PORTLAND – Taking advantage of its conversion to a community charter a year ago, the $538 million Oregon Telco Community Credit Union is opening its first branch in August in a Portland shopping mall. "We recognized in our application that if we were really going to serve the marketplace we would need branches, and so have started work on our first," said Robert Kuhnert, executive vice president-finance. The full service, 2,500-square foot facility will be opened in Mall 205 in southeast Portland in a former savings & loan branch which had previously been converted for use by a retail copying firm. The 39,000-member Oregon Telco, which in its April 2002 application said it would expand to five metro Portland counties, does plan to add two more branches "in the next five years" in addition to Mall 205. "We are hoping to open our second branch in the first part of next year," said Kuhnert. He said he could not say in which county the next branch might be. Under the application, Oregon Telco can expand into Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Yam Hill and Marion counties.