Oregon daily emerald., July 28, 1983, Image 1

BMX
Tykes on bykes
Page 10
Oregon daily
em era Id
Thursday, July 28, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 11
Amazon
undergoes
renovation
By Joan Herman
Of the Emerald
The "wrinkled" walls of Amazon Student
Housing are getting a much-needed facelift this
summer. Workers are busily brushing fresh
coats of rust-colored paint on the exteriors of the
18 buildings before Oregon's monsoon season
arrives.
The cosmetic surgery has been long over
due. The badly peeling paint on the buildings
that hduse University students and their families
has made the housing, what some have called,
the neighborhood eyesore at 24th Avenue bet
ween Patterson and Amazon streets.
Amazon hasn't been exactly “the kind of
face" the University wants to present, says Mar
jory Ramey, acting housing director. “We regret
their appearance."
The $98,500 facelift includes sandblasting
and painting the exteriors of the 18 buldings, as
well as repairing and reroofing four one-story
buildings — at no cost to taxpayers.
All construction and design costs are being
financed from the Amazon Building Repair
Reserve. No state tax funds or bond sales are
involved.
Eugene architect Albert Pastine designed
the final drawings and specifications for the
"cosmetic surgery,” which should be completed
by mid-September, Ramey says.
The painting is part of an ongoing renova
tion project for the complex located several
blocks south of campus. The project is “moving
along well,” Ramey says, although the rain has
been an obstacle.
The facelift’s finishing touches will include
landscaping once the painting is done, Ramey
says.
Amazon residents have been “very patient”
during the renovation project, she says. Letters
were sent to prospective renters informing them
of the disruptive and noisy work, which has in
cluded replacing gutters, down spouts and
storm sewers.
The Amazon apartments originally were
Photo by Mark Pynes
Carpenter Roy Roth repairs the weathered face
of Amazon’s “temporary" student housing.
built in Portland during World War II to house
shipyard workers. The University purchased
them shortly after the war and moved them to
Eugene with the idea of using them as temporary
housing until a better complex was built. That
complex never materialized and the “temporary”
buildings still stand
Amazon has 246 unfurnished two-bedroom
apartments that provide low-cost housing to
married students with or without children and to
single students with children.
Lemon law puts bite
on sour automobiles
By Jim Moore
Of tha Emerald
If the new car is turning into an old clunker before its
time, the “Lemon Law” recently passed by the Oregon
Legislature and signed by Gov. Vic Atiyeh will fix it.
Passage of the Lemon Law was not only a victory for
Oregon consumers, but a job well done for the Oregon
State Public Interest Research Group, as well.
OSPIRG became involved with pushing for the law in
1981, when it discovered Oregonians had filed 256 com
plaints concerning faulty vehicles in the year ending June
30, 1982.
Those complaints translated into more than $1.25
million that Oregon consumers paid for new motor
vehicles that failed to satisfy warranties.
Before the law passed, there were no guidelines to
determine what constitutes a “lemon” vehicle.
“The Lemon Law will rectify this situation,” says Amy
Gredler, chairer of OSPIRG’s state board. “It will provide
the consumer with clear guidelines through which to
receive an effective and meaningful remedy.”
According to the bill, a vehicle will be considered a
lemon if it has been out of service for 30 or more business
days, or had a major part or system repaired four or more
times during the first year or first 12,000 miles of
ownership.
The new law requires the manufacturer to replace
such a vehicle or refund its full purchase price.
“The Lemon Law is the most significant piece of con
sumer legislation to come before (the Oregon
Legislature),” says Sen. Mae Yih, D-Albany. "The Lemon
Law gives Oregon citizens meaningful assurances that
when they make one of their lifetime’s most costly pur
chases — their automobile — they will get their money’s
worth."
The unanimous passage of the bill in the House and
the Senate were due largely to the efforts of OSPIRG, ac
cording to Daniel Malarkey, a state board member.
OSPIRG helped document consumer discontent
through the University’s hotline and gathered testimony to
present to the Legislature, Malarkey says.
Members of OSPIRG also met with members of the
Oregon Automobile Dealers Association to help write the
new law. This helped defuse the opposition so the bill
could pass through the Legislature relatively easily,
Malarkey says.
Passage of the Lemon Law proves students can be ef
fective lobbyists and means OSPIRG is an issue group to
be reckoned with, he says.
‘‘This helps establish our credibility in the
Legislature.”
U.S. walking Vietnam ‘path’ with Nicaragua
By Brooks Dareff
Of tlw Emerald
Rep. Les AuCoin, D-Ore., insisted
Tuesday that the United States must
end the secret war in Nicaragua or else
risk engaging U.S. troops in armed
hostilities.
AuCoin echoed the call of Pope
John Paul II to “terminate all future aid
to El Salvador” until all the civil war
parties sit down and negotiate a new
government of national reconciliation
based on an equitable distribution of
power.
The government of El Salvador
“does not yet have the popular support
of its own people,” AuCoin said. “It
represses, it brutalizes: in the last
three years 30,000 innocent civilian
non-combatants have been
assassinated by forces either in the ar
my, in the government or by forces very
close to either the army or the govern
ment."
A close final vote is expected today
in the House of Representatives on
legislation that would end all covert aid
to the Nicaraguan rebels. The legisla
tion is not given much of a chance of
passing the Republican-control
led Senate.
Late last week Congress met
in a secret session for only the
third time in nearly 150 years to
investigate covert CIA operations
in Nicaragua.
AuCoin touched base
Oregon
i n
over the
weekend, and
Tuesday he
discussed his
recent trip to
Central
America — as
well as this
week’s
Rep. Les AuCoin
escalation ot military activities in tne
Caribbean, Pacific and Honduras —
with KXL radio in Portland.
Earlier this month AuCoin, who is a
member of the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee, and four other Con
gressmen talked with the Sandinistas
for three days and, for one day, looked
at questions of human rights in El
Salvador.
The delegation was sent by Speaker
of the House Thomas O’Neill
Jr., who on Monday came
out publicly against Pres.
Ronald Reagan’s immin
ent deployment of 4,000
American troops to Hondur
as, and two 10-boat Aircraft
Carriers which led battle for
ces to the
Caribbean
and Pacific
coastal
waters of
N icaragua.
O’Neill term
e d these
military ex
cercises “an
unneeded snow ot strength.
On Tuesday afternoon — just hours
before Reagan’s assurance at a press
conference thst the nation was not be
ing led into war — a Pentagon official
told Alfonso Chardy of Knight-Rider
News Service that U.S. planes and
ships might “harass” Nicaraguan or
Cuban vessels or aircrafts suspected
of carrying arms intended for El
Salvador.
The prospects of 1) a flotilla, 2) 4,000
American troops in Honduras (the
largest force the United States will
ever have had in that country) and 3)
upgraded airfields along the
Nicaraguan border have Sen Alan
Cranston, D-Calif., concerned that “a
shell aimed by Nicaragua against the
CIA-backed forces could strike
Americans and provoke another Gulf of
Tonkin.”
In 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin was the
first site of armed confrontation bet
ween North Vietnamese and American
troops. The incident prompted the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution, in which Con
gress granted Pres. Lyndon Johnson
war-making powers independent of
Congress.
AuCoin joined other members of
Congress who have linked the pattern
of escalating activities in Central
America to the situation in Vietnam,
which then New York Times Vietnam
correspondent David Halberstam term
ed “the making of a quagmire.”
“We are following the familiar path
that slowly and surely led us into Viet
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