News

Check Out Our Social Media Community and Find Your People

Monday, December 02, 2019

Keep up with a community of like-minded individuals by following us on social media! Having a tight-knit community is important, and thriving community is not hard to find in Eastern Oregon. Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts will give you a great taste of our regional community life. Local libraries and playground meet and greets for kids, cycling clubs, open-invite ski trips and hiking groups are only a few of the ways you can get involved. There’s something happening everywhere you look and our social media accounts will help keep you up to date. Celebrate at ...

Monday, November 25, 2019

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative is on social media and wants to help you ditch the hustle and bustle of the big city. In Eastern Oregon, you don’t have to miss out on all the perks of active city life. For outdoor lovers who decide it’s time to make a move, head to our Facebook page and see what you could be a part of! More info is just a click away. Take a look at our social media accounts and see all the opportunities Eastern Oregon has to offer firsthand. We have the unspoiled beauty of the great outdoors, an...

Building a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Community

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Voodoo Doughnuts co-founder Tres Shannon will be the featured speaker for the Fall Pub Talk at 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 at Side A Brewing & Firehouse Museum. Known for pink boxes and doughnuts that push the limits of edible art, Shannon will discuss his journey as an entrepreneur. The Entrepreneurship Club (eClub) at Eastern Oregon University hosts regular Pub Talks with entrepreneurs and business owners throughout the academic year. “One thing that is pivotal in the entrepreneurial community is for entrepreneurs to have heroes. People who have been there and done that and can show they started out jus...

CELEBRATE HIGH DESERT INNOVATION, CREATIVITY, & SMALL BUSINESS REGISTER TODAY FOR 2 GREAT EVENTS

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

CELEBRATE HIGH DESERT INNOVATION, CREATIVITY, & SMALL BUSINESS REGISTER TODAY FOR 2 GREAT EVENTS AT THE HISTORIC CENTRAL HOTEL 171 N BROADWAY, BURNS Thursday, October 17 | 6 p.m.–8 p.m. Opportunity Knocks: Celebrating Entrepreneurship Free of Charge & Open to the Public | Sweets & Savories Provided Let’s celebrate and grow our hometown business successes. Friday, October 18 | 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Building the Future of Harney County Only $40 | Includes Lunch, All Materials, & Treats Expand your leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills. Register Today!

Miller's ready for new home

Tuesday, October 01, 2019

A business that has been around La Grande for decades has moved to a new location. Miller’s Home Center is almost finished with its move into its new home. The address is 3109 May Lane but access to the new facility is off Island Avenue. Take a turn opposite of Walton Road at the intersection near Walmart and you will see the business’ much larger store and warehouses open for business starting Tuesday. “We have had the dream (of a bigger store) for a long time,” Steve Colkitt, CEO and president, said. “The main thing is to service customers better, servic...

WORKSHOPS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday, October 01, 2019

WORKSHOPS AND UPCOMING EVENTS Click here to view upcoming workshops and events.

Blooming Business

Monday, September 30, 2019

Sheila Petty is working to bring beauty to Baker City with her new business, Blue Dahlia. Petty offers homegrown flowers, which she began selling at the Baker City Farmers Market. She cannot sell from her home property and plans to have a mobile flower truck to travel to markets and venues to sell her flowers. Read full article.

GRH honored for use of technology in patient care

Friday, September 27, 2019

Grande Ronde Hospital was awarded the Most Wired award by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives for 2019 for the integration of technology into its systems. GRH is a level 7, which means it uses technology to help analyze patient trends in addition to creating more effective and efficient care for patients. In 2018, the hospital changed its operating system to become more digitized with a patient-centered focus. This shift allowed for a person’s records to be viewable from any department in the hospital and included a new patient portal called MyChart. The Most Wired award is evidence of th...

Chamber Accepting Nominations For Annual Awards

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Each January, the Harney County Chamber of Commerce hosts a banquet to “honor Harney County’s finest” in a number of different categories. In past years, award recipients were selected by committees of past award-winners, which were formed for each category. This year, however, a different selection process will be used. Lola Johnson, the executive director of the chamber, explained that the chamber’s board of directors will make the selections. Nomination forms will be submitted to the chamber office, and the board will review them and make the decision. In an added twist, the board will only see the nominees’ accomplishments, not thei...

