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WHAT’S UP // NEWS The Penthouse of First Street

A BETTER LOOK AT THE HOUSE SITTING ON TOP OF SID STEVENS JEWELERS

By Tyler Stacy Driving over the Ellsworth Street Bridge into downtown Albany, a house can be seen sitting on top of Sid Stevens Jewelers, a local jewelry store. This house is they were still extremely generous. In 1918, Joseph Bikman bought $3,800 worth of war stamps, an unheard of amount at the time. War stamps were a way the U.S. government funded nicknamed The Penthouse as it sits above two stories overlooking the efforts of WWI. The reason Bikman did this was to show downtown Albany. his love and appreciation for his country. The origins of The Penthouse begin with a man named Joseph The Bikmans at some point moved out of the penthouse and H. Bikman. After escaping the anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine to a house on the ground. The Penthouse was rented for a small around 1910, Bikman and his family moved to America. Eventu- period of time. An arsonist even set fire to the house during ally, he settled in Albany, this time period not Oregon to open a wom- once, but twice. The en’s clothing store with reasons for this are his wife Anna Bikman. In still unknown but the 1923 the Bikmans bought damage was limita lot for $18,000, where ed to The Penthouse in 1924 they built the thanks to fast work Bikman Building for their by firefighters. Since shop. The building was then, the Penthouse designed by Charles Bug- hasn’t seen an occugraff, a famous Albany pant, and in 2000 it architect at the time. was labeled as unliv Sometime around able by a tax assessor. 1928, a house was built Currently, Stevens on top of the Bikman Sid Stevens Jewelers, located in the Bikman building, (The has no plans to restore building, and it became Penthouse can be seen on top of the building) The Penthouse, but he The Penthouse. is doing work to fix the roof and sidings, as that could cause “Joseph Bikman promised Anna a house to live in when they water damage to the rest of the building. Restoring the rest of came to America, and this is what he could do,” said Sid Stevens, The Penthouse would take large amounts of time and investcurrent owner of the store and the Penthouse. ment and as Stevens said “that’s not really in the cards for me.” Having their house on top of their building allowed the Bikmans Even though the Penthouse won’t be restored, it remains to not pay property taxes on the house. All they had to pay for was on top of the Bikman building where anyone driving over the the store below. Although the Bikmans did find a loophole in taxes, Ellsworth Bridge can see.

Tyler Stacy

By Tyler Stacy

An interview with Joey Running, finance teacher

• Employers are responsible for taking out each employees taxes based on what they completed on their W4, which is their withholding allowance form.

• A W2 is provided to you by your employer. It’s a summary of how much you’ve earned and how much taxes have been taken out.

• Each year there is a tax filing deadline, which is traditionally, April 15.

“It’s to your benefit that you file your taxes earlier because if there’s any errors, you can fix them, and you won’t be charged a penalty.”

The Wait for Gender Neutral Bathrooms

CONSTRUCTION MISHAP LEADS TO NEED FOR RENOVATION

For senior Sachi Wrigley, going to the bathroom involves walking all the way across the school to the new building, waiting in the office for the staff bathroom, and then walking back only to find you’ve missed 20 minutes of lecture. For many nonbinary, trans, and other gender nonconforming students, using the bathroom can be a complicated process. “When I go to the bathroom, I have to make a decision,” Wrigley said. “‘Do I want to go to the women’s restroom and feel uncomfortable with who I am as a person, or do I go to the men’s restroom and get looked at weird and harassed?” When the new building was finished last spring, the plans involved gender neutral bathrooms located across from the auxiliary gym. What differentiates gender neutral bathrooms from regular bathrooms is that they provide more privacy for students and they are not labeled for a specific gender. Unfortunately, when students were welcomed back to the school, those bathrooms were closed. “The ones across from the gym were always intended to be gender neutral bathrooms,” principal Susie Orsborn said. “[But] when it got built, they weren’t gender neutral bathrooms.” There were two bathrooms built, both with two stalls. The issue was that the

By Eleanor Peterson

stalls weren’t built floor to ceiling, which allows students to look over or under the stalls. But, it’s more complicated than just rebuilding the stalls, Orsborn said. When

11%

Out of 100 students that surveyed use the gender neutral bathrooms

remodeling the bathrooms, they have to worry about airflow, which is what’s causing the holdup. For students looking for gender neutral bathrooms, they can currently be found in the office. And while there is no definitive date, the school hopes to be able to open the remodeled gender neutral bathrooms as soon as possible.