Moving&shaking

Goose on the loose

Calico Goose, Chico’s source for all things country, folk and fun, is moving out of the Chico Mall after 13 years there. Waddle on over to the shop’s new location in the Pheasant Run Plaza. (That’s the new one with Best Buy and Old Navy.) There will be an even wider selection of jewelry, including more of those hot Zoppini Italian bracelets. They’re going to be making their own fresh fudge, too. “All my employees are coming with me,” owner Debera Lepage is assuring her loyal customers.

Lepage, with a lot of help from store manager Vicky Becker, built Calico Goose up from a home-based, craft-fair type of business to a shop in Chester and now this latest move.

Lepage said she’s always liked being in the mall, but the new ownership “has decided that it is in their best interest to have only nationally recognized chain stores” and would not renew her lease.

The new location was set to open this week, while the mall store will be the site of a sale through May. “We want to be in full swing by Mother’s Day,” Lepage said, adding that the new Calico Goose will be opening earlier, at 9 a.m., to serve the morning crowd.

Leading the charge

With a new state law (AB 521) directing universities to regulate credit card marketing tactics like stuffing students’ shopping bags with ads and applications, Chico State University’s Associated Students are pondering whether the body should help the A.S. Bookstore make up for lost revenue. The about-$2,200 the companies were paying was offsetting the cost of the plastic bags.

At the April 23 A.S. Governmental Affairs Committee meeting, members discussed whether to pay the bookstore to instead present students with some kind of promotional literature, attached to their receipts, educating them about the many programs the A.S. funds with students’ activity fees.

But some felt uncomfortable with the two issues being mixed; that the A.S. should consider the credit card company revenue and the activity fee promotion idea separately. Others questioned whether student fees should go toward such a purpose when the bookstore already makes its own money.

Tiffany Yost, the A.S. vice president for business and finance, argued, “I don’t believe it would be subsidizing [the bookstore]. It would be marketing and promoting.”

The matter will be taken up again at a later meeting.

That’s history

(This bit was reported and written by intern Chelsea Sime. Thanks, Chelsea!)

John and Annie would be pleased. A new plan was unveiled at a public meeting last Tuesday that will restore the landscape around the Bidwells’ historic home to what it actually looked like while they were living there.

The plan was hatched years ago as the mansion itself went through a restoration process. Now, the hope is to create the same historic feeling about the scenery around the house.

During this first public meeting intended to get early public feedback on the project, Sheri Cameron-Rain, a California State Parks landscape designer and coordinator of the plan, gave an overview of the venture. Schematics, based on statewide research compiled by Chico State’s Archaeology Department and completed by Mill Valley contracting firm Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abbey, will be presented in August at a second meeting.

Woody Elliot, resource ecologist, said, “In actuality, we don’t know what’s going to happen. This is just an [introduction] to let the public know we’re talking about it.”

Financing has yet to be lined up. As the design process continues over the next year, the public’s ideas will be sought so that no one is disappointed with the changes made.

“The biggest issue is going to be just creating an atmosphere that is historic [in the middle of a city],” says Cameron-Rain.

Suggestions and knowledge of research sources are being directed to Mike Fehling at 895-4304.