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Asurion
A Culture Where Employees
Want to Come to Work
Asurion is a Nashville-based company that provides a wide range of device protection and support services for smartphones, tablets, consumer electronics, satellite receivers and more. Asurion operates in 14 countries, has more than 16,000 employees worldwide, and services 280 million consumers. Since the company merged with NEW in 2013, Asurion has become one of the top three largest employers in Klamath Falls, employing more than 600 at the local call center.
Lawrence Jones, Director of Call Center Operations, appreciates the commitment, loyalty and technical experience of Klamath County’s workforce.
With two colleges and a local high school graduation rate that exceeds the national average, Klamath County provides Asurion with a steady pool of articulate, friendly and dependable employees, who have an average tenure of nearly three years. Lawrence Jones, Director of Call Center Operations, appreciates the commitment, loyalty and technical experience of Klamath County’s workforce.
After a training program, new employees move to the production floor and transition to the daily flow of Asurion. The company works hard to maintain the interest and excitement new hires enjoy. With many different strategies to create a fun and productive work environment, Asurion has created a culture where employees want to come to work. Asurion staff is offered full medical benefits, tuition reimbursement, bonus options, regular opportunities for raises, special monthly events, and many social engagement opportunities throughout the year.
In addition to Asurion’s impact as a large employer within the community, the company has found many worthy endeavors in Klamath County that it is proud to support with service and charitable contributions. Asurion participates in programs that support local schools, Relay for Life, United Way, Klamath County Food Bank, The Klamath Animal Shelter and Court Appointed Special Advocates.
Roe Outfitters
A Dedicated, Passionate Team
Roe Outfitters knows where the fish are
For the last 30 years ROE Outfitters has grown its “Real Oregon Experience” guide business in the Klamath Basin, where natural beauty and year-round outdoor recreational opportunities abound. Darren and Jenifer Roe, along with their well trained team of ten, offer guided adventures such as fly fishing, sport fishing, rafting, kayaking, paddle boarding, bird hunting, and bird watching all over Southern Oregon. They also lead fishing and hiking tours at world-famous Crater Lake National Park.
“Our focus is to help people make meaningful connections. Not just with the beauty of the area, but with each other because they’ll always have unforgettable shared memories,” explained Jen.
ROE attracts an array of clientele to the Klamath Basin, including families with school-aged children ready to experience their first outdoor adventure, as well as celebrities, professional athletes and high profile business people who need a complete change of pace. They’ve even accommodated guests who travel with their own private security teams. Klamath County is indeed a great place to go if you want to get away from the paparazzi.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of our business is welcoming repeat clients – especially those kids who first started coming with their parents, and now they’re booking trips as adults with their own kids.”
They recently expanded their business by building Crater Lake Zipline in the Winema-Fremont National Forest, Oregon’s longest zipline. The adventure is a three-hour, tree-canopy tour that includes nine zips, two sky bridges and two rappels. Upon its opening in 2015, the zipline created 15 jobs with the potential for as many as 27 as the adventure challenge course continues to attract new visitors.
The 1.5 mile course is made up of 9 ziplines and 2 sky bridges
Inspired by their own zipline experience when on vacation in Belize, Darren and Jenifer’s vision for a local zipline became a reality through careful planning, amazing engineering, heavy doses of hard work and determination, and the cooperation and support of the local business community, county government and the U.S. Forest Service. In fact, it is the only tree-canopy zipline built entirely on U.S. Forest Service land.
Historically, about three-fourths of ROE’s seasonal crew returns each year. Darren and Jenifer appreciate the trainable, dedicated and passionate people here in Klamath Falls who are part of their team. But ROE and Crater Lake Zipline also get quite a bit of interest from people who live outside of the Pacific Northwest who want to come to Klamath County to work in the outdoor industry. Some are outdoor enthusiasts who dream of having their own guide business someday. “We attract people who can’t imagine a better work environment than being outside every day.”
This article was in Wednesday’s (March 30th) Herald and News
Written by: Gerry O’Brien, H&N Editor
Jim Chadderdon, executive director of Discover Klamath, received Travel Southern Oregon’s President’s Award for his leadership in promoting Southern Oregon as a tourism destination.
The award was presented to him earlier this month at the organization’s annual marketing symposium held at Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville.
Chadderdon, who has led Klamath County’s official tourism entity since January 2009, was selected by Travel Southern Oregon’s leadership team for his partnerships with destination marketing organizations, government and local officials to elevate tourism throughout the region.
“Jim has a relentless energy for promoting tourism, and not just in Klamath but all over Southern Oregon,” said Bob Hackett, president of Travel Southern Oregon. “His energy, the number of projects he conceives, works on and follows through all the way is just impressive.”
Through Chadderdon’s efforts, the promotion of Crater Lake National Park’s car-free days spiraled up in 2015. Discover Klamath created a website, marketing campaign and support infrastructure devoted to September’s Ride the Rim, growing the event from a few hundred participants to more than 2,300 from 20 states and seven nations.
Chadderdon works closely with Amtrak, regional airlines and state and federal agencies to boost tourism in Klamath County and Southern Oregon.
“Travel Southern Oregon is an awesome organization with a tremendous, rich heritage of promoting southern Oregon successfully, effectively and efficiently,” said Chadderdon. “The fact that I received this award is very humbling because there are so many people who are doing a fantastic job of promoting our region.”
To access this article on the Herald and News website, please refer to the link provided just below:
Herald and News: Discover Klamath Director Given Top Tourism Award
JELD-WEN
Full Confidence in Reliable Connections
to Keep Business Moving Forward
JELD-WEN was founded in Klamath Falls in 1960 as a supplier of wood window components, and has grown into a multi-billion dollar manufacturer of windows and doors, operating in 20 countries. In the city limits, near the southern shores of Upper Klamath Lake, you’ll find the heart and soul of JELD-WEN, where it all began, and where it continues to innovate. The company employs about 1,000 people in Klamath County, 2,000 in Oregon, 10,000 in the U.S. and 20,000 worldwide.
“Klamath Falls is the epicenter of all innovation globally for JELD-WEN.”
Passers-by often equate JELD-WEN with an impressively sized manufacturing plant that is highly visible on Hwy 97 about 25 miles north of Klamath Falls near Chiloquin. This plant is just one of several facilities the company runs today in Klamath County. Near its original mill site in Klamath Falls, JELD-WEN operates a sawmill, a wood component manufacturing plant, and a facility that presses wood fiber into interior door skins. But the company’s presence here isn’t limited to production. Surrounding the plants on Lakeshore Drive, JELD-WEN has an extensive campus that houses engineering, research and development, customer service and warranty customer care, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and risk management. The company’s president in 2015 referred to Klamath Falls as “the epicenter of all the innovation globally for JELD-WEN.”
Jeld Wen Klamath Falls Campus
Product Development & Customer Support
Most recently JELD-WEN expanded two significant functions in Klamath Falls: product development and customer support. To accomplish its strategic expansion of product design and testing, JELD-WEN took on 20 new engineers in Klamath Falls.
R & D Engineer Chad Elbert
When management decided to centralize door ordering, it chose Klamath Falls to locate the company’s largest-ever call center. Customer service functions that were once handled by each plant were centralized, which has resulted in more standardized processes and accelerated sharing of best practices. This move doubled the size of the customer support staff located in Klamath Falls, upwards of 40 positions, with the potential for 60 in the future.
Recruiting Locally & Globally
CNC machine
Oregon Tech and Klamath Community College help supply the educated workforce JELD-WEN requires, especially in the areas of information technology, accounting, engineering, and operations management. The company has also had success recruiting employees to the area, especially those looking for a healthy lifestyle focused on the great outdoors and a family-friendly pace of life. The fact that Klamath Falls is a convenient midway point between entertainment destinations such as San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and Portland, means JELD-WEN employees in Klamath Falls enjoy an even greater variety of recreational options than what the Basin already offers.
JELD-WEN requires reliable broadband to support virtually all aspects of its global business, including paperless production systems, financial tracking and reporting, internal networks, call volumes, and video conferencing. The Klamath Basin has redundant broadband paths, one from the west and one from the north, giving businesses here full confidence in reliable connections to keep their business moving forward.
Bell Hardware
At Home in Klamath Falls, with locations in Portland, Salem, Eugene, Bend, and Medford
Bell Hardware is a third-generation, family-owned business in Klamath Falls that grew from one hardware store in the 1930s into a significant supplier of commercial grade doors systems with its own fabrication operation. Today the company supplies customers in Oregon, Northern California, Southern Washington and Nevada with commercial-grade doors, frames and specialized hardware. Products from Bell Hardware have been incorporated into impressive structures such as Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Facebook data center in Prineville, and Adidas in Portland.
