JULY 2015
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
KLAMATH BASIN
Business
1
What’s next for Citizens for Safe Schools? See details — Page 3
Tourism numbers in our region — Page 6
Highpowered speakers coming to town... What’s the message? — Page 2
Oregon business start-ups hit 40-year low — Page 4
Vacations can teach you about investing —Page 7
A publication of the Herald & News
Chamber: www.klamath.org
JULY 2015
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
KLAMATH BASIN
Business
1
What’s next for Citizens for Safe Schools? See details — Page 3
Tourism numbers in our region — Page 6
Highpowered speakers coming to town... What’s the message? — Page 2
Oregon business start-ups hit 40-year low — Page 4
Vacations can teach you about investing —Page 7
A publication of the Herald & News
Chamber: www.klamath.org
2
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Innovation summit set for Sept 16-18 The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce will host the inaugural Rural Business and Innovation Summit Sept. 16-18 at Klamath Community College. Startups, entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders, accelerators and investors will come together to exchange ideas, share experiences and discover best practices that provide a competitive edge and lead to thriving business in rural areas. The summit will inspire entrepreneurs to accelerate innovation, cultivate a successful business ecosystem within their communities and take advantage of opportunities for growth. “We hope to attract entrepreneurs from rural areas around the state and the northern parts of California,” said Charles “Chip” Massie, the chamber’s executive eirector. “Doing business in rural communities requires innovation to stay competitive, yet they are often faced with unique challenges. This event will help business leaders share experiences, best practices, and candid advice.” Massie said the speakers and experts have been
identified to help inspire, motivate and educate. Speakers include: n Michael Shuman, author of “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity”; n Steven Kauffman, coauthor of “The Garbageman’s Guide to Life: How to Get Out Massie of the Dumps”; n Ainoura Oussenbec, workforce analyst with Oregon Employment Department; n Damon Runberg, central Oregon regional economist with the Oregon Employment Department; n Amy Pearl, founder and executive eirector of HATCH Innovation. “We are pleased with the panel of experts we’re bringing together for this event,” said Heather Tramp, the chamber’s marketing and program
coordinator. “It’s going to be a full three days of practical, relevant and useful information for investors, business owners, economic development professionals, or anyone with an interest in business in the rural setting,” Tramp said. Tickets for the summit can be purchased through the chamber’s website at www.klamath. org or by calling 541-884-5193. Tickets are $99 for Chamber members, $149 for non-Chamber members. The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce is extending the special chamber member pricing for those who are members of any chamber. For more information on the summit, contact the chamber at 541-884-5193. The chamber has served Klamath County since 1905. It is a member-based association made up of businesses and individuals who work together to advance the civic, economic, industrial, professional, and cultural life of Klamath County and the City of Klamath Falls, through advocacy and broad communication connections.
About the Speakers: Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics. He is one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became Shuman the “JOBS Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012. Shuman is currently Director of Community Portals for Mission Markets and a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and Post-Carbon Institute. He’s also a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He is also an adjunct instructor in community economic development for Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Shuman has authored or coauthored eight books. His most recent book, published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book is “How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition”.
Steven Kaufman Some guys know technology. Some guys know macroeconomics. And some guys know trash. Steven Kaufman knows all three. Known among friends as a brainiac Kaufman with a love of learning, Steven graduated with honors from Stanford University. He spent the first 20 years of his career in the U.S., Europe and Asia, specializing in operations, logistics management and marketing for Fortune 500 companies like Wang and Intel In 2000, Kaufman tapped into his entrepreneurial spirit and cofounded Routeware, Inc., a company specializing in on-board computing and analytic software for garbage trucks. Kaufman’s journey led to an insatiable curiosity about the mind and how it works — a passion he brings to “The Garbageman’s Guide” with his unique brand of clarity, energy and optimism.
Amy Pearl Founder and executive director, Springboard Innovation and ChangeXchange NW, Amy Pearl’s extensive experience in the education, corporate, and social sectors has Pearl enabled her to create a vision of how we can address global challenges at the local level. She believes in the capacity of ordinary people, and has developed programs that foster citizen-led solutions, including youth, in communities worldwide. She works at the system level, focusing on building an enabling ecosystem for social and locally owned enterprises to flourish, growing healthy local communities. She has recently launched two major models for community development as a result: ChangeXchange NW, and Hatch: A Community Innovation Lab.
Damon Runberg the Central Oregon regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department. In this position he monitors labor, employment, and workforce trends for the region, which includes Runberg Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson, Klamath, and Lake counties. “I have a passion for public service and working towards tailored solutions for local issues,” he said. Over the past several years he has worked as a policy analyst for the Oregon Employment Department, researcher for Oregon State University, outreach/communications consultant with the Oregon Invasive Species Council, and outreach assistant for the U.S. Geological Survey. “These experiences have provided me skills in outreach and communications, econometric/ statistical analysis, trend analysis, and research.”
See SPEAKERS Page 3
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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What’s next for agency? With co-founder retiring, local nonprofit looks to the future
After 16 years as the executive director at Citizens For Safe Schools (CFSS) co-founder Debbie Vought will be retiring from the agency. This is just one of the changes that the local mentoring agency is working on as it looks to the future. “Despite such a significant change, the organization is prepared and we are thankful to Debbie’s vision and commitment for propelling us to our present position in the industry,” states Kim Abel, program manager of CFSS’s Kids In the Middle (KIM) program. CFSS is not averse to change. Currently, three of the five employees are in their first year with the organization. This is not a concern for Abel, as she reassures, “When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved and the defining difference between success and failure is a great team — and we have that here.” A New Leaf CFSS will be hosting, planning and attending a number of events throughout the summer, including the Guns vs Axes charity softball game on July 26. Tickets purchased for the softball game will also grant admission to the Gem’s game afterward. CFSS will receive a portion of the profits from tickets sold prior to game day. CFSS will have a booth at the remaining Third Thursday’s, promoting its programs empowering youth, as well as its upcoming events. Abel said, “Community awareness is essential” and is just one reason CFSS’s participates in Third Thursday. Abel continues, “Our greatest weapon against some of the issues our youth face today is unity, and by sharing information we are creating unity and together we are so much smarter and stronger than if we were standing alone.”
Update
H&N file photo
Director Debbie Vought is leaving the agency but continuning her community involvement. Fundraisers In recent years, CFSS has held an annual fundraising banquet; but this year it is moving in a new direction. CFSS will be hosting its inaugural Ed Caleb Memorial Golf Tournament on August 29, which will honor CFSS co-founder and Klamath’s former district attorney. The funds raised will continue to support CFSS’s mentoring programs, positive youth development and character counts initiatives. The golf tournament begins at 1 p.m. at Harbor Links Golf Course. The days’ activities will include 18 holes with a cart followed by hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar on the patio at Biagio’s Bar and Grille. In addition to the longest drive and closest to the pin prizes, CFSS will be raffling off a number of items on the day of the tournament. The first prize raffle ticket will win an opportunity to take a shot for $1 million Raffle tickets will be available for purchase all summer at the CFSS office as well as Third Thursday. There will be a silent auction at the awards
SPEAKERS, from Page 2 Ainoura Oussenbec Ainoura Oussenbec workforce analyst and economist with the Oregon Employment Department Economic Research Division. She will provide a forecast of Klamath’s economy, with an overview of the current trends. Oussenbec has an equivalent of Master’s Degree in Economics from Moscow State University and the University of Stockholm in Sweden. She has worked in economics for
more than 20 years. In addition, Oussenbec worked as a human resources director in a family business in Colorado. Since 2001, she has been employed as a Oussenbec workforce analyst for the Oregon Employment Department in Medford, serving Jackson, Josephine, Klamath and Lake counties.
ceremony where golfers can bid on various items donated by community businesses. Spectator packages are available for those who do not play golf. The golf tournament is limited to 144 players and spots are filling up as the tournament quickly approaches. A number of “cheats” (feet of string and mulligans) will be available making this a perfect event for every level of golfer. Abel encourages everyone to come out and share in the day’s festivities and adds, “We all have a moral obligation to ‘send the elevator back down’ a phrase that serves as a constant reminder to provide young people with the same sort of opportunities and role modeling that I have been blessed to have.” To register for the golf tournament, go to www.cfsscalebgolf.com or mail registration forms to PO Box 243 Klamath Falls, OR 97601. Contact Kim Abel with any questions at kabel@citizensforsafeschools.org or call 541-8823198.
