3 Sizzlers Change Hands

ALBANY, Ore. - Three Sizzler restaurants have changed management and two are closed just four months after an outbreak of E. coli bacteria was traced to one restaurant in a Willamette Valley chain.

Sally Plumley, who owned the five-store chain with her husband, Neil, said Thursday their decision to sell one restaurant in Albany and two in Salem was a "personal choice."

She said the sales had not been influenced by an E. coli outbreak at the couple's Corvallis restaurant in August. Benton County officials said at least 15 people became infected after eating cantaloupe there.

In September, the Plumleys estimated that business had dropped up to 70 percent after the E. coli outbreak in Corvallis.