Eugene weekly., August 31, 2006, Page 9, Image 9

urban planner Ken Pirie.
The train noise issue also applied to build-
ing next to the new federal courthouse, the
consultants said.
Most councilors dismissed building near
the courthouse as too removed from down-
town and hard to access. Getting to the new
courthouse area, Councilor Andrea Ortiz
said, “is hairy in a car and hairy walking.”
— Alan Pittman
WHERE
PESTICIDES
GO TO DIE
Used to be that farmers all over the
Willamette Valley bought and used copious
amounts of DDT, 2,4-T and Lindate pesti-
cides. Then, in the 1970s and ’80s, the EPA
banned domestic use of those chemicals,
deeming them too durned dangerous. But
what were farmers to do with their stocks of
the banned ‘cides? Use ’em up quick? Dump
’em illegally in the river?
Stuff ’em in a shed and hope
they’ll disappear?
Now, EWEB and other
state and local agencies are
helping growers in the
McKenzie and Middle Fork
Willamette watersheds get rid
of the illegal stuff. The first-
of-its-kind program, funded
primarily by a grant from the
Oregon Governor’s Fund for the
Environment, will be cost- and risk-free to
growers. Farmers are to fill out a survey from
EWEB, then deliver the banned pesticides to
Lane County Waste Management’s
Glenwood facility on Oct. 18-20, Oct. 25 or
Nov. 1.
Just how much of the forsaken pesticides
are in the Willamette Valley? Hard to say.
OSU did a survey but is tight-lipped about the
numbers, so EWEB is now doing its own
scope and should have the results by mid-
September, said EWEB’s Karl Morgenstern.
“We know that some people had large
quantities — one grower had 1,500 pounds of
DDT,” Morgenstern said. “When they got
banned, people just shoved them in their
barns. Our goal is to help them get rid of it.
We’re protecting two watersheds that we get
drinking water from, and growers are protect-
ing their own families and wells.”
— Kera Abraham
CHABAREK
PLEADS
NO CONTEST
On Aug. 24, local peace activist Peter
Chabarek pled no contest to a criminal tres-
pass charge for an act of civil disobedience on
Feb. 21. Chabarek handed out anti-war
leaflets during a presentation by Sen. Gordon
Smith to the Eugene Rotary Club, and he re-
fused to leave after being asked to do so by
the hotel’s manager. The leaflets called Sen.
Smith “an accomplice to mass murder” for
supporting the Iraq War.
Chabarek and his counsel, civil rights at-
torney Brian Michaels, made the decision to
plead no contest on their own, and Chabarek
read a statement in municipal court affirming
his constitutional right to oppose the war. But
city prosecutor C. Michael Arnold treated the
plea like a deal, dropping the city’s charge of
criminal trespass against Chabarek for an-
other act of civil disobedience on March 20.
“I would have offered him a one-for-one, so I
won’t penalize Chabarek for
doing it on his own,” Arnold
said.
Surprisingly, Chabarek
balked at the offer, telling EW
that he didn’t want that
charge dropped. Chabarek
and other activists had been
cited with criminal trespass
for sitting outside of Sen. Ron
Wyden’s Eugene office, de-
manding that the senator hear them out about
his support for war funding, even after the
building manager asked them to leave.
Michaels said that the supervisor at Wyden’s
office had received special permission from
the Senate to testify as a witness for the de-
fense.
“We want to go to trial on the Wyden
charge, because we want to put the war on
trial,” Chabarek said. — Kera Abraham
UNDERBRIDGE
INITIATIVE
The common response to crime is to target
the areas perceived as concentrations of crim-
inality and increase law enforcement, but one
local organization is hoping to try something
new.
Ground Works Organization began as a
promotion company in Eugene, designing
and distributing promotional materials
throughout the city for upcoming events and
local businesses. Recently, the group has
begun using the income from the business to
host their own community events. Initially
Ground Works focused on putting on hip hop
shows, but then they began to receive support
from the United Way, HIV Alliance and EW
to expand the scope of their work: hosting
food drives for Lane County and a local
Hurricane Katrina relief benefit, among other
endeavors.
The group, run by brothers Aaron Martin
and Gabriel Sechrist, and designer Mike
Moreno, has now set its sites on the
Washington-Jefferson Bridge area.
“I don’t think it’s the center of crime in
this town, but if everybody thinks that there’s
nothing but criminals there, then nothing but
criminals will gravitate to it. If a park isn’t
used for what it’s there for, then it encourages
the homeless to camp there and it encourages
drug activity there,” says Sechrist who calls
the area “the heart of the city.”
Their approach is to sponsor community-
based events in the area to revitalize the park
and the surrounding community. Every
Friday in September from 5 to 10 pm will be
events under the bridge including live music,
food vendors, self-defense workshops, skate-
board demonstrations, four-on-four basket-
ball and more. The first “Underbridge
Initiative” as they have called it will be taking
place Friday evening, Sept. 1.
— Martha Calhoon
SUSTAINABLE
WORKPLACES
The people have spoken! And they say
that Eugene’s definition of sustainability
should include fairness, health care and other
considerations of employee welfare.
This was the conclusion of a study re-
leased this month by the UO Labor Education
and Research Center (LERC) and the
Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network
(ESSN). ESSN and LERC designed the
study to find out what the community thinks
about “social equity,” one of the three legs of
BY PAUL NEEVEL
SALLY
NUNN
“I come from a
long line of
Republicans,” says
Sally Nunn, who
studied art and
minored in war
protests at the
UO. “But I was a
beatnik. I was a
member of SDS until I heard the president say, ‘The women will bring cookies to the
next meeting.’” Originally a country girl from Indiana, Nunn remained in Oregon to
enjoy the outdoor life. She served on the Sierra Club’s High Desert Committee during
the campaign to save Steens Mountain, but otherwise stayed out of politics for 20
years while she ran her plant maintenance business, Dr Greenthumb. She sold the
business in 2000 and soon found work as project manager for the Wayne Morse Free
Speech Plaza. “It was a totally different experience,” says Nunn, who also worked for
state Rep. Phil Barnhart on two successful election campaigns. “I got to know the
forces at work in the Legislature,” she says. Nunn is currently political chair for the
local Sierra Club and endorsements chair for the local Oregon League of
Conservation Voters. She will host a “Red, White, and Blues Jam” to benefit OLCV in
her west Eugene yard on Sept. 16.
AUGUST 31, 2006 9