Contact us: Klamath County Chamber of Commerce 205 Riverside Drive, Suite A Klamath Falls, OR 97603 Office: 541-884-5193 Fax: 541-884-5195 Charles “Chip” Massie: Executive Director cmassie@klamath.org
Heather Tramp: Marketing and Program Coordinator Email: heathert@klamath.org www.klamath.org www.facebook.com/Klamath Chamber twitter.com/AccessKlamath
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Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Basin Business
Business briefs Oregon Tech gets funding for revamped engineering center Plans by Oregon Tech to modernize and expand the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Technology are full steam ahead after the Oregon Legislature approved funding as part of a $700 million budget for the 2015-17 biennium, an approximate 28 percent increase in the 2013-15 budget. The state has allocated more than $10 million in capital improvement funds for Oregon Tech, which will help pay for construction of a laboratory and a classroom building adjacent to Cornett Hall at the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Technology, according to Di Saunders, associate vice president of communication and public relations. Cornett Hall is slated for a renovation in three phases, the first of which would include construction of a two-level building directly adjacent to Cornett Hall. Oregon Tech will also receive $913,200 in sports lottery funding to support undergraduate and graduate student scholarships and Title IX women’s sports programs, according to a news release.
Rural OHSU program names a new dean The concept of a rural Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) campus located in Klamath Falls is moving closer to a reality, with the selection of a local professional to serve as dean. OHSU has appointed Joyce Hollander-Rodriguez as regional associate dean of rural health for the OHSU’s Klamath Falls-based rural campus, slated to be the “hub” for rural medicine. The campus is one of two pilot sites in Oregon to promote the collaborative learning model, which also promotes a better of understanding of rural health needs and provides a network for students within interprofessional medical fields, according to Hollander-Rodriguez. “Their campus is their whole
community,” HollanderRodriguez said on Monday. Coos Bay will also serve as a pilot site for the campus model in September. “I’m excited to have it come to fruition,” she Rodriguez said of the rural campus. “I think this can only be good for Klamath Falls, and for rural Oregon.” Hollander-Rodriguez is an assistant professor of family medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine, and residency program director for the OHSU Cascades East Family Medicine Residency Program in Klamath Falls. She earned her medical degree in 2000 and completed her residency in Klamath Falls.
Running Y to launch new marketing plan Aiming to distinguish itself as a destination resort, the Running Y Ranch will unveil a new logo next month, beefing up its sales and marketing teams to modernize its image. Running Y General Manager George Rogers said the resort isn’t ready to reveal details about the changes just yet. He emphasizes the hotel will have a more modernized brand, “focusing on the great experience Klamath Falls has to offer.” “We will be calling Haley ourselves Running Y Ranch and Resort,” Rogers said. “It’s just more clarifying what we are.” In order to make the transition to its new brand, the hotel recently hired Victoria Haley as director of sales and marketing. Haley is a familiar face as the former sales and marketing director for Klamath Falls Lodging Group, which covers Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Vagabond Inn, America’s Best Inn & Suites, Oregon 8 Motel and Microtel Inn & Suites. Haley, 23, plans to bring both an enhanced digital social media emphasis to the resort.
Oregon business startups at a 40-year low, report says By Greg Stiles Medford Mail Tribune
Oregon is known for innovative startups and entrepreneurs with an eye on opportunity. So it came as an unsettling surprise this spring when the state’s Economic Analysis Office reported business startups were at a 40-year low. “Indicators of entrepreneurship and business formation all show that the recessionary declines are over, but that not much progress has been made in terms of regaining lost ground,” wrote Josh Lehner, a senior economist at the Economic Analysis Office. In the early 1990s, new companies accounted for 12 percent of all Oregon businesses, but the most recent reading pegged the number at 8 percent. Those figures coincide with national trends as well. Economic developers, small business coaches and investors possess varying opinions as to why business launches have declined. Jessica Gomez, CEO of Southern Oregon Micro Devices and a recent appointee to the Business Oregon Commission, suggests a gradually expanding economy has kept people working, but within a couple of years the next generation of spinoff startups will begin. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Gomez said. “There’s a lot less urgency for people to go out and do their own thing. Innovation happens a lot of times when there are no other options.” People who aren’t forced to go off on their own are biding their time, saving money and preparing to take a leap down the road. “There’s an overlap where you have an economy getting better, people getting jobs and companies are making money,” Gomez said. “Then you reach a turning point when people begin leaving because they have a new idea or they are done with their current job. I don’t think we’ve reached that point where there is a huge boom yet, when the spinoffs begin.”
John Lamy, a member of Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc.’s Technical Advisory Group, is waiting for those entrepreneurs to make their move. The retired Hewlett-Packard research and development manager thinks potential start-ups don’t make their first bet. After looking at their cards, they fold before investing too much in a losing hand. “People are realizing that it requires more of a business plan than it used to,” Lamy said. “Maybe they realize it’s not going to work. Perhaps they would’ve done it in the past and failed four or five years later. They would’ve started as a business and become a statistic, but maybe they figured it out in advance.” Nonetheless, Lamy admitted he was mystified by the dearth of startups. He sits on a SOREDI panel that works with entrepreneurs. “We’ve had to scramble to find these entrepreneurs,” Lamy said. “We keep saying to ourselves they must be out there, but maybe they’re not.” Bill Thorndike, president of Medford Fabrication, counts himself among the perplexed in explaining the tepid growth of startups. “People must be finding the types of employment that are meeting their expectations,” said Thorndike, a longtime Medford industrialist whose involvement in state and regional economic boards has put him face-to-face with entrepreneurs and investors. “They don’t feel the need to start their own company when they can go to work for someone else.” At the same time, Thorndike thinks tech start-ups in rural areas may be taking a back seat to other sectors. “It certainly hasn’t been stopping people from starting vineyards, wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries,” Thorndike said. “Maybe we’re simply in a different cycle, at least in manufacturing.” Reprinted, in part, from the Medford Mail Tribune.
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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Labor statistic has implications for economy Albany Democrat Herald A troubling number lurks just underneath the state of Oregon’s most recent report about employment numbers: The state’s labor force participation rate has tumbled to 60.3 percent, the lowest point since analysts started tracking the number nearly four decades ago. The number means that nearly 40 percent of Oregon adults are neither working nor looking for jobs. Some of the decline is natural, a reflection of demographic trends, as baby boomers retire and as students wait longer to enter the job market. But some of it suggests that at least some workers are discouraged about their prospects in the job market and have yet to resume their job searches. The statistic has a number of implications, but here are two quick takeaways: First: It’s not going to get any easier any time soon for employers who already are lamenting how hard it is to find qualified workers for certain jobs. It will be interesting to see if this results in increased wages as employers work to increase the appeal of those jobs. (It also will be interest-
Commentary
ing to see how this affects efforts to increase the minimum wage in Oregon. It’s possible that a minimum-wage increase will be on the ballot in 2016, but recent polling suggests that the measure isn’t necessarily the slam dunk you might have thought.) Second: We need to get smarter about crafting nimble and flexible job-training programs to match workers with jobs — not just jobs that exist today, but the jobs of tomorrow as well. We’ve made some progress in creating those programs (our community colleges are leading the way in this regard), but plenty of work remains on this front. Timber harvest numbers Another economic number made news this week: The Oregon Department of Forestry released its annual report about the state’s timber harvest. Some of the news was good: In 2014, for the second straight year, more than 4 billion feet of timber was harvested on Oregon’s forests. (The number was 4.13 billion board feet.) And the number is expected to remain about 4 billion feet in
2015 as well. The timber harvest number is obviously much better than it was during the depths of the recession. But, again, troubling signs lurk just underneath surface. The 2014 timber harvest was down just a bit, about 2 percent, from the 2013 harvest. And some factors, such as lower-than-expected starts on new houses, are helping to drag down the harvest totals. The Forestry Department’s report broke down the 2014 harvest by land ownership. Lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management were the only ones to post an increase in harvests in 2014, and that’s primarily because of salvage sales on areas that were hit with wildfire. Every other landowner — the Forest Service, the state of Oregon, private entities — reported a decline in the harvest. Obviously, market conditions play a big role in shaping the amount of timber harvested in Oregon. But there’s still plenty of timber waiting to be cut, especially on public lands that haven’t received the type of maintenance work they require.
Drought dings winter wheat quality
El Nino weather pattern is blamed for dry conditions have sparked a recent run up in wheat prices.
By the Associated Press Intense drought conditions have shrunk the kernels and disrupted the proteins of winter wheat crops in Oregon, Montana, Washington and Idaho, the region that produces a fifth of the U.S. harvest. The National Agricultural Statistics Service classified a large percentage of the region’s winter wheat as below-average quality this month. Farmers in the Northwest are ner-
vous that the uncharacteristically low quality of their product could slash the crop’s already declining prices. Scattered rains helped keep winter wheat from the same fate in six Midwestern states that cultivate half of the nation’s winter wheat. The true value of the crop will be determined in the coming weeks as growers finish the harvest and receive estimates from grain elevators.
AP photo
Organizing workshop coming to Tater Patch Professional organizer Carolyn Woods of Totally Tidy Household Organizing will host a workshop on organizing from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7 at Tater Patch Quilts in Merrill, according to a news release. Woods will teach participants how to organize everything, anywhere: in garages, basements, closets, offices and more. She will help attendees reframe their attitude about their stuff and teach them the basic process of how to organize. Techniques will be demonstrated through examples of spaces she has organized for clients.
