For more than two years, the Cottonwood Plaza shopping center in Bishop has stood empty, surrounded by chain link fence andcottonwooddrillrig memories of a vibrant shopping mall and gathering place. So, when residents saw two big trucks and a drill rig at work in the center, speculation took off.

Walt Pachucki of Team Engineering explained that the trucks and drill rig were at work to officially remove and abandon monitoring wells that were earlier used to gather groundwater samples as required by Lahontan Water Quality Control.

Lahontan had finally cleared the center as contamination-free after a small amount of petroleum had been found at one area of the center where many years before a gas station had operated. The clean-up work was done and Lahontan issued a “no further action required” letter to Cottonwood owner, Lee Crosby. Pachucki said when all the work is done, the state requires proper abandonment of monitoring wells.

The good news – this is the final step in preliminaries prior to closure of escrow. The center has remained in escrow with an un-named buyer represented by Mammoth Sierra Properties and Stacy Bardfield. Cottonwood Plaza real estate agent, Stan Smith, had said that the new buyer would bring in El Pollo Loco to the previous Burger King location in the center.

Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading