Southern Oregon Business Journal - April 2021 Edition v2

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April 2021 HOW E-RATE IS IMPACTING STUDENTS INSIDE AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM - PAGE 28

COVID-19 VACCINATION TRENDS - PAGE 20

PEOPLE’S BANK BUILT A NEW MIXED-USE BUILDING IN KLAMATH FALLS WITH A BRANCH AND WORKFORCE HOUSING - PAGE 22

Rebuilding Progress Report

Page 32

Workforce Housing : How do we work together to nd solutions for our employees?

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The Journal for Business in Southern Oregon

The Southern Oregon Business Journal extends sincere thanks to the following companies for sponsoring the journal. Without their support we could not produce a FREE resource for Southern Oregon businesses.

A Few Words from Jim The special report on Fire Victim Housing took me 2 days of interviews with 8 people that have been working very hard to nd housing solutions for people that lost their homes in the re.

There is a lot going on and it’s a big story. I didn’t even get a chance to share with you what the large employers like Asante, Providence, The Manor, Harry and David and SOU have been doing for their employees. That will come later online as a series of short articles.

EDUCATION

It’s overwhelming to think that nearly 800 people are still living in motels and hotels and being fed by the state until the money runs out at the end of June.

This report will show you what everyone is working hard on with the clock ticking.

Check out Fire Victim Housing : A progress report on page 32.

Workforce housing is a key part of the rebuilding effort and we struggle to ll the needs we had for workforce housing even before the res.

Read what People’s Bank has done in Klamath Falls with hopes of showcasing the way for every commercial project to create mixed-use space and help solve the shortage one or three units at a time on page 22

HOW E-RATE IS IMPACTING STUDENTS INSIDE AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM - PAGE 28

Bob Kendrick is an Ashland based developer that has been working on a 250 unit workforce housing project for 7 years and he was able to leverage the attention the re created for more housing quickly to get approval to move forward. It’s a great leadership project of large scale complex development that encourages the residents to travel by other means to work. Check his story out on page 37.

Hunter Communications sent in an article about the work they are doing using E-Rate funds to help students learn remotely during the pandemic on page 28.

Finally, let me leave you with this thought. As a business community we need to work together to nd solutions for workforce housing. It will take years to solve this issue and every day it gets worse and harder for us small business owners to be able to hire employees, pay them living wages, and enable them to live wonderful lives in our communities.

We do not need our employees to feel poor, even though we feel like we are paying them a decent wage. Join me in working on this issue. Our future as small business owners depends on it.

Greg Henderson ghenderson703@gmail.com Greg started the Southern Oregon Business Journal in 2015 and retired in 2020.

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Jim Jim@SouthernOregonBusiness.com

Founder

COVID-19 VACCINATION TRENDS - PAGE 20

PENINSULA TRUCK LINES CELEBRATES 70 YEARS - PAGE 42

5350 HWY 66, Ashland, Oregon 97520

www.SouthernOregonBusiness.com A JOURNAL FOR THE ECONOMICALLY CURIOUS, PROFESSIONALLY INSPIRED AND ACUTELY MOTIVATED

APRIL 2021 - Table of Contents SPECIAL REPORT

INTERVIEW WITH MONEEKA SETTLES, PROGRAM COORDINATOR OF THE SOU INNOVATION & LEADERSHIP PROGRAM - PAGE 6

SOU GRADUATE IS OREGON’S FIRST FEMALE, ROTC-TRAINED INFANTRY OFFICER - PAGE 38

EMPLOYMENT

FIRE VICTIM HOUSING A PROGRESS REPORT - PAGE 32

WORKFORCE HOUSING

COVID-19 IMPACTS ON OREGON’S BREWERIES AND PUBS - PAGE 10 OREGON’S LEISURE AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY - PAGE 12 WHERE WOMEN WORK AND HOW MUCH THEY EARN IN OREGON - PAGE 16 250-UNIT WORKFORCE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN ASHLAND MOVING FORWARD - PAGE 37 SOHS HIRES RON KRAMER AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - PAGE 25

FROM FARTLEKS TO NORMALCY - PAGE 24

WHO BENEFITS FROM THE HOUSING MARKET? - PAGE 5

PEOPLE’S BANK BUILT A NEW MIXED-USE BUILDING IN KLAMATH FALLS WITH A BRANCH AND WORKFORCE HOUSING - PAGE 22

WORKFORCE HOUSING

By Josh Lehner Oregon Of ce of Economic Analysis oregoneconomicanalysis.com

Who Bene ts from the Housing Market?

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ne of the darker, underlying currents to the housing discussion is something along the lines that it’s the builders and developers who bene t the most, often described as exploiting or eroding our livability and quality of life. Usually this is couched in, shall we say, more colorful language. But it is a fairly pervasive element and ties in with neighborhood character and how we’d like folks to build housing over there, not here, or at this price point, not that price point, and so on.

With this in mind, let’s take a quick look in this edition of the Graph of the Week of who bene ts the most from the housing market. Long story short, local homeowners gain signi cantly more than builders and developers earn on their projects. In the past handful of years this ratio is about 40 to 1, depending upon how you want to talk about builder earnings. In short, builders and developers across Oregon are earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and homeowners are gaining tens of billions of dollars in equity a year.

Of course this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. Builder earnings are a ow based on new construction, which is equal to about 1% growth in the housing stock a year in recent years. Home equity is a stock that accrues to the million plus homeowners statewide as prices have risen by 7-8% on average over the same time period. However the gures are interwoven when new housing supply does not keep pace with demand. Even as developers may bene t from building more units at higher prices, the gains still accrue much more to our neighbors who happen to already own their home.

Housing wealth isn’t bad in and of itself. It’s used by families to build savings, to support spending, including remodels and start-up capital for new businesses. See our previous look at housing

wealth for more. The issues arise when these dynamics worsen affordability, and price out our friends, family, and neighbors.

Our of ce’s longstanding concern has been twofold. First there is the direct household budgetary impact on existing residents struggling to make ends meet. Second is the possibility that affordability may slow migration in the years ahead. Some would say, that’s good news, but if demand remains strong in the face

of low supply and rising prices, we know who loses: those least able to afford it. Plus slower population growth means slower increases in the workforce that local businesses rely on to hire and expand.

Overall, we’re seeing the pandemic reshape the housing market a bit in that rents have fallen in city centers around the country at the same time home prices have skyrocketed, and rents in the suburbs have risen. Last summer our of ce wrote about the three primary reasons for the strong home sales: most of the layoffs have been in the lower-wage service industries, the decline in mortgage rates, and the strong demographic tailwind from the Millennials aging into their homebuying years. Those points still stand but I would expect the rental and ownership markets

to begin to converge, or at least move in unison a bit more moving forward. Mortgage rates are no longer declining, and have risen a little bit which will keep a lid on price appreciation in the near future. (Last year’s 1% drop in rates offsets ~10% price appreciation in terms of monthly payments for buyers.) Plus as the economy reopens more and people return to city centers to work, shop, and play, demand to live downtown will increase as well. Rents will follow suit as the vacancy rates begin to decline. The question isn’t whether this will happen or not, but rather just how much do people return to work, shop, and play versus working from home a day or two etc.

Finally, we previous wrote about housing wealth and its impact on the economy across a few different metros in Oregon. If you do the same type of calculation in terms of home equity gains compared to builder earnings, you nd similar type numbers across Oregon, as expected.

However what is interesting to note is that Bend — a faster-growing Zoom Town, with incredible amounts of housing wealth — has the lowest ratio because Deschutes County builds noticeably more than some other areas. Conversely, Eugene has the highest ratio in part due to the lower levels of new construction, and in percentage terms the largest increases in home prices last year (13% vs 7-8% statewide). Portland and Medford fall somewhere in between and closer to the statewide gures.

Click below to download the spreadsheet for the Oregon calculations, including links to the underlying data sources. Note that in the chart above I am excluding 2011-12 when home equity declined in the fallout from the housing bubble. If we extend the analysis back further, we will see that home equity gains over the past couple of decades have been even larger. Today we are seeing record levels of housing wealth even adjusting for in ation, or the size of the economy etc.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 5

CAPICHE CONVERSATIONS:

By Chris Cook, Capiche, capiche.us President and CEO of Capiche & Capiche Wine, Chris Cook is a leadership coach focused on happiness, culture, living your brand, and winery marketing & PR. She brings decades of experience in marketing and a love of entrepreneurship.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY MELISSA L. MICHAELS, CAPICHE CONTRIBUTOR/STRATEGIC PARTNER, MICHAELS & MICHAELS CREATIVE, LLC

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hen Moneeka Settles isn’t teaching communication courses, solving organizational puzzles, or Telemark skiing, she’s busy helping Southern Oregon University’s Innovation & Leadership (INL) students transform their careers and ultimately lives. Over the course of her three-decade tenure in education, Moneeka has been one of the founding forces behind new schools and new programs—a role her master’s degree in

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Interview with Moneeka Settles, Program Coordinator of the SOU Innovation & Leadership Program

organizational leadership at Columbia University, Teacher’s College, prepared her to excel at.

Capiche’s Chris Cook has been teaching one of INL’s cornerstone courses—the popular Working with Emotional Intelligence—for SOU since 2013, and together, they have a passion for developing con dent, inspiring leaders with the resourcefulness, knowledge, and skills to keep their organizations thriving, despite adversity.

Q: Tell us about your background and how it prepared you for your current role as the Innovation & Leadership (INL) program

coordinator at Southern Oregon University.

A: I love being involved in the beginnings of new programs, and I love working in educational settings. I have been an educator for almost 30 years—starting with my work as a high school teacher and then as the director of a boarding school program in Portland, and then as one of the founding administrators of The Bay School of San Francisco. When my family moved to Ashland in 2011, I was immediately interested in teaching. I rst worked at Rogue Community College and then applied to be the program

coordinator for the Innovation & Leadership degree program at SOU. At the time, the degree was brand new—it had just been approved by the state. The rst course was scheduled, and the rst 17 students were enrolled. I was thrilled to market the degree, enroll students, schedule courses, and support the development of the degree and its students. My own master’s degree in organizational leadership at Columbia University, Teacher’s College, was modeled in a similar fashion to the INL degree—it was cohort-based and integrated many of the same types of courses, so I knew right away I could support the mission of this degree and enthusiastically nurture it.

Q: What is the mission of the Innovation & Leadership Program? What was the inspiration behind creating it, and how has it evolved over the years?

A: The Innovation & Leadership degree is a bachelor’s degree completion program for working professionals who are emerging and developing leaders within their organizations.

The degree is designed to teach exible highdemand skills for today’s job market, including interpersonal, technology, and business

management skills. The degree was inspired by the realization that employers in the Rogue Valley wanted employees who had these strong skills and that there were adult learners in the Valley who had started their degrees but hadn’t found the right path to be able to complete them. The degree comprises courses selected from the Business, Communication, Emerging Media, Computer Science, and Psychology Departments to deliver a relevant and innovative degree path re ecting the realities of leadership in today’s workplace. The degree started by offering courses delivered in an accelerated face-to-face format with classes in the evening to increase access for working professionals, but we have since added a fully online format to reach students outside the Rogue Valley. We have accepted seven cohorts of students since the rst group was accepted, and we continue to modify course offerings and

delivery options to make sure we are meeting the needs of students and employers.

Q: As an accelerated bachelor’s degree program, INL draws a broad range of nontraditional students—from re ghters to bankers to real estate agents. What are a few of your favorite stories of transformation?

A: I do love the broad range of professionals our degree attracts. But, no matter the profession, the transformation I love hearing about is the increased con dence in leadership skills our students consistently share with me. A recent graduate who is a successful marketing director for a national organization said:

I really believe the innovative approach of this degree did much more than help me complete my degree. It helped me gain con dence, visibility, and respect at my company. I am now seen as an innovator and leader who backs up their thoughts/ideas with critical thought and structure. While I’ve always been creative and passionate at what I do, I didn’t always have the right tools to explain the whys. That’s where INL really helped me.

I also feel a bigger bene t of the INL degree is toward the employer as it inspires/ encourages people to apply every learning in some way to their current role, and that keeps people sharp and engaged on top of driving business results.

I hear time and time again about how powerful it has been to build a network with the other students in the cohort, how many terri c ideas folks bring back to their workplaces after every class, and how much more con dence they have in themselves. So many of them said they were joining the program just to get the degree, but they left with so much more.

Q: Rogue Credit Union (RCU) is a big feeder into this program. What is it about the program that makes it such a great t for RCU employees?

A: RCU has some key core values in common with the INL degree. Gene Pelham is an innovative leader, and the culture at Rogue is

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Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 7

Interview with Moneeka Settles, Continued from page 7 makes the very interesting argument that there are “tight” and “loose” cultures existing internationally and in the United States, and our connection to one or the other may very well explain why we are more or less comfortable following government mask-wearing mandates and why we are more or less comfortable with creativity and innovation. We may think our reactions to these circumstances are driven by our personalities or wishes, but they are actually tied to our cultural background. Knowing what that background is and how it matches with others is key to understanding how to work well together. one in which they clearly support the continued growth of their employees. RCU values keeping their best and brightest employees while giving them the opportunity to expand their knowledge base without leaving the Valley. They also value cross-disciplinary skills—having employees who can think critically, work well in groups, and tackle the hard skills of business management. The INL degree teaches those skills, so it is a great match for their values. We have three great interviews featuring Gene Pelham and another with Laura Hansen on our Testimonial Videos page if anyone would like to learn more.

Q: You teach Organizational Communication at SOU. What are four tips you can share with those wishing to improve communication within their organizations?

A: I teach Organizational Communication with a particular framework in mind. That framework asks the following questions every time we build an organization or evaluate one: How are you sharing the message to your employees that you can hear the human side of their experiences—their joys, worries, concerns, and hopes?

How are you using rituals, ceremonies, and stories to communicate the core mission and vision of your organization and to inspire engagement?

Have you evaluated the de ned roles of employees and lines of communication

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between them to make sure both are structured to send the messages you intend to send about your organization?

Q: Chris Cook has been teaching Working with Emotional Intelligence for SOU since

Have you looked for opportunities to map the networks within and outside of your organization, and how will you communicate with those networks to anticipate everyone’s level of investment?

Q: You also teach Intercultural Communication. This study identi es three approaches to intercultural communication: indigenous (seeking to understand the meaning of different cultures); cultural (adds a focus on the individual’s sociocultural context); and cross-cultural (compares/contrasts cultures to identify cross-cultural validity and generalizability). For daily interactions, which do you think is the most pragmatic approach among the three—or do you recommend a combination or alternative methodology?

A: For daily interactions, I think it is key to seek to understand the meaning of different cultures and the context within which they exist. The trick is we often don’t know what all the elements are of our own cultural values, nor are we very adept at recognizing the element of another culture.

Thus, we tend to stumble around, clashing into contrasting values while not realizing they are deeply rooted in culture. As an example, I’ve just started to read Rule Makers, Rule Breakers by the cultural psychologist Michelle Gelfand. She

2013. It is one of the most popular courses and consistently earns high ratings from students. What unique strengths does Chris bring to the subject matter, and how does developing emotional intelligence equip students to succeed in their careers and their lives?

A: First, Chris brings a tremendous amount of passion for the subject matter. She credits the course with changing her life and often gets the same reaction from her students. It is immensely helpful that Chris is highly knowledgeable about the subject and deeply committed to it. She applies her learning and offers examples from the wide range of organizations she has consulted with. Her work with the Ashland Food Co-op, Mt. Ashland, the

wine industry, and Rogue Credit Union, to name a few, means she can offer a myriad of real-world examples in her academic coursework. The course content is then meaningful and relevant for the students.

Learning about one’s own emotional intelligence and how to strengthen it means students gain con dence in their leadership skills and people management skills.

Q: Chris is also on the Innovation & Leadership Program Advisory Board. Can you talk a bit about the board’s work and Chris’ contributions in that role?

