Police and fire departments
search for new building sites
■ Measure 20-31 would
provide the funds needed to
relocate the departments by
raising property taxes
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
A $36.6 million bond measure in
the May 16 primary election that
would finance new downtown po
lice and fire stations is being de
scribed as necessary monies by the
city, but too costly bv its detractors.
The police and fire departments
currently share the bottom level of
the 37-year-old City Hall, a loca
tion measure supporters say is too
cramped and not built to with
stand an earthquake.
If approved, Measure 20-31
would relocate both departments
and cost the average Eugene home
owner about $65 more each year in
property taxes starting in 2002.
A task force created by the city
* to address the issue determined
the most cost-effective approach
to solving the problem would be
, to build new stations rather than
renovate the existing ones.
Rita Molina, a University law
student who served on the task
force, described the current offices
of the police department as
“hideous," and said the best option
for the city is to build a new site
rather than improve the old one.
“If you renovate the current lo
cation you don’t solve the prob
lem of a lack of adequate space,”
she said.
According to information re
leased by the city manager’s office
based on an architectural survey,
the police department’s current
office space of 50,000 square feet
is 25,000 less than what is actually
needed. In the next 20 years,
f-2-!
25.000 more square feet,will he
needed to accommodate popula
tion growth.
The Eugene Fire Department
needs 5,000 square feet now and
9.000 more for the future, accord
ing to the survey.
A strong proponent for the meas
ure and a member of the Eugene
Police Commission, John Brown
said that despite the project’s high
cost, the police and fire depart
ments’ needs are something that
the city of Eugene can not ignore
and must solve now.
“Granted it does hurt and grant
ed you could do it cheaper,” he
said, “but then you’re just passing
the prob
lem along
to the next
genera
tion."
No sites
have been
chosen for
the new
stations,
but Brown
said that
the city al
ready
owns two properties downtown
that could be used.
' Fire department spokesman
Glen Potter said the department’s
small downtown station meets Eu
gene’s needs, but as the city grows,
a new station will be needed and
earthquake safety is a real concern.
“We don’t want to have our
quarters in a building that is unre
liable in an earthquake,” he said.
Critics of the measure, howev
er, don’t think building two new
stations at a cost of $36.6 million
is a sensible solution. They wou Id
prefer to see the city renovate the
current sites and move some of the
#
1 BALLOT
|| MEASURE
Measure20-31
Measure 20-31 would finance the
construction of new police and
fire stations downtown to replace
stations currently located in City
Hall. The $36.6 million bond
measure would cost Eugene resi
dents an average of $65 more
each year in property taxes.
Supporters claim police and fire
departments need to get out of
City Hall as it is vulnerable to
earthquakes and is too small for
the stations’ growing needs.
Opponents claim the measure is
too costly and that other options,
such as renovating the current
sites or relocating to existing build
ings, have not been sufficiently ex
plored.
police and fire services into other
office buildings.
Arthur Shapiro, co-author of a
statement in the voters’ pamphlet
opposing the measure, said that
because the city provided no other
options to solve the police and fire
departments’ problems and be
cause it did not hold public meet
ings about the issue, lie could not
support the measure.
“I have nothing against the po
lice and fire departments, but I do
have some issues against a city
council that has no public meet
ings." he said, adding not having
the meetings was a “dereliction of
their duty as elected officers.”
This is the first in a series of articles the
Emerald will publish profiling local and
state ballot measures and candidates
during the weeks leading into the May 16
Eugene primary election.
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