After the workshop, participants can use their new skills to organize their own living space or to help someone else. Author of “Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter,” Woods will be available for book signings following the lecture. Cost for the workshop is $10 per person. Pre-registration is recommended. For more information, call Robin King or Diane McKoen with Tater Patch Quilts at 541-798-5955 or visit taterpatchquilts.com. Tater Patch Quilts is at 109 E. Front St. in Merrill.
Mark Fay, M.D. Scott Stevens, M.D. Physician/ Surgeon of the Eye Physician/ Surgeon of the Eye
Edwin Tuhy, O.D. Optometrist
Jennifer Sparks, O.D. Optometrist
New Patients Welcome
2640 Biehn St. • 541.884.3148 • www.klamatheyecenter.com
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Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Basin Business
Oregon’s jobless rate rises in June Job growth continues Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, a slight increase from May’s rate of 5.3 percent. The increase was not a surprise because one characteristic of Oregon’s labor market following the Great Recession has been small increases in the unemployment rate during the summer months. Unemployment typically rises each summer as movers to Oregon, recent graduates, and students on summer break look for jobs. However, the influx of unemployed during each of the past four summers was larger than expected, which led to temporary increases in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. This summer could be showing a similar pattern. Despite the slight increase in June, the unem-
ployment rate remained significantly lower than the June 2014 rate of 7.0 percent. Oregon’s unemployment rate in June remained close to the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent. Oregon’s labor force participation rate was 60.3 percent in June, the lowest participation rate since comparable records began in 1976. Put another way, three out of every five Oregonians, 16 years and over, are working or looking for work. Labor force participation has been falling as a larger share of the population reaches retirement age and leaves the labor force. Oregon’s trend is similar to the nation’s. The national labor force participation rate was 62.6 percent in June, the lowest it has been since 1977. Oregon’s payroll employment added a seasonally adjusted total of 2,300 jobs in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retail
trade added 3,100 jobs, bouncing back from a loss of 1,400 jobs in May. The government sector added 1,800 jobs, most of which were in local government. Other industry sectors registered smaller job gains or losses, resulting in the total gain of 2,300 jobs. Taking a longer-term view, payroll employment grew by 52,100 jobs since June 2014. The resulting over-the-year job growth rate was 3.0 percent in Oregon, much faster than the national job growth rate of 2.1 percent. Oregon’s over-the-year job growth has consistently outpaced the nation since 2013. Next Report: The Oregon Employment Department plans to release the June county and metropolitan area unemployment rates on Tuesday, July 21, and the statewide unemployment rate and employment survey data for July on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Oregon’s playground:
Tourism along the east slope of the Cascades By DAMON RUNBERG Oregon Department of Labor
Oregon is well known as a tourism destination. Our natural beauty, craft food and beverages, recreational opportunities, cultural events, and ecological diversity draw visitors from all over the world. In 2014, tourists pumped $10.3 billion into Oregon’s economy through direct spending in things such as transportation, food and drink, accommodations, recreation, and retail. Overall, Oregon’s tourism economy accounts for nearly 5 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. But, Oregon is a big state, what about us on the east slope of the Oregon Cascades? We are known as an outdoor recreation paradise. It’s easier to list the outdoor activities we don’t offer on this side of the mountains as our recreational opportunities are varied and diverse. The central swath of Oregon along the east slope of the Cascades that stretches from Washington down to California was historically dependent on farming, ranching, and timber. The timber industry began its precipitous decline during the 1980s recession and continued into the 1990s, following new restrictions in federal forests. As the number of loggers out in the woods declined, the number recreating in the outdoors climbed. Major outdoor attractions to our region were obscure sports back in the early 1980s. Mountain biking and wind surfing are classic examples. Phil’s Trail System, Bend’s famous mountain bike trails, didn’t exist until the mid-1980s. However,
the sport didn’t become popular until even more recently. Windsurfing began to take off in the Gorge around the same time that mountain biking took off in Bend. The inaugural Columbia Gorge Pro-Am sailboard race in 1984 put Hood River and the Gorge on the map as a wind sport mecca. Today’s tourism economy hardly resembles the industry that it was in the 1980s or even as recently as in the 1990s. The variety of world-class recreation destinations along the east slope of the Oregon Cascades now draws millions of visitors to the region. By itself, Crater Lake, Klamath County’s largest tourism attraction and Oregon’s only national park, accounted for about 620,000 visits in 2014. New marketing campaigns by Travel Oregon and the movie “Wild” are expected to create an additional surge in visitors to the region. Deschutes County is the epicenter for tourism in the region. Besides being the most populous county east of the Cascades, it also boasts the largest variety of activities and resorts. In fact,
six of Oregon’s nine destination resorts are located in Deschutes County. Tourists contributed more than $621 million to the local economy through direct spending such as lodging, recreation, food, and transportation. Travel spending in Deschutes County dwarfs the spending of the region’s other nine counties. Up in Hood River and Wasco counties, travelers spent around $87 and $102 million, respectively, in 2014. Down south travel spending was a bit higher with visitors in Klamath County spending nearly $142 million. Combined together, those who visited the East Cascades of Oregon spent $1.07 billion dollars in direct travel spending in 2014. That represents more than 10 percent of all direct travel spending across the state, while the region only accounts for about 8.5 percent of the state’s population. Direct travel spending along the east slope of the Cascades supports jobs — lots of jobs. In 2014, Dean Runyan Associates estimated that there were over 12,500 tourism based jobs in the 10-county region. Deschutes accounted for about half of those jobs. The east slope of the Cascades, Oregon’s playground, is heavily reliant on tourism. Although these local economies contribute more than tourism, they are an essential component to the region’s development. Tourism helped to fill the void left by logging and milling. Tourism is helping to pull many of the counties out of the recession. Tourism exposes people to the region, leading to population growth and expansion of the local labor force. Tourism is here to stay.
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Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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Chamber membership What can vacations teach Member Anniversary Accounting Associates July Back to Health Chiropractic July 2008 Basin Fertilizer & Chemical July Century 21 Showcase Realtors July Cimarron Motel Inn July Cross Timbers Baptist Church July 2011 Days Inn July Edward Jones - Meredith Hoffman July 2013 Ganong, Frank Oleson - Appraiser July Gold Dust Potato Processors July 2002 Golden Eagle Motel July Golden West Motel July Holliday Jewelry July 1997 Klamath Basin Senior Center July Klamath County Association of REALTORS July Klamath Crisis Center July Klamath Falls Elks Lodge # 1247 July Klamath Family Head Start July 1997 Klamath Insurance Center, Inc. July 2014 Lorentz Bruun Co., Inc. July Mac and Cheese Steaks July 2013 McDonald’s of Klamath Falls/ JAMKELLY INC July Midland Empire Insurance July Mountain View Physical & Hand Therapy July 1997 O’Hair Funeral Chapel July Oil Can Henry’s July OSU Research & Extension Center July Party Time Enterprises, Inc July 2006 Real Solutions July 2014 Rip City Riders July 2014 Rob Patridge - District Attorney July 2013 Rocky Point Resort-Odd Fellows July Sheldon’s Machine Shop July Steve Kandra Farms July Superior Fence LLC July Tashi Soap Company July 2013 Worksource OR Emp Dev Dept July Yainax Ranch July
you about investing?
Summer is here — which means it’s officially vacation season. You may be looking forward to “getting away from it all,” but, as your know, vacations actually require a fair amount of planning. And it might surprise you to learn that some of the efforts required for successful vacations can impart some valuable lessons in other areas of your life — such as investing. Here are some vacation-related moves that you may want to transfer to the investment and financial arenas: n Secure your home. If you’re going on vacation for a week or so, you may need to take some steps to safeguard your home: stopping your mail and newspaper, putting on a timer to turn on lights, alerting your neighbors that you’ll be out of town, and so on. But while it’s important to secure your home today, you will also want to help ensure it will be there for your family in the future, should anything happen to you. That’s why you’ll want to maintain adequate life and disability insurance. n Know your route. If you are driving to your vacation destination, you will want to plan your route beforehand, so that you can avoid timeconsuming delays and detours. And to reach your financial goals, such as a comfortable retirement, you will also want to chart your course — by creating an investment strategy that is designed to help you work towards those goals based on your specific risk tolerance, investment preferences and time horizon. n Keep enough gas in the tank. As you set out on a road trip, you need a full tank of gas in your car, and you’ll have to keep refueling along the way. And to “go the distance” in pursuing your financial goals, you will need to have sufficient “fuel” in the form of investments with reasonable growth potential. Without a reasonable amount of growth-oriented vehicles in your portfolio, you could loose ground to inflation and potentially fall short of your objectives — so, over time,
you may need to “refuel” by reviewing your portfolio and rebalancing if necessary. n Protect yourself from getting burned. If your vacation plans include a stay at the beach, you’ll need to protect yourself and your family from the hot sun — so make sure you’re all using sunscreen. When you invest, you can also get “burned” if you are not careful — especially if you are inclined to chase after “hot” investments. By the time you hear about these so-called sizzlers, they may already be cooling off, and, even more importantly, they just might not be appropriate for your goals and risk tolerance. Instead of becoming a “heat-seeking” investor, focus your efforts on building a diversified array of quality investments appropriate for your needs. If you only own one type of financial asset, and a downturn hits that asset class, your portfolio could take a big hit. But by diversifying your holdings, you can help reduce the effects of volatility. Keep in mind, though, that diversification, by itself, can’t guarantee profits or protect against loss. As we’ve seen, some of the same principles that apply to creating a vacation may also be applicable to your investing habits. So, put these principles to work to enjoy a pleasant vacation — and a potentially rewarding investment experience. Submitted by: Meredith Hoffman Financial Advisor, Edward Jones 1307 S Alameda Avenue, Suite B Klamath Falls, OR 97603-3601 Phone: 541-273-2483 Fax: 877-452-1831
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Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Paid Advertisement
July 2015 Newsletter for Oregon State Senator Doug Whitsett, District 28 Senator Doug Whitsett
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-311 Salem, OR 97301 Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728
R-Klamath Falls - District 28 I represent the citizens of Senate District 28, which includes Klamath, Lake and Crook, as well as parts of Jackson and Deschutes Counties. As Senator of one of the largest Senate districts in the state, it is extremely important that my constituents remain in contact with me about the issues and concerns that affect their lives. You and I must work together to protect the common interests of rural Oregonians.
