Springfield sheds negative image for better visage
■ The town just east of Eugene has had the reputation of a
backwards community, but downtown improvements and new
infrastructure bring it up to speed
By Clayton Cone
forthe Emerald
Carpenters laid out boards and
nailed them into place, creating
steps to the mezzanine of the soon
to-be-opened Springfield Art Cen
ter on Main Street. In the back
ground, judges for the Aug. 25
Mayor’s Art Show looked over
paintings and sculptures for debut
at the Springfield Filbert Festival.
All the activity was just part of
what Springfield Communications
Director Rosemary Pryor called the
“renaissance of the downtown
I love it. It’s just a
good place to live...
I don Y think it has any
pretensions about it.
Paula Jenson
Springfield resident
area,” which she said was coming
at the tail end of widespread devel
opment in the city.
“If people haven’t been to
Springfield lately, they haven’t
seen Springfield, because it simply
doesn’t even look like the same
town it was 10 years ago,” she said.
Pryor talked about “miles of off
street pedestrian paths resplendent
with landscaping, lighting and
benches,” the new indoor “wave
pool” and the other recently reno
vated community pool. There is
also a new city hall building, the
preservation of historic sites, the
Gateway Mall area and lodgings,
the construction of upscale homes
in the Thurston and Hayden Bridge
areas, the critical-care hospital and
economic diversification.
But all these bright spots fade in
comparison to the topic that most
quickens her speech — that Spring
field’s downtown area is on the
short list for a new federal court
house.
“We’re all, of course, watching
with bated breath this whole saga
with the federal courthouse,” she
said.
“If the federal government
should decide to site a major feder
al facility in downtown Spring
field, there’s no question in my
mind that that will simply unleash
a torrent of interest in downtown
Springfield. Investment opportuni
ties exist like crazy there. ”
Pryor said the General Services
Administration has been narrow
ing down preferred sites between
Springfield and Eugene.
She also said that had Spring
field not been changing over the
past 10 years, it would not even be
on that list now.
“The whole identity of Spring
field is evolving significantly,” she
said. “We were once a timber
town, and our roots will always be
there.
“To be blunt, we’re very proud
of that because it’s good, honest
labor,” she said. “But we’re no
longer a timber town.”
In fact, only one forest products
company, Weyerhauser, makes it
into the top three employers in
town. Weyerhauser boasts slightly
more than half the number of em
ployees of McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital and approximately just
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A former timber town, neighboring Springfield is coming into its own through community improvement projects, a revitalization of
downtown and the possible construction of a new federal courthouse.
over thirty percent of the employ
ees working for the Springfield
School District, according to Pryor.
SONY comes in as the fourth
largest employer at 430, she said.
Moreover, there are more people
employed in the wood-products in
dustry in Eugene than there are in
Springfield, she said.
But the image of Springfield,
even aside from the 1998 Thurston
High School shooting, may still be
tainted.
In an informal poll on the Uni
versity campus during inter-ses
sion, six out of eight people ap
proached declined to comment
about the city of more than 50,000
people just across the Willamette
River. One simply said, “It’s going
to be all negative.”
“What we know is true, from the
comments that we hear and the ex
periences that we have, is that
some people haven’t updated their
picture of Springfield,” Pryor said.
Both people who would speak
about Springfield were residents of
that city.
“I love it. It’s just a good place to
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