Terminal Gravity unveils special cans for core brew

ENTERPRISE — Terminal Gravity Brewing Co. is giving a new look to one of its core ales.

Extra Special Golden now is going in cans with a fresh design from Wallowa County local Silje Christoffersen (siljestudio.com) who works in digital, watercolor, oil, printmaking, ink and multimedia, according to a press release from the Enterprise brewery.

“We wanted the Extra Special Golden label to capture the feeling of being at our brewpub and being outside here in Wallowa County,” said Natalie Millar, general manager of Terminal Gravity. “A lot of people who come here create an emotional connection to the pub and to the area. Silje was the perfect person to design it because she’s a local artist who could relate to that experience and bring it to life.”

Extra Special Golden has been a core offering at Terminal Gravity since its inception in 1997, the press release stated, and remains the best-selling draft beer at the pub in Enterprise. Going forward, Terminal Gravity will not sell the popular beer in bottles. Grady Nelson, Terminal Gravity’s marketing manager, said in the press release the company is giving Extra Special Golden the package and label design it deserves.

La Grande paving company appeals DEQ fine

LA GRANDE — High Desert Aggregate & Paving has appealed the $20,325 fine is received in July from the Oregon Department of Environment Quality.

According to a press release from state environmental agency, tests on April 30 and May 1, 2019, showed the company’s asphalt plant at 60831 McAlister Road, La Grande, exceeded its permit for pollutions. The calculation for the subsequent civil penalty began with the $4,000 baseline for the violations and took into account the magnitude of the violations as well has how much not complying with its emissions permit benefited High Desert Aggregate.

Dylan Darling, spokesperson for DEQ, said the department has yet to set a date for a formal appeal hearing with the company, but the case may not get that far.

“Before doing so,” according to Darling, “the agency will be scheduling an informal discussion with the company. Most of our cases are resolved at the informal level through a mutually-agreed-upon order.”

Top food industry magazine features regional chef

MINAM — The August edition of Food & Wine features chef Andrae Bopp, owner of Andrae’s Kitchen in Walla Walla and co-owner of the Minam Store. The magazine profiled Bopp on an excursion through Hells Canyon.

Several sources peg Food & Wine circulation in the 950,000 range. Bobb in an email said the attention this will bring to their operations in Minam “is borderline priceless.”

The cover photo of the edition, Bopp said, even features the cheesecake he made on the Hells Canyon trip.

Grants for infection disease training available

SALEM — Oregon OSHA is accepting grant applications for the creation of innovative safety and health training and education projects to help combat the risk of infectious disease in the workplace.

The state Occupational Safety and Health Division recently announced the opportunity to pitch the division on funding for such projects comes amid the coronavirus pandemic and as the division pursues new rules to protect workers against infectious diseases. Applications are due Friday, Oct. 9., by 5 p.m.

Go to https://osha.oregon.gov/edu/grants/Pages/default.aspx#docs for more information about this year’s grant process and how to apply. You may also contact Teri Watson at 503-947-7406 or teri.a.watson@oregon.gov.

Any employer, labor group or nonprofit organization may apply. The state agency will consider educational institutions only if they partner with another eligible organization.

By way of context, employers are not allowed to use grants to pay for training for their employees. Materials produced by grant recipients become the property of Oregon OSHA. Many of the materials are housed in the Oregon OSHA Resource Center and are available for use by the public. Some materials are available electronically.

Visit osha.oregon.gov/Pages/index.aspx for more information.

Study shows buying better than renting in Union County

UNION COUNTY — The personal finance technology company SmartAssest ranked Union County as the No. 1 best place in Oregon to buy rather than rent a home.

The average monthly mortgage payment in Union County is $1,254, according to SmartAssest, while renting costs an average of $1,317 a month.

Malheur County was No. 2 on the list, with an average monthly mortgage of $945 compared to renting for $1,112 a month. And Umatilla County rounded out the top 10. The average monthly mortgage there is $1,100, while the average monthly cost of rent is $1,203.

SmartAsset compared the total costs of buying and renting a three-bedroom home in each county in the state for a household earning $100,000 a year. For the “rent” scenario, the company reported it measured the median monthly rent for a three-bedroom home in each county, and the “buy” scenario used the following parameters: an annual 30-year fixed mortgage with an annual interest rate of 4.5%, closing costs of $2,000 and a down payment of 20%.

The study calculated the “breakeven point” in the buying versus renting decision — the point at which the total costs of renting become greater than the total costs of buying. The counties with the shortest amount of time needed to break even, then, are where SmartAssest reported are the best places to own a home.