Newsletters: www.leg.state.or.us/whitsett
I encourage you to contact my office by either email or telephone so that I can know how to best serve you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best Regards, Senator Doug Whitsett
Email Senator Doug Whitsett: sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us
END-OF-SESSION REVIEW: WORKING HARD FOR RURAL OREGON Oregon’s recently adjourned 2015 Legislative Assembly was easily the most partisan, anti-business, anti-public safety, anti-family values session in my legislative experience. The Democrat party won virtual super-majorities in both chambers during the November election. Republicans and moderate Democrats did not have sufficient votes to stop them from methodically running their progressive liberal agendas. Many very bad bills were enacted into law on party-line majority votes. Other bad bills, that did not pass, will likely return in different forms for the upcoming February 2016 session. In the face of that political disadvantage, Rep. Whitsett and I were able to work with the majority party leadership to help craft and pass a series of successes for rural Oregon. Many of these common-sense bills were the product of much behind-the-scenes work both through the legislative interim and during the session. They were all enacted on broad bipartisan margins in both legislative chambers. Governor Brown has already signed many of the bills into Oregon law. As members of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, we helped to secure more than $18 million in bonding for building projects at Oregon Tech and Klamath Community College (KCC). We worked with our Republican caucuses to help pass budgets that provide by far the largest amount of funding in Oregon history for K-12 schools, as well as nearly 30 percent funding increases for Oregon universities and community colleges, including Oregon Tech and KCC. We introduced and passed several bills specific to Klamath County education. • HB 3329 allows the County School District to use the Henley geothermal well to meet its statutory green energy requirement for construction of the new elementary school, saving the District about $250,000. • SB 953 enables the District to sell the old Bly School gym property by creating specific legislation necessary to ensure that it can obtain a clean property title. • HB 3149 extends the effective period for transfer of school vaccination and health records. It allows rural parents, like those in Gilchrist, more time to obtain primary health care for their children. On a broader scale, Rep. Whitsett’s close work with the House Speaker was instrumental in securing a huge increase in funding for OSU Extension Services. We also were successful in extending the fifth year high school graduation program that is working so well in Klamath, Lake, Crook and Deschutes county school districts; in extending small school funding in rural districts like north Klamath and Lake County; and establishing a pilot program for free community college tuition. We worked for several months to successfully amend SB 206-A to allow Klamath Basin irrigators to better use what little water has not been taken from them by allowing irrigators to temporarily transfer the place, and type of use of their water rights. We carried the bill in our respective chambers, where we both made clear on the record the bill does not recognize, ratify, support or acknowledge the KBRA, KHSA or UKBCA. It passed in both chambers with broad bipartisan majorities. We were vocal, persistent and ultimately successful in our opposition to the majority’s plan to spend nearly $400 million of borrowed money to seismically retrofit the State Capitol Building. The money will instead go towards more than $300 million in bonding capacity to seismically retrofit and repair school buildings across the state. We also successfully advocated for the Senate floor-vote defeat of SB 567, after an amendment we sponsored was rejected. We believe the bill was designed and drafted to allow the State to
avoid refunding future personal income tax kickers. We co-sponsored, and worked to unanimously pass, two bills relating to wildfires. • HB 3148-A, helping those who lost their homes in last year’s Sprague River wildfire. • HB 2501, requiring the Oregon Department of Forestry to report the true extent of the devastating damage caused to private property by wildfires, to the state’s Emergency Board. We worked together to sponsor and enact four bills relating to taxes that should greatly benefit folks in our rural districts: • Representative Whitsett’s strong advocacy position on the House Revenue Committee was instrumental to enacting HB 2075-A, levying a two cent increase in jet fuel taxes. The tax revenues are dedicated to rural airports, including a subsidy for commercial air service at Kingsley Field. • HB 2171-A amends Oregon tax law to prohibit the Oregon Department of Revenue from targeting military personnel stationed at Kingsley Field for audits and claims of past-due taxes, penalties and interest regarding domicile and Oregon residency. • SB 864-A greatly increases eligibility for Oregon natural resource estate tax credits by amending Oregon tax law to require the Oregon Department of Revenue to include only Oregon assets in natural resource estates that extend into two states, such as those along our California border. • SB 161 creates a “bona fide purchaser” status to prevent the collection of personal property taxes that is owed on business equipment at the time of purchase and was not incurred by the new owner. We also sponsored and passed several statewide issues relating to tax credits, fraud and the collection of past due accounts owed to the state of Oregon. • HB 3542, inspired by the pervasive abuse of green energy tax credits, requires the Legislature to assess and approve ten separate financial criteria before authorizing any new tax credits. • SB 55, motivated by the bureaucratic inability to collect more than $2.5 billion in past due accounts, makes a number of statutory changes designed to significantly improve the State’s performance in collection of past due debt. • HB 2392-A addresses welfare fraud by requiring the Department of Human Services to display the name of the individual to whom the card is issued when replacing a lost or stolen card. • HB 2393-B will require the Oregon State Lottery to withhold prizes of more than $600 to persons that have not repaid overpayment of certain public benefits and prioritizes the interception of payments for any pastdue child support. Additional important bills that we sponsored, co-sponsored or testified for include: • HB 3143 addresses sex trafficking by authorizing placement of donated 2” x 5” bar-coded stickers in OLCC licensed restaurant and bar restrooms to help sex trafficked young women obtain information needed to escape their plight. Similar bills in other states have saved many young lives at no cost to taxpayers. • SB 844 creates authority for investor owned natural gas utilities to
• • •
• • • • • • •
invest in natural gas delivery infrastructure in rural communities such as Lakeview. HJM 19 urges Congress and the Secretary of Energy to establish and fund a Geothermal Observatory at Newberry Crater, located near LaPine. HB 3402 increased speed limits on certain Oregon interstates and state highways. HB 2036 designated U.S. Hwy 395 as the World War I Veteran’s Memorial Highway. We labored through two sessions in order to successfully introduce and enact SB 449 in 2009. That bill designated U.S Highway 97 as the World War II Veteran’s Historic Highway. The enactment of that bill enable subsequent bills that have dedicated virtually all of Oregon’s major highways to different groups of war veterans. HB 5506 allocated $40 million for Justice Reinvestment in Community Corrections. HB 3526 created $2.5 million bonding for competitive Main Street seismic and renovation grants. HB 5526 allocated $6 million for sobering stations, potentially including one in Klamath Falls. HB 2016 created a statewide education plan for disadvantaged African American students. HB 3479 created a new Women’s Veteran Coordinator in the Veterans Department. HB 3483 created a family sentencing program for non-violent felons who have dependent children. HB 2502 significantly reduced liability exposure for owners and operators of rural tourist facilities.
Finally, we authored, co-sponsored and passed bills honoring Oregon Tech Basketball Coach Danny Miles, Oregon Pioneer suffragette Abigail Scott Dunaway, Oregon astronaut Don Pettit and MC Ranch owner William “Bill Kitt” Kittridge. Coach Miles and his wife Judy, as well as Jack Nicol and other members of the Kittridge family, were able to be on the Senate floor to accept the Senate’s highest honor. Oregon astronaut Pettit, an Oregon State University classmate and former study-mate of Rep. Whitsett, was on NASA assignment. This Legislative Assembly was memorable and challenging to say the least. We are very happy to be returning home after working through a grueling five-month session. But it was also rewarding in many ways, because we were able to overcome a very partisan environment to sponsor, co-sponsor and help to pass at least 35 bills that will serve to improve the lives of people throughout rural Oregon. Please remember—if we do not stand up for rural Oregon, no one will. Best regards, Doug Follow the link below to subscribe to an electronic version of my weekly legislative newsletter updates: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORLEG/ subscriber/new?topic_id=ORLEG_30.
