By Jim Kinghorn
Breaking News – (insert breaking glass sound here) Silverton made the list of Budget Travel Magazine’s top 10 coolest small towns in America and was the only town on the west coast to do so. Of course, we already knew we were pretty cool but it is nice to let everyone else in on the secret.
Is The Man the only one who has noticed that when you get caught by a red at the new signals on North
Water Street you can’t see when the light turns green? Maybe we could get ODOT to adjust the angle of the second set of lights so they can be seen by the hapless first-in-line driver. Until then, The Man will just have to continue to get out of his car and sit on the street to get low enough to see when it’s time to go.
One of the long held challenges for the Oregon Garden has been that you could drive right by and not know there is a beautiful garden up on the hill. Sure, there was a sign, but nothing to announce that you had arrived at someplace special. Well, Dirk Winter and the crew up at Moonstone recognized that fact and have replaced the entryway off of Cascade Highway with something a little more substantial. The Man says, now that’s a sign…….
Gail Frassenei reports that her Panache Boutique is moving in with Stomp Boutique at 208 E. Main St. in Silverton. Does that make it a bevy of boutiques?
The Oregon Garden Concert series is back on for six shows in July and August. Check out oregongarden.org for dates, times and performers. If you are a poet but don’t know it you can get some practice at the Silverton Poetry Festival April 18 – 26 at various locations around town.
Not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away some good citizens started a local bank. The bank prospered and the subjects were happy until the great credit crunch of the millennium struck and took the bank away. This, of course ignited Bank Wars… When Silver Falls Bank shut down (How many dark suited FDIC agents does it take to swoop in on a Friday afternoon and close one little ‘ol small town bank you ask? Read on for the answer) Citizens Bank took over the location and was open the following Monday. MaPS Credit Union, after a bit of a battle over the only available building in town with an existing drive thru, secured a Main Street location next to, you guessed it, West Coast Bank. Willamette Valley Bank expanded into the space next to their existing mortgage office on South Water Street and have tentative plans to build a separate branch in the future. Valley Health and Postal Credit Union had already proposed a new branch location that ended up not being feasible but continues to look for possible locations. And don’t forget Washington Mutual will soon become Chase, Wells Fargo is still in Safeway and US Bank has a branch not far away in Mt. Angel… The Man says, hang on Chewbacca, it’s gonna be a wild ride…Oh yeah, the answer is 64!
