MATHEW STIFFLER/Emerald
The Hyundai plant in West Eugene is set to receive $27 million in property tax exemptions as a result of the
West Eugene enterprise program.
Council to debate zone policy
■ CITY: The law, which
grants tax breaks to local
businesses, is believed to
encourage too much growth
By Eric Collins
Community Reporter
Many people might not have
noticed the steady climb in devel
opment in West Eugene over the
past ten years, but small business
owners and corporations certain
ly have noticed $42.6 million in
savings.
These companies have taken
advantage of the West Eugene En
terprise Zone policy, which gives
a 3-year property tax exemption
for businesses that follow certain
zone requirements. Every ten
years, the policy can be changed,
and the policy is up for review by
the City Council this March.
Tonight at 7, the council’s En
terprise Zone Advisory Commit
tee is holding a public meeting in
the City Council Chamber at Eu
gene City Hall to hear opinions on
revising the policy.
Since 1987, 43 businesses have
taken advantage of this zone poli
cy, subsequently creating about
1,000 new jobs. Small business
owners have benefited by $1.4
million in sav
mgs, while
Hyundai, HMT
Technology and
eleven other
projects have
saved about
$41.2 million.
Ron Tinsley,
owner of Cus
tom Craft works,
which is located within the zone,
said the exemption helped his
business create 18 to 20 jobs. He
said he thought most of the uproar
regarding the tax exemption has
come from recent concerns over
the Hyundai plant. The plant has
been approved for a $27 million
tax exemption.
“(This zone] helped mostly
small business,” Tinsley said.
“Small businesses need all the
help they can get.”
To qualify for a property tax ex
emption, businesses much meet
several qualifications: businesses
have to manufacture a good; they
have to invest $25,000 in new
property or equipment; they have
to agree to use the employment of
fice for referring applicants; and
they have to increase their em
ployment by 10 percent.
Mark Jacobson, a member of the
advisory committee, said addi
tional requirements for future
companies were being consid
ered.
Denny Braud, City of Eugene
zone manager, said the combina
tion of releasing the city’s Growth
Management Study and the revis
ing of the enterprise zone come at
a good time.
The study, which was released
Feb. 6, concluded that citizens
did not encourage growth in Eu
gene and wanted new companies
to pay their full cost of develop
ment.
The committee will report its
findings to the Eugene City Coun
cil in March.
Newspaper archives
to be placed on Net
■ USNP: Knight Library
recently received funds to
place Oregon’s newspapers
into a nationwide archive
By Sarah Keech
Freelance Reporter
A $258,220 grant from the Na
tional Endowment for the Hu
manities will allow the University
Knight Library system to catalog
and preserve all archived Oregon
newspapers and place them on
the Internet.
The grant was given to the Uni
versity to help preserve the histo
ry of Oregon and to add to the
U.S. Newspaper Project’s nation
wide archive, with online ser
vices provided by the Library of
Congress.
For 12 years,
the USNP has
located and cat
aloged newspa
pers from
across the
country. With
this grant, Ore
gon becomes
the 49th state to
be included in USNP's compre
hensive archive.
The project to collect, catalog
and preserve on microfilm all past
and present newspapers in Ore
gon will take several years and in
volve the work of many people.
“The initial grant covers two
years of work, but we plan to ap
ply for an extension of an addi
tional year,” said Karen Darling,
head of the library’s serials de
partment. Darling will be coordi
nating the cataloging phase of the
project.
Mark Watson, the USNP Ore
gon project manager, Darling and
others will initially catalog the
material already housed in the li
fit-—
Cataloging these newspapers
will make historians more
aware of them, and the general
public will have better access
to them.
— Karen Darling
Head of Knight Library Serials Department
-99
brary's microfilmed newspaper
collection. From there they will
fill in lost or missing issues and
search the state for newspapers *
that are not already part of the
University’s collection.
“We plan to send letters out to
public libraries, museums and
historical societies to locate addi
tional newspapers,” Darling said.
Finding a new, undiscovered
newspaper in Oregon is rare be
cause the records have been kept
up to date.
“We don’t expect to find many
because Oregon has been keeping
records since the 1950s, and most
newspapers have already been
cataloged,” she said.
An advisory board made up of
librarians, journalists and histori
ans will be set up to help with the
project.
“They will work on publicity,
help us find newspapers we may
have overlooked and give us new
ideas for the project,” said Dar
ling.
The USNP hopes that the histo
ry learned from the older newspa
pers will be preserved and acces
sible for future generations.
“Cataloging these newspapers
will make historians more aware
of them, and the general public
will have better access to them,”
Darling said.
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