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Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Innovation summit set for Sept 16-18 The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce will host the inaugural Rural Business and Innovation Summit Sept. 16-18 at Klamath Community College. Startups, entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders, accelerators and investors will come together to exchange ideas, share experiences and discover best practices that provide a competitive edge and lead to thriving business in rural areas. The summit will inspire entrepreneurs to accelerate innovation, cultivate a successful business ecosystem within their communities and take advantage of opportunities for growth. “We hope to attract entrepreneurs from rural areas around the state and the northern parts of California,” said Charles “Chip” Massie, the chamber’s executive eirector. “Doing business in rural communities requires innovation to stay competitive, yet they are often faced with unique challenges. This event will help business leaders share experiences, best practices, and candid advice.” Massie said the speakers and experts have been
identified to help inspire, motivate and educate. Speakers include: n Michael Shuman, author of “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity”; n Steven Kauffman, coauthor of “The Garbageman’s Guide to Life: How to Get Out Massie of the Dumps”; n Ainoura Oussenbec, workforce analyst with Oregon Employment Department; n Damon Runberg, central Oregon regional economist with the Oregon Employment Department; n Amy Pearl, founder and executive eirector of HATCH Innovation. “We are pleased with the panel of experts we’re bringing together for this event,” said Heather Tramp, the chamber’s marketing and program
coordinator. “It’s going to be a full three days of practical, relevant and useful information for investors, business owners, economic development professionals, or anyone with an interest in business in the rural setting,” Tramp said. Tickets for the summit can be purchased through the chamber’s website at www.klamath. org or by calling 541-884-5193. Tickets are $99 for Chamber members, $149 for non-Chamber members. The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce is extending the special chamber member pricing for those who are members of any chamber. For more information on the summit, contact the chamber at 541-884-5193. The chamber has served Klamath County since 1905. It is a member-based association made up of businesses and individuals who work together to advance the civic, economic, industrial, professional, and cultural life of Klamath County and the City of Klamath Falls, through advocacy and broad communication connections.
About the Speakers: Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics. He is one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became Shuman the “JOBS Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012. Shuman is currently Director of Community Portals for Mission Markets and a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and Post-Carbon Institute. He’s also a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He is also an adjunct instructor in community economic development for Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Shuman has authored or coauthored eight books. His most recent book, published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book is “How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition”.
Steven Kaufman Some guys know technology. Some guys know macroeconomics. And some guys know trash. Steven Kaufman knows all three. Known among friends as a brainiac Kaufman with a love of learning, Steven graduated with honors from Stanford University. He spent the first 20 years of his career in the U.S., Europe and Asia, specializing in operations, logistics management and marketing for Fortune 500 companies like Wang and Intel In 2000, Kaufman tapped into his entrepreneurial spirit and cofounded Routeware, Inc., a company specializing in on-board computing and analytic software for garbage trucks. Kaufman’s journey led to an insatiable curiosity about the mind and how it works — a passion he brings to “The Garbageman’s Guide” with his unique brand of clarity, energy and optimism.
Amy Pearl Founder and executive director, Springboard Innovation and ChangeXchange NW, Amy Pearl’s extensive experience in the education, corporate, and social sectors has Pearl enabled her to create a vision of how we can address global challenges at the local level. She believes in the capacity of ordinary people, and has developed programs that foster citizen-led solutions, including youth, in communities worldwide. She works at the system level, focusing on building an enabling ecosystem for social and locally owned enterprises to flourish, growing healthy local communities. She has recently launched two major models for community development as a result: ChangeXchange NW, and Hatch: A Community Innovation Lab.
Damon Runberg the Central Oregon regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department. In this position he monitors labor, employment, and workforce trends for the region, which includes Runberg Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson, Klamath, and Lake counties. “I have a passion for public service and working towards tailored solutions for local issues,” he said. Over the past several years he has worked as a policy analyst for the Oregon Employment Department, researcher for Oregon State University, outreach/communications consultant with the Oregon Invasive Species Council, and outreach assistant for the U.S. Geological Survey. “These experiences have provided me skills in outreach and communications, econometric/ statistical analysis, trend analysis, and research.”
See SPEAKERS Page 3
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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What’s next for agency? With co-founder retiring, local nonprofit looks to the future
After 16 years as the executive director at Citizens For Safe Schools (CFSS) co-founder Debbie Vought will be retiring from the agency. This is just one of the changes that the local mentoring agency is working on as it looks to the future. “Despite such a significant change, the organization is prepared and we are thankful to Debbie’s vision and commitment for propelling us to our present position in the industry,” states Kim Abel, program manager of CFSS’s Kids In the Middle (KIM) program. CFSS is not averse to change. Currently, three of the five employees are in their first year with the organization. This is not a concern for Abel, as she reassures, “When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved and the defining difference between success and failure is a great team — and we have that here.” A New Leaf CFSS will be hosting, planning and attending a number of events throughout the summer, including the Guns vs Axes charity softball game on July 26. Tickets purchased for the softball game will also grant admission to the Gem’s game afterward. CFSS will receive a portion of the profits from tickets sold prior to game day. CFSS will have a booth at the remaining Third Thursday’s, promoting its programs empowering youth, as well as its upcoming events. Abel said, “Community awareness is essential” and is just one reason CFSS’s participates in Third Thursday. Abel continues, “Our greatest weapon against some of the issues our youth face today is unity, and by sharing information we are creating unity and together we are so much smarter and stronger than if we were standing alone.”
Update
H&N file photo
Director Debbie Vought is leaving the agency but continuning her community involvement. Fundraisers In recent years, CFSS has held an annual fundraising banquet; but this year it is moving in a new direction. CFSS will be hosting its inaugural Ed Caleb Memorial Golf Tournament on August 29, which will honor CFSS co-founder and Klamath’s former district attorney. The funds raised will continue to support CFSS’s mentoring programs, positive youth development and character counts initiatives. The golf tournament begins at 1 p.m. at Harbor Links Golf Course. The days’ activities will include 18 holes with a cart followed by hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar on the patio at Biagio’s Bar and Grille. In addition to the longest drive and closest to the pin prizes, CFSS will be raffling off a number of items on the day of the tournament. The first prize raffle ticket will win an opportunity to take a shot for $1 million Raffle tickets will be available for purchase all summer at the CFSS office as well as Third Thursday. There will be a silent auction at the awards
SPEAKERS, from Page 2 Ainoura Oussenbec Ainoura Oussenbec workforce analyst and economist with the Oregon Employment Department Economic Research Division. She will provide a forecast of Klamath’s economy, with an overview of the current trends. Oussenbec has an equivalent of Master’s Degree in Economics from Moscow State University and the University of Stockholm in Sweden. She has worked in economics for
more than 20 years. In addition, Oussenbec worked as a human resources director in a family business in Colorado. Since 2001, she has been employed as a Oussenbec workforce analyst for the Oregon Employment Department in Medford, serving Jackson, Josephine, Klamath and Lake counties.
ceremony where golfers can bid on various items donated by community businesses. Spectator packages are available for those who do not play golf. The golf tournament is limited to 144 players and spots are filling up as the tournament quickly approaches. A number of “cheats” (feet of string and mulligans) will be available making this a perfect event for every level of golfer. Abel encourages everyone to come out and share in the day’s festivities and adds, “We all have a moral obligation to ‘send the elevator back down’ a phrase that serves as a constant reminder to provide young people with the same sort of opportunities and role modeling that I have been blessed to have.” To register for the golf tournament, go to www.cfsscalebgolf.com or mail registration forms to PO Box 243 Klamath Falls, OR 97601. Contact Kim Abel with any questions at kabel@citizensforsafeschools.org or call 541-8823198.
Contact us: Klamath County Chamber of Commerce 205 Riverside Drive, Suite A Klamath Falls, OR 97603 Office: 541-884-5193 Fax: 541-884-5195 Charles “Chip” Massie: Executive Director cmassie@klamath.org
Heather Tramp: Marketing and Program Coordinator Email: heathert@klamath.org www.klamath.org www.facebook.com/Klamath Chamber twitter.com/AccessKlamath
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Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Basin Business
Business briefs Oregon Tech gets funding for revamped engineering center Plans by Oregon Tech to modernize and expand the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Technology are full steam ahead after the Oregon Legislature approved funding as part of a $700 million budget for the 2015-17 biennium, an approximate 28 percent increase in the 2013-15 budget. The state has allocated more than $10 million in capital improvement funds for Oregon Tech, which will help pay for construction of a laboratory and a classroom building adjacent to Cornett Hall at the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Technology, according to Di Saunders, associate vice president of communication and public relations. Cornett Hall is slated for a renovation in three phases, the first of which would include construction of a two-level building directly adjacent to Cornett Hall. Oregon Tech will also receive $913,200 in sports lottery funding to support undergraduate and graduate student scholarships and Title IX women’s sports programs, according to a news release.
