Audrey Caro Gomez
Steve Keating wants to hear about Sweet Home’s old bus depot.
Keating, a structural engineer from Eugene, is revamping the old depot and wants to learn more about the building’s history.
He heard a little bit from some locals during a recent visit to the site.
“Some very nice ladies said their parents had a store in building,” Keating said.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get their names and does not know how to contact them.
“If we could find them, that would be great,” Keating said during an interview with The New Era.
Keating been involved with about a dozen projects in Sweet Home since he began his engineering career in 1989.
He’s worked with Skyline, a couple of restaurants, and Weyerhaeuser, as well as the Cedar Shack. “They’re very fun people to work with,” Keating said.
He also consulted with Dan Desler when the latter was doing mill demolitions.
Keating decided to renovate the bus depot because he loves old buildings.
He said he thinks Sweet Home has turned the corner from its timber industry reliance.
“Storefronts are full, (there is) lots of traffic on the road,” he said.
To add to that growth, he plans to restore the building and create leasable space at a reasonable cost, though he is not set on leasing to a particular type of business.
It could be an insurance office, a small dress shop, or attorney’s office, he said.
The project will take several weeks.
Workers have encountered lead-based paint and will encapsulate it.
The building is in good shape, but the siding has deteriorated, Keating said.
He plans to carve a mural – silhouettes of iconic lumber industry imagery.
For more information or to share some of the building’s history, call Keating at (541) 510-4050 or stop by the site while workers are there.