HISTORY: Lemons awarded for sesquicentennial ranch

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Kim Lemons and his wife, Carla, received a Sesquicentennial Award as owners of Ingle Butte Ranches in Mt. Vernon. The award was presented by the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program. “Our ranch is the oldest in Grant County,” Kim said. “We’re pretty tickled about the award.” The Lemons’ ranch was originally founded by Kim’s great-great-grandfather William Dana “W.D.” Ingle. Ingle’s daughter, Laura (Ingle) Lemons, and her husband, John Wesley Lemons, took ownership of the property. John Wesley arrived in Oregon in 1857, traveling by wagon train. The ranch was passed down to their son Brice Lemons and his wife, Inez, then to Denni...

Is Oregon’s Beer Bubble About to Burst?

Friday, September 20, 2019

With the state adding on average 27 new breweries annually, can consumers keep Oregon beered? A specter is haunting Oregon’s brewing industry: The state’s reputation as a frosty, frothy microbrew wonderland is still going strong, but a rash of closures has some worried the craft brew industry is in decline. Burnside Brewing, a nine-year veteran of Oregon’s brew culture abruptly bit the dust this year. Bridgeport Brewing, the state’s oldest operating brewery, also turned off its taps for good, citing declining sales since 2017. Forty breweries have shut doors in Oregon in the past five years, leading some commentators to say Oregon’s bee...

The Wellness Revolution

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The idea of wellness in the workplace isn’t exactly new, but there’s a reason it feels that way. Much of the credit for the growing interest in workplace wellness programs can be attributed to dedicated physicians, nutritionists, mental health and public health professionals working to quantify the positive effects of physical and mental well-being, and producing landmark studies on the subject which have caught the attention of employees and business owners alike. According to a 2012 Gallup State of the American Workplace study, employees who had high overall “well-being” had 41% reduced health-related costs compared with employees who had average well-being. They als...

New housing to cater to seniors

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

New housing is coming to La Grande for those age 55 and older. Elevation Pointe, to be constructed on the 400 block of 16th Street, will be a community of 21 condominiums and eight single-family homes. Infrastructure work on the site began six months ago, and construction of the dwellings is planned to begin in October, according to a press release. GCT Land Management is in charge of the project and owner Gust Tsiatsos is the general contractor. Tsiatsos said the active adult community will fill a residential housing gap in the region. Read full article.

Biz Tips: The Art of Persuasion

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Tips for getting your employees to change their behavior. I recently had an interesting coaching discussion with a client, strategizing about how to begin changing the culture within her organization. She's bright, well-educated and very experienced in her field. Like many senior executives, she truly wants to succeed. She wants her team to embrace and embody new cultural behaviors and values that are more positive and less prone to failure. She asked for my thoughts on how to begin her initiative and how to ensure people act accordingly. I started by asking for her thoughts on the best way to achieve her goals...

Final Innovation Gateway plan presented

Thursday, September 12, 2019

A final concept plan for John Day’s Innovation Gateway project was presented to a joint meeting of the city council, planning commission and two advisory committees. Following a tour of the former Oregon Pine mill and other parts of the project site, Ken Pirie, an urban planner with Walker Macy, recapped the project’s history and presented the resulting plans. Read full article.

Smoother Sailing

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

A previously bumpy part of the Baker City Airport has a fresh layer of blacktop thanks to federal and state grants. The $1.49 million project to rebuild the south apron at the city-owned airport didn’t require the city to spend any money from its general fund budget, said Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) paid most the cost — about $1.34 million. The remaining $150,000 is from a state grant funded by taxes pilots pay on aviation fuel, Owen said. Read full article.

New Local Lodging

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Antone Creek Lodge, a family run RV park that’s the nearest overnight lodging to Anthony Lakes, opened earlier this summer in the Elkhorn Mountains. The park is owned and operated by Rich and Lori Daniels, who also own Rich’s Portable Cabins in North Powder, along with their daughter, Harmony. Antone Creek Lodge is along the Anthony Lakes Highway about 9 miles from Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort, with whom the business is a lodging partner. Although the ski area operates a couple of rental yurts, and a campground and guard station are open during the summer, there are no other overnight accommodations at th...

Innovation Without Borders

Tuesday, September 03, 2019

How cross-disciplinary collaboration has shaped, and continues to accelerate, Oregon’s business sector. There is no modern artist more counterfeited than Jackson Pollock. To anyone familiar with the abstract expressionist, it’s easy to see why. To the untrained eye, Pollock’s work can appear to be random colorful splotches on a canvas. Even to the refined viewer, it can be difficult to determine whether an abstract painting is a genuine Pollock or a forgery. In 2007 hedge fund manager Pierre Lagrange purchased what he believed to be a genuine Pollock at Knoedler & Co. gallery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Four years later, afte...