Rural OHSU program names a new dean The concept of a rural Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) campus located in Klamath Falls is moving closer to a reality, with the selection of a local professional to serve as dean. OHSU has appointed Joyce Hollander-Rodriguez as regional associate dean of rural health for the OHSU’s Klamath Falls-based rural campus, slated to be the “hub” for rural medicine. The campus is one of two pilot sites in Oregon to promote the collaborative learning model, which also promotes a better of understanding of rural health needs and provides a network for students within interprofessional medical fields, according to Hollander-Rodriguez. “Their campus is their whole
community,” HollanderRodriguez said on Monday. Coos Bay will also serve as a pilot site for the campus model in September. “I’m excited to have it come to fruition,” she Rodriguez said of the rural campus. “I think this can only be good for Klamath Falls, and for rural Oregon.” Hollander-Rodriguez is an assistant professor of family medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine, and residency program director for the OHSU Cascades East Family Medicine Residency Program in Klamath Falls. She earned her medical degree in 2000 and completed her residency in Klamath Falls.
Running Y to launch new marketing plan Aiming to distinguish itself as a destination resort, the Running Y Ranch will unveil a new logo next month, beefing up its sales and marketing teams to modernize its image. Running Y General Manager George Rogers said the resort isn’t ready to reveal details about the changes just yet. He emphasizes the hotel will have a more modernized brand, “focusing on the great experience Klamath Falls has to offer.” “We will be calling Haley ourselves Running Y Ranch and Resort,” Rogers said. “It’s just more clarifying what we are.” In order to make the transition to its new brand, the hotel recently hired Victoria Haley as director of sales and marketing. Haley is a familiar face as the former sales and marketing director for Klamath Falls Lodging Group, which covers Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Vagabond Inn, America’s Best Inn & Suites, Oregon 8 Motel and Microtel Inn & Suites. Haley, 23, plans to bring both an enhanced digital social media emphasis to the resort.
Oregon business startups at a 40-year low, report says By Greg Stiles Medford Mail Tribune
Oregon is known for innovative startups and entrepreneurs with an eye on opportunity. So it came as an unsettling surprise this spring when the state’s Economic Analysis Office reported business startups were at a 40-year low. “Indicators of entrepreneurship and business formation all show that the recessionary declines are over, but that not much progress has been made in terms of regaining lost ground,” wrote Josh Lehner, a senior economist at the Economic Analysis Office. In the early 1990s, new companies accounted for 12 percent of all Oregon businesses, but the most recent reading pegged the number at 8 percent. Those figures coincide with national trends as well. Economic developers, small business coaches and investors possess varying opinions as to why business launches have declined. Jessica Gomez, CEO of Southern Oregon Micro Devices and a recent appointee to the Business Oregon Commission, suggests a gradually expanding economy has kept people working, but within a couple of years the next generation of spinoff startups will begin. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Gomez said. “There’s a lot less urgency for people to go out and do their own thing. Innovation happens a lot of times when there are no other options.” People who aren’t forced to go off on their own are biding their time, saving money and preparing to take a leap down the road. “There’s an overlap where you have an economy getting better, people getting jobs and companies are making money,” Gomez said. “Then you reach a turning point when people begin leaving because they have a new idea or they are done with their current job. I don’t think we’ve reached that point where there is a huge boom yet, when the spinoffs begin.”
John Lamy, a member of Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc.’s Technical Advisory Group, is waiting for those entrepreneurs to make their move. The retired Hewlett-Packard research and development manager thinks potential start-ups don’t make their first bet. After looking at their cards, they fold before investing too much in a losing hand. “People are realizing that it requires more of a business plan than it used to,” Lamy said. “Maybe they realize it’s not going to work. Perhaps they would’ve done it in the past and failed four or five years later. They would’ve started as a business and become a statistic, but maybe they figured it out in advance.” Nonetheless, Lamy admitted he was mystified by the dearth of startups. He sits on a SOREDI panel that works with entrepreneurs. “We’ve had to scramble to find these entrepreneurs,” Lamy said. “We keep saying to ourselves they must be out there, but maybe they’re not.” Bill Thorndike, president of Medford Fabrication, counts himself among the perplexed in explaining the tepid growth of startups. “People must be finding the types of employment that are meeting their expectations,” said Thorndike, a longtime Medford industrialist whose involvement in state and regional economic boards has put him face-to-face with entrepreneurs and investors. “They don’t feel the need to start their own company when they can go to work for someone else.” At the same time, Thorndike thinks tech start-ups in rural areas may be taking a back seat to other sectors. “It certainly hasn’t been stopping people from starting vineyards, wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries,” Thorndike said. “Maybe we’re simply in a different cycle, at least in manufacturing.” Reprinted, in part, from the Medford Mail Tribune.
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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Labor statistic has implications for economy Albany Democrat Herald A troubling number lurks just underneath the state of Oregon’s most recent report about employment numbers: The state’s labor force participation rate has tumbled to 60.3 percent, the lowest point since analysts started tracking the number nearly four decades ago. The number means that nearly 40 percent of Oregon adults are neither working nor looking for jobs. Some of the decline is natural, a reflection of demographic trends, as baby boomers retire and as students wait longer to enter the job market. But some of it suggests that at least some workers are discouraged about their prospects in the job market and have yet to resume their job searches. The statistic has a number of implications, but here are two quick takeaways: First: It’s not going to get any easier any time soon for employers who already are lamenting how hard it is to find qualified workers for certain jobs. It will be interesting to see if this results in increased wages as employers work to increase the appeal of those jobs. (It also will be interest-
Commentary
ing to see how this affects efforts to increase the minimum wage in Oregon. It’s possible that a minimum-wage increase will be on the ballot in 2016, but recent polling suggests that the measure isn’t necessarily the slam dunk you might have thought.) Second: We need to get smarter about crafting nimble and flexible job-training programs to match workers with jobs — not just jobs that exist today, but the jobs of tomorrow as well. We’ve made some progress in creating those programs (our community colleges are leading the way in this regard), but plenty of work remains on this front. Timber harvest numbers Another economic number made news this week: The Oregon Department of Forestry released its annual report about the state’s timber harvest. Some of the news was good: In 2014, for the second straight year, more than 4 billion feet of timber was harvested on Oregon’s forests. (The number was 4.13 billion board feet.) And the number is expected to remain about 4 billion feet in
2015 as well. The timber harvest number is obviously much better than it was during the depths of the recession. But, again, troubling signs lurk just underneath surface. The 2014 timber harvest was down just a bit, about 2 percent, from the 2013 harvest. And some factors, such as lower-than-expected starts on new houses, are helping to drag down the harvest totals. The Forestry Department’s report broke down the 2014 harvest by land ownership. Lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management were the only ones to post an increase in harvests in 2014, and that’s primarily because of salvage sales on areas that were hit with wildfire. Every other landowner — the Forest Service, the state of Oregon, private entities — reported a decline in the harvest. Obviously, market conditions play a big role in shaping the amount of timber harvested in Oregon. But there’s still plenty of timber waiting to be cut, especially on public lands that haven’t received the type of maintenance work they require.
Drought dings winter wheat quality
El Nino weather pattern is blamed for dry conditions have sparked a recent run up in wheat prices.
By the Associated Press Intense drought conditions have shrunk the kernels and disrupted the proteins of winter wheat crops in Oregon, Montana, Washington and Idaho, the region that produces a fifth of the U.S. harvest. The National Agricultural Statistics Service classified a large percentage of the region’s winter wheat as below-average quality this month. Farmers in the Northwest are ner-
vous that the uncharacteristically low quality of their product could slash the crop’s already declining prices. Scattered rains helped keep winter wheat from the same fate in six Midwestern states that cultivate half of the nation’s winter wheat. The true value of the crop will be determined in the coming weeks as growers finish the harvest and receive estimates from grain elevators.
AP photo
Organizing workshop coming to Tater Patch Professional organizer Carolyn Woods of Totally Tidy Household Organizing will host a workshop on organizing from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7 at Tater Patch Quilts in Merrill, according to a news release. Woods will teach participants how to organize everything, anywhere: in garages, basements, closets, offices and more. She will help attendees reframe their attitude about their stuff and teach them the basic process of how to organize. Techniques will be demonstrated through examples of spaces she has organized for clients.
After the workshop, participants can use their new skills to organize their own living space or to help someone else. Author of “Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter,” Woods will be available for book signings following the lecture. Cost for the workshop is $10 per person. Pre-registration is recommended. For more information, call Robin King or Diane McKoen with Tater Patch Quilts at 541-798-5955 or visit taterpatchquilts.com. Tater Patch Quilts is at 109 E. Front St. in Merrill.