A: The INL Advisory Board was developed this past year to ensure the INL degree is staying as relevant and innovative as it could be. Chris is one of seven board members who will meet with me to give feedback on our strategic plan, including the types of courses we offer to make sure we are staying in tune with organizational needs. I asked Chris and the others to join the board because they are well-respected and wellestablished leaders in their own organizations here in the Rogue Valley. Their wisdom and perspective are invaluable to me as we ensure this degree remains as meaningful as possible for prospective students and employers. Chris’ work in marketing, strategic planning, and team building are especially valuable to me in developing the success of this degree.

Q: Your favorite endeavors include solving organizational puzzles and proposing creative solutions. Can you give an example of an organizational puzzle you’ve solved that was particularly gratifying?

A: I have been lucky enough to have been a founding administrator to both the building of a brand-new high school and a brand-new university degree. Both of those endeavors faced multiple organizational puzzles that required creative solutions, thoughtful collaboration with others, and navigation of new waters. Both the high school and this INL degree have been

seriously. I love that about the sport and the people who do it. The Screamin’ Tele Lizard Classic embodies this in that everyone dresses up in very playful costumes to match the theme of the year and then does their very goofy best to Telemark ski through the race-course gates.

We most de nitely can’t take ourselves too seriously when, after the last gate, there is the option to go over a big jump, which inevitably makes us look silly and possibly attens us as we cross the nish line. I love the joyful, playful nature of the race and the community that shows up for the fun. And it feels good to be raising funds for the Special Olympics. successful, and since their success means students are completing the educational paths they desire, I nd that particularly gratifying.

Q: Do you have any recommendations for businesses wanting to build resilience in the face of COVID and its concomitant regulations?

A: Each time I hear about the struggles organizations and businesses are facing because of COVID, I think about the message I have tried to learn from reading William Bridges, who states that it isn’t the change that is hard, it is the transitions. Transitions raise so many human reactions such as loss, hope, fear, and con dence. I believe leaders have to focus on helping the people in their organizations hold those emotions well so they can transition into new endeavors. Managing those emotions well will build resilience for everyone.

Q: If you read the interview with Hiram Towle in the previous segment of Capiche Conversations, you may have noticed a Telemark skiing theme emerging. Hiram (like you and Chris) is a fellow Telemark skier. You and Chris both participate in the Screamin’ Tele Lizard Classic, an annual event that takes place at Mt. Ashland. How would you describe this experience, and who does this fundraiser bene t?

A: Telemark skiing is a sport that takes a lot of perseverance to master, but, at the same time, Telemark skiers never take themselves too

Q: Last year, you served as chair of the Women’s Leadership Conference—an annual event that, like most conferences, was impacted by COVID. How did the organizers respond to the associated challenges? What was the theme in 2020, and what can we expect for 2021?

A: In the summer of 2019, the Women’s Leadership Conference had agreed on the theme of Embracing Change. This was well before we new what a predictive theme that would be. It is an important theme but has become an even more relevant one since the pandemic. We have kept that theme for our upcoming 2021 conference, which will be delivered virtually on May 7, 2021. We are excited because it means the conference can reach women even further a eld than our Valley, and we are being met with a strong interest in this topic and a chance to connect over it. We have two incredible keynote speakers lined up and multiple breakout session speakers who will all speak to the skills and resilience we have all faced in embracing change this past year. More details can be found here.

Q: What keeps you inspired?

A: Working with connected communities keeps me inspired. I love working with people and being linked to their growth and innovation. I also love spending time outside in the snow and on our trails, Mt. Ashland, the mountain biking network of trails, and the terri c hiking trails in our Valley—all lift my spirits each time I go there.

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EMPLOYMENT

by Damon Runberg Regional Economist Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Klamath, and Lake counties damon.m.runberg@oregon.gov

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ast year was dif cult for many types of businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the way we engage the economy. Breweries and brewpubs had been posting slower rates of growth before the onset of the pandemic, but the closure of in-person dining dealt a blow to demand for kegs and employment within the pubs themselves.

In the summer of 2019 there were roughly 9,090 jobs in brewing establishments across the state of Oregon. A brewing establishment is any

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COVID-19 Impacts on Oregon’s Breweries and Pubs

location that brews beer. A portion of these are manufacturing facilities that produce their beer to be distributed to retailers or restaurants.

However, many of the state’s brewing establishments are brewpubs that both brew beer and serve that beer onsite in a more typical restaurant environment.

The dramatic impacts of the pandemic were rst seen in second quarter 2020 when covered employment dropped by a staggering 3,500 jobs (-43%) from levels in the rst quarter. The drop is

even more shocking when you consider the highly seasonal nature of the industry. Typically the spring (second quarter) is a time of hiring for breweries and pubs, which means the loss of 43% of total employment from the rst quarter undercounts the true impact to the industry.

As with the economy more broadly, there was an initial V-shaped recovery to employment last summer in Oregon’s brewing industry with these pubs and breweries adding back around 1,950 of the 3,500 jobs lost in the spring of 2020. Even

with this sharp rebound in the third quarter, employment in breweries still remained down by around 29% from levels in 2019. As you might expect, the COVID impacts to the brewing industry were much more signi cant than to the overall economy, but job losses were even more signi cant than food services and drinking places, where employment was down by 23% from last year.

These were not necessarily permanent closures.

A few of these may be temporary closures as rms try to ride out the pandemic. However, a few of these were documented permanent closures, including Bridgeport, Lompoc, and The Ram. Interestingly, most of the businesses that announced permanent closures did so before the onset of the pandemic. Perhaps most

Despite the challenges faced in 2020, there is reason for optimism as we move further into 2021. The worst of the pandemic is already behind us with case counts dropping dramatically, hospitalization rates down, and vaccine rollout accelerating. Vaccines are expected to be widely available to the general public by late spring, which should lead to fewer public health restrictions and consumers feeling more comfortable going out to public places such as brewpubs. Combine the “opening” of the economy with the large savings rate and we will likely see a dramatic increase in spending at restaurants. More people in restaurants means more people drinking Oregon beer.

Behind these higher level numbers we see some interesting trends. There were 217 brewing establishments that reported payroll employment at some point between third quarter 2019 and third quarter 2020. The vast majority of these brewing establishments, 157 (about 72%), posted job losses over that period of time.

Perhaps more impressive were the 36 establishments (17%) that posted job gains during such a tumultuous year.

We don’t have a good measure on business closures and openings, but we do know if an establishment stopped reporting employment or began reporting employment for the rst time. Fifteen establishments stopped reporting any covered employment by summer 2020.

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impressive are the nine brewing establishments that began reporting employment for the rst time during the past year. These weren’t necessarily new breweries, but they began paying covered workers for the rst time in 2020. Hats off to these entrepreneurs for getting a brewery up and running in such a challenging environment.

EMPLOYMENT

by Guy Tauer Regional Economist Coos, Curry, Jackson, and Josephine counties guy.r.tauer@oregon.gov

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eisure and hospitality businesses employed an average 160,200 workers in 2020. Of those, roughly one out of eight were employed in accommodations, about the same as in arts, entertainment, and recreation. Just more than three-fourths of leisure and hospitality workers worked in food services and drinking places. These annual average gures mask how the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally impacted this sector of the economy. Since spring 2020, mandated closures or curtailments for entire business categories as well as changing consumer spending patterns in response to the

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Oregon’s Leisure and Hospitality Industry

pandemic resulted in massive and ongoing job loss.

From December 2019 to December 2020 the leisure and hospitality sector shed 38.7% of payroll employment, compared with a loss of 9.1% across all Oregon industries. Leisure and hospitality had 211,000 jobs in December of 2019 and by December 2020 employment fell to 129,400, essentially erasing the industry’s previous 25 years of job gains. Of the 178,200 payroll jobs Oregon lost during that time, 81,600 of those, or 46.9%, were in the leisure and hospitality sector.

Nationally, data from the new Census Bureau’s Business Pulse Survey show the leisure and hospitality component industries of arts, entertainment and recreation, and accommodation and food services reporting the highest share of businesses stating the COVID pandemic has had a large negative impact on their business. During the most recent week of the survey, between 60% and 65% of leisure and hospitality businesses reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had a large negative impact, compared with 30.7% for all industries. However, earlier in the pandemic, back in late April when

The saw-toothed look on the graph shows the seasonal nature of work in this tourism-related industry, as well as the precipitous declines seen in the past year.

