Grants have been awarded to promote or improve three Baker County crops — potatoes, mint and grass seed.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced five grant awards Friday totaling $116,000 in federal funds authorizing a new specialty crops program under the 2008 Farm Bill.

The ODA received 10 applications for funding from the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. Five applicants were given grants ranging from $14,000 to $30,000 for a total of $116,000 to help promote products or develop new processes and practices.

While most USDA funding has targeted program crops like wheat and corn for decades, Gary Roth, administrator of the ODA’s Agricultural Development and Marketing Division, said it’s a nice change that the 2008 Farm Bill included funds for some of Oregon’s numerous specialty crops.

Panelists at a PubTalk in Baker City excited about future of sustainable business

The era of litigation and lock-up-the-land mentality is giving way to a new sustainable business model that could fuel a 21st century economic boom comparable to the Industrial Revolution, panelists said at Thursday’s PubTalk in Baker City.

Speakers discussed changes in the environmental mindset and opportunities for businesses, farmers and ranchers, and would-be entrepreneurs to hitch a ride on the emerging sustainable business revolution.

“We’re no longer blinded by greenies; we have a profit model and know how to make it work,” said Jake Jacobs, Baker County economic developer.

“Sustainability is a global market wave potentially larger than the Industrial Revolution,” Jacobs said. Given the abundant natural resources and sustainable attitude reflected in Baker City’s commitment to preserving its historic downtown, Jacobs said cashing in on the sustainable business model “is something we ought to be able to do in Baker City.”

While the color green used to represent a hands-off, preservationist mentality, Jacobs said that with the new focus on sustainability, “green is the color of money.”

Marketing specialist said wheat prices probably will continue to decline

Prospects for wheat prices to rebound above the current $5.90 per bushel Portland delivered price don’t look good, given plunging stock markets and relatively good weather around the world.

Dan Steiner, a grain marketing specialist for both Pendleton Grain Growers and Morrow County Grain Growers, delivered that message Wednesday as areas growers were signing up to attend today’s video wheat marketing meetings being broadcast simultaneously at Oregon State University Extension offices across the state, including in Baker City.

In mid-August Steiner was advising growers to sell at least some of their wheat crop at the prices offered then — $8.40 a bushel for soft white wheat delivered to Portland, or the $9.25 September futures price.

At that time, Steiner reminded growers that, compared to historical wheat prices in the $3 to $5 range, $8.40 to $9.25 was a good price that would provide most growers with a profit, even after paying soaring costs for fuel, fertilizers and pesticides.

The remodeled Wells Fargo Bank branch at Safeway includes traditional stand-up teller windows. (Baker City Herald/Ed Merriman)

“We did the entire tear out and remodel in seven days over two weekends, working 24 hours a day,” said Jim Kauth, project manager for Sid Johnson Construction of Baker City, the general contractor on the Wells Fargo remodel.

“Other than the cabinets built by a Boise cabinet maker that builds cabinets for a lot of Wells Fargo projects, everything else came from town,” Kauth said, including wood, drywall, plumbing, electrical and lighting.

During a final walkthrough of the project on Tuesday, Kauth, along with branch manager Jamie Funke and Wells Fargo project manager Laurie DuRocher of Boise decided to add a water cooler and chose the perfect spot to hang a painting depicting the company’s horse-drawn stagecoach.

Funke said one additional teller window was added during the remodel, as well as a separate manager’s office that provides a private location for customers to discuss loans or open accounts.

Baker City businesses are feeling the pain of an economic downturn caused in part by the nationwide sub-prime lending mess, regulatory lapses and roller-coaster property valuations.

Many local business owners opposed the $700 billion government bailout approved by Congress last week, but they’re hoping it will keep the national economy from sinking further into recession, dragging their businesses along for the ride.  

“Our business definitely rides with the ups and downs of the economy. We don’t sell milk and eggs,” said Keith Shollenberger, who owns Marilyn’s Music Plus in Baker City with his wife, Marilyn.

With high fuel prices taking a big bite out of consumer’s pockets and driving up the cost of food and other necessities, Keith Shollenberger and other Baker City merchants said sales have dropped off for non-essentials.

At Marilyn’s Music Plus, that translates into sagging sales of guitars, drums, keyboards and other instruments, Shollenberger said.

