Quieter, but far from dead
Fewer patrons doesn’t turn the summer
bar scene into a dreadful bore. Page 7
Free HIV testing today
The Lane County Public Health office will
also offer anonymous counseling. Page 3
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Singe 1 900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 103, Issue 2
FROM SMOKE-FRIENDLY...
memm 1 ^——m a - na—magy.
Jessie Swimeley Emerald
Sitting in the Soriah Bar and Cafe, Meghan Besonen puffs her cigarette while Mara Ingerham wrinkles her nose. Starting Sunday, bar patrons will have to step outside to light up.
TO SMOKE-FREE
■With Eugene’s smoking ban set to take
effect Sunday, bartenders and bar patrons
have varied feelings about the soon-to-be
smoke-free scene
By Jeremy Lang
Oregon Daily Emerald
If you’ve ever lit someone’s cigarette as an ex
cuse to talk to him or her in a bar, you have three
days left to think of some new pick-up lines.
Eugene’s smoking ban will go into effect
Sunday, as the Eugene City Council passed the
ordinance barring smoking in public places by
a 7-1 vote on Nov. 14.
City officials, working with the Lane County
Public Health Department, have spent the past
month informing the public about the partic
ulars of the ban and its first day on the books
with posters, stickers and a Web site.
Jan Bohman, an analyst for the city who has
been working on the information campaign, said
the city will enforce the smoking ban mostly
through a complaint phone line, where people
can leave messages detailing violations.
“It’s confidential but not anonymous,”
Bohman said.
A violation will cost a business between $50
and $100, and fines will increase with repeat
offenses.
Although Bohman has no doubt that Eu
gene’s ban will go into effect Sunday, a smoke
free night life could be a short-lived phenome
non. The Oregon Legislature is currently con
sidering House Bill 3953, which would keep
city governments from enacting smoking bans
that are stricter than current state law, includ
ing Eugene’s.
The bill is currently being debated in the
Senate Subcommittee on Human Services.
Although the ban is citywide, bars and tav
erns are handling the change in different ways.
Some are simply waiting to see what, if any, fi
nancial burden the ban will create.
“When people sit to smoke, they tend to stay
longer,” said Tom Kamis, a bartender at Sori
Turn to Smoking ban, page 6
Officials, residents discuss Sacred Heart expansion
■ Community members aired their
concerns about the removal and
relocation of trees and buildings
By Andrea Larsen
Oregon Daily Emerald
City and PeaceHealth officials met
with concerned community members
Tuesday night at Central Presbyterian
Church to discuss issues surrounding
the possible expansion of Sacred Heart
Hospital’s downtown campus.
The meeting comes less than two
weeks before the July 9 deadline to in
clude a bond measure on the Sept. 18
special election ballot. The proposed
bond measure would ask taxpayers to
cover a majority of the city’s costs in
keeping Sacred Heart Medical Center
downtown.
“What we’re trying to do is we’re
trying to work in good faith with the
city of Eugene on a process that looks
at the alternatives of keeping us down
town,” PeaceHealth spokesman Brian
Terrett said. “Our first choice, which
we announced on March 9, is the
north campus, but if the city wants to
propose a solution to keep us down
town that’s acceptable to the commu
nity, then we’ll look at that agree
ment.”
City officials, PeaceHealth and com
munity members alike agree that Sacred
Heart is in desperate need of an update
to prepare for the next 100 years of
health care.
PeaceHealth, a Washington-based or
ganization that owns Sacred Heart, pro
Tum to Sacred Heart, page 4
ENLARGED SECTION
11THHVE.
Proposed area of expansion
Existing medical facility
Cell tower
may arise
in 10 area
■Sprint PCS has proposed
building a cellular-phone tower in
the Villard Street neighborhood,
and some residents dislike the idea
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
A proposed cellular-phone tower in
the University area has residents in
the area divided over whether they
want such an addition to the neighbor
hood.
For the past few weeks, Zach Vis
hanoff, who calls himself the “Moss
Street Defender,” has plastered cam
pus-area telephone poles and bill
boards with fliers warning students of
plans to build a cellular-phone tower
on a lot near University housing.
Vishanoff said he put up the fliers
after learning a site adjacent to gradu
ate school housing currently under
construction at 14th Avenue and Vil
lard Street is the location of a pro
posed Sprint PCS cellulanphone tow
er.
The lot, owned by Williams Bakery,
is currently the site of a house being
rented by a contracting company the
University hired to build the new
housing complex. Vishanoff said the
University has known about the proj
ect all along but has failed to notify
students about the development.
“It’s been kind of secret meetings
about this for months,” he said.
And he contends that the cellular
phone tower proposal is yet another
indication of the housing department’s
willingness to industrialize the area.
“It’s really a broad issue,” he said.
“It’s just about transforming a neigh
borhood and barring students from the
planning process.”
Vishanoff added that if the Univer
sity wants the tower it would help to
keep its plans quiet.
“There’s a huge incentive to keep
students in the dark,” he said. “Be
cause if they don’t, there’s a .chance
they won’t get to implement their
plans.”
This is not the first time that Vis
hanoff, a longtime Eugene resident, has
gone up against the University Hous
ing Department. Over the past several
months, he has sparred with depart
ment officials over the removal of Uni
versity-owned homes from the Villard
and Moss Street neighborhoods.
But University Housing Director
Michael Eyster said his department
only learned about the possible cellu
lar-phone tower site a few weeks ago.
And even then, he said, it was only
through a member of the news media
— not a representative of Williams
Bakery, as Vishanoff claims.
At this point, he said, the informa
tion that they have can only be consid
ered rumors, and it is not something
that the department will act on.
Turn to CtH tower, page 5