Eugene weekly., January 06, 2011, Page 8, Image 8

slant
NEWS BRIEFS
• Alan Pittman outlines various options for local taxes to support schools in News
Briefs this week, and the City Council is looking at the possibility of referring some
kind of tax to the voters in the May elections. But we hear there’s a possible
complication. Both School District 4J and Bethel School District have been
planning general obligation bond measures for the same May ballot. Both districts
have bonds that are being paid off, so the new bonds would not raise taxes. Both
districts have pressing needs to replace roofs, floors, and aging equipment and
facilities. But having multiple school measures on the May ballot could be confusing
to voters. Bethel is planning to delay its bond measure if the city goes for a new tax
for schools. District 4J will decide on or before its Feb. 2 board meeting. All this
should be incentive for the City Council to take action soon.
• Don’t get sucked into the insidious spin about government spending in Oregon,
warns Charles Sheketoff, director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy and one of
the sanest public policy voices in this state. Robert Reich hits the same theme,
nationally, in The Huffington Post this week (see http://wkly.ws/zr). Oregon is in
financial trouble because of the Great Recession, not because of profligate
spending. Sheketoff says that relative to the income earned by Oregonians, the
public sector is no more expensive today than it was three decades ago. In the
current budget cycle, cuts, not increased spending, have dominated the budget
picture. But some Republicans and their spinmeisters clearly see this depressed
period as an opportunity to shrink the government social services they detest.
• Remember the insane Oct. 26 public hearing on Lane County’s proposed drinking
water protections? The meeting was taken over by an angry mob and with no
progress possible, county commissioners canceled the hearing and shelved the
overdue proposals. Looking back, what stirred the zealous property rights and Tea
Party contingencies to show up frothing at the mouth? We ran across an incendiary
email that went out a few days before the meeting from Dave Hunnicutt of
Oregonians In Action. He wrote that the proposed protections will “devastate the
rights of property owners,” it will “destroy the value their property,” and “this
ordinance is a disaster.” Hunnicutt was the sponsor of Measure 37 and has a long
history of fighting land use planning with fear-mongering. It’s a pity anybody buys
into Hunnicutt’s exaggerations. And it’s a pity the property owners who came
because they love the river, not because of Hunnicutt’s hyperbole, weren’t able to
learn more about the drinking water plan.
• President Obama figures we’ll have an active military presence in Afghanistan for
at least four more years. Meanwhile, 10 more U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan over
the holidays and 57 more were wounded. No one is bothering to count Afghan
casualties, military or civilian. Last week our presence in Afghanistan cost U.S.
taxpayers $2.3 billion and Eugene taxpayers $700,000. What do we gain for our
investment in destruction and bloodshed? The region is no closer to stability, peace
and justice than it was 10 years ago. Only war profiteers are the ones seeing any
benefit from this prolonged idiocy.
Meanwhile, American taxpayers are supporting some 700 military bases in 130
countries around the world. Bloated military budgets have brought financial
collapse to many nations throughout history, including the Soviet Union. Will that
be our story as well?
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good
rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
lighten up
After watching its star graduate, President Obama, negotiate the tax-cut deal with
the Republicans, Harvard Law School is adding a course on the basics of poker.
— Rafael Aldave, Eugene
ACTIVIST ALERT
• A five-member committee tasked with advising the
Oregon Department of Forestry on the state’s Smoke
Management Plan will meet from 9 am to 2:30 pm
Thursday, Jan. 6, at ODF headquarters Building D,
2600 State St. in Salem. Public comments will be
received at 2:15 pm. On the agenda will be prescribed
burning, burn strategies, alternatives to burning,
biomass, technology, the Regional Haze Plan, etc.
• The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s first
meeting of the new year will begin at 8 am Friday, Jan.
7, at ODFW Headquarters, 3406 Cherry Ave N.E.,
Salem. Peregrine falcons, mule deer, and wildlife area
parking permits are on the agenda. Public testimony
follows the expenditure report. Persons seeking to
testify on issues not on the formal agenda should call
the ODFW director’s office, at least 24 hours in
advance, at (800) 720-6339 or (503) 947-6044.
• Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy is hosting
three community outreach gatherings on Saturday, Jan.
8. The first is from 9 to 10:30 am at Todd’s Place, 355 E.
Broadway. Next is from 11 am to 12:30 pm at Sweet Life
Patisserie, 755 Monroe. Third is from 2 to 3:30 pm at
Sushi Seoul, 2532 Willakenzie. Handy can be contacted
at 682-4203 or Rob.Handy@co.lane.or.us
8
JANUARY 6, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
a neurotoxin, causes headaches and
depression and is “not something you want
near young kids.” The buffer between the
pesticide application and the school is 100
feet.
Wroncy and Lisa Arkin of Oregon
Toxics Alliance tried to have the herbicide
treatment reconsidered and discussed, but a
waiver on the 15-day waiting period was
granted in December, and the spray was
conducted on the Friday of a holiday
weekend, when most government
employees were unavailable to be contacted.
In an August letter to the Blachly School
Board, ODF forester Paul Clements outlined
several options the school could take,
including having students cut back the
weeds, having contract labor cut back the
weeds or have contract labor “hack and
squirt.”
