CONSTRUCTION

parallel parking south of the Highway 73/74 intersection.

e intersection of Highway 73 and Little Cub Creek Road also will be improved, and the left-turn lane for the second lane from Bu alo Park Road to Highway 73 will be lengthened to improve safety.

e county says the underlying reason for improving the highway is to better facilitate evacuations in an emergency because the improved Highway 73 will be able to accommodate more cars. In addition, a tra c study shows that 16,000 vehicles travel on Highway 73 daily, indicating that the road as it is now con gured is nearing capacity.

Construction will be funded by a grant of $8.75 million from the Federal Highway Administration, plus Je erson County’s share estimated to be $2.19 million.

one morning, she informed Oscar that patrons weren’t permitted behind the counter. Mad as hops, Oscar started hollering about how the register trainee who’d taken his order had botched his breakfast and he wanted it xed, tout suite. Well aware of Oscar’s prickly temperament, the manager personally corrected the mistake and delivered the proper meal directly to Oscar’s table. Oscar thanked her by directing un attering names at her back in a stage whisper, and when that didn’t satisfy his appetite for orneriness he tracked her down and directed them to her face. e manager asked Oscar to leave. “ is is a public place!” Oscar thundered. “I do not have to leave!” e manager told him if he didn’t leave peaceable-like she’d have JCSO escort him out. Oscar called her blu , only she wasn’t blu ng, and a deputy soon arrived to escort Oscar out. Oscar explained that he belongs to the group ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out), and that he’s had nothing but trouble with that restaurant’s miserable crew of deceitful, disrespectful and incompetent employees for at least

10 years. Before Oscar could continue, the deputy asked him to stop shouting in his face from a distance of three inches. Oscar “snickered,” took a half-step back, and went on, saying his breakfast sandwich had arrived without any bacon on it, and when he tried to get the bacon he had coming the manager “snapped” at him and gave him “a dirty look.” It was only natural, then, that when she delivered his corrected order he’d quite rightly “verbalized what I thought of her.” e deputy explained to Oscar that when told to leave an establishment he is legally bound to do so, and that failure to skedaddle could result in trespassing charges. Oscar declared that an injustice and an outrage, but said it didn’t matter anyway because he and his ROMEO pals would just go nd some other restaurant to hang out in. A better restaurant. One with nice, respectful employees. at was just ne with the manager, who undoubtedly noticed that none of Oscar’s ROMEO pals followed him out the door.

Shoeless Joe

EL RANCHO – If vehicular herbicide is a thing, Tina Tenant wanted Volvo charged with it. On the afternoon of Jan. 3, she told deputies, Volvo had been careening about the complex when he – deliberately, it seemed to Tina – plowed through a snow bank “at a high rate of speed” and attened a “15-foot pine tree.” As might be expected, the adventure left Volvo’s vehicle much the worse for wear, and he’d simply left it where it lay and escaped the area afoot. Contacted for comment, Volvo denied deliberate recklessness, explaining that he’d merely been driving “barefoot” and “my shoes” got stuck “under the pedals.” Turns out vehicular herbicide is not a thing, so deputies charged Volvo with criminal mischief instead. Sheri ’s Calls is intended as a humorous take on some of the incident call records of the Je erson County Sheri ’s O ce for the mountain communities. Names and identifying details have been changed. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty.

• Plans for improving Highway 73 from Bu alo Park Road to Plettner Lane, plus a video explaining the proposal, are available on the county’s website at www.je co.us/jc-73.

• Keep up on the Evergreen Lake North Trail project by visiting evergreenrecreation.com.

Evergreen Lake North Trail e rec district received eight bids from contractors interested in constructing two trails, a 10-foot-wide concrete trail along Evergreen Parkway and a soft-surface trail along the lakeshore.

Construction will take 10 months and must begin by May 1, though tra c will be impacted for no more than 120 days, according to the contract. During those 120 days — those dates have not been determined — Evergreen Parkway along the lake will be down to one lane, and the