Oregon daily
emerald
Wednesday, May 9, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 151
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Mayoral candidates debated humorously at a televised dabate Tuesday night.
Mayor hopefuls field questions
By Michele Matassa
Of the Emerald
The race for mayor of Eugene continued to
evoke debate Tuesday night on issues of
revenue, economic development and the Hult
Center for the Performing Arts, as the five
mayoral candidates gathered together for a
moderated forum sponsored by Cable Televi
sion Channel 14.
During the one-hour discussion, the can
didates calmly fielded questions from a media
panel and from an audience of about 50 peo
ple, leaning more often toward humorous
answers than heated debate.
The issue of financing the Hult Center
emerged immediately and remained a topic
throughout the forum.
Candidate Michael Cravino stated his strong
support for the Hult Center but argued that the
City Council should have consulted more
closely with the public when it decided to take
on the center's debt as part of the city budget.
"I'm all for funding the Hult entirely through
city revenue funds," Gravino said. "What the
council has lacked to do. . . is that when it
comes to writing off big debts — the public's
money — they don't come back to the public
and ask 'How can you help us with this?' "
To cut costs at the Hult Center, George
Stathakis suggested opening its management
positions up to competitive bidding. In fact, all
public jobs excluding basic services such as
police and fire protection should be bid on,
Stathakis said.
"The reason why we don't have money is
we've been spending it on frills," Stathakis
said. "We've been spending it on things that
are not basic stuff."
Because the Hult Center's $600,000 annual
deficit will now be partly financed through the
city budget, discussion moved from the
center's problems to raising city revenue.
Most of the candidates said they opposed
any new taxes to generate revenue, and
Cravino and Dave Sweet even proposed
methods of their own.
Sweet suggested hooking up to a cable
system originating at Eugene and extending
across the world to showcase Eugene's appeal
and draw people to the city.
''What we need is to reach out from Eugene
to the world and show them what we have
here," Sweet said. "What the council talks
about is destination point. What we need to do
is establish Eugene as an origin point."
Cravino said he would implement a one-cent
fee on all recyclables — bottles and cans that
are now not returnable — and use that money
to supplement the general fund.
Jerry "Wheatgerm" Campbell also denounc
ed new taxes, saying people are already heavily
taxed.
"I think that the thing is, there's not a whole
lot of money around and things area hurtin' for
certain," Campbell said. "What we should do
is tighten the old belt and see who needs some
and what and who can give a little bit."
The only candidate who didn't rule out new
taxes as a revenue option was Brian Obie, who
currently serves as president of the City
Council.
Obie blamed the Oregon's state tax system
for Eugene's tight financial situation.
"The state taxing system is a much greater
because it is forcing industry and jobs out of
this community," Obie said. "We are not going
to move ahead by letting the walls crumble at
the University of Oregon or by creating bar
riers for people to come here."
Soviets announce
nonparticipation in
summer Olympics
MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet
Union announced Tuesday it
will not participate in the 1984
Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles, charging that the
United States doesn't intend to
ensure athletes' security and ac
cusing the Americans of
"undermining" Olympic ideals.
The Soviets did not mention
the U.S. boycott of the Moscow
games four years ago, but Peter
Ueberroth, president of the Los
Angeles Olympic Organizing
Committee, told a news con
ference in Washington that the
United States was "paying the
price for 1980."
fhe Soviet National Olympic
Committee's announcement
was distributed through the of
ficial news agency Tass. It cap
ped a long campaign of Soviet
criticism of the Olympics
preparations, ranging from
complaints about commer
cialism to reports of the Los
Angeles crime and smog.
"Extremist organizations and
groupings of all sorts, openly
aiming to create 'unbearable
conditions' for the stay of the
Soviet delegation and perfor
mance by Soviet athletes, have
sharply stepped up their activity
with direct connivance of the
American authorities," the
Soviet statement said. A group
calling itself the Ban the Soviets
Coalition had said it would en
courage Soviet athletes to
defect during the Games.
