Spring Cleaning in Old Town…
The Merchants of Old Town will take the morning tomorrow to get ready for Spring Break…
205 – “They’ve nicknamed it clean sweep 2010 and it’s the merchants campaign to get things cleaned up for the upcoming spring visitors.”
Judy Sikes is the president of MOOT. To help out, city public works crews will be pressure washing the vintage lamp posts in Old town and volunteers will be preparing the hanging flower baskets that will eventually fill the sidewalks with color. Others will work on picking up trash, pulling weeds and general cleanup. Sikes says it’s a community event with shopkeepers and business owners encouraged to pitch in… but anyone is welcome.
206 – “encouraging anybody that has a few minutes to show up down there on Thursday at 8:30 and don some gloves and trash bags and walk the streets with us and help clean up.”
Sikes estimated they should be done with the cleanup by noon. Spring break for most Oregon Schools gets underway this weekend.
Oregon State Police, the U.S. Coast Guard and fire department volunteers were out in the early morning hours searching for a subject wanted in conjunction with possible copper wire theft from the former Lotus Restaurant. A state trooper responded to a report of a suspicious person on the docks below the vacant restaurant at 3:45. The subject jumped in the water to avoid questioning. Oregon State Police say the coast guard responded with a boat and a helicopter to aid in the water search while volunteers walked the bank. The search yielded no results, but one trooper said they are certain the person did get out of the water… the investigation will continue.
The Coast Guard responded to complaints from the Winchester Bay merchants about closures of two popular sport crabbing areas just inside the Umpqua River entrance when ocean conditions are rough. New safety regulations went into effect late last year that included the usually calm waters of Windy Bay and Half-Moon Bay in the “Regulated Navigation Area” that is subject to closure without notice. Merchants and residents complained that closure of the two bays were usually unwarranted… officials relented and have now excluded them from the regulated area.
Gas prices continue to creep up with this week’s national average at $2.79 a gallon for regular unleaded. That’s an increase of three cents from last week. The Oregon average price went up a penny, it’s at $2.88 a gallon, while the local average went up by three cents and is now at $2.75. Marie Dodds with Triple-A of Oregon says statewide and national averages are at their highest levels of the year, just in time for spring break.
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
BEND, Ore. (AP) - A 42-year-old Bend man has been seriously
injured in a tree-climbing accident near Tumalo Falls. Deschutes
County sheriff's Lt. Deron McMaster says Gary L. Hollipeter had
been climbing a small tree in the area yesterday when he began
shaking the tree trunk back and forth. He was about 20 feet off the
ground when the trunk broke, dumping him on the ground. McMaster
says alcohol was a contributing factor in the fall.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Urban tree lovers in Portland are worried
that the city is turning into a haven for skinny, ornamental trees
while development cuts down thick shady trees. Brian Krieg of the
citizen Urban Forestry Commission says Portland's tree canopy
coverage is about 26 percent. The Oregonian reports that the group
American Forests and the USDA say that lags behind San Antonio at
38 percent and Atlanta at about 37 percent.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Unemployment in Oregon fell slightly in
February to 10.5 percent. The Oregon Employment Department figures
show the jobless rate was 0.2 percent lower than in January. The
rate has been essentially unchanged for several months. State
officials say most major industries performed near their normal
seasonal pattern in February. Construction, however, cut 1,800 jobs
when no changes usually occur that month.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) - A medical marijuana patient has pleaded
not guilty after he was arrested for carrying a small amount of the
drug into a Springfield courthouse. Paul McClain says he started
using marijuana at the suggestion of a Eugene neurologist treating
him for pain following a car accident. Police found the marijuana
in McClain's backpack when he arrived for a traffic-related court
appearance.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - A small fish that was a staple of
Northwest American Indian tribes when the Lewis and Clark
expedition arrived is getting federal protection because it's been
declining toward extinction due to global warming and other
factors. The Pacific smelt will be listed as a threatened species
in the Federal Register today.
COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (AP) - A work crew is dismantling an aged
and rare covered railroad bridge in Cottage Grove. Hamilton
Construction superintendent Bob Fletcher says the job requires
surgical care. The crew has already taken the siding off and then
the roof, and next came the gable. A $1.3 million grant from the
National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program is paying for
the project.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A nonprofit health group reports a big
jump in the number of middle-class Oregonians without health
insurance. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says the number shot
up from 98,000 a decade ago to 170,000 in 2008, reflecting a
national trend. The group estimates that the cost of insuring an
Oregon family rose roughly 70 percent between 2000 and 2008.
ENTERPRISE, Ore. (AP) - Wallowa County prosecutors say a Bend
woman has been indicted after two fishermen found her stillborn
baby along a road in northeastern Oregon. The Oregonian reports
that the state medical examiner determined that the girl had been
stillborn. Olivia Lorraine Soares was indicted yesterday on charges
of felony second-degree abuse of a corpse and misdemeanor
concealing the birth of an infant.
TAKING A LOOK INTO COAST RADIO SPORTS:
College Basketball:
The Oregon State Beavers begin the defense of their 2009 College Basketball Invitational title tonight at Gill Coliseum when they face Boston University. Oregon State ended the regular season with a 14-17 record… they go up against the Terriers, who finished the season at 19 and 13, at seven P.M.
Ernie Kent is officially done at the University of Oregon. After 13-seasons as head basketball coach at his alma mater he’s been let go. Kent had two years remaining on his contract and will get $1.5-million in severance. After a 16-16 overall record on the season… seven-and-eleven in Pac-10 play… he still leaves as the winningest coach at Oregon. Teams under his guidance went 235-173 overall and made three appearances in the NCAA tournament. But Oregon has slipped in the past two seasons, going 24-39 and
finishing 10th and ninth, respectively, in conference play.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment