Impact on Retail?

By Phil Hayworth

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

page E9, column 2

pioneerp@sisqtel.net

As farmers, ranchers and tribes wrestle over the minutia of the settlement, business owners are eyeing the situation with keen interest, all too aware that what's good for the farmer and rancher is good for their business.

Take Jeff Koening, department manager at Big R in Klamath Falls . The 15-year resident of the Basin and part-time rancher said he's not sure how the deal will affect business. But today, business is brisk at Big R, thanks to the feet of snow recently dumped on the area. Folks are buying snow shoes and gear like crazy, he said, so even when the weather turns ugly, Big R does well.

Right now, he said, gas prices are what's ailing local business.

"Instead of coming out to shop twice a week, people are coming in twice a month," he said.

But as a rancher of 350 acres, he said the water settlement doesn't look good for folks who pump water. He figures that ground-water users will likely have to give up some 10,000 acre-feet of water and that's not good for guys in his business.

On the other hand, he said, on-project users look like they might have a good deal. On-project users maker up some 200,000 acres of land in the area. Off-project users make up another 200,000. It's split about evenly.

"I'm really not sure about it all yet," he said. "I'd like for everyone to take it slow and read the deal. I don't want to rush into anything."

While retail businesses aren't directly connected to the water issue, they're just a degree removed from it. Car sales, truck and machinery sales - even furniture sales - every business is intimately tied to the land and water. Without predictability, folks hesitate to sign up for anything that remotely looks like a long-term deal. Can they make the payments two, three, four years done the road?

"Right now, we literally go week to week, month to moth, the way the current is," said Steve Kandra, a farmer on the both the Klamath and Siskiyou sides of the border.

He said when he knows what his water will look like, then he knows if he'll be able to make that furniture payment down the road. It's that simple, he argues.

"We're doing very well so far this year," said Luke Klein, manager of McMahan's Furniture on South Sixth Street in Klamath. "In fact, we're ahead of the predictions."

He said he's not worried right now. Indeed, he admits that he hasn't been following the settlement story. His business is furniture, he said, and business is good. Again, his main concern now are fuel prices. He said business dropped off suddenly when gas prices soared late last year. But President George Bush's recent visit to Saudi Arabia likely had something to do with oil prices dropping from $100 per barrel to $90 this week. And talk of an economic stimulus package of some $145 billion to be released soon - well, folks in his business are looking pretty good, he said.

"I'm here just looking to spend my $1,600 refund," said Tony Carpenter, an Alturas-based fuel delivery specialist with Ed Staub and Son in Alturas.

Carpenter said he's been eyeing the situation lately, but doesn't know the details. The settlement more relates to him, he said, in terms of what it means to dam removal on the Klamath River . But he did admit that water is everything. In his travels around the West, he said water is on everyone's mind.

"I remember living in Kansas , and they had a water cutoff that decimated the economy. I saw hundreds of farmers lose their farms," he said.

He said something should be done, and the settlement is a good sign that at least people are willing to sit down and hash out their differences.

Kandra agrees, citing the settlement as the first - and best - example of disparate interests coming together. But he said folks need to make their decision about the deal soon.

"Right now, we've got an administration (the Bush Administration) that is a strong supporter of our interests in the Basin," he said.

This time next year, that could all change.

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