Although Portland took the brunt of a Valentineâs Day weekend snow and ice storm that rolled into Oregon through the Columbia River Gorge, Linn and Benton counties did not escape unscathed.
Tree limbs grew heavy with thick ice starting about suppertime Friday, and by Saturday morning, trunks and branches littered roads and yards and pummeled fences to the ground.
Sandy Kroker has lived on Loma Drive near Scio for 43 years and doesnât remember an ice storm as bad.
In Saturdayâs predawn hours, Kroker said, she heard âall kinds of popping and bumping sounds.â
When darkness turned to daylight, Kroker said, she found that numerous branches of a willow tree next to her home had snapped and the limbs were covering her car.
In a rare event, last Tuesdayâs low bidder for the Muddy Creek Bridge Project approved by the Linn County Board of Commissioners was disqualified after failing to register to be listed on a âplan holders listâ and turning in a bid that excluded one item and an incorrect quantity on a second bid item.
Linn County Roadmaster Wayne Mink told Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Sherrie Sprenger Tuesday morning that Carter & Co. from Salem, which has done business with the county on several other occasions, submitted a bid of $840,594.
Second low bidder was Marcum & Sons of Redmond at $856,000. The county engineerâs estimate was $1,090,305.