Mark Fay, M.D. Scott Stevens, M.D. Physician/ Surgeon of the Eye Physician/ Surgeon of the Eye
Edwin Tuhy, O.D. Optometrist
Jennifer Sparks, O.D. Optometrist
New Patients Welcome
2640 Biehn St. • 541.884.3148 • www.klamatheyecenter.com
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Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
Basin Business
Oregon’s jobless rate rises in June Job growth continues Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, a slight increase from May’s rate of 5.3 percent. The increase was not a surprise because one characteristic of Oregon’s labor market following the Great Recession has been small increases in the unemployment rate during the summer months. Unemployment typically rises each summer as movers to Oregon, recent graduates, and students on summer break look for jobs. However, the influx of unemployed during each of the past four summers was larger than expected, which led to temporary increases in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. This summer could be showing a similar pattern. Despite the slight increase in June, the unem-
ployment rate remained significantly lower than the June 2014 rate of 7.0 percent. Oregon’s unemployment rate in June remained close to the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent. Oregon’s labor force participation rate was 60.3 percent in June, the lowest participation rate since comparable records began in 1976. Put another way, three out of every five Oregonians, 16 years and over, are working or looking for work. Labor force participation has been falling as a larger share of the population reaches retirement age and leaves the labor force. Oregon’s trend is similar to the nation’s. The national labor force participation rate was 62.6 percent in June, the lowest it has been since 1977. Oregon’s payroll employment added a seasonally adjusted total of 2,300 jobs in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retail
trade added 3,100 jobs, bouncing back from a loss of 1,400 jobs in May. The government sector added 1,800 jobs, most of which were in local government. Other industry sectors registered smaller job gains or losses, resulting in the total gain of 2,300 jobs. Taking a longer-term view, payroll employment grew by 52,100 jobs since June 2014. The resulting over-the-year job growth rate was 3.0 percent in Oregon, much faster than the national job growth rate of 2.1 percent. Oregon’s over-the-year job growth has consistently outpaced the nation since 2013. Next Report: The Oregon Employment Department plans to release the June county and metropolitan area unemployment rates on Tuesday, July 21, and the statewide unemployment rate and employment survey data for July on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Oregon’s playground:
Tourism along the east slope of the Cascades By DAMON RUNBERG Oregon Department of Labor
Oregon is well known as a tourism destination. Our natural beauty, craft food and beverages, recreational opportunities, cultural events, and ecological diversity draw visitors from all over the world. In 2014, tourists pumped $10.3 billion into Oregon’s economy through direct spending in things such as transportation, food and drink, accommodations, recreation, and retail. Overall, Oregon’s tourism economy accounts for nearly 5 percent of the state’s gross domestic product. But, Oregon is a big state, what about us on the east slope of the Oregon Cascades? We are known as an outdoor recreation paradise. It’s easier to list the outdoor activities we don’t offer on this side of the mountains as our recreational opportunities are varied and diverse. The central swath of Oregon along the east slope of the Cascades that stretches from Washington down to California was historically dependent on farming, ranching, and timber. The timber industry began its precipitous decline during the 1980s recession and continued into the 1990s, following new restrictions in federal forests. As the number of loggers out in the woods declined, the number recreating in the outdoors climbed. Major outdoor attractions to our region were obscure sports back in the early 1980s. Mountain biking and wind surfing are classic examples. Phil’s Trail System, Bend’s famous mountain bike trails, didn’t exist until the mid-1980s. However,
the sport didn’t become popular until even more recently. Windsurfing began to take off in the Gorge around the same time that mountain biking took off in Bend. The inaugural Columbia Gorge Pro-Am sailboard race in 1984 put Hood River and the Gorge on the map as a wind sport mecca. Today’s tourism economy hardly resembles the industry that it was in the 1980s or even as recently as in the 1990s. The variety of world-class recreation destinations along the east slope of the Oregon Cascades now draws millions of visitors to the region. By itself, Crater Lake, Klamath County’s largest tourism attraction and Oregon’s only national park, accounted for about 620,000 visits in 2014. New marketing campaigns by Travel Oregon and the movie “Wild” are expected to create an additional surge in visitors to the region. Deschutes County is the epicenter for tourism in the region. Besides being the most populous county east of the Cascades, it also boasts the largest variety of activities and resorts. In fact,
six of Oregon’s nine destination resorts are located in Deschutes County. Tourists contributed more than $621 million to the local economy through direct spending such as lodging, recreation, food, and transportation. Travel spending in Deschutes County dwarfs the spending of the region’s other nine counties. Up in Hood River and Wasco counties, travelers spent around $87 and $102 million, respectively, in 2014. Down south travel spending was a bit higher with visitors in Klamath County spending nearly $142 million. Combined together, those who visited the East Cascades of Oregon spent $1.07 billion dollars in direct travel spending in 2014. That represents more than 10 percent of all direct travel spending across the state, while the region only accounts for about 8.5 percent of the state’s population. Direct travel spending along the east slope of the Cascades supports jobs — lots of jobs. In 2014, Dean Runyan Associates estimated that there were over 12,500 tourism based jobs in the 10-county region. Deschutes accounted for about half of those jobs. The east slope of the Cascades, Oregon’s playground, is heavily reliant on tourism. Although these local economies contribute more than tourism, they are an essential component to the region’s development. Tourism helped to fill the void left by logging and milling. Tourism is helping to pull many of the counties out of the recession. Tourism exposes people to the region, leading to population growth and expansion of the local labor force. Tourism is here to stay.
Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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Chamber membership What can vacations teach Member
Anniversary
Accounting Associates July Back to Health Chiropractic July 2008 Basin Fertilizer & Chemical July Century 21 Showcase Realtors July Cimarron Motel Inn July Cross Timbers Baptist Church July 2011 Days Inn July Edward Jones - Meredith Hoffman July 2013 Ganong, Frank Oleson - Appraiser July Gold Dust Potato Processors July 2002 Golden Eagle Motel July Golden West Motel July Holliday Jewelry July 1997 Klamath Basin Senior Center July Klamath County Association of REALTORS July Klamath Crisis Center July Klamath Falls Elks Lodge # 1247 July Klamath Family Head Start July 1997 Klamath Insurance Center, Inc. July 2014 Lorentz Bruun Co., Inc. July Mac and Cheese Steaks July 2013 McDonald’s of Klamath Falls/ JAMKELLY INC July Midland Empire Insurance July Mountain View Physical & Hand Therapy July 1997 O’Hair Funeral Chapel July Oil Can Henry’s July OSU Research & Extension Center July Party Time Enterprises, Inc July 2006 Real Solutions July 2014 Rip City Riders July 2014 Rob Patridge - District Attorney July 2013 Rocky Point Resort-Odd Fellows July Sheldon’s Machine Shop July Steve Kandra Farms July Superior Fence LLC July Tashi Soap Company July 2013 Worksource OR Emp Dev Dept July Yainax Ranch July
you about investing? Summer is here — which means it’s officially vacation season. You may be looking forward to “getting away from it all,” but, as your know, vacations actually require a fair amount of planning. And it might surprise you to learn that some of the efforts required for successful vacations can impart some valuable lessons in other areas of your life — such as investing. Here are some vacation-related moves that you may want to transfer to the investment and financial arenas: n Secure your home. If you’re going on vacation for a week or so, you may need to take some steps to safeguard your home: stopping your mail and newspaper, putting on a timer to turn on lights, alerting your neighbors that you’ll be out of town, and so on. But while it’s important to secure your home today, you will also want to help ensure it will be there for your family in the future, should anything happen to you. That’s why you’ll want to maintain adequate life and disability insurance. n Know your route. If you are driving to your vacation destination, you will want to plan your route beforehand, so that you can avoid timeconsuming delays and detours. And to reach your financial goals, such as a comfortable retirement, you will also want to chart your course — by creating an investment strategy that is designed to help you work towards those goals based on your specific risk tolerance, investment preferences and time horizon. n Keep enough gas in the tank. As you set out on a road trip, you need a full tank of gas in your car, and you’ll have to keep refueling along the way. And to “go the distance” in pursuing your financial goals, you will need to have sufficient “fuel” in the form of investments with reasonable growth potential. Without a reasonable amount of growth-oriented vehicles in your portfolio, you could loose ground to inflation and potentially fall short of your objectives — so, over time,
you may need to “refuel” by reviewing your portfolio and rebalancing if necessary. n Protect yourself from getting burned. If your vacation plans include a stay at the beach, you’ll need to protect yourself and your family from the hot sun — so make sure you’re all using sunscreen. When you invest, you can also get “burned” if you are not careful — especially if you are inclined to chase after “hot” investments. By the time you hear about these so-called sizzlers, they may already be cooling off, and, even more importantly, they just might not be appropriate for your goals and risk tolerance. Instead of becoming a “heat-seeking” investor, focus your efforts on building a diversified array of quality investments appropriate for your needs. If you only own one type of financial asset, and a downturn hits that asset class, your portfolio could take a big hit. But by diversifying your holdings, you can help reduce the effects of volatility. Keep in mind, though, that diversification, by itself, can’t guarantee profits or protect against loss. As we’ve seen, some of the same principles that apply to creating a vacation may also be applicable to your investing habits. So, put these principles to work to enjoy a pleasant vacation — and a potentially rewarding investment experience. Submitted by: Meredith Hoffman Financial Advisor, Edward Jones 1307 S Alameda Avenue, Suite B Klamath Falls, OR 97603-3601 Phone: 541-273-2483 Fax: 877-452-1831
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Basin Business
Thursday, July 23, 2015, Herald and News
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July 2015 Newsletter for Oregon State Senator Doug Whitsett, District 28 Senator Doug Whitsett
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-311 Salem, OR 97301 Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728
R-Klamath Falls - District 28 I represent the citizens of Senate District 28, which includes Klamath, Lake and Crook, as well as parts of Jackson and Deschutes Counties. As Senator of one of the largest Senate districts in the state, it is extremely important that my constituents remain in contact with me about the issues and concerns that affect their lives. You and I must work together to protect the common interests of rural Oregonians.