During the Great Recession, employment in this industry fell by 6.1% from 2008 to 2010.

Oregon’s all-industry employment decline was slightly steeper, with payroll jobs declining by 7.4% from pre-recession peak to trough. By 2018, leisure and hospitality employment rose by 30.1% compared with a gain of 19.3% for total industry employment. As of February 2020,

the month before the pandemic hit our economy in earnest, leisure and hospitality was still showing modest over-the-year job growth, rising by 1.8% (+3,700 jobs).

Over the most recent 12 months ending in December 2020, the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry lost 17,500 jobs or a loss of 63.6%. Accommodations shed 8,900 jobs, a decline of 35.2%. Food services and drinking places employment fell by a staggering 55,000 jobs statewide, a decline of 34.9%. Within the food services component, the pain was uneven.

Full-service restaurant employment fell by 35,600, or a decline of 50.5%. Limited service restaurants lost 9,100 jobs, or a loss of 12.8%.

One blessing in disguise occurred during the pandemic when the Almeda, Obenchain, and Slater res hit Southern Oregon. Many of those who were evacuated or lost homes were able to

nd temporary or long-term shelter in the area’s hotels and other lodging places. Had it been a normal summer near the peak of tourist season, it is likely that many of those hotels would have been lled with usual summer travelers.

Connection to Tourism We often think of leisure and hospitality as a tourism industry. While many jobs in this industry are reliant upon tourism, local spending also plays a signi cant role. The Oregon Tourism Commission contracts Dean Runyan Associates to produce travel spending impact analysis for Oregon. According to their Oregon Travel Impacts 1991- 2019 report’s preliminary estimates, travel spending generated 74,800 direct jobs in the accommodation and food services sector and 20,400 direct jobs in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector in 2019. Combined, these

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the rst Business Pulse Survey data was published, 75% to 80% of leisure and hospitality businesses reported the pandemic had a large negative impact on their business. More can be found at https://www.census.gov/data/ experimental-data-products/small-businesspulse-survey.html.

Leisure and Hospitality’s Sales and Share of Oregon’s Gross Domestic Product According to the 2017 Economic Census, sales in Oregon’s accommodation and food services industry totaled $11.8 billion among 9,261 rms. Five years earlier, total sales in Oregon

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jobs made up about 81% of total direct travelgenerated employment that year. Retail and wholesale trade, professional and business services, and transportation were other industries that had direct travel-generated employment in Oregon. While tourism is undoubtedly critical to the growth and success of many leisure and hospitality jobs, there are likely even more that depend upon local business and customers. Dean Runyan Associates’ most recent visitor volume and travel impact report can be found at: https:// www.travelstats.com/reports

were just under $8.5 billion. The arts, entertainment, and recreation industry had $1.7 billion in sales among 1,362 Oregon rms in 2017.

changed in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic recession, but we don’t know yet how steep a drop the industry faced on an annual basis.

Oregon’s leisure and hospitality gross domestic product (GDP), the estimated value of all goods and services produced in the economy, approximately doubled between 2009 and 2019, when it reached $11.2 billion. The Great Recession drove industry GDP down 10% between 2007 and 2009. The industry fully recovered by 2012, with GDP totals above the pre-recession level and continuing to grow each year until 2019. With the growth in recent years, the relative share that leisure and hospitality contributes to Oregon’s overall economy has slowly risen from about 3.0% of total GDP in 1997 to 4.4% during the most recent three years. There’s no doubt that industry GDP

Most Oregon Leisure and Hospitality Establishments Are Small In Oregon, there were just 128 leisure and hospitality establishments that had 100 or more workers at the beginning of 2020. Size of establishment data are published for only the rst quarter of each year, typically the slowest season for leisure and hospitality, so that may skew these values. An establishment may have no paid employees during the slowest winter months, and then bring on seasonal workers during the busier summer months. The greatest number of establishments had between 10 and 19 workers and slightly fewer employed between one and four workers. Of Oregon’s

204,612 leisure and hospitality jobs in March 2020, 125,778 were in establishments with 10 to 49 workers.

relatively high share of leisure and hospitality jobs re ect the smaller overall economic base in this less-populous Oregon county.

Coast Most Dependent on Leisure and Hospitality

The map displays the location quotients for the leisure and hospitality industry within Oregon.

Location quotients are a measure of industry employment concentration. If a county has a location quotient of 1.0 that means its relative percentage of leisure and hospitality jobs compared with the all-industry total is the same share of employment in that industry as the statewide total. Oregon as a whole has a very similar concentration of leisure and hospitality jobs to the United States. Tourism hot spot counties such as Hood River and Deschutes have strong leisure and hospitality location quotients.

Clatsop, Lincoln, and Curry counties are the most leisure and hospitality dependent in Oregon, with more than twice the share of employment as in Oregon statewide. Other counties including Coos, Deschutes, Tillamook, Harney, and Hood River counties also have a strong concentration of leisure and hospitality jobs.

With just 289 jobs (June 2020) in the leisure and hospitality industry in Harney County, a

Conclusion Over 125,000 jobs can be found across Oregon’s more than 14,000 leisure and hospitality establishments. As the economy eventually recovers from the pandemic, we can hope that those lost jobs in this industry recover as well.

Many Oregonians, including myself, started their careers working in restaurants. Those skills, such as getting along with coworkers, showing up ready and able to put in a full shift, providing quality customer service and countless more, are essential and transfer to many other industries and jobs. Recovery from the pandemic will bring many opportunities to apply those skills, in Oregon’s leisure and hospitality businesses and beyond.

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EMPLOYMENT

by Kale Donnelly Workforce Analyst Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Hood River, Jefferson, Sherman, Wasco, and Wheeler counties kale.donnelly@oregon.gov

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ore than 930,000 jobs in Oregon businesses or state and local governments were held by women in 2019. Women represent 49 percent of employment in Oregon, but the share of jobs held by women varies considerably by industry.

We now know that the latest period of economic expansion peaked in 2019, on an annual basis, so these gures represent the Oregon economy at peak, prior to the onset of the pandemic recession in early 2020.

Women’s average earnings were $3,846 per month in 2019, an in ation-adjusted growth rate of 2.4% from 2018. This continues a trend of growth in women’s average wages that has

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Where Women Work and How Much They Earn in Oregon

exceeded the growth of total average wages throughout the United States. Earnings for women, just like employment, vary by industry.

Women’s Employment by Industry Women outnumbered men in seven of Oregon’s 20 major industry sectors. The biggest difference between women and men in industry sectors is in health care and social assistance, where three out of four jobs are held by women. Other noticeable majorities of women in the workplace are in educational services (66%) and nance and insurance (62%). In contrast, women are noticeably missing from mining (15%) and construction (19%) worksites.

The health care and educational services industries not only have the greatest share of jobs held by women, but also top the list for greatest number of women employed in all of Oregon’s industries. More than 209,000 of the jobs in health care and social assistance were held by women, while just over 100,000 women are employed in educational services. While it’s not one of the industries with the greatest share of women, the accommodation and food services employs the second greatest number of women with over 100,000 jobs – marginally more jobs held by women than in educational services.

Women’s Average Earnings by Industry Average monthly earnings for women in 2019 were $3,846. The industries where women earned the highest average income were management of companies and enterprises ($6,713), utilities ($6,334), and nance and insurance ($5,716). These industries have a higher average wage, overall. Industries where women earned the least in terms of average income were arts, entertainment, and recreation ($1,900), accommodation and food services ($1,952), and other services ($2,197). Similarly, these industries tend to have a lower average wage, overall.

In every industry, average monthly earnings of women were lower than men’s earnings. The

ratio of women’s earnings to men’s ranged from a relatively close 87% in accommodation and food services to 51% in arts, entertainment, and recreation. There are many factors behind these disparities in earnings, such as the number of hours worked, the relative wages of occupations with higher concentrations of women within these industries, and the propensity for women to hold or be promoted into management positions with higher rates of pay. Unfortunately, that information is not available from this particular data source.