The Soviet statement also said
U.S. authorities took a "cavalier
attitude" toward observing the
Olympic charter, and "in these
conditions. . . participation of
Soviet sportsmen in the games
of the 23rd Olympiad in Los
Angeles is impossible."
The Soviet announcement
was made nearly a month in ad
vance of the June 2 deadline for
giving formal notification of par
ticipation in the Olympics, and
came as the cross-country relay
of the Olympic torch began in
New York City.
It also came at a time of tense
relations between Washington
and Moscow. The Soviet Union
has walked out of arms control
talks and has not said when it
will return.
The Soviets "have disregarded
the feelings of most nations and
millions of people the world
over that the Olympics be con
ducted in a nonpolitical at
mosphere," said Pres. Ronald
Reagan's chief spokesman,
Larry Speakes. He said the
United States had "gone the last
mile" to accommodate the
Soviets.
"We have made exhaustive ef
forts to meet Soviet concerns
about arrangements in Los
Angeles and we have met those
concerns," Speakes said.
Communist Romania isn't
planning to follow the Soviet
lead and "will certainly take
part" in the Games, a Romanian
diplomat who asked not to be
identified said in Vienna.
It was not immediately known
whether other Warsaw Pact
countries would join the Soviet
Union in staying away from the
Games. Sports committees and
state-controlled media in East
European countries have been
repeating Soviet allegations that
the United States was violating
the Olympics charter, but Tues
day they reported the Soviet
withdrawal without comment.
"It would now appear that,
once again, athletes will be the
victims of politics and a world
situation beyond their control
should the Soviet Union elect
not to take part in the Olympic
Games," the U.S. Olympic Com
mittee's executive director, F.
Don Miller said in Colorado Spr
ings, Colo.
"The Games are in real jeopar
dy now," said Al Oerter, four
time Olympic gold medalist in
the discus. He said the pullout
"reduces the incentive to work
hard for the Games and
diminishes accomplishments in
them."
But he declared: "If they want
to pull out, then the hell with
them!"
ABC, which has the rights to
televise the Summer Games,
hopes the Soviets "will still par
ticipate and they have until June
2 to change their minds," said
Irv Brodsky, an ABC spokesman.
University receives grants in high-tech areas
The University received $612,000 in federal grants
Monday for lasers and other sophisticated optical
equipment that will support research in projects rang
ing from biochemistry to molecular physics.
"These grants will fund research in one of the
fastest growing areas in the high-tech field," says
Richard Hersh, vice president for research. "With many
high-tech firms wanting to relocate in less densely
populated areas, like Oregon's southern Willamette
Valley, such federal money can only help bolster our
area's attractiveness while it strengthens the Univer
sity's research and teaching in areas related to the op
tical sciences."
The National Science Foundation and the Depart
ment of Defense University Research Instrumentation
Program awarded a grant totaling $300,000. Other
grants included $212,000 from the National Institutes of
Health and $100,000 from the DOD University Research
Instrumentation Program.
All of the equipment will become part of a new
Shared Lasers Facility in the basement of Science II,
scheduled to become operational this summer.
The 2,000-square-foot facility will also be equipped
with a new ultraviolet laser for biomedical research and
other laser systems for studies of combustion com
ponents, atmospheric and interstellar ionic reactions
and the basic nature of chemical bonding.
The University currently has the largest concentra
tion of research and education in areas related to op
tical sciences in the Northwest, Hetlb says. It covers the
sciences from fundamental atomic physics through
molecular biology and is supported by more than $3
million in grants and contracts.
“This expertise in lasers and modern optics already
plays an important role in support of the research and
development needs of the existing printing, microelec
tronics, lumber and medical industries in Oregon that
rely on optical techniques,” he says. "And it could help
the state to take a significant part in the projected
growth of the laser and optical industry."
The DOD grant will enable the University to pur
chase a laser system for research on the optical control
diffuse discharges. The system will be ordered for use
beginning this fall.