 At the Open Door Christian Store and The Christmas Corner, owners Ray and Tamara Uriarte said sales started dropping off in August and remain sluggish.

For all the talk on Capitol Hill about how the $700 billion bailout was needed to keep credit flowing to Main Street businesses, Tom Moran, president of Community Bank, said the bill signed into law by President Bush last week primarily benefits Wall Steet.

“As you read through it, it becomes fairly evident that it’s geared more for assisting in the recovery of the Wall Street banks, and to a much lesser degree the Main Street banks,” Moran said. “We’re still at a very early stage of this whole process, so whether this plan will assist or hinder, is difficult to tell.”

In its final form, the bailout bill’s stated purpose is “to restore liquidity and stability to the financial system of the United States and to protect home values, college funds, retirement accounts and life savings, and to preserve homeownership, promote jobs and economic growth.”

Although the law’s provision increasing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s protection of individual accounts from $100,000 to $250,000 is a good thing for banks of all sizes, Moran said that change is listed as temporary, and he’d like to see it made permanent.

Rhode Island man wants to turn the county’s infestation into a gourmet feast

Baker County’s worst grasshopper infestation in 22 years is drawing national attention, including a request from the owner of a Rhode Island purveyor of edible insects who was featured in Discovery magazine and an upcoming television show as “The Bug Eating Man.”

“I heard about your situation out there through a piece on public broadcasting. I do run an edible insect business, and I have an interest in purchasing some grasshoppers,” said Dave Glacer, in a letter to the city of Haines seeking contacts for buying grasshoppers.

“I also read about plans for funding a large-scale response with insecticides. Although that’s the usual response to this kind of situation, there is a better method out there: harvesting,” Glacer said.

Store at Chamber of Commerce office offers variety of local hand-made items

Debi Bainter checks one of her favorite scented candles made by Primitives by Pam. Bainter is the Chamber executive director. The store also has books, hats and shirts that depict Baker County in words and pictures. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

The store also directs visitors to local shops.

Chamber Manager Debi Bainter said the Chamber Store, at 490 Campbell St. near Interstate 84, is a highly visible place for merchants, artisans and home-based businesses to display and sell a sampling of their merchandise.

“The more stuff people see here, the more they travel down Main Street to shop,” Bainter said. “When people get off the Interstate and stop at the chamber, my hope is that they will see something that piques their interest, so we can direct them to a business in town where they can find more of it.”

Mike Gaudern of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association talked with Baker County woodland owners last week. (Baker City Herald/Ed Merriman)

Mike Gaudern, executive director of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, delivered that message to members of the Baker County Private Woodlands Association during a swing through Eastern Oregon last week.

“Oregon has been picked as one of three pilot project states in the nation” where cap and trade carbon credit trading will be made available to woodland owners through the Chicago Climate Exchange program, which was formed in 2002 and began trading carbon credits in 2003.

“I don’t care if you believe what Al Gore and others are saying about carbon emissions causing global warming or not. My interest is making you money,” Gaudern said. “We grow trees that suck carbon out of the air, and people want to pay us money for it — a lot of money.”

The business Bob and Kay Petrik of Baker City started in Cambodia  is thriving, and helping dozens of women

Khmer Krafts, a Cambodian business founded by Bob and Kay Petrik to offer employment for women, has signed a five-year contract to provide purses for Great American Fundraising, which works with 25,000 schools across the country. (Baker City Herald/Kathy Orr)

Khmer Krafts was established in 2005 by Bob and Kay Petrik of Baker City to provide jobs to women who graduate from Cambodia’s Battambang Trade School.

The company tagline is “Purses with a Purpose — Fashion that Makes a Difference.”

Cambodia is still recovering from The Killing Fields, the period from 1975-1979 when the communist guerilla group Khmer Rouge swept through the country and forced city dwellers into labor camps. More than three million Cambodians were killed.

The Petriks first visited the Asian country in 2004 with Musicianaries International, and that’s when they met the Rev. Setan Lee, founder of Kampuchea for Christ (KFC) and a survivor of The Killing Fields.

Lee’s sister-in-law, Chhevan Yos, manages Khmer Krafts and designs the purses, wallets and book covers.

At first, the business employed 20 women, who in 2006 sewed 2,800 purses.