A Global Forest

Monday, September 02, 2019

Fellows at the World Forestry Institute debut forest-preserving projects with global reverberations. When Richard Banda applied to the World Forestry Institute's International Fellowship program, he wanted to learn about the most efficient ways to prune trees native to Malawi. A forestry officer, Banda’s company is part of a reforestation project in Viphya Plantations, the largest forestry plantation in Malawi. “Malawi had one of the largest forest plantations in Africa, but once it was harvested, it was never replanted,” he says. “With 98% of people relying on fuel wood for cooking, pressure to harvest the country’s natural forests has increased.” Read full article.

The 2020 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon survey is live!

Sunday, September 01, 2019

Sign up now for the 2020 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon survey. Registration is open for the 2020 100 Best Companies to Work For In Oregon project. Seize this opportunity to find out what your employees think about their workplace, and see how you rank. Read full article.

New forest supervisor brings new approach

Friday, August 02, 2019

Craig Trulock is the new forest supervisor for the Malheur National Forest. Pacific Northwest Regional Forester Glenn Casamassa announced Trulock’s selection had been effective since June 23. Trulock, who last served as deputy forest supervisor on the Rogue-River Siskiyou National Forest for five years, became the acting forest supervisor at the Malheur National Forest in November 2018. Steve Beverlin, the former forest supervisor on the Malheur National Forest, accepted the position of director of natural resources for the Intermountain Region in Ogden, Utah, in December 2018. Read full article.

Oregon Ranks High in Latest Innovation Analysis

Thursday, August 01, 2019

Business Oregon released its analysis of different states' success in building an innovation-based economy. The report, Oregon Innovation Index, ranks Oregon as 3rd, behind only research powerhouse states California and Massachusetts. The Oregon Innovation Index is a research report created by Business Oregon to measure the state's innovation economy and identify opportunities to enhance competitiveness. It looks at 20 indicators of different aspects of innovation. For any state or region, innovation is key to growing productivity, which leads to economic growth, higher wages, and higher standards of living. For businesses, innovation provides competitive advantages and enables companies to seize market opportunities, grow faster, and brin...

Developers hope to turn Lottes Building into a business hub

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

A dilapidated building that has stood for nearly 100 years will soon receive a breath of new life. Portland-based developers Tony Ngo and Mark Chen are restoring the Lottes Building at 1413 Adams Ave. in La Grande, with the goal of turning the empty space into a hub that could potentially house up to six businesses. The project received a $75,000 infusion of funds from the Urban Renewal Agency at its Call for Projects meeting after earning the highest score of the six projects the URA considered. Read full article.

Wallowa-Whitman to award two timber sales

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is slated to award contracts for a pair of timber sales, large by the standards of the past couple of decades, for a total of $602,000. The Wallowa-Whitman announced in a press release that Boise Cascade Wood Products is the apparent high bidder for the Dean timber sale near Phillips Reservoir. It’s by far the larger of the pair, including an estimated 13.6 million board-feet of timber from 2,435 acres. Iron Triangle LLC of John Day is the apparent high bidder for the Dutch timber sale, in the Wolf Creek area northwest of North Powder. The Dutch sale include...

GRH looks to the future

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

The Grande Ronde Hospital Foundation took a moment to celebrate the past 50 years and look ahead to what is in store for the next year during an event at GRH. “It’s people like you who help make the foundation succeed. This is a community hospital. This is our ‘thank-you’ to you,” Board Chair Peter Fallow said to board members and donors in attendance. After recognizing some longtime donors and supporters of the foundation, GRH Foundation Manager Patrick Flynn laid out the vision for the upcoming year with regard to some of the equipment the hospital hopes to acquire. The previous year saw th...

Burning Barrel

Monday, July 01, 2019

Rick DeFerrari builds oak barrels for aging wine and whiskey Rick DeFerrari aims a heat gun at the barrel, then adds more hunks of oak to the crackling fire that is, slowly, toasting the inside of the wine barrel. DeFerrari, who owns Oregon Barrel Works in McMinnville, is a master cooper, which means he builds oak barrels for aging wine and whiskey. He demonstrated the process from start to finish in the courtyard at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center. DeFerrari’s visit to Baker City, along with Andrew Beckham from Beckham Estate Vineyards in Sherwood, was part of a day-long event titled “Barrel and Vessel: Th...

News

Oregon’s GDP growth is 2nd in the nation with small businesses and entrepreneurs thriving here!

Our friendly communities are the perfect place to raise a family.

Eastern Oregon’s cost of living is only 95% of the national average!

Ski, hike, swim, bike, fish and explore the beautiful mountains of Eastern Oregon.