Eugene weekly., October 27, 2011, Page 8, Image 8

CRIME DROPS
WITH DROP
IN JAIL BEDS
OCCUPY EUGENE
PERSISTS PEACEFULLY
Occupy Eugene’s move from the Park Blocks to Alton
Baker Park on Oct. 21 left the Park Blocks clean and tidy
— even the leaves were raked — and a message to the city
that while the occupiers are here to stay, they are around to
create positive change.
Occupy Eugene was inspired by Occupy Wall Street’s
stand against corporate greed, its call for economic justice
and critique of corporations being given the rights of
human beings, among other issues.
8 OCTOBER 27, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
Eugene’s
Dropping
Crime
SOURCE: FBI
happening people
Should a privately owned corporation be given the right
to 22 million gallons of water a day out of the McKenzie
River? Willamette Water Company, a quasi-municipal
water source, has been fighting to get an additional 34
cubic feet per second water right out of the McKenzie
River, on top of a 4 cfs right it already has, but has not been
fully using.
The Lane County commissioners voted 3 to 2 with Rob
Handy and Pete Sorenson dissenting on a resolution on
Oct. 26 to “support the Willamette Water Company’s
efforts to provide water to the Pleasant Hill, Creswell and
Cottage Grove areas from the McKenzie River for
domestic, commercial and industrial water users in south
Lane County.”
In an investigative series in 2010, EW uncovered that
Willamette Water was owned and run by land and timber
barons Greg and Jeff Demers and Melvin McDougal. The
post office box listed by Willamette Water with the Public
Utilities Commission was the same one used by the
Oregon Land Company, which lists lands for sale owned
by the Demers and Norman and Melvin McDougal.
The McDougals and Demers own thousands of acres of
land around Lane County. Their Willamette Water
Company says in its permit application that it needs the
water right in order to provide water for growth in rural
cities in Lane County. Oregon Land Company lists several
proposed subdivisions in Veneta for sale on its website, in
addition to lands up the McKenzie.
John Devoe of WaterWatch, a group which seeks to
protect and restore flows in Oregon rivers, says, “Obviously
we oppose this resolution, which is nothing more than a
last minute attempt to bolster a record that is clearly
deficient before the upcoming contested case hearing.”
In his written comments to the board, Doug Heiken of
Oregon Wild opposes the resolution and asks, “Why give
them 80 times the water they are currently using? How do
we know this speculative future need trumps the obvious
needs of the river ecosystem?”
Heiken writes that according to a 2009 document filed
with the Corporations Division of the Oregon Secretary of
State, the only person on the board of directors of
Willamette Water Co. is Greg Demers.
He says, “It seems highly improper to give one person
the power to allocate 34 cfs of public water according to
his whim or profit motive.”
Devoe says WaterWatch is been preparing for the
administrative trial on the Willamette Water issue that
begins Nov. 14.
Commissioner Faye Stewart, whose East Lane district
encompasses the areas Willamette Water has said it would
serve, including Cottage Grove, Creswell and Goshen, did
not respond to a request for comment before press time.
— Camilla Mortensen
WATER GRAB GOES
BEFORE THE COUNTY
Local law enforcement has long argued that fewer
county jail beds would increase crime, but that hasn’t
been the case.
In the past dozen years, the number of county jail
beds has dropped by 37 percent while the violent crime
rate in Eugene has dropped by 50 percent and the
property crime rate has dropped by 46 percent,
according to FBI data.
Violent crime rates in Eugene dropped 13 percent
last year and property crimes dropped 20 percent,
continuing a trend since 1998 that has left Eugene as
one of the safest cities in the nation, FBI data shows.
Compared to FBI violent crime rates in other cities of
more than 100,000 people, Eugene ranks in the top 25
percent of the safest cities in America.
Last month, Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns
claimed that more jail beds reduce crime. But he
admitted, “it’s theory, of course, because it’s very
difficult to draw causal relationship between changes
in crime and other societal effects. But in law
enforcement, our theory would be that those are the
greatest causal factors.”
Kerns said that the recent closure of 84 jail beds by
the county sheriff could increase crime. “That’s a
pretty significant increment of accountability that isn’t
available for 84 repeat offenders on any given day and
that’s day after day after day,” he said. “That
combination of factors is going to make it pretty
challenging for all of us in local law enforcement in
Lane County to manage our crime rates.”
Chief Kerns used the press conference to argue for
an increase in his police budget. But in the last decade,
Eugene police spending has increased 72 percent,
despite the falling crime rates. — Alan Pittman
BY PAUL NEEVEL
JARED
PRUCH
Eugene native
Jared Pruch got a
start in
environmental
education as a
student at South
Eugene High School
when he began
volunteering with
the Cascade Raptor
Center. “We made
presentations,” he
says. “We brought
birds into the
schools.” After a
trip to Europe that
included a month at
a wildlife rehab
center in Greece,
Pruch spent four
years at Colorado
College to earn a
degree in
comparative
religion. Afterwards, he worked at an outdoor school in California, at the Canyonlands Field Institute in Utah, then
for two years on a biodynamic farm and at a charter school in Hood River. “My job was to manage the school
garden,” says Pruch, who returned to Eugene in 2007 to manage the School Garden Project. “I found the job on
craigslist.” SGP, a nonprofit, helps Lane County schools create and sustain vegetable gardens. “We supply 30
schools with starts, and we offer training for teachers,” says Pruch, who partnered with the Northwest Youth
Corps, FOOD for Lane County and other agencies. “Each year, we work with 15 schools to do an educational
program.” In September Pruch left the SGP for a new position as coordinator of the Berggren Demonstration
Farm, an experimental and educational facility on 92 acres of riparian forest and farmland acquired last year by
the McKenzie River Trust.
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