University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
WEDNESDAY. fYlAf 21. 1997
INDEX
Opinion
News
Campus View
Sports
Scoreboard
Classifieds
C\J CO CO 05 05 O
TODAY
Local band Jacob Marley’s
Ghost will performfrom 5
to 8 p. m. on the EMU East
Lawn. The concert is free
and open to the public.
INSIDE
The Oregon women’s golf team will compete in the
national championships starting today
An amended bill would prohibit student groups
from using incidental fees for political lobbying
WEATHER
Partly Sunny.
High 70. Low 40.
Measures
fail to net
50 percent
■ ELECTION: Eugene city and Lane
County measures 20-83 and 20-84
needed higher voter turnout to pass
By Jennifer Schmitt
Community Editor
The ballots are in, and according to num
bers released by the Lane County Elections
office at 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Lane County
and Eugene officials will have to go back to
the drawing board and find other ways to
raise funds for public services.
Measure 47 requires that local measures
pass by a double-majority. This means at
least 50 percent of the registered voters must
KEY RESULTS
Election results as
of 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Both measures
failed to achieve the
50 percent voter
turnout necessary
to pass.
■ 20-83:
12,734 yes
13,346 no
■ 20-84:
32,806 yes
31,298 no
cast their ballots,
and then a majority
of them must vote to
pass the measure.
Although official
numbers will not be
released for 10 days,
according to the pre
liminary numbers
released by the elec
tions office Tuesday
night only 36 per
cent or 66,387 of the
registered voters in
Lane County re
turned their ballots.
The voter turnout
percentage for the
city ot hugene was 34 percent.
This means that unless the official per
centage of voter turnout is above 50 percent,
the two local measures will not have passed.
Measure 20-83, a city levy to raise money
to replace funds lost because of Measure 47,
failed by more than 1,000 votes. According
to numbers released from the Lane County
Elections office at 9 p.m„ 13,346 people vot
ed against the three-year levy and 12,734
people voted in favor of the levy.
The county levy (Measure 20-84) which
would have added 48 beds to the Lane Coun
Tum to ELECTION, Page 5
ALCOHOL AWARENESS
WENDY FULLER/Emera
ult’s amazing,
the number of
people who
knew people
killed in
alcohol related
accidents. ??
Linda Devine
Assistant Director ot
Student Life
Marisa Roche, a
Junior Journal
ism major, looks
at the tomb
stones in the
grass outside of
Chapman Hall
Tuesday after
noon. A wrecked
car sits on the
street near the
tombstones
(below).
Alcohol Awareness Week promotes safety
■ DRINKING: Several groups are
joining together this week to
educate students about the dangers
of alcohol
By Daniel Pearson
Higher Education Reporter
Memorial Day weekend is traditional
ly associated with drinking and driving,
and with that in mind the Office of Stu
dent Life is sponsoring University Alco
hol Awareness Week this week.
“It’s a time for us to remind people to
have a safe weekend,” said Linda
Devine, assistant director of student life.
“We want people to think twice before
they drink.”
Devine, in coordination with the Stu
dent Health Center, University Housing
Resident Life and the Greeks Advocat
ing the Mature Management of Alcohol
(GAMMA) has put together several
WENDY FULLER/Emerald
events around campus to get their mes
sage across.
Most visible was the Grim Reaper Pro
ject on Tuesday at the Knight Library
Quad. Students were invited to erect a
headstone representing people who
have died in alcohol related automobile
accidents. As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday
there were about 40 headstones scat
tered around the northern section of the
quad.
“It’s amazing, the number of people
who knew people killed in alcohol relat
ed accidents,” Devine said.
The headstones displayed the vic
tim’s name along with details of the ac
cident, such as one that read, “Amy: rid
ing passenger in the car of a drunk
driver who drove off the road into a
ravine. She was not wearing a seat belt
and died instantly.”
Students could also purchase T-shirts
and Frisbees promoting the project’s
message and receive free information on
topics ranging from drunk driving to
myths about alcohol.
University health educator Annie
Dochnahl said the purpose of Alcohol
Awareness Week is not to promote a
“just say no” message but to encourage
students to drink responsibly if they do
indeed make that choice.
Turn to DRINKING, Page 7
Future remains uncertain for research park development
The last in a three
part series
■ TODAY:
The changing future
of the riverfront urban
renewal district
■ MONEY: A loss offunding for the
urban renewal project would affect
infrastructure and road development
at the Riverfront Research Park
By Eric Collins
Community Reporter
As far as city property tax money is con
cerned, the Riverfront Research Park may
lose all support in the coming months if the
City Council decides to terminate funding
of the urban renewal district with which
the research park is associated.
While the research park itself will not be
in danger of shutting down, the loss of ur
ban renewal funds would affect the
planned roads, parking lots and bike paths
to be built during future expansion of the
park.
Diane Wiley, project manager for the re
search park, said the urban renewal pro
gram money is combined with state and de
partment of transportation funds to provide
the streets and infrastructure for the project.
“If we don’t have [the urban renewal
money], we’ll have to look for another
mechanism to create those kinds of im
provements, but we don’t have a ready
source identified at this point to do that.”
The Riverfront Research Park District, a
148-acre area bordered by Franklin Boule
vard, the Willamette River, the Interstate
and the Ferry Street Bridge, was created in
1985 to assist in developing the site. It is
one of two districts currently active in the
city limits, the other located in downtown
Eugene.
Since 1990, urban renewal money has
been used to create the Millrace bike path
and Millrace Drive. This year, $325,419 of
urban renewal money was spent on the bi
cycle roundabout on the southern side of
the Autzen Footbridge, $83,000 is set for
property improvements on the Franklin
Parcel and $650,000 is slated for the exten
sion of Millrace Drive this summer.
With the budget cutbacks the City Coun
cil is making because of Measure 47, the
question of funding the urban renewal dis
tricts while cutting community centers and
arts organizations has been asked more
Turn to MONEY, Page 5
Ixis law I
in danger j
Eugene’s Toxic
Right-to-Know law
eeuld be under
mined if a new
amendment to an
Oregon Senate Bill
passes. Under the 1
last-minute addi
tion only Portland
would be allowed to
collect fees from
companies.
See story, page 3