The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 5

THEOKLAHOMAN NEWSOK.COM SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2006 5A HUD withdraws deadline for downtown move Merritt 0, I block away. It was destroyed April 19, 1995, by a bomb that resulted in the deaths of 168 people. Brown said employees who do not feel they can work at the new site can submit their medical evaluations to the agency's reasonable accommodation committee. The affected employees are working at the site at 500 Main St. that the agency occupied after the bombing.

Two deadlines have been allowed to pass since the employees were informed in March that their requests to continue working there had been denied. Brown said the agency must decide in August whether to exercise its option to lease the space for another year, regardless of the ongoing appeals. "That's not going to be the determining factor," he said. By Jay F. Marks, Staff Writer There is no longer a deadline for U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development employees in Oklahoma City who hope to avoid a move to the new downtown federal building. About a dozen people had faced a Monday deadline to relocate from an alternate work site. Agency spokesman Jerry Brown said those employees once again have been given additional time to make their case to the committee that considers workplace issues. "We're trying to work with them," he said. The employees who have not moved into the new federal building, which opened in 2004, balked because of the proximity to the old building.

The old Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was about half a John Paul Merritt gas. You can step on it and go or you can conserve it, and I've chosen to conserve it." EXTRA SHOPPING HOURS TODAY 11AM -8PM SUPER SUNDAY DOUBLE DISCOUNT Continued from Page 1A white napkins illuminated by a silver drop lamp. "Here" is the place that women customers raise a brow in surprise when they catch a glimpse of him at the corner table. And this is 15 months after the finale of the show in which he didn't leave with bachelorette Jen Schefft but did leave with an experience he feels has helped him.

"I think we'd be sitting here at this restaurant, but I don't think it would be as successful," 26-year-old Merritt said. "Being on the show has given me a lot of opportunities." Cafe Nova was already in Merritt' plans before he went on the show. And he was already very much an entrepreneur. He started his own company at age 20 while still a University of Oklahoma student. So the owner and chief executive officer of Merritt Interests sits at the table, sunglasses perched amid the wavy black hair, pulling a ringing cell phone out of his left pocket every 10 minutes and explaining just how diverse his business interests have become.

The restaurant division includes Cafe Nova, and "hopefully we'll have three others in the works in the next two years." The real estate division consists of commercial and multifamily real estate investments in northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma. The investment division is primarily in oil and gas. And he financed a pilot reality TV show based on his life called "The Entrepreneur." He said a couple of agencies in Los Angeles are taking a look. "I always took the notion that I'm young and when I get up the next day, whether I get up with $1 million or negative $1 million, I've still got to get up and have the same attitude, and that's to go at life all or nothing. That's the mindset of an entrepreneur." That's why he agreed to participate in "The Bachelorette" to start with.

He didn't seek out the show; it sought him out. A friend was going to attend a casting call in Oklahoma City for "The Bachelor." She wouldn't go alone, so Merritt and some buddies went with her. While he was there, a producer approached him for "The Bachelorette." In August, ABC contacted him and he accepted. "I had nothing to lose," he said. "In the worst-case scenario, it was free advertising.

With the business stuff I had going, I knew I'd be able to take advantage of the marketing opportunities." No longer a normal life About four weeks into the show, he was in Las Vegas for a promotional event. He and another guy got into the Ghostbar at the Palms and were instantly surrounded. After many, many photographs, it came to the point "where you have to leave." So security took them out. For quite a while, Merritt' office received 50 to 100 "love letters" a week. "I saw a lot of them, and if they weren't ridiculous, I'd respond and say it was a sweet letter, thank you and it's flattering," Merritt said.

Nowadays, he has a serious girlfriend, Kristi Rossley, who lives in Oklahoma City. Fame doesn't come with set hours. That's why Merritt said you have to use it wisely. "It's a balance between business and using your 15 minutes of fame," he said. "It's basically like a tank of STOREWIDE ALL-DAY SHOPPING PASS EXTRA 15 OFF SALE OR CLEARANCE PURCHASES INCLUDING HNE JEWELRY 10 HOES, HIHMIf APMRfl, MBR MR, SWreMT! DRESS SUOB KM II OUR HOW STOffi Cannot ha combined with any other shopping pass, coupon or otter.

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