We’ve Got This Thing And It’s Effing Golden.

[December 10th, 2008]

The contractor for some of Portland’s trendiest projects declared personal bankruptcy on Dec. 1. Mike Purcell, owner of Gray Purcell Construction, loaned his company more than $2 million but hasn’t gotten repaid because he says some of his customers haven’t paid him. Purcell is in dispute with three clients, whose financing dried up mid-job. Purcell says his company remains solvent but has gone from 82 employees to 30 in the past couple months. Meanwhile, he says dozens of trade creditors and suppliers are in the lurch from what he calls the worst conditions he’s seen in 35 years of building. “Lenders are reappraising projects mid-stream and requiring borrowers produce more equity,” he says. Among Gray Purcell’s projects: the Mississippi Avenue Lofts and Clinton Condominiums as well as the partially completed bSide 6 and SunRose projects on East Burnside Street.

More trouble in the ’Couv : Earlier this fall, the City of Vancouver paid $1.65 million to former police officer Navin Sharma (see “Good Cop, Mad Cop,” WW, July 30, 2008) to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit. Now Sharma’s attorney, Greg Ferguson, has filed a tort claim notice on behalf of another terminated officer, Chris Kershaw, whom Ferguson claims was wrongfully fired for agreeing to testify on Sharma’s behalf. (Read the tort claim PDF.)

A fake 9.0 earthquake will shake Portland for four minutes on April 24 as part of a planned “Cascadia Peril” exercise organized by state, city and county agencies. Named for the vast subduction zone off the Pacific Coast, the “Peril” exercise will let emergency personnel improvise a disaster scenario that would swamp major West Coast cities, says Sylvia Ross, a spokeswoman for Portland’s Office of Emergency Management. “We don’t know if our children will see it in their lifetime,” Ross says, “but we do need to prepare for it.”

More than two years after James Chasse Jr. died in police custody, newly elected Portland police union President Scott Westerman tells WW the Bureau’s Use of Force Review Board has cleared all the officers involved. The board reviewed the evidence in October but hasn’t yet made its findings public. Westerman, however, is frustrated that Chief Rosie Sizer hasn’t made her own recommendation whether to discipline the officers. For more, go to wweek.com.

A billboard that was up for a month on U.S. 26 indicates People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals still has a wary eye on the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Hillsboro (see “Monkey Ethics,”WW, Nov. 21, 2007). The billboard near the research center’s exit off U.S. 26 urged people to contact PETA if they’re aware of lab animal abuse. PETA’s Kathy Guillermo wouldn’t say how many calls the sign elicited before it came down on Dec. 4. But center spokesman Jim Newman says a federal investigation after PETA did its own undercover probe found no problems. Asks Newman: “Why aren’t they using their donation dollars to go after real issues, like the cats and dogs around the country that are being euthanized?”

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