Brownsville's unsanctioned red curb to become drab gray again

Under what’s called a “civil compromise,” Allen Buzzard will write a $1,200 check directly to a painting company, and the felony criminal mischief charge will be dismissed.

Buzzard was accused of painting a residential curb red sometime between April 7 and April 8 last year. After fielding complaints, the city turned the matter over to Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office filed the matter as a misdemeanor mischief case.

A grand jury in November upped the charge to a felony, and a two-day jury trial was scheduled to start Wednesday in Albany.

“This feels like the right way to have it resolved, other than a conviction,” prosecutor Lindy Rae Brownback told defense attorney Stephen Ensor before Linn County Circuit Court Judge Michael B. Wynhausen entered the courtroom and made the deal official.

Restitution was the result the city — considered the victim in the case — was hoping for all along, Brownsville City Administrator Scott McDowell said in the courtroom hallway, prepared to testify had the trial proceeded.

The contractor first will sandblast the red away because simply painting over it would allow the vivid color to reappear in a year’s time, he said.

“I’m just glad we got to the resolution,” McDowell said.

Although no testimony was heard, Buzzard was willing to tell his side of the story on the courtroom steps.

As the self-proclaimed “third-most senior” member of the just-north-of-downtown neighborhood, Buzzard — who lives around the corner from the besmirched intersection of Butte Street and North Avenue — said he had always viewed that corner as dangerous.

Then one day in January 2022, his wife almost ran into a parked black BMW sedan with her vehicle, Buzzard said. He had had enough.

Shortly thereafter, he tried to drum up support among neighbors who had gathered at a nearby mailbox. His first idea was to distribute what he called “non-confrontational” and “informational” fliers on the windshields of cars that parked too close to the intersection’s stop sign.

After a month or so, it was evident that plan wasn’t working, Buzzard said.

In the 10 months since the curb has been red, no one has parked there, he noted.

In a Mid-Valley Media interview last month, Buzzard was resolute to take the case “all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court,” if need be. So, what changed?

“I can’t argue with all the charges being dropped,” he said. Previous offers to resolve the case always included a criminal stain on his record.

His lawyer, Unser, described the resolution as good as a not-guilty verdict.

“You’re convicted of nothing.”

Now Buzzard said he’s going to concentrate on repairing relationships. After walking out of the courtroom, he was able to shake McDowell’s hand “with no animus, no animosity; it was cordial.”

He hopes the same can be achieved with his neighbors.

But he still hopes people won’t park there.