. Copies of the BLM’s environmental study of that proposal are available for review at BLM’s Baker City office, 3285 11th St., or by calling 523-1256.

More information is available online at www.blm.gov/or/districts/ vale.

Joseph, who lives in Sumpter Valley, said the turbines he wants to install are considerably shorter — at 145 feet tall — than the ones built last year near North Powder.

Local ranchers heard warnings about potential legislative efforts to weaken or repeal Oregon’s 1909 water rights laws, reports of lawsuits challenging grazing rights, and discussed the politics of endangered species protection of wolves during the Baker County Livestock Associations annual meeting Saturday in Baker City.

Mike Colton, who was elected to replaced Cal Ransom as the Association’s president, said listening sessions on water rights issues orchestrated by westside legislators appear to him to be part of a plan to rewrite Oregon’s almost century-old water rights law.

“It’s huge. It’s beyond huge,” Colton said.

He said it’s important for ranchers to attend the sessions and submit written comments to the House Environment and Energy Committee to make sure the agricultural industry’s perspective is represented in the development of any revisions of the 1909 water rights laws.

Baker City Herald/John Collins

Kari Waldhaus, a business coach with The Entrepreneur’s Source in Baker City, said there’s always opportunities for people with the right combination of skills and ambition to take control of their future through business ownership.

“The unemployment rate has soared within the past several months. Yet there are opportunities that can be pursued in business ownership, particularly in the franchise sector,” Waldhaus said.

“I provide a no-cost coaching service to help people find the right business,” Waldhaus said. “We have over 400 franchise businesses in all shapes and sizes across 80 different industries — everything from fast food and restaurants to service businesses.”

“There is a franchise out there for anyone that will fit their objectives and goals,” Waldhaus said.