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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2012)
NEWS BRIEFS confines of difficulty and pettiness,” she said. Piercy noted the city’s 150th birthday this year. “We aren’t just any community,” Piercy said. “We are on the move. We are Eugene.” — Alan Pittman LANE COUNTY VS. PARVIN GRAVEL MINE Parvin Butte neighbors who have been fighting the destruction of the scenic butte that sits in the middle of rural Dexter had a day in court Jan. 5 when Lost Creek Rock products, owned by Greg Demers and Norman and Melvin McDougal, came before Lane County Hearings Official Gary Darnielle to appeal the fines they have accrued mining Parvin without a site review. Lane County says LCRP needs a site review in order to mine under its DOGAMI permit. A site review would require the miners to deal with issues such as how much gravel is removed and by how many trucks, hours of operation, whether lights would be used after dark, blasting schedules, and noise, dust and vibration. The butte is surrounded by homes and sits in close proximity to the Dexter post office and other town buildings. Bill Kloos, attorney for LCRP, said, “We always understood they thought we need a site review. In the final analysis we decided to draw the foul and go out scratching at some rock.” The county fines for mining without the proper approval began at $330 a day and increased to $1,170 a day after the county found that the mining and was being done in a reckless and intentional fashion, according to testimony by Jane Burgess, compliance officer for the county. Kloos and fellow attorney Larry Gildea argue that Lane County code says they don’t need the site review, a permit or county approval if the activity is 200 feet from the neighboring properties. Lane County disagrees. LCRP has since begun a site review process. At the hearing, neighbors including a retired OSU professor, a retired teacher and an accountant brought photographs and video, and told in careful detail the days and times of the mining they had witnessed, as well as of trucks bearing the McDougal name leaving the property loaded with rocks. Demers and the McDougals were in attendance at the hearing. Demers chatted with the McDougals and others in the audience during parts of the testimony, laughing at one point while Dexter resident Jane VanDusen testified from her wheelchair of the mining she witnessed at the butte. VanDusen, a freelance editor, works from home. She and others described the “gigantic claw” of an excavator machine and crashing sounds from the butte, which sits in close proximity to their previously quiet country homes. The McDougals and Demers and another of their companies, Willamette Water Co., are also currently involved in a contested case hearing before the Office of Administrative Hearings for the Oregon Water Resources Department over their attempt to get a water right for 22 million gallons of water a day out of the McKenzie River to sell as a “quasi- municipal water source.” The testimony from the neighbors and from county employees lasted for more than three hours. It was decided the hearing at Harris Hall would be continued at 9 am Jan. 24. After the hearing concludes, the hearings official has 10 days to publish his findings. Then both LCRP and the county have 60 days to appeal the decision to the Lane County Circuit Court if they choose. Lane County has requested DOGAMI suspend its operating permit for the quarry until site review permit approval has been obtained. — Camilla Mortensen HOMERISM SPIKES REPORTING Sports reporters have long been blasted for pursuing homerism that roots for the home team rather than journalism. So it’s interesting to look at the alternative realities of a Register-Guard v. Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Sentinel Rose Bowl match up of next day coverage. The two papers’ reporters largely covered the game-ending spike by watching on TV like everyone else. Here’s the R-G coverage by Rob Moseley: “The Badgers were unable to spike the ball in time to stop the clock, after using their timeouts much earlier in the half than they would have liked ... The Badgers tried in vain to stop the clock but couldn’t, as the replay review confirmed.” Here’s coverage in the Pulitzer Prize winning Journal Sentinel by Jeff Potrykus: “UW hurried to the line of scrimmage and Wilson spiked the ball with a second left but the referee ruled time expired. A video review upheld the call and the game was over ... ‘I knew there was two seconds left on the clock,’ Wilson said. ‘As soon as the referee blew the whistle, I snapped it and spiked it. I didn’t think there was any way that two full seconds ran off the clock there.’” “Bielema vexed by a few of officials’ calls,” Potrykus reports in a second story quoting the Wisconsin coach. The Wisconsin paper reports that in the first half: “UW lost 13 seconds on its final possession of the first half and thus lost an opportunity to try for a go-ahead score.” In the second half, the paper quotes the Wisconsin coach: “Basically what happened was, I know his foot touched the line,” Bielema said. “It gets down to an issue of where the ball is. I was trying to get a read from my sideline official if we could review forward momentum. He didn’t understand the question where I was at, and that’s why they charged me a timeout.” WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM PHOTO: TODD COOPER ANDY STAHL STAHL IN THE RACE FOR COMMISH It’s difficult to say what’s a more difficult proposition — helping save the spotted owl or holding a seat on the Lane County Board of Commissioners. Either way it’s a lot about the timber industry and all about politics. Longtime forest advocate Andy Stahl says that having made a career of “speaking truth to power” in dealing with federal forest issues, he’s ready to take on Lane County. He says he advocates for kids, trees and good governance and currently none of those needs are being met, so “I should get in there and do it myself,” he says. Stahl has announced he is running against incumbent Pete Sorenson for the South Eugene commission seat. Soccer coach and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Kieran Walsh has also entered the race. Stahl announced he is entering the race on Jan. 11, with the support of state Sen. Floyd Prozanski. Stahl, the executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, says he brings to the table his experience in saving old-growth forests (the habitat for spotted owls), stopping landslide-inducing logging in national forest areas of the Coast Range, lobbying through Congress the original Secure Rural Schools legislation that provided Lane County with funding in lieu of timber receipts, and providing a framework for a logging plan proposed by Congressman Peter DeFazio to replace the expired SRS financing. “What has Pete Sorenson accomplished in 14 years on the commission?” he asks. He says that despite a background in fighting the timber industry, he doesn’t foresee that being an issue in decision-making because “95 percent of decisions made by the board are nonpartisan.” He adds, “I know I can work collaboratively with Faye.” Commissioner Faye Stewart is from a longtime timber family. Stahl also points to a lawsuit in which he was the lead plaintiff that restored adoption assistance payments, meeting children’s ongoing special needs, to families who adopted foster children. The state had pulled those payments. Stahl is the parent of two adopted foster children. He has a total of three children in south Eugene schools — South Eugene High, Roosevelt and Spencer Butte. He jokes that if kids could vote, he’d have the race wrapped up. Stahl is also on the Citizen Review Board for Lane County that oversees the state’s care of foster children, and served for four years on the school board of a rural school district. Stahl says that instead of the “penny ante” cost-saving measures recently advocated by Commissioner Jay Bozievich, such as commissioners cutting expense budgets for running their offices, he advocates for saving the county more money by reducing the commissioner seats from five to three and changing the seats from being tied to a district to “at-large” positions as is done elsewhere in Oregon. He criticizes the current board for in-fighting and for the alleged serial decision- making that led to an open meetings court case, and he supports the ruling by Judge Gillespie against Sorenson and Commissioner Rob Handy. He says when it comes to local government, “You do the horse trading in public.” “I can’t run against all five,” he says. “I can only run against the one whose district I live in.” — Camilla Mortensen LIGHTEN UP BY R A FA E L A L DAV E When the GOP candidates for president poke fingers in each other’s eyes twice in 10 hours, it’s no longer a debate. It’s domestic violence. EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 12, 2012 7