Bell Hardware door frame fabrication
Klamath Falls Advantages
Bell Hardware recognizes several distinct advantages to having its hub in Klamath Falls. President John Bell especially appreciates the high quality workforce and says they enjoy a low employee-turnover rate with most managers staying between 20 and 40 years.
He has full confidence in the quality of their shop employees as well. “I would put my crew up against anyone in the business, any day,” he says. The Klamath Falls market provides consistently low operating costs for Bell Hardware, including reasonable wages, rent, utilities, and other expenses. The company also says it has had favorable trucking and delivery arrangements because of the town’s location on Hwy 97, which begins at I-5 in Northern California and connects to I-84 along the Oregon-Washington border.
“I would put my crew up against anyone in the business,
any day.”
A Vision for Growth
So how did this company transition from a one-store retail business to a booming fabricator that supports seven branches totaling more than 70 employees? About 20 years after the family began as a retailer on Main Street, the founder’s son joined the business with a vision to expand into the commercial hardware market. They purchased a building a couple of miles from the store so they could begin producing metal frames and doors, and eventually architectural wood door systems.
Bell Hardware downtown Klamath Falls
Bell Hardware, Eugene
Bell Hardware, Salem
Bell Hardware, MedfordThe venture was so successful they opened sales branches in Medford, Eugene and Redding between 1973 and 1986. Bell Hardware’s growth continued as the third generation of the Bell family entered the business and led the opening of offices in Bend, Portland and Salem from 1995 to 2000. Today the company’s portfolio of products includes a variety of doors and frames with specialized locks, closers, and exit devices for hospitals, hotels, assisted living, government buildings, schools and other buildings that require numerous technical specifications such as fire ratings, panic bars, and accommodation of electronic controls. Each Bell Hardware branch handles project estimating, sales, installation and service for large-scale projects, while Klamath Falls remains home to Bell Hardware’s headquarters and showroom downtown and its distribution and hollow metal fabrication shop on Broad Street.
This article was in Saturday’s (March 26th, 2016) Herald and News
Written By: Samantha Tipler
When Roberto Gutierrez took helm of Klamath Community College in 2012, he took a hard look at the community, and asked the community to take a hard look at itself.
“First was the realization we have a problem,” he said. “We need to improve our college-going culture. Then we look for tools to fix that.”
One of those tools is the Advanced Diploma Program, which offers students a free year of college at KCC. Students forgo graduation, stay e
nrolled as fifth-year seniors at their high schools, and the schools pay for tuition and books at KCC.
“We’re trying to change our community to a college-going culture,” Gutierrez said. “The ADP program is a tool to help us meet that goal. It has. It has worked.”
Looking at ADP growth
Since it started in the fall of 2013, more than 500 students have participated in the ADP. From the groups that started in 2013 and 2014, 97 returned for a second year at KCC. And they did more than just attend classes, over three years students achieved a total of:
- 11 two-year associates degrees
- 8 one-year certificates
- 24 pathway certificates (pathway certificates focus on job, industry and career skills)
Here is how the ADP has changed from year to year:
2013:
- 158 students enroll
- 37 return for a second year
- 13 students combine to earn six two-year associates degrees, six one-year certificates, 13 pathway certificates
2014:
- 168 students enroll
- 60 return for a second year
- 10 students combined to earn five two-year associates degrees, two one-year certificates, five pathway certificates
2015:
- 189 students enroll
- Six students combined to earn 6 pathway certificates
Those students came from Klamath Falls City Schools, Klamath County School District and Lakeview High School. Base on senior class sizes, about 28 percent of the class of 2015 enrolled in the ADP.
“These students, a lot of them, were not thinking of college,” Gutierrez said. “Now we’re reaching out to them. A lot of these students were at risk. We’re preventing them from dropping out.”
Evolving
Since it started in 2013, KCC has made some tweaks to the ADP system. For instance, in the second year the program began requiring a three-week college skills course. It goes over the basics of navigating college life and the rigor of college-level work.
“It’s a strong support mechanism,” Gutierrez said. “It’s not just sink-or-swim. We support them. At the community college we’re good at that.”
KCC also helps students form an academic plan, increasing their chance of success. It offers tutoring and counseling.
Another big change is happening at the high school level. School districts have been working in partnership with KCC to make sure what students learn in high school carries over to college. That practice is called curriculum alignment.