Trends in Women’s Employment and Earnings The growth rate in employment for women (6.7%) from 2016 to 2019 was slightly higher than that for men (5.7%). Women’s employment growth was the highest in transportation and warehousing (29.0%), other services (26.2%), and construction (22.7%). Employment growth for women was slowest in wholesale trade (0.5%), and even negative in nance and insurance (-1.7%).

Earnings growth for women from 2016 to 2019 outpaced that for men in 15 out of 20 industries. Average earnings growth was highest in the information industry (21.0%) and lowest in other services (1.3%). Overall, average

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earnings for women grew roughly 2% faster than for men.

The Wage Gap The above data provide industry detail about the earnings of women and men in Oregon not available from other sources, but they do not help explain why women have smaller paychecks than men on an aggregate level. On average, women in Oregon earn 71% of what men earn (not accounting for hours worked or type of job). Accounting for hours worked might

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partially explain the wage gap. According to an article published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2018, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings that were 81% of the median earnings for men who were full-time wage and salary workers. In other words, the number of hours worked could account for more than one-third of the difference in earnings between women and men in Oregon.

Perhaps a lack of equal representation of the sexes in upper management positions (signi cantly higher paying jobs) could explain

why average earnings of women are less than the average earnings of their male counterparts.

A more timely analysis from McKinsey & Company examines how COVID-19 has affected women in the workplace at the national level, and paints a picture where less and less women are employed in management positions as you move up the corporate pipeline. At the start of 2020, 47% of survey respondents reported women in entry-level management positions, while only 21% were in “C-suite” management positions. Read more on the results of this expansive study, and the effects that COVID-19

has had on women’s involvement in the labor force: Women in the Workplace 2020.

To better understand the effects COVID-19 has had on women’s employment in Oregon, please read one of our articles from January 2021: Disparate Impact: COVID-19 Job Losses by Sector and Gender in Oregon Another insightful article of ours details how Oregon’s working parents, particularly women, have a different relationship with the labor force than Oregon’s workers without children: For Oregon Parents, Working Is the Norm Outside of the Oregon Employment Department, many analytics rms and organizations have studied the root causes of

the wage gap that persists to this day. A more detailed exploration of these causes of the wage gap would need to explore other data that likely includes job types, hours worked, upward mobility by sex, as well as cultural and social factors.

There are a number of articles on our website that address the topic of women in the workforce. Visit QualityInfo.org and search for “women” to see a list of available articles.

partnership with the states. LED provides the most comprehensive data available for employment and earnings of women and men at the state and county level. Employment data is the average of quarterly employment for 2019. Earnings are the average of quarterly earnings in 2018 of workers who worked at least one full quarter during the year.

To explore and use the data available from LED, visit lehd.ces.census.gov.

Employment and Earnings by Sex Data Information about employment and earnings by industry and sex is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamics (LED)

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Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 21

By Jim Teece Publisher of the Southern Oregon Business Journal

People’s Bank built a new mixed-use building in Klamath Falls with a Branch and Workforce Housing

Rendering of building supplied by project architects : KSW - kistlersmallwhite.com

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sat down with Steve Erb, Chief Strategy Of cer of People’s Bank to talk about the new mixed-use bank building he just oversaw the construction of in Klamath Falls. It’s the rst mixeduse building the bank has built and might become a blueprint for future branches.

wonderful views of the new area that is being developed near downtown. You can see the lake from two apartments for now.

traveling nurses and air national guard leaders that are stationed for up to a year, each needing temporary housing.

The building also features the banks rst solar installation which will offset the energy used by the bank itself.

Construction on the 90,000 SQFT DHS building has started across the road from the new bank.

The bank occupies the entire rst oor of the beautiful new building and the second story is made up of 2 one bedroom and 1 two bedroom apartments.

There is also an e-charging station in the parking lot for the next generation of vehicles.

I toured the building while it was nearing completion and the design reminds me of a modern/ urban loft you would nd in the pearl district.

The ceilings are very high and the oor to ceiling windows offer

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WORKFORCE HOUSING

The energy ef cient building also offers tankless water heaters and very ef cient appliances including a washer and dryer in each apartment.

They will offer two of the units furnished and Steve believes that the location and design will appeal to OIT Professionals,

A Grand Opening Event will be held at the building at the end of April. The branch is open now.

Contractor : Outlier Construction outlierbuilt.com Architect : KSW kistlersmallwhite.com Property Manager : Exclusive Real Estate Management exclusivekfalls.com See oor plan on page 41.

Better Together People’s Bank and Willamette Community Bank have merged to become a new, combined organization.

We are excited to work with like-minded partners to extend our services to customers and businesses in the northern Willamette Valley, providing banking services that are truly in touch with the needs of our local residents.

Because together, we’re better.

work is the last thing we want to do. But we do. Because we must.

Every temptation to skip work is rejected. It happens every day around the country that someone is doing something they would rather not do because it has to be done.

Nothing seems to take so long as bringing a long and sometimes challenging project to a close.

The Covid19 pandemic response may be one of the most dif cult experiences we’ve faced in our lives. Getting to the end is going to take a while. And everyone is anxious for the shot, the cure, the getting back to normal of a couple of years ago.

Standing in line for hours to see a favorite sports team or to be a part of a throng of excited concert goers may be reasonable to anyone with an emotional tie or the thrill of belonging to a group of likeminded revelers. Time passes in a ash when the atmosphere is lled with high energy and adrenalin lled laughter. Waiting for something necessary but without enthusiasm takes much longer, like waiting for a lecture outside the principal’s door knowing you’re in trouble. Every minute seems like an hour.

Waiting for the end of pandemic restrictions, lock- downs, and business closures can be exhausting.

The word ‘pandemic’ is enough to tell us that this is a really big deal. Big enough that experts and dedicated people will have to be involved to provide the most protection and positive outcomes for as many people as possible. It may take more time than the public expects.

When all the wants of our lives depends on the actions and instructions of others, with whom we have no in uence, steps in the right direction take forever.

Still, we must wait. The invention of effective vaccines and the distribution of them is the

There are mornings when getting out of bed and going to

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artleks make you faster.

(Pronounce it just the way you think- with a smile on your face). They are also a life lesson. A one-mile race is one mile long not ten yards less. Run fast to the very end. The very end. Practices that include Fartleks help runners improve performance pacing, endurance and strategic effort that will avoid running out of energy before the race is nished. Sprinting to the end assures a better nal result.

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by Greg Henderson

From Fartleks to Normalcy encouragement to stay the course; wear your mask, avoid crowded places, follow the instructions of science. These will bring to a close the drudgery of lockdowns, business closures and prescribed social distancing.

Don’t stop before you’re nished, before we are all nished. The Covid19 Pandemic has been no joke for anyone.

Over half a million people have died of Covid19 in the U.S. Millions of new cases are still being reported each day around the world. This race to end the pandemic threat is not over.

Let’s do one another a big favor.

Wear our masks, follow reasonable instructions, and get the shots as they come available.

Its possible doing so will save someone’s life.

Greg Henderson Greg Henderson is the retired founder of the Southern Oregon Business Journal. A University of Oregon graduate and a six year U.S. Air Force veteran, he spent nearly 30 years in banking and nance. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications concentrating on some 20 industry sectors. Contact him at ghenderson703@gmail.com

PEOPLE

SOHS Hires Ron Kramer as Executive Director

By Press Release

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he Southern Oregon Historical Society Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Ron Kramer will be joining the Society as Executive Director as of April 1. “Ron’s association with the Historical Society goes back many years,” says Doug McGeary, President of the SOHS Board of Trustees. “His proven skills for building successful nonpro t organizations make Ron both a good t and a natural choice.”

Over the span of 38 years, Ron transformed Jefferson Public Radio from a 10-watt college radio station to a 23-station public radio network serving Oregon and California, one of the largest in the nation. Along

with Dunbar Carpenter, he co-founded KDRV-TV, Channel 12, in 1979 and in 1995 turned an inactive company into jeffnet.org, southern Oregon’s rst Internet Service Provider and the nation’s rst ISP operated by a public radio entity. He also spearheaded the purchase and restoration of the historic Cascade Theater in Redding, transforming it into a major community performing arts center.