Newsletters: www.leg.state.or.us/whitsett
I encourage you to contact my office by either email or telephone so that I can know how to best serve you. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best Regards, Senator Doug Whitsett
Email Senator Doug Whitsett: sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us
END-OF-SESSION REVIEW: WORKING HARD FOR RURAL OREGON Oregon’s recently adjourned 2015 Legislative Assembly was easily the most partisan, anti-business, anti-public safety, anti-family values session in my legislative experience. The Democrat party won virtual super-majorities in both chambers during the November election. Republicans and moderate Democrats did not have sufficient votes to stop them from methodically running their progressive liberal agendas. Many very bad bills were enacted into law on party-line majority votes. Other bad bills, that did not pass, will likely return in different forms for the upcoming February 2016 session. In the face of that political disadvantage, Rep. Whitsett and I were able to work with the majority party leadership to help craft and pass a series of successes for rural Oregon. Many of these common-sense bills were the product of much behind-the-scenes work both through the legislative interim and during the session. They were all enacted on broad bipartisan margins in both legislative chambers. Governor Brown has already signed many of the bills into Oregon law. As members of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, we helped to secure more than $18 million in bonding for building projects at Oregon Tech and Klamath Community College (KCC). We worked with our Republican caucuses to help pass budgets that provide by far the largest amount of funding in Oregon history for K-12 schools, as well as nearly 30 percent funding increases for Oregon universities and community colleges, including Oregon Tech and KCC. We introduced and passed several bills specific to Klamath County education. • HB 3329 allows the County School District to use the Henley geothermal well to meet its statutory green energy requirement for construction of the new elementary school, saving the District about $250,000. • SB 953 enables the District to sell the old Bly School gym property by creating specific legislation necessary to ensure that it can obtain a clean property title. • HB 3149 extends the effective period for transfer of school vaccination and health records. It allows rural parents, like those in Gilchrist, more time to obtain primary health care for their children. On a broader scale, Rep. Whitsett’s close work with the House Speaker was instrumental in securing a huge increase in funding for OSU Extension Services. We also were successful in extending the fifth year high school graduation program that is working so well in Klamath, Lake, Crook and Deschutes county school districts; in extending small school funding in rural districts like north Klamath and Lake County; and establishing a pilot program for free community college tuition. We worked for several months to successfully amend SB 206-A to allow Klamath Basin irrigators to better use what little water has not been taken from them by allowing irrigators to temporarily transfer the place, and type of use of their water rights. We carried the bill in our respective chambers, where we both made clear on the record the bill does not recognize, ratify, support or acknowledge the KBRA, KHSA or UKBCA. It passed in both chambers with broad bipartisan majorities. We were vocal, persistent and ultimately successful in our opposition to the majority’s plan to spend nearly $400 million of borrowed money to seismically retrofit the State Capitol Building. The money will instead go towards more than $300 million in bonding capacity to seismically retrofit and repair school buildings across the state. We also successfully advocated for the Senate floor-vote defeat of SB 567, after an amendment we sponsored was rejected. We believe the bill was designed and drafted to allow the State to
avoid refunding future personal income tax kickers. We co-sponsored, and worked to unanimously pass, two bills relating to wildfires. • HB 3148-A, helping those who lost their homes in last year’s Sprague River wildfire. • HB 2501, requiring the Oregon Department of Forestry to report the true extent of the devastating damage caused to private property by wildfires, to the state’s Emergency Board. We worked together to sponsor and enact four bills relating to taxes that should greatly benefit folks in our rural districts: • Representative Whitsett’s strong advocacy position on the House Revenue Committee was instrumental to enacting HB 2075-A, levying a two cent increase in jet fuel taxes. The tax revenues are dedicated to rural airports, including a subsidy for commercial air service at Kingsley Field. • HB 2171-A amends Oregon tax law to prohibit the Oregon Department of Revenue from targeting military personnel stationed at Kingsley Field for audits and claims of past-due taxes, penalties and interest regarding domicile and Oregon residency. • SB 864-A greatly increases eligibility for Oregon natural resource estate tax credits by amending Oregon tax law to require the Oregon Department of Revenue to include only Oregon assets in natural resource estates that extend into two states, such as those along our California border. • SB 161 creates a “bona fide purchaser” status to prevent the collection of personal property taxes that is owed on business equipment at the time of purchase and was not incurred by the new owner. We also sponsored and passed several statewide issues relating to tax credits, fraud and the collection of past due accounts owed to the state of Oregon. • HB 3542, inspired by the pervasive abuse of green energy tax credits, requires the Legislature to assess and approve ten separate financial criteria before authorizing any new tax credits. • SB 55, motivated by the bureaucratic inability to collect more than $2.5 billion in past due accounts, makes a number of statutory changes designed to significantly improve the State’s performance in collection of past due debt. • HB 2392-A addresses welfare fraud by requiring the Department of Human Services to display the name of the individual to whom the card is issued when replacing a lost or stolen card. • HB 2393-B will require the Oregon State Lottery to withhold prizes of more than $600 to persons that have not repaid overpayment of certain public benefits and prioritizes the interception of payments for any pastdue child support. Additional important bills that we sponsored, co-sponsored or testified for include: • HB 3143 addresses sex trafficking by authorizing placement of donated 2” x 5” bar-coded stickers in OLCC licensed restaurant and bar restrooms to help sex trafficked young women obtain information needed to escape their plight. Similar bills in other states have saved many young lives at no cost to taxpayers. • SB 844 creates authority for investor owned natural gas utilities to
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invest in natural gas delivery infrastructure in rural communities such as Lakeview. HJM 19 urges Congress and the Secretary of Energy to establish and fund a Geothermal Observatory at Newberry Crater, located near LaPine. HB 3402 increased speed limits on certain Oregon interstates and state highways. HB 2036 designated U.S. Hwy 395 as the World War I Veteran’s Memorial Highway. We labored through two sessions in order to successfully introduce and enact SB 449 in 2009. That bill designated U.S Highway 97 as the World War II Veteran’s Historic Highway. The enactment of that bill enable subsequent bills that have dedicated virtually all of Oregon’s major highways to different groups of war veterans. HB 5506 allocated $40 million for Justice Reinvestment in Community Corrections. HB 3526 created $2.5 million bonding for competitive Main Street seismic and renovation grants. HB 5526 allocated $6 million for sobering stations, potentially including one in Klamath Falls. HB 2016 created a statewide education plan for disadvantaged African American students. HB 3479 created a new Women’s Veteran Coordinator in the Veterans Department. HB 3483 created a family sentencing program for non-violent felons who have dependent children. HB 2502 significantly reduced liability exposure for owners and operators of rural tourist facilities.
Finally, we authored, co-sponsored and passed bills honoring Oregon Tech Basketball Coach Danny Miles, Oregon Pioneer suffragette Abigail Scott Dunaway, Oregon astronaut Don Pettit and MC Ranch owner William “Bill Kitt” Kittridge. Coach Miles and his wife Judy, as well as Jack Nicol and other members of the Kittridge family, were able to be on the Senate floor to accept the Senate’s highest honor. Oregon astronaut Pettit, an Oregon State University classmate and former study-mate of Rep. Whitsett, was on NASA assignment. This Legislative Assembly was memorable and challenging to say the least. We are very happy to be returning home after working through a grueling five-month session. But it was also rewarding in many ways, because we were able to overcome a very partisan environment to sponsor, co-sponsor and help to pass at least 35 bills that will serve to improve the lives of people throughout rural Oregon. Please remember—if we do not stand up for rural Oregon, no one will. Best regards, Doug Follow the link below to subscribe to an electronic version of my weekly legislative newsletter updates: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORLEG/ subscriber/new?topic_id=ORLEG_30.