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Willamina man savors lottery win
Friday, March 24, 2006 posted 11:07 AM EST
WILLAMINA - Ryan Hicinbothom stopped by Main Street's Willamina Thriftway before reporting to his mill job Saturday night
at Willamina Lumber.
While making his stop, he checked the numbers on a ticket he had bought there for the March 1 Megabucks drawing.
Let's see. 2, 14, 15, 16, 43, 48.
Yep, got a match. It's a winner.
Hicinbothom suddenly found himself $5.4 million richer. However, he went ahead and pulled his Saturday and Sunday shifts
as usual, before taking Monday off and paying a visit to the Oregon Lottery's Salem headquarters Tuesday.
The millworker, raising two sons in a rented doublewide as he awaits finalization of his divorce, tried to keep it low key.
He didn't go see his boss until Sunday night.
He said he needed Monday off to take care of some personal business.
Furthermore, he said, he figured to be quitting his $17-an-hour job, the highest-paying job he'd ever held. At the age of
39, he was also thinking about retiring.
His boss asked the obvious question: "What happened?" Hicinbothom recalls his response this way:
"I said, 'I won the lottery.' He said he would keep it hush-hush. I told him I would appreciate that. Then I walked down
the stairs from his office and people were swarming me."
Word quickly spread through the community that Hicinbothom had turned a $1 Megabucks ticket into a huge payday. And there
were questions to be answered.
"How much did you win?" "What are you going to do?" "What the hell are you doing here at work?"
Hicinbothom had an easy answer for the last one.
"The lottery office doesn't open until Monday," he explained. "What else am I supposed to do?" he asked.
As it turned out, he didn't make it to lottery headquarters until Tuesday. And he didn't collect his winnings even then.
He asked for, and got, time to seek expert advice and weigh his options.
The key decision is whether to take the payout in a lump sum, minus a hefty bite for state and federal taxes, or string it
out over 25 years and trim the tax hit significantly.
He has 60 days to work that out, but said he's already pretty much decided to go the annuity route.
Though the last 100 Megabucks winner have split 68 to 32 for the lump sum payment, and some of those opting for the annuity
have changed their minds and cashed it in, the annuity is a better option in the long run.
Ray Martin, the lottery's winner awareness coordinator said Hicinbothom's annual payment would work out to $144,720, after
deduction of 25 percent for federal taxes and 8 percent for state taxes. That works out to $3.618 million over 25 years.
If Hicinbothom instead went the lump sum route, his tax obligations would leave him with $1.809 million - about one-third
of his original winnings and one-half of his prospective annuity payout over time.
"The annuity works out better," Hicinbothom said, running the math through his head. "It would take me working 3 1/2 years
to make what I will receive in one year on the annuity plan."
He said he is only an occasional Megabucks buyer. He said the most he's ever spent on one drawing is $10.
A regular patron of Thriftway, he bought a quick-pick ticket there, let the computer pick the numbers, and set it on the
bathroom windowsill at home. He didn't get around to checking it until more than two weeks after the winning numbers were
drawn.
"I've been playing off and on for years, and have never won anything," he said. "I told a buddy of mine who was staying with
me that I was going to the store to pick up some lunch stuff, and I might as well check the numbers."
When he did, he realized he had a winner.
It was celebration time. The employees were as excited as he was about his new-found fortune.
"He's a regular customer and very deserving," said Assistant Manager Kyla McKenzie. "It was such a big jackpot. The winner
is a local person, which makes it even more special."
Willamina Thriftway, owned by Matt Marcott and managed by Tom Moore, also gets to cash in. The store selling a winning jackpot
ticket gets a bonus equal to 1 percent of the face value - $54,000 in this case.
Hicinbothom admits to being "kind of overwhelmed" with the realization he's won a multi-million-dollar jackpot and it's going
to change his life in a major way.
He has his two boys, 14-year-old Ryan and 12-year-old Bradley, living with him in an old manufactured home on Fort Hill road,
northwest of town. He's called the rented unit home for 10 years now, but that's about to change as well.
"I love it out here in the summer, so I'll hang here through the summer," he said. "But I'm going to buy a new place."
He's also got his eye on a new Harley Davidson motorcycle.
"I've been a renter all my life," he said. "I've wanted a Harley Davidson motorcycle since I was 15. My half-brother came
out from Portland on Monday. His wife just passed away. He bought a new Harley Davidson, and I told him I want to go riding
with him. And my boys want some quads."
But the house, the cycle and the quads for the kids, that's it, Hicinbothom said. He doesn't plan anything too extravagant.
He plans to quit his mill job of five years so he can spend more time with his boys and do more fishing.
"I can do whatever I want to do," he said. "The sky's the limit. But the main thing is my kids. I want to pave the future
for my boys, which is one reason I'm going to take the annuity. If I die next year, they will be the beneficiaries."
Krystal Kennicott, the daughter of one of Hicinbothom's best friends, was visiting Wednesday morning. So was good friend
Randy King of Grand Ronde.
"No one deserves this more than he does," Kennicott said. "He has worked his butt off. He's been taking care of the boys
for three years, and doing an excellent job. He gives everything to his kids. I cried when I found out he was the winner."
King owns Crown Custom Fiberglass Inc., on Yamhill River Road between Willamina and Grand Ronde, and once employed Hicinbothom
there.
"Well, my friend, I love you dude," King said as the pair hugged. "This is great."
He said, "I've never known a harder working man who more deserved something like this. That's the big thing. That's what
we all said at work."
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