Although Ron had semi-retired, he says the opportunity to assist SOHS as it continues to chart its future was too good to resist. “One of my undergraduate degrees was in history, and I have always been both a fan and supporter of SOHS. I have been very impressed with the way in which the Society has continued to move forward these past few years while facing many challenges, and I believe I can help it to evolve into a historical society that preserves the past and serves the present, while anticipating and preparing for the future.”

“Ron is the perfect person for this time and place,” says McGeary. “He is an outstanding public servant, and with his vision, knowledge, and background, he can ably ful ll the essential role of Executive Director as the Society moves from the realm of maintenance to one of development.”

McGeary continues, “We would like to invite the community to join us in welcoming Ron to the helm of SOHS as he steers us through the times ahead!”

Publisher’s Note : I have known Ron since I helped him launch JEFFNET.org (maybe 20 years ago?) and I am excited to see him come out of retirement to run SOHS. We should expect great things to happen there that we can all get behind. Honoring our past as we build our future is one of the things that makes Oregon a great place to raise a family and grow your business.

— Jim

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26 | Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021

Please SUPPORT YOUR JOURNAL. If you want to continue seeing news about Southern Oregon Businesses and Oregon News that will impact all of our businesses then please support us.

Be sure to visit SouthernOregonBusiness.com and sign up for FREE emails. We don’t spam and we do not sell your email address. We will send you an email at least once a month to let you know that our newest print version is out and available online.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal March 2021 | 27

EDUCATION

How E-Rate is Impacting Students Inside and Out of The Classroom

BY ANNE TETAMORE MARKETING DIRECTOR HUNTER COMMUNICATIONS - HUNTERFIBER.COM

Student Art Presentation- Photo by Hunter Communications

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hen COVID-19 shut down schools and libraries across the United States last year, many families with school-aged children who did not have access to highspeed internet were signi cantly impacted. Ranked 34th in the nation for broadband access, less

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than half of Oregon’s residents have access to ber-optic internet.

access reliable internet when they needed it the most.

To bridge the digital divide, schools and libraries including the Sunny Wolf Charter School and the Josephine Community Library in Wolf Creek, turned to E-Rate to request funds so students could

What is E-Rate?

The FCC states that E-Rate makes internet services more affordable for schools and libraries. Through the government’s Universal Service Fund, E-Rate provides

The program’s goal is to provide rural schools and libraries, and those with nancial need the services necessary for the success of their students, faculty, and administration.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for E-Rate funds was more prevalent than ever in 2020.

This led the government to extend E-Rate and offer additional funds due to increased reliance on, and demand for, more reliable internet service throughout the U.S. Going Above and Beyond Before the pandemic, the Sunny Wolf Charter School, partnered with the Josephine Community Library to apply for E-Rate funds that would upgrade both organization’s DSL internet service to ber-optic internet.

Hunter Communications was chosen to complete the work and set out in early 2020, laying nearly 20 miles of ber over rugged terrain that no other provider wanted to take on. “Hunter Communications worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation to stop traf c on Interstate 5 during

Justin Devos - Photo by Hunter Communications

construction so we could run support lines and ber-optic cable across two large canyons,” said Carey Cahill, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Hunter Communications. "Our construction crews also installed over 20 additional poles with 164 ber attachments between Hugo and Wolf Creek to make beroptic internet service a reality for

the school and the library," he continued.

E-Rate at Work in Our Community No more than a week before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools, Hunter Communications provided Sunny Wolf Charter School and the Josephine Community Library with their ber-optic internet connections.

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discounts on telecommunications, internet service, and internet access. Government funding for E-Rate in 2020 topped out at more than $4.22 billion and is scheduled to reach $7 billion in 2021.

downloaded their assignments, and participated in educational online activities.

According to Hardy, “Part of our mission is to be the center of our community. By allowing the students to come to school to utilize the internet, it not only helped them academically but also socially and emotionally as they were able to interact with their peers at a safe distance.”

The ber-optic internet connection the Josephine Community Library received from Hunter also allowed them to provide a reliable connection to community. “The speed was 100 times faster than our previous provider, said Kate Lasky, Director of the Josephine Community Library.

“During the pandemic, people would come to the library, check out a laptop, and use it along with our wi- signal in the parking lot to complete their work. It was a game changer for so many,” she continued.

Jessy McElroy - Photo by Hunter Communications

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Shawn Hardy, 5th, and 6th Grade Math and Science Teacher and Technology Coordinator for Sunny Wolf Charter School.

“Approximately 99% of our 114 K-6 students either don’t have access to the internet at home or have a slow, unreliable connection,” he continued.

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Hardy knew the restrictions from attending school in-person called for creative means to make the school’s new ber connection accessible to the students. He purchased an antenna to broadcast the internet signal to the parking lot. While picking up their lunches or dropping off their schoolwork, students came to school, logged onto the internet,

Back To In-Person Learning In September 2020, students returned to in-person learning using internet-connected devices daily for research and presentations. “Technology is an integral part of what we do.

Without a steady internet connection, we would not be able to give our students the 21stcentury skills they need as they

The need for a stable connection did not end there. Programs the children would normally participate in-person were held virtually, thanks to the school’s new ber-optic internet from Hunter Communications. Every year the school participates in a eld trip to the Grants Pass Museum of Art. This year the students took their eld trip virtually. “We would never have been able to do that with our old DSL internet connection,” said Hardy.

At the library, the increase in speed has been bene cial for

patrons as well as employees since they no longer need to manually check out items and can do it all online. “Our entire catalog is hosted in New Jersey, so without dependable internet it is impossible for us to access our records and provide the community with the resources they need,” said Lasky. “We have been offering computer hours during the pandemic to ensure physical distancing and partnering with other agencies to access the computers in support of GED and workforce development. Without reliable speeds, these important services would not be available,” she continued.

More Than Just A Connection Across the United States, rural communities like Wolf Creek have had steadily increasing reliable internet service the last few years because of programs like E-Rate.

It is more than just providing beroptic internet to those most in need in Southern Oregon for Hunter Communications.

“Offering a viable internet connection for these students during and after the pandemic gives them the tools they need to stay on par with their peers and not fall behind academically,” said Cahill. “We’re a local company and we take pride in supporting our local community.”

Sources: FCC.gov, USAC.org, BroadbandNow.com

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move onto secondary school,” said Hardy.

HOUSING

Fire Victim Housing A progress report

BY JIM TEECE PUBLISHER - SOUTHERN OREGON BUSINESS JOURNAL

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t has been nearly seven months since the wild res of 2020 devastated Oregon with over 2,500 homes lost just in Southern Oregon. I noticed that the FEMA trailers that were parked at the Jackson County Expo, that have been there for months waiting for spots to be deployed, were gone one day as I drove by on the way to visit my mother in Roseburg.

more I wondered if that were true.

My brain told me that was good news. People were getting homes for the long rebuild process but the more I thought about it, the

We had a People’s Bank Foundation meeting to discuss the progress of our commitment of over $1.25 Million in funding for re victim housing and

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The res burned out all the underbrush along both sides of the freeway between Ashland and Medford and you can now see scores of camps setup by the homeless. We see them, but we don’t see the re victims living in a motel, waiting.

realized that we didn’t know what the current state of the rebuild was. So I volunteered to nd out what I could and report back.

I spoke at length with many people involved in the restoration process over the next 2 days.

First I spoke with Oregon’s State Representative Pam Marsh. I reached out to her right after our meeting, I like to start at the top.

We were able to meet that day because she had a cancellation.

She is always great about being accessible. Especially when I told

She explained to me everything she knew about current efforts at the state, which was a lot. The state of Oregon took over for Red Cross to pay for Hotels and the feeding of the victims that had no homes. There are still 782 individuals staying in 22 hotel and motel rooms. This money will run out by the end of June and the legislature is looking for ways to extend this or nd another solution. They also passed an emergency relief bill for $65 Million to buy old distressed motels around the state to help victims of re and covid and $35 Million was earmarked for the 8 counties hit by the res. The “Turnkey Project” purchased the rst hotel in February, a Super 8 in Ashland and it will support up to 60 people when it is up and running. She also told me that she is very excited about the possibilities of what Fortify Holdings is doing.

