Downtown hospital tops City Council’s 2004 goals
Councilor Bonny Bettman
says individual priorities
were waived for unanimity
in goal selection this year
By Nika Carlson
News Reporter
With Peace Health Medical Group
on the verge of moving to Springfield,
Eugene city councilors agreed that
persuading a hospital to locate in the
city center is their top priority for the
coming year.
That goal was one of eight that the
Council made for the year 2004 in Feb.
20 and 21 priority-setting sessions.
By making a hospital site a priority
councilors will dedicate staff efforts to
the project above all others.
"It is a very important development
decision that is likely going to be
made this year, so we're going to have
to put some focus on it if we want a
hospital in the city center," said Ward
3 Councilor David Kelly, who repre
sents the University area.
The councilors' decision echoes a res
olution they made in September 2003
giving support to landing a hospital for
central Eugene, within 2.25 miles of
Second Avenue and Chambers Street
as well as south and west of the
Willamette River.
A downtown hospital would not
only provide convenient medical care,
it would also be a major economic de
velopment project for the city that
would likely bring new jobs and new
taxes to the cash-poor city.
Though no specific plans for a new
hospital are in place right now, Spring
field's McKenzie-Willamette Hospital
will be the likely provider. The hospital
is examining a site at the Eugene Water
and Electric Board's headquarters on
East Fourth Avenue.
Kelly said councilors would support
any site within the area defined in the
resolution they adopted last year.
The city has set aside $500,000 to
assist with a hospital project.
The City Council will also offer hos
pital developers incentives to build in
the area, such as reducing any fees that
might arise if streets need to be
changed for the hospital or waiving
staging fees for starting construction.
They might also assign a staff person to
help developers through the process of
applying to and actually building with
in the city.
"There's all kinds of things that we're
going to make available that we won't
necessarily do for sites outside that
area," Ward 4 City Councilor George
Poling said.
Councilors also covered other is
sues at the two-day sessions. They dis
cussed the possibilities of a civic cen
ter, giving more money to public
safety, setting steps to carry out down
town development, giving more pro
tection to trees, finding new sources
of revenue and creating a stable trans
portation funding system.
Each member brought two possible
priorities to the session this year and
was able to veto the options other
councilors proposed, city spokes
woman Jan Bohman said. Getting a
central hospital was the only option all
councilors supported, she said.
Councilors set specific work priorities
yearly, although these are made within
the framework of a general vision the
city councilors outline every two years.
"We had a goal-setting session last
year, but it failed because we didn't
COUNCIL PRIORITIES
• Civic Center — Police, City Hall
• Allocate more resources for public safety
• Central city hospital
• Concrete implementation steps in downtown plan
• Finalized economic development plan that addresses economy
and environment, with implementation steps
• Complete economic development strategy with action items and
timelines and begin implementation
• Implement tree protection
• New source of revenue (i.e. business license)
• Create and implement a stable transportation funding program
for maintenance and prevention
SOURCE: Eugene City Hall
come out with any goals, * Poling said.
He said the diversity of political
views on the City Council impeded its
progress last year.
Council President Bonny Bettman
said by focusing on consensus as op
posed to individual goals this year, the
councilors were able to come up with
a priority they all shared.
"This wasn't about any city coun
cilor's personal priorities, it was about
what we have consensus on," she said.
'This is a very unique process.'
Contact the city/state politics reporter
at nikacarison@dailyemerald.com.
Nation & World News
Kerry eyes sweep in Super Tuesday, Edwards struggles
Crowds to see underdog
Sen. John Edwards were
thin before Super Tuesday
in the two closest states
By Kirsten Scharnberg
and Jill Zuckman
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
TOLEDO, Ohio — In the waning
hours before coast-to-coast election
contests on Super Tuesday, the
rhythm of the top two Democratic
presidential campaigns couldn't have
been more telling.
Before boisterous crowds on college
campuses and in a Southern concert
hall, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts
talked about the general election as
though the presidential nomination
had been decided, promising, "We're
going to go right at George Bush."
In contrast, Sen. John Edwards of
North Carolina made a frenzied dash
through Ohio and Georgia, drawing
sparse crowds and spending more time
answering questions about whether he
would drop out of the race than talking
about his would-be presidential vision.
Ignoring his fading rival, Kerry
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sought to sweep all 10 states, which
include Democratic strongholds
New York and California and swing
state Ohio, and vowed to wage a
general election fight against Presi
dent Bush that would highlight the
differences between the increasingly
polarized parties.
"This isn't going to be some kind of
'We're like them, they're like us, wishy
washy, mealy-mouth, you can't tell the
difference' deal," Kerry said. "This is go
ing to be something where we're giving
America a real choice."
As Edwards crossed Ohio, mean
while there were clear indications of a
diminishing campaign.
At a rally in downtown Cleveland,
against a backdrop of Lake Erie, a few
dozen people arrived to hear Edwards
speak on the eve of this critical primary.
The room remained so vacant that
campaign aides repeatedly moved for
ward a large American flag, hoping to
make the venue seem smaller and
more crowded.
Even Bush's election team, not want
ing to cede the political oxygen to De
mocrats in this key battleground state,
added to the sense that the race was
largely over by focusing sharp criticism
solely on Kerry. Edwards, when asked
later why all the attention was paid to
Kerry, said: "He's ahead, he's ahead."
Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a Bush
surrogate, told reporters in a confer
ence call that Ohio's economy was
turning around, thanks in large part
to Bush's tax cuts, and that Kerry's
"negative sound bites ... just don't
add up to an economic plan." Ed
wards went unmentioned.
But Kerry, making his second visit
to the state in less than a week, told
voters that Ohio has lost 150,000
manufacturing jobs during the Bush
presidency and that many people
were struggling to hold down two or
three jobs at a time.
"It's not mission accomplished, it's
mission not even attempted, it's mis
sion abandoned," Kerry told the crowd,
which greeted him with chants of "Im
peach W."
Across Ohio, in the same University
of Toledo room where Kerry drew more
than 1,000 people a few days earlier,
Edwards attracted a considerably small
er and more sedate crowd.
Dozens of empty chairs sat within the
circle of about 300 people who sur
rounded Edwards. On the sidewalk out
018294
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side the student union, where Republi
cans had protested Kerry's visit, not a
soul stood to shout down Edwards.
The candidate was decidedly less
animated than he had been during
the heady days of his campaign
through Iowa, New Hampshire and
South Carolina. Just one measure: his
speech — once nearly 30 minutes
long — had been scaled back to just
over 13 minutes. Edwards declined to
tell reporters how many states — if
any — he would have to win to re
main a viable candidate.
In contrast to other states where Ed
wards saw a last-minute surge after se
curing the endorsement of key state
newspapers, one of Ohio's largest pa
pers, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, threw its
support behind Kerry on Monday. The
endorsement was pointed in explain
ing its rationale for choosing the more
experienced politician over the charis
matic upstart.
'The conventional wisdom is true:
Edwards is warmer, more charming,"
the paper wrote. "If you were organiz
ing a backyard barbecue, you'd call Ed
wards first. He speaks eloquently of
those left behind even when the
economy was roaring. But he strikes
us as a work in progress. He calls for
bold solutions, but offers few."
(c) 2004, Chicago tribune. Tribune
national correspondent Jeff Zeleny
contributed to this report. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
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