Oregon Garden has come up with an interesting plan to get the Silverton attraction back on track.
In the five years its been operating it's lost more than $8 million dollars. Low attendance to blame. It's now in recievership...but not for long.
It looks likes the garden could be on its way to becoming a first class attraction for the state.
Moonstone Hotels out of California is spending $8 to $10 million dollars into building a boutique hotel on eleven acres that look over the gardens.
The company plans to break ground this summer and have the spa-resort up and running a year later.
It's really interesting how Moonstone became involved. An employee at the company's
Cottage Gove resort told Dirk Winter, Moonstone's owner about the financial problems the garden was having. He's a gardner and was interested to see how his company could play a role in saving it. It really does prove that one person can make a difference.
The money the hotel makes will go to payback the creditors. It really does seem like a win win...for the City of Silverton, Marion Country and of course the garden.
If you haven't been to visit this garden spot. Make a point...around June when the place is in full bloom.
Moonstone takes over operation of the garden on April 1st.

Posted by Joe Smith at 05:15 PM | Permalink

Do you have a payroll check you've never cashed, or a rebate check sitting in a kitchen drawer that's expired? Not to worry. You could have some money coming to you from the state.
The Oregon Division of State Lands is charged with finding the rightful owners to more than $215 Million dollars in unclaimed property.
It happens every year. Maybe your pay is direct deposited, but you changed jobs and your last pay was sent to you by check. You may have forgetten all about it. Maybe you have a relative who died and you didn't know they had a safe deposit box.
The contents could be worth big bucks.
If the material isn't claimed after two years, it goes on the auction block. The proceeds are kept by the state forever until someone claims them.
To get you started, all you have to do is check out the Division of State Lands website
www. oregonstatelands.us. Click on the Unclaimed Property section.
You'll have to fill out a questionaire, get it notorized and send it in to the state.
According to the folks I talked with today, they are pretty efficienct. They'll get back to you in about 45 days one way or the other.
They also have a specialist that actually tries to find YOU. Andrea Downing has a program that searches public records. If she finds a match she'll give you a call. Her biggest score was finding $100 thousand dollars for one person.
All the money collected is put to good use. It's invested and the money earned goes to pay for the Unclaimed Property program and the Oregon Common School Fund.
Last year 43 million dollars went to public schools here.
Check out the website...you've got nothing to loose...and everything to gain.
After all It's your money.

Posted by Joe Smith at 05:49 PM | Permalink