CHEERS to our county going from Hellfire Damnation Risk Level to Purgatory Risk Level, or as the state put it, from Extreme Risk to High Risk. We’re talking, of course, about our county’s COVID risk level. Businesses will be less restricted, but no word yet on the state sending us a merit badge.
BATED BREATH as we await what a return to indoor restaurant dining means for staying at the aforementioned Purgatory Risk level.
JEERS to the feds looking to statistically toss Corvallis into funding limbo. Let us explain: Corvallis is currently considered a Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is important because that’s how the feds decide funding for a town like ours – think everything from Medicare reimbursements to transportation, and bunches in between. Anyhoo, the minimum MSA headcount for these last 70 years has been 50,000 souls per town – the new proposed minimum would be 100,000. Btw, if we get merged with some larger town’s stats, that’d suck for our fair burg’s economic development endeavors. Soooo, here’s how to email your dismay to Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden and Congressman DeFazio. Let’s hope they’ll be encouraged to apply some pressure to the powers that be.
JEERS to state and national agencies ignoring important ecologic tech originating from Corvallis. The Habitat Institute offers a biodiversity accounting system that goes beyond basic critter counts, to include wildlife relationships – it’s a rich accounting of what biodiversity and loss really means. Cara Nixon’s reporting outlines a picture of this next step technology frozen in bureaucratic review.
CHEERS to First Alternative Natural Foods Co-op renting a kitchen space while it looks for options to rebuild the kitchen they lost earlier this year to a fire. Anticipate in-house menu favorites returning sometime in April.
CHEERS to Jefri Van Arsdall, who will be sworn in as sheriff in these parts on Monday. We wait with BATED BREATH for how he’ll deal at a moment that finds society questioning the nature of policing, and we’ll see if he speechifies at his swearing in.
CHEERS for local grants for small businesses impacted by the pandemic. The Linn-Benton Economic Development office only has $135,000 to distribute in dribs and drabs of $5,000 to $25,000, but it’s something.
JEERS to Oregon State University’s latest chapter as goes campus sexual assault. We tried telling you in 2017 that OSU was cooking the books on this reality – with not one, not two, but three stories. With the latest revelations that President F. King Alexander aggressively ignored the same reality at his last gig, one wonders if anyone will listen now. Our experience with OSU administrators on this subject is not good – and we’d hope the trustees would intervene, but it’s not like they were particularly transparent hiring Alexander in the first place. Wanna contact OSU’s trustees? Click here.
PLOT SHRUG as Oregon State University hurtles to gild Reser Stadium into a freakish footie-ball golden calf. We don’t really question their $153 million renovation budget. We question how footie-ball is still a thing, because: Concussions, brain health, education. Gen Z, we beg you, take the reins of leadership, put a stop to the madness.
SUBPLOT: This week’s Cheers & Jeers has words like… hellfire, damnation, purgatory, limbo, golden calf and football… it’s all quite biblical sounding, and we didn’t mean to write that stuff. We don’t how it happened, it’s a puzzler.
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com