Fortify Holdings is a private rm based out of Portland that buys distressed hotels and motels and upgrades them into retro chic studio apartments for areas that have housing shortages, especially for the workforce.

Medford showed up on their radar and in 2020 they bought 3 of them.

The next day I spoke with Steve Erb, Chief Strategy Of cer of People’s Bank about an unrelated (I thought) topic. The bank just opened a new branch in a new building they built in Klamath Falls (See page 22) and he was excited that they added 3 apartments to the building creating a mixed use space. His desire to provide workforce housing for the medical community and National Air Guard base of cials that were stationed for 1 year or so in Klamath planted a seed in my head and I went on to my next zoom call.

I had a fantastic call with Jason Elzy - Executive Director of the Housing Authority Jackson County. He explained to me the work he has been doing for the last 22 years and how he has been accelerating the process where possible to build affordable homes for those displaced by the res. He isn’t focused on the temporary homes, or pallet homes or tiny homes. He focuses on homes that will last at least 60 years and you would be proud of owning and living in.

He explained to me that they normally complete 50 to 100 units a year and have a 5 year pipeline.

He just spent 12 months completing a project in Grants Pass and has received $25 Million in state funding to accelerate the process in the Rogue Valley. The plan is to spend $15MM on land acquisition and $10MM to jump

start development. The rest of the money will come from 4 to 9% tax credits purchased by companies in a highly competitive market.

Many of the credits are purchased by banks. So another interconnecting seed was planted in my head.

I left the call feeling very good about the work he and his team are doing and saw that they have a plan in place to go as fast as they can, but I was also realizing that the scope of the rebuild is huge and going in several directions at the same time.

I then had a Zoom call with Tom Humphrey from the City of Central Point. He has been on loan to the Jackson County Emergency Operations Center from the city since late October and spearheads the Regional Wild re Housing Taskforce and helps with the coordination of all the government entities. He shared with me in detail what everyone was doing and as he mentioned names, I emailed them to ask for more details. Every single person responded to me and setup immediate appointments for follow up zoom calls.

Tom told me that his job was to carry water for FEMA. He also shared with me his excitement for the Fortify Holdings projects and how they were moving many pieces in order to solve the puzzle. He was under a lot of pressure to nd solutions for

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her that I will talk to her about broadband for the Applegate if she can talk to me about re victim housing relief. I watched enough West Wing to know how politicians work ;)

everyone in hotels by June 30th of this year not only because that is when the state money will run out, but that is also when he of cially retires full time.

families living in a community space with all the services they need from education, health care, meals and social support under one roof.

I started drawing circles representing each project and lines connecting them. The drawing got very busy and complicated and my head was swimming in all the details required for each project to keep moving forward.

My brain struggled all night while I slept to nd a way to understand all these moving parts and how they t together.

Tom reminded me that the Peoples Bank Foundation helped fund the start of the Talent Gateway project by saying we should all be thankful for the bank and its employees. I agree.

My last zoom of the day was with Kathy Bryon, Executive Director of the Gordon Elwood Foundation. She has been working hard to try to herd cats along this complicated process.

She has been hosting sometimes weekly zooms with many funding sources in the state so that they can learn and share information with each other and learn from the teams rebuilding in Paradise, California and elsewhere. Kathy had just returned from a tour of a potential large hotel that could house the non FEMA supported families. The undocumented. The LatinX community. She was very excited about what she saw. If they can get the funding to happen and all parties to agree this, then a 150 room hotel could be upgraded to support multiple

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The rst zoom meeting the next morning, put it all together for me. I spoke at length with John Vial, the Jackson County Roads & Parks Director and County Emergency Management Director. I have worked with John for years through my board involvement at the expo and I have always enjoyed his leadership skills. He works behind the scenes and is able to manage very large projects with thousands of moving parts. We are lucky to have him here.

When I expressed my need to understand the big picture, he leaned into the camera and explained it to me clearly.

There are 4 distinct populations of people affected by the res.

The rst population is made up of mostly homeowners of stick-built homes with insurance and the ability to be self supported.

The second population is made up of people that are under insured or not insured and need FEMA and State assistance.

The third population is made up of “the unknown people”. People that were almost homeless, couch sur ng or sleeping in cars in friends garages. People that needed a safe place to sleep so that they could get back on their feet. They are able to access support from the State of Oregon for temporary housing and feeding, but getting a good number on who they are and where they are is very evasive at any given time.

The fourth population is made up of undocumented workers. The migrant farm workers which tend to be made up mostly of the LatinX community. They tend to not trust the government and stay away from any government run service for obvious reasons.

And then he laid out the numbers for me for only population group 2.

There are 220 Families (1 to 10 per family) Eligible for FEMA and Asking for Support.

91 Families already found housing (RVs or Trailers in RV Parks and Group Sites) but there are 130 Families still waiting for a place to live. So that means the state is paying for 782 individuals to stay in 22 motels and hotels and at the end of June that money runs out.

Is your head spinning yet? My was.

FEMA will then put those trailers in place and get those families out of the motels. This gives the mobile home park income for 18 months paid for by the government and these people a home while the long term housing gets built.

It will take years to get every home back and there are 3 phases of the recovery. The immediate is the phase we are in now. Finding shelter for families in hotels and motels while we get the intermediate in place. The FEMA trailer serves as intermediate housing that can be used until permanent housing or long term housing can be rebuilt.

FEMA also has backup plans in place, in case there are issues with the restoration of the trailer parks. These projects will work but require infrastructure to be put in place to support the trailers. Some of the neighbors of each backup site are voicing

concerns about it, but in the end, it’s an emergency use and I think they will happen. I like seeing that FEMA has backup plans in place.

But there are other issues as well.

Some of the people lived in low rent trailer parks in 40 year old trailers. Today's trailers are over $100,000 and for many, if not most, this is out of reach. Many are retired living on a xed income.

Southern Oregon was already suffering from an incredibly low inventory of housing before the res. Affordable, Low Income and Workforce housing shortages were already at unsustainable levels, driving rents through the roof.

This is why Fortify Holdings projects are important. They bought and are upgrading the 3 motel properties into affordable workforce housing via studio apartments with kitchenettes.

I ended the call with John very happy to have him here in the valley. His passion and commitment for all populations came up several times during our call. He is working hard to help everyone working on these issues for all populations. No one is left out. No one is forgotten about. I let him know that I am very thankful for his leadership and hung up.

John cleared it up for me so well, that I now saw how big and complicated of an issue this was. I

think John’s largest challenge is that there isn’t one party in charge and there isn’t anyone in place yet to “project manage” all of the efforts.

I ended this process of learning and documenting with a pleasant zoom call with Ziad Elsahili President of Fortify Holdings. I already researched everything I could about them online so I didn’t really need the call, but it was nice to put a face to the name. His company was mentioned by every single person I spoke with related to the re victims.

The company bought the motels to address the workforce housing issue we have here and it just happened to coincide with the surge of need for housing because of the res. He has been working with all the government agencies to make sure his company can help where they can.

We spoke mostly “off-the-record” but when I asked him for a quote to include in my story, he sent me this.

“The housing shortage created by the wild res is crisis for local families and communities. We specialize in quickly converting and improving older motels into housing that is practical and affordable. We look forward to working with non-pro t and government housing providers to be part of the housing solution for Southern Oregon. “

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Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 35 fi

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But FEMA has a plan and it looks like it’s a good one.

For the rst time FEMA did something completely different.

They told the mobile home parks that burned completely down in the re that they would clean them up and restore them rst if they committed to placing FEMA trailers and let the families live there for at least 18 months.

There are 3 trailer parks that took the offer and they are nearing cleanup completion.

to double down on efforts to nd long term solutions on developing workforce housing.

I will be spending more space and time in the journal on this topic.

Thank you to everyone that gave me time and knowledge for this article. I’ll circle back periodically to update efforts and post progress.

Example of a Motel Room Conversion - Photo from Fortify Holdings Website

I hung up with Ziad feeling really good about the work his company is doing and thankful for their commitment to our community.