Wroncy says much of what is being
called “weeds” is actually native Oregon
bigleaf maple.
Arkin suggested the school contact
Walama Restoration to train parents to clear
the unwanted vegetation. She was told the
school didn’t have the funds. Now she
questions what funds were used to hire a
contractor to use pesticides.
Arkin wrote in an email to member of
the Triangle Lake school board that “a
spray of forestry pesticides on school
grounds is out of compliance with the
Oregon School IPM law. As Jan Wroncy
points out, this spray may also be out of
compliance with Lane County Code.”
IPM or integrated pesticide management
generally means that pesticides, including
herbicides, are used as a last resort and the
risk of human exposure is minimized while
pests are controlled. Under a new state law,
Oregon schools must have IPM plans by
July 2012. Children are especially
vulnerable to the effects of pesticides.
Under the Lane County Code, Triangle
Lake Charter School’s lands are zoned
Rural Public Facility. Such zoning is “to
provide land for public and semipublic uses
and development that serve rural residents
and people traveling through the area and
that are by nature intensive or unusual uses
not normally associated with other zones,”
• An all-day celebration of year-round bicycle
commuting will run from 10:30 am to 5 pm
Wednesday, Jan. 12, at the EMU on the UO campus.
“Ride in the Rain, A Celebration of Wet Weather
Bike Transportation,” will feature free bike repair,
music with bike-powered amplification, a rain gear
fashion show, a “track-stand” competition, a
community ride, and a keynote address by Cycle
Oregon’s Jerry Norquist. Fourteen new cargo bikes
donated by Globe will also mark the launch of
short-term bicycle loans through the UO Bike
Program. For more information, please contact Ted
Sweeney, bikes@uoregon.edu or call (503) 737-
4419.
• The next Whiteaker Community Council general
membership meeting will host LTD giving a
presentation on the West Eugene EmX Extension
at 7 pm Wednesday, Jan. 12, at the Whiteaker
Community Center, corner of Clark and North
Jackson. Snacks provided; potluck encouraged.
• Palestine Action Week organized by the UO
Survival Center begins with a Palestine resistance
film Bil’in Habibti at 6 pm Tuesday, Jan. 11, at
McKenzie Hall 128 on campus. Next is a presentation
titled “Eyewitness in Palestine” at 7 pm Wednesday,
Jan. 12, at Straub Hall 142. Next is “Anarchists
according to the code.
Wroncy asks, “What’s a not-for-profit
school on rural public lands doing involving
themselves in timber production for profit?”
She adds, “It’s in conflict with the goal of
educating children.” — Camilla Mortensen
NEW GROUP
LOOKS AT
TRANSITION
A new Eugene discussion group met
Jan. 2, inspired by The Transition Handbook.
The group plans to meet at 11 am the first
and third Sundays of the month at the
meeting space behind Theo’s Coffee Bar at
Cozmic Pizza, 199 W. 8th Ave. The next
meeting will be Jan. 16. See www.
TransitionTownEugene.org
“Our conversation seemed to cluster
around three areas: permaculture,
transportation and preparedness,” says
Fergus Mclean, a member of the group. He
says the group talked about helping sponsor
this spring’s Northwest Permaculture
Convergence, and issues concerning natural
burial, “converting the places we’re buried
from formaldehyde- and herbicide-
drenched mausoleums to healthy
ecosystems.”
In the area of transportation, the group is
“seeing a great opportunity to bring together
the review of TransPlan with land-use plans
of Envision Eugene, perhaps in town hall
meetings and workshops in outlying
neighborhoods.” They are also looking at
the possibility of rail transportation to the
Country Fair, preserving existing unused
rail lines and using them for bicycle-
powered transport, creating the north-south
safe bicycle thoroughfare called for in Kitty
Piercy’s September 2008 town hall meeting,
and updating the city’s 40-year old bicycle
master plan.
The group also discussed finding ways
to support police and fire department
emergency preparedness planning and
organization, and examining “the adequacy
of police and fire fuel supplies in the event
of a disruption in fuel deliveries.”
Against the Wall” at 7:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 13, in
the Ben Linder Room in the EMU. The last in the
series is a presentation by Portland’s Boycott
Israeli Apartheid project at 7 pm at Straub 146.
• Eugene School District 4J will meet at 7 pm
Wednesday, Jan. 12, at 200 N. Monroe St. to
discuss the superintendent’s final recommendations
for achieving a sustainable budget. A board work
session was held Jan. 5 and the final public hearing
was delayed until 6 pm Wednesday, Jan. 19, at a
location to be announced.
• Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg’s 2011
State of the City Address will be at 11 am Thursday,
Jan. 13, at the Wildish Theater, 630 Main St. This is
Lundberg’s inaugural address after being appointed
mayor. The former council member will be serving
out Mayor Sid Leiken’s term following Leiken’s
election to the County Commission.
• Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon is
launching the Lane LAT (Legislative Action Team)
at 6 pm Thursday, Jan. 13, with a general
meeting. Interested community leaders will meet
once a month to plan political strategies and
organize local events. For location and other
information, contact Nichi Masters, field organizer,
at 510-2025 or nichi.masters@ppcw.org to register.
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