“How can we align our curriculum so that a student who may be a sophomore in high school is ready to take college level algebra when they get here?” Gutierrez said.
By aligning curriculum, it keeps students from repeating courses in college that they already took in high school. That repetition is called developmental ed.
A 2011 report from the Alliance for Excellent Education found nationally, students spent $3.6 billion on re-taking these classes. In Oregon it amounted to $52 million.
“Across the nation that is a problem,” Gutierrez said. “A lot of students are not academically prepared.”
Curriculum alignment also gives more opportunity for dual-credit classes, where students earn both high school and college credit while taking high school courses.
Last June, KCC hosted the “College and Career for All,” a summit for 200 educators to align high school and college courses, creating a pathway from high school, to college, to careers.
Improving the community
Gutierrez believes seeing the numbers of ADP students increasing helps beyond the college campus.
“Years ago you didn’t need to go to college. You could be a high school dropout and go right into the mills with good, middle-class jobs,” he said. “Those jobs are gone. They’re not coming back.”
Getting those middle class jobs requires some kind of education after high school, he has said again and again.
“Education is a key to the middle class,” he said. “Now more than ever. That’s why I’m driven by this.”
According to the 2013 report, “Education Pays,” people with some college education earn 14 percent more than high school graduates, and those with associates degrees earn 27 percent more than high school graduates. Nationally in 2011, a person with bachelor’s degree earned $21,000 more than a high school graduate. That transferred to the community with $5,000 more in tax payments and $16,100 more in after-tax income per person, the report said.
More students in the ADP means more college-educated people in Klamath. Gutierrez hopes that will attract more companies with middle class salaries, spurring economic development.
“That is the goal,” he said. “A viable, livable, dynamic community. These are the first steps to getting toward the larger goal.”
To access this article on the H&N website, please refer to this link: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/changing-klamath-to-a-college-going-culture/article_5748047e-8358-5c0f-ba50-d3bc14d7ade9.html
This article was in Tuesday’s (March 29, 2016) Herald and News
Written By: Holly Owens
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden will hold town halls and other meetings in Klamath, Lake, Umatilla, Wallowa and Malheur counties this weekend, according to a news release.
The meeting in Klamath Falls will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 515 Klamath Ave. The meeting in Lakeview will begin at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at the Lake County Courthouse, 513 Center St.
First, Walden (R-Hood River) will hold a town hall meeting in Klamath Falls where he’ll provide an update on the TSA Fairness Act, legislation he authored in the U.S. House that would restore commercial air service to the Crater Lake-Klamath Falls Regional Airport by bringing back federal TSA screening. The bill was unanimously approved by the House Homeland Security Committee last week, and the next step forward is a vote in the full House of Representatives.
Next, Walden will host more public meetings in Lakeview, Enterprise and Jordan Valley to listen to concerns from communities and local officials on federal land management policies in the region. Walden recently wrote letters to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester Jim Pena urging the administration to heed the voices of local communities, particularly when it comes to decisions about the potential national monument designation in Malheur County and the Blue Mountain Forest Plan.
In Pendleton, Walden will meet with local hunters, fishermen, and shooting enthusiasts to update them on the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act, a bill recently approved by the U.S. House to help protect access to public lands and strengthen Second Amendment rights for sportsmen.
He will also update residents on his latest work in Congress to strengthen our national security, and grow jobs and the economy in Oregon. Before these meetings, Walden will be in Bend and Medford.
To access the article on Herald and News, refer to this link: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/walden-to-host-town-hall-in-klamath-saturday/article_6bcf45bd-5afd-5e50-9aa0-4432497bef14.html
This article was in Thursday’s (March 24th, 2016) Herald and News
Written By: H&N Reports
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, announced Wednesday that a bill he authored to restore commercial air service to the Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport by bringing back federal TSA screening at the airport has taken a major step forward in the U.S. House.
The Treating Small Airports with Fairness Act, or “TSA Fairness Act,” was unanimously approved by the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, according to a Walden press release.
The next step forward is a vote in the full House of Representatives.
“Today’s bipartisan vote in the Homeland Security Committee means our bill has been cleared for takeoff in the U.S. House. While there is more work to be done, this is a very important step towards returning commercial air service to Klamath Falls,” said Walden.
“The people of Klamath County deserve safe, reliable air service. Since TSA won’t restore screening to Klamath Falls on its own — even when a commercial air carrier has expressed a desire to resume flights at the airport — Congress needs to pass a new law forcing them to do so.