I think the clear take away is that there are people and families still struggling to get housed and supported but there are government agencies, nonpro ts and for-pro ts working together to nd solutions as soon as possible. They are working as hard as they can and as fast as they can, to get to the long term phase of the process and we, as a business community, need to continue to step up and offer support and assistance every way we can.

On a nal note, I have been working on small projects around workforce housing development prior to the res and after realizing the scope of the re impact on the need for more workforce housing and seeing home prices skyrocket (on a recent trip to Bend, I saw track homes that were selling for over $1 Million) and learning what I learned from this exercise, it made me realize that we have a bigger problem than I initially thought.

Where are those missing FEMA trailers you ask?

They were taken to Reedsport for storage with a commitment to bring them back when needed.

I wish they were still here, so that everyone can see how many families are still waiting for a home.

As employers and small business owners and humans that live in the communities we serve, we need Example of a Motel Room Conversion - Photo from Fortify Holdings Website

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WORKFORCE HOUSING

BY JIM TEECE PUBLISHER - SOUTHERN OREGON BUSINESS JOURNAL

Bob Kendrick, an Ashland developer is moving forward with his “Grand Terrace” project that he has been working on for 7 years.

The 17 acre site on the north end of Ashland will have 12 buildings when complete. He plans on building 4 at a time.

250-unit workforce housing development in Ashland moving forward

He is installing sidewalks to extend from the end of the city all the way beyond his property creating a safe walking path. He will build a safety wall under the bridge to separate walkers from cars and bikes and raise the sidewalk as well as provide safety lighting.

He is also putting in a 300’ bus lane and shelter so that everyone will have the ability to catch a bus to downtown to work.

Bob is passionate about multi-modality transportation and workforce affordability.

Each building will contain 21 One bedroom units of different sizes.

He plans on breaking ground on the project in June 2021.

He has worked with the city to extend the city services and the Rogue Valley Transit District to make sure that the units have multiple forms of transportation available to them.

Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 37

from SOU News https://news.sou.edu/2021/03/sou-graduate-oregon- rst-female-rotc-trained-infantryof cer/

H

SOU graduate is Oregon’s rst female, ROTC-trained infantry o cer

aleigh Wagman knew long before her graduation from SOU last year that she was on track for something special, but she chose to keep it to herself until the accomplishment was in sight. That happened in the fall of 2019, when Wagman – a four-year Army ROTC participant – let others at SOU know she would become the rst female infantry of cer produced by an ROTC program in Oregon.

military knowledge, academic abilities and physical tness.”

“I knew since the beginning of my sophomore year that it was what I was going to do,” she said.

“I kept it a secret until the beginning of my senior year, when we had to announce what ( eld) we were choosing.

She will then return to her 141st Infantry Battalion until she begins post-graduate studies in August. She has received offers from the Medical Science doctoral program at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, and from the Integrated Biomedical Sciences doctoral program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“I wanted to be given opportunities based on my own merit and reputation that came from my

Wagman, now a second lieutenant in the Texas Army National Guard in San Marcos, is assigned to the Infantry Basic Of cer course at Fort Benning, Georgia, and will of cially become the rst Oregon ROTC-trained female infantry of cer when she completes the course in May.

Wagman graduated from SOU last summer with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. She credits the ROTC program for helping her build discipline, and faculty members in SOU’s STEM Division for challenging her academically.

“Dr. (Patrick) Videau is awesome; he always keeps things real with students and is entertaining to learn from,” Wagman said. “He and Dr. (Brie) Paddock both go out of their way in order to get students the help they need, and are both key players in my love for science and reasons for pursuing graduate school.”

Despite her love for science, it was athletics that initially attracted Wagman to SOU. Raiders volleyball coach Josh Rohl ng is a family friend who was in her parents’ wedding, and she came Continued on page 41

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EDUCATION

Southern Oregon Business Journal March 2021 | 39

Sponsors The Southern Oregon Business Journal extends sincere thanks to the following companies for their continued presence as important cogs in the wheels of industry in southern Oregon.

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YOUR TARGET THROUGH

ADS Please check out our advertisers. We appreciate them for supporting the Southern Oregon Business Journal.

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Ashland Home Net page 31

Thousands of Business People get a chance to see your ad in the monthly Business Journal.

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Send your ad copy to: Jim@SouthernOregonBusiness.com Jim Teece - Publisher

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40 | Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021

SOU page 39

Southern Oregon Business Journa 5350 HWY 66, Ashland, OR. 97520 www.southernoregonbusiness.com SOU Education : Continued from page 38

to Ashland to play volleyball after graduating from North Valley High School in Grants Pass.

“My dad actually was an assistant coach (at SOU) for a couple years while I was in middle school,” Wagman said. “So with that and growing up in the Rogue Valley, I felt pretty familiar with the school coming into it.”

She needed to pay for college, so planned ahead and nished high school early, joined the Oregon Army National Guard and attended Basic Combat Training before starting at SOU. The National Guard awarded a four-year scholarship that paid for full tuition and fees, and by joining the ROTC program she became eligible for its no-cost housing plan, which at the time was in Susanne Homes Hall.

“I think the thing I enjoyed most about SOU was living in the ROTC dorms,” she said.

“It allowed for us to have our own culture and space that was quieter for waking up early in the mornings and building friendships through shared experiences.”

She found that the biggest challenge of her undergraduate experience at SOU was compensating for the fact that she came out of high school without any college credits and had a full schedule of required coursework in both military science for ROTC and biology for her major. She also needed to graduate in four years.

terms,” Wagman said. “I think it’s because I have poor time management when left to my own devices, but when I was that busy it forced me to manage my time well and get things done.

“The ROTC program has helped with my time management and leadership skills,” she said.

“Both (the ROTC and Army National Guard) scholarships required that I stayed physically t, morally quali ed and academically quali ed.

Those things helped push me in school and keep me on track to graduate and receive my commission as a second lieutenant in the Army.”

“I was at 20 to 22 credits a term, and oddly enough I actually got the best grades those

Workforce Housing

Apartment layout on the second oor of People’s Bank new Klamath Falls branch.

See story on page 26.

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Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021 | 41

FEATURED

Family-Owned and Paci c Northwest-Founded Peninsula Truck Lines Celebrates 70th Anniversary

By Brenett Waltos Peninsula Truck Lines info@peninsulatruck.com

From day one in 1951 when three family members started trucking between Seattle and Port Angeles, Washington, to today, it has been quite a ride. Peninsula operated in a heavily regulated industry with both rates and routes controlled by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. Expansion of territory was mostly through acquisition.

Peninsula acquired some small companies and purchased some authority allowing it to expand with a Bremerton terminal in the 60s and an Aberdeen terminal in the 70s.

Relaxation of route regulation and acquisition of additional authority allowed Peninsula to expand in the 1980's into Portland, Oregon and points in Eastern Washington and northern Idaho.

Peninsula expansion in the 1990's has been to service a larger area from its existing facilities or to partner with other carriers to offer service to additional points. This has allowed it to provide service into British Columbia Canada, north central Washington and into the Eugene Oregon areas. During the decade of the 1990s, the primary focus of Peninsula has been to increase freight volume and density within its existing service area. Peninsula has continued to slowly expand its service area. Moving into the Boise area in 2000 and Medford in 2010.

“We are proud of our 70 years of history providing trusted transportation services in the Paci c Northwest,” said Brent Vander Pol, President of Peninsula Truck Lines. “We

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42 | Southern Oregon Business Journal April 2021

appreciate our customers, partners and team for making these 70 years possible. We look forward to having the green and white Peninsula Truck Lines’ truck on the roads around the Paci c Northwest long into the future.”

In the past decade, Peninsula started working with national partner networks that allows the company to offer trucking services to and from other all parts of the United States and Canada.

More information on Peninsula Truck Lines can be found at PeninsulaTruck.com

THANK YOU FOR 70 YEARS Seven decades is 25,550 glorious days of open road. Thank you to our customers, partners and team for making 70 years of trusted deliveries possible. As we reflect on the past seven decades, we remember the valued relationships we’ve built along the way in the communities we serve, just like here in Oregon.

Keep following our journey at PeninsulaTruck.com.