THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019
THE CHRONICLE — 15
COMMUNITY
Paving the way for safer roads
From rafting —13
operate on the McKenzie and some are avail-
able year round. Booking a trip is easy, the
state of Oregon monitors the river businesses
very closely and responds to complaints and
violations swiftly and soundly so profession-
alism is common throughout the industry.
Levels of accommodation will vary but most
McKenzie businesses work hard to provide a
fun and safe trip.
A Google search of “McKenzie River
Whitewater Rafting” will return you a
number of McKenzie rafting businesses. I
also like to look for a local guide and outfit-
ters association in the area I want to book a
trip. I find they represent some of the better
and more experienced businesses. On the
McKenzie that would be The McKenzie
River Guides Association. www.mckenzie-
riverguides.com they have a directory guide
businesses on their website.
Don’t overestimate the endurance of your
party the first time out. Take what many
outfitters and guides call their “half day
float”, generally around four hours. I find the
duration just right for kids too. Some trips
include lunch, some allow you to bring your
own lunch and some offer a straight start to
finish float trip. The prices will vary depend-
ing on the level of accommodation you desire.
Now paddle forward …
Traffic officials’ 2023 plans could impact driveways
BY VICTO ✁✛ A STEPHENS
Staff Writer
Rafting on the McKenzie is a family friendly adventure for folks of all ages. FRANK
ARMENDARIZ/OUTDOORS WRITER
From passion —13
do,” Loveall said.
The company owns and renovated
most of the buildings on the north
side of the 300 block of Main Street.
It also purchased the large building
on the south side of the street at the
corner of 4th that was the former
Haven boutique.
Masaka Properties derives its
name from a small town in Uganda
“where we do ministry work,”
he said. Loveall is a pastor with
Threesixteen Ministries and he
and his wife Nita have planted four
churches in that area of Africa over
the past seven years and adopted a
son from that nation.
His holdings on Main Street
began with the purchase of The
Washburne Café property and the
salon next door. “Thirteen years
ago, this was a property manage-
ment office and we decided to build
two large apartments upstairs,” he
said.
That was “during the heyday of all
the bars and fighting and the ruckus
that was going on down here,” he
said. “People thought that we were
crazy, but we knew there was a
possibility that if we could just get
people to live down here we could
change the community, the area.”
There were 34 apartments on that
half block with most of them not
rented and many of them under-uti-
lized, he said: “They were kind of
slum-lorded. So we figured if we
could change some of that we could
change the block.”
About two and a half years ago
they purchased the Econo Sales
building and the one next to it, which
is now the Cornbread Café. “There
were eight apartments there that
had been boarded up for 30 years,
that hadn’t been rented in 30 years,”
he said. “And the whole Cornbread
building had been boarded up for
about 25 years.”
They began to work on the
commercial spaces downstairs once
SPRINGFIELD – City
leaders are partnering with
county and state traffic offi-
cials to address reports that
consistently show that parts
of Main Street are considered
“one of the most unsafe city
streets in Oregon.”
The specific area of focus is
Main Street between 20th
and 72nd streets, where data
confirmed a high number of
accidents, injuries and prop-
erty damage related to car
crashes along that stretch.
The Oregon Department of
Transportation and Lane
Econo Sales moved out and split that
space in half, creating three large
commercial spaces. Bartolotti’s
Pizza Bistro built their space out
first and Cornbread Café expanded
from Eugene to another of those
spaces.
Loveall said they really wanted
to have a grocery store in that last
vacant space to add to the viabil-
ity and livability of the block and
contribute to the community vibe.
He said he waited a year, turning
down about 20 offers from compa-
nies, including several offers by
marijuana companies offering
five times their asking price. Then
the owner of Eugene’s Friendly
Street Market approached them
and recently opened the new Main
Street Market.
There are seven apartments and
an office upstairs, overlapping
both upper floors of the buildings,
which have gone from dilapidated
to upscale with unique restoration
Transit District are the other
agencies helping the city
address the traffic issues,
as part of an effort to make
Main Street safer.
The project is in the plan-
ning phase, and the city is
letting residents and business
owners know that their drive-
ways could be affected by the
work. The city sent out 617
letters last week stating that
specific changes to driveways
isn’t part of the plan, but “it
is possible during the design
and construction phases that
driveways may be considered
for modification, relocation
or closure.”
Implementation of the plan is
of architectural details, wood
floors, natural light and LED light-
ing. “Everything is brand new. They
are super nice,” he said. “They
were rented about a week after we
finished them. In fact, they were
renting as we were finishing them,
which is what we suspected. People
always want to live in downtown
urban areas.”
Additionally, he and his partner
purchased the building across the
street between Main and South A
on 4th Street that used to house
the Haven boutique. They spent a
year renovating the two commer-
cial properties below and four apart-
ments upstairs, creating two live/
work spaces. Previously the apart-
ments had been run down and used
for low-income housing.
Loveall said that Jenna Fribley,
an architect, whose office is next
door at the Campfire Collaborative,
has contributed a lot to the inno-
vation projects with her enthusi-
scheduled to start in 2023 or
later, depending upon avail-
able money.
Additional safety efforts
along this section of Main
Street have included the
installation of six Rapid
Flashing Beacon Crossings
on Main Street. These are
located at 35th, 41st, 44th,
48th and 51st streets as well
as Chapman Lane.
A seventh such crossing is
being installed at the inter-
section of Main Street near
66th Street. These crossings
were implemented as part of
recommendations made by
a pedestrian safety study in
2010.
asm and ideas. He also credits his
partner Bob for being instrumen-
tal financially and having a good
construction team. He said that the
city has been good to them, helping
with ideas, permits, and cost-saving
programs.
Loveall said downtown is differ-
ent, vibrant and fresh. There is a
sense of community and entre-
preneurship. His hope is that
Downtown Springfield will become
not only a regional destination, but
also a national one.
There are still a lot of opportu-
nities for growth and development
in the downtown area. Cornucopia
plans to expand there, opening a
third location in the Cheesesteak
NW location on the 500 block of
Main Street in the fall.
And all this growth is not
limited to only the downtown area,
according to Max Molzahn of the
Springfield Chamber of Commerce:
“It’s been exciting to experience.”
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