“This will help grow the local economy, attract tourism, and support the national security mission at Kingsley Field. I’m proud this bill will help accomplish that,” Walden said.
The Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport has been working to restore commercial air service since carrier SkyWest left the airport in June 2014.
Last fall, the city of Klamath Falls received a commitment from Alaska-based carrier PenAir to bring back commercial service with daily flights to Portland.
However, TSA has refused to bring back screening services at the airport after SkyWest’s departure, despite repeated calls from the local community and from Oregon’s congressional delegation.
A similar bill is working its way through the Senate.
To access the article on the H&N website, refer to this link: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/tsa-klamath-airport-bill-moves-to-u-s-house-floor/article_4418d770-e950-5789-9f32-22cf1e5eab7d.html
This article was in Tuesday’s (March 22nd, 2016) Herald and News
Written By: Holly Dillemuth, H&N Staff Reporter
An approximately 400-acre “Tech Hills” campus business park — that incorporates economic development, real estate and Oregon Tech — is on the horizon Klamath Falls.
The business park will provide one- to 100-acre parcels in the hills west of Oregon Tech, and will include such businesses as Jeld-Wen and Smith Bates printing, according to Klamath County Economic Development Association executive director Greg O’Sullivan.
The land is shovel-ready with water and sewer infrastructure which makes development that much easier, according to O’Sullivan.
“This is a type of business park that will really require the input of Oregon Tech,” O’Sullivan said, during a tour of site last week.
Proponents are saying the tech park could provide a way to keep Oregon Tech students in the area longer after graduation — even keeping students three to five more years longer would benefit the basin economically through business ventures at the park.
“The vision is, through collaboration, cooperative marketing, the development of a tech park that complements and enhances business growth around Oregon Tech and Sky Lakes (Medical Center),” O’Sullivan said.
“We have a general set of boundaries but those boundaries will likely be solidified in a few weeks.
“It’s a much higher-end business sector, and that’s really what we’re (trying to lure here),” O’Sullivan added.
Klamath Falls isn’t alone in the concept of a tech park, but could be on the cutting edge in Oregon if the proposal comes to fruition.
California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Bispo, Calif., is also considering a technology Park near its campus. It has been studying the feasibility of a technology park near the university for a number of years, according to the university’s website.
O’Sullivan believes the Tech Hills strength lies in that it’s being driven by private sector businesses.
He is hopeful the tech park could attract other companies at the level of Jeld-Wen, which may already have current ties through Oregon Tech.
“These are companies with labs, with research facilities,” O’Sullivan said.
“Does Boeing, who uses Oregon Tech graduates, have a piece of the supply chain, or Tesla, or one of the other many alumni companies…do they have a product in their supply chain that we could perfect, manufacture, engineer right here?” O’Sullivan asked.
He said he plans to reach out to Gov. Kate Brown about the park concept, with the hope that she will visit to learn more about the concept in the near future.
“If the governor is concerned about retaining companies in Oregon,” O’Sullivan said, “this is probably one of the best ways to do it.”
Mark Ahalt, a management faculty assistant professor at Oregon Tech, was involved in a branding committee to name the park.
“It’s really just having an identity to connect with,” Ahalt said of the Tech Hills name. A logo for the tech park is also in process.
“There’s a big difference in selling a community and selling a product like a business park or a tech park,” O’Sullivan said.
“If it’s a real estate-driven project and you can get them interested in real estate first, it’s just that much easier. It’s the next place where companies need to expand in Oregon.”
KCEDA has been in discussions with local stakeholders in real estate, economic development and those from Oregon Tech about the proposed project since November 2015, O’Sullivan said.
A proposal to unveil the full project details is planned for late April.
To access this article on the H&N website, refer to this link: http://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/tech-park-shovel-ready/article_6fb3763c-c786-5213-8f9c-591dabb3c0c9.html
On March 21st, a KCEDA Board of Directors meeting was held, where attending members had the opportunity to receive a special presentation from Ben Ludwig, a Project Developer for EDF Renewables, who spoke to the KCEDA about the Swan Lake North – Pumped Storage Hydro Project. Ludwig discussed what progress the project had been making, stating that he had expectations the project would be operational by 2023, and suggested that the endeavor could bring in up to 1,440 jobs to Oregon. To review the presentation slides, please refer to the link provided at the bottom of this article.
Swan Lake North – Pumped Storage Hydro Presentation (Ben Ludwig)
