Posted: Sunday, December 14, 2008 12:00 am
Here's a list of local issues that have been covered recently in the Gazette-Times and the status of those stories:
CCC Plaza
The story: A California developer has been trying to build an 87,000-square-foot shopping center in the 1800 block of Northwest Ninth Street since buying the 9-acre site in 2003. A 35,000-square-foot Wilco Farm Store is slated to anchor the $17.5 million project, which is adjacent to OfficeMax and OSU Federal Credit Union.
The latest: The project broke ground early this year, but work ground to a halt in the spring after a financing agreement fell apart. Developer Craig Clark said this week that he's on the verge of signing a new financing deal that would allow construction on the project to resume. "Maybe by next week - we're that close," Clark told the Gazette-Times on Friday. "All the players have been identified. We've found the equity."
Philomath turkeys
The story: Residents at the west end of Philomath were pestered by turkeys late this summer and early fall. The birds were causing property damage. The city got a permit to kill 10 of the wild birds, and six were shot by a policeman in late October.
The latest: Four more turkeys were killed by police on Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving. "We don't have any thoughts about asking for additional permits for the time being," said City Manager Randy Kugler.
Shiba Inus rule the Web
The story: A recent Sunday column indicated that a simple streaming Web cam of a rambunctious group of six golden-and-white Shiba Inu puppies had grown by word-of-mouth (and click of mouse) to a worldwide phenomenon.
The UStream TV-maintained Web site is just a camera aimed at a bin of six puppies belonging to a California couple known to their legions of devoted Web views as Mr. and Mrs. SF Shiba. The couple set up the Web cam Oct. 8 to keep an eye on the newborn puppies and their mom, Kika, while the two of them were working. They had no intention of starting a worldwide phenomeon, but they did.
The latest: Three of the puppies, now nine weeks old, were sent to their permanent homes on Dec. 6 and 7.
Saturday, MSNBC reported that the highly contagious cyber attraction is officially the most-watched streaming video in Internet history. Since its debut, more than 18 million people in at least 71 nations have spent the equivalent of 790 years watching the puppies yawn, snarl, wrestle and (mostly) sleep.
Twin Oaks cemetery
The story: Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum on Riverside Drive is in foreclosure and under state investigation. Also, its current and former operators are suing each other over unfunded liabilities arising from pre-need sales of headstones and related items.
The latest: The Division of Finance and Corporate Securities continues to audit Twin Oaks' books. Meanwhile, Lebanon attorney Tre Kennedy, who represents current operator Mike Terwilliger, e-mailed the newspaper copies of two documents that show former Twin Oaks owner Chantelle Hernandez failed to report at least one pre-need sale to the state. The documents are a letter to the state saying no pre-need sales were made during the April 1, 1997, through March 31, 1998, reporting period, and a pre-need contract dated April 29, 1997. Kennedy says he has other documents that show Hernandez made $25,930 in pre-need sales during the reporting period. He added that Terwilliger has covered $2,845 of those sales out of his own pocket. Hernandez did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.