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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2012)
We wrote about The Barn Light in this column back in August and its plans to open a new bar and coffee shop in September. The classy new watering hole finally opened the evening of Thanksgiving Day at 924 Willamette, in the newly rebuilt Broadway Commerce Center. Owners are Thomas Pettus-Czar and Dustin Kinsey, who met and worked together at a popular bar and coffee shop in Lawrence, Kan. “We look forward to participating in the rebirth of a thriving, vibrant center of commerce and community in downtown Eugene,” says Kinsey. The website at thebarnlightbar.com says “This establishment is a more sophisticated and comfortable alternative to the casual sports bars and undergraduate bars that are ubiquitous in Eugene.” Nov. 30 is the deadline to apply for up to $2,500 in rebates from the Clean Energy Works Oregon program in Lane County. The nonprofit program set up by the Legislature offers a “one-stop shop set of energy efficiency remodeling services” for homeowners, including energy assessment and financing. See www.cewo.org and use the rebate code LGLAN or call (855) 870-0049. A new, all-comedy radio station at 1450 on the AM dial is planning to go on the air as soon as it gets its FCC license. The studio for All Comedy 1450 is being built in the “Crow’s Nest” overlooking Tom & Johnny’s Sports Bar at 471 S. A. St. in Springfield. The new station plans to take over KLZS, a station owned by Arlie & Co. that has had various formats over the years, from Spanish-language sports to smooth jazz. The new station will be the first acquisition by Eugene Comedy Radio, a local partnership of radio and comedy professionals including Chris Warren, Alex Elkin and Benjie Wright. The three have been performing onstage at the Red Lion on Coburg Road as the Brickwall Comedy Show and on the air at KNND in Cottage Grove. For now, the show can be heard online at piratecomedynetwork.com or live weekday afternoons at Tom & Johnny’s. Find the Brickwall Comedy Club on Facebook. The Divine Cupcake Organic Bakery & Café is opening a new outlet inside Harlequin Beads at 10th and Willamette. The café will offer coffee, tea and chai. Phone number is 543-5757. Hawthorne Apartments, an affordable housing complex for 35 low-income adults with psychiatric disabilities, celebrated the opening of its renovated building at 2988 Oak St. on Nov. 27. Mayor Kitty Piercy spoke, along with Susan Ban, executive director of ShelterCare, and local and state housing officials. The Housing and Community Services Agency of Lane County purchased the apartments for $1.6 million and the $2.4 million year-long renovation was funded by state and local government grants, loans and tax credits. A Ninkasi fundraiser for CAHOOTS, a crisis program of White Bird Clinic, will be from noon to 9 pm Wednesday, Dec. 5, at Ninkasi, 272 Van Buren. Ninkasi will donate 25 percent of that day’s pint sales to CAHOOTS’ winter drive for supplies for the homeless. Annual Trashbuster Awards by Lane County Waste Management went this year to Café Yumm! in the food service category, Hummingbird Wholesale in the private business category, Albertson’s Hilyard store in the private business transformation category, The School Garden Project in the nonprofit category, the city of Eugene Waste Prevention and Green Building Program in the government agency category, students from North Eugene High Schools’s Culinary Arts Program in the school category, and Florence Area Master Recyclers in the individual category. The awards honor efforts to reduce waste of resources “while continuing to contribute to the vitality of our economy and our community.” Eugene resident, fitness model and Complete Nutrition employee Ashley Olson will appear on “Be the Boss,” a new reality series on A&E, Dec. 2. Olson will compete with Complete Nutrition employees from around the nation to win their own franchise. Oregon’s minimum wage will go from $8.80 to $8.95 an hour as of Jan. 1. INFARMATION ON CANOLA AND FOOD Drink some local beer, meet local food people and talk controversial canola this weekend at Cozmic as part of a regular InFARMation (farm + information = InFARMa- tion) series the fi rst Sunday of the month from now through April 7, 2013. The series is part of an effort to bring eaters together with farmers to make the food web stronger and create real change in the local food system, according to Friends of Family Farmers, which has been hosting monthly InFARMation get-togethers in Portland. The topic changes each month, organizers say, but “always focuses on the larg- er picture of the connection between food and farms” in the state. The series launched in November with a discussion of work being done in Benton County to ban GM (genetically modifi ed) foods through a county ordinance, according to Eugene InFARMation organizer Genie Hardin. On Sunday Dec. 2 from 4 to 6 pm the topic will be canola in the Willa- mette Valley and how small farms, foreign markets and con- sumers will be affected by canola planting. Speakers at the event will include Leah Rodgers, fi eld director for Friends of Family Farmers, and Lynne Fessenden, executive director of the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition will be introduced. Canola arose as an issue earlier this year when the Or- egon Department of Agriculture attempted to expand the area in the Willamette Valley where the crop, also known as rapeseed, could be grown. Canola opponents say not only does the weed-like plant risk the livelihoods of Oregon’s vegetable seed growers, but it is so easily dispersed that con- ventional (nonorganic) canola is often contaminated by GM crops. Friends of Family Farmers successfully challenged a temporary rule that would have allowed the crop to be plant- ed this fall and is still fi ghting a proposed permanent rule. Upcoming InFARMation sessions include a Jan. 6 focus on livestock and a discussion of feed options and concerns for folks in the Willamette Valley. State Rep. Phil Barnhart will be talking about how he’s working to help keep GM al- falfa out of Oregon. On Feb. 3 grange historian Gus Freder- ick will give a slide presentation on the history of the Grange movement and its agricultural politics historically and today and there will be a discussion of a possible shift toward pro- gressive politics, Hardin says. For more information go to wkly.ws/1e6 — Camilla Mortensen POLLUTION UPDATE Industrial stormwater discharges are one of the most commonly permitted discharges under the Clean Water Act in Oregon. Statewide, Oregon Department of Environmen- tal Quality (DEQ) has permitted about 700 such discharges (with 119 of those discharges in Lane County, and 86 of those Lane County discharges are located in Eugene). Last year, DEQ issued a new industrial stormwater permit that’s gener- ally more stringent than the old permit, and is currently in the process of assigning facilities to the new permit, which includes accepting public comments on stormwater plans. So far, 16 of the 119 Lane County facilities with permitted industrial stormwater discharges have been assigned to the new permit. DEQ is currently accepting public comments for a num- ber of area facilities. Comments are due at 5 pm on the due date. Due Dec. 3: Weyerhaeuser (Albany), Georgia Pacifi c Chemicals (Millersburg). Due Dec. 5 (all located in Eu- gene): Aurora Innovations, Mohawk Metal Company, Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative. Due Dec. 6 (all located in Eugene): Bulk Handling Systems (three fa- cilities), Emerald Steel Fabricators, A & K Development Co., Architectural Millwork Mfg. Co., Al’s Sheet Metal, B & R Auto Wrecking, Apex Machinery, Armur Coat- ings, Bowtech Archery, Cascadian Company. Visit wkly. ws/1e5 to see stormwater plans and wkly.ws/1e1 to comment. — Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project SLANT • The city of Eugene’s budget woes are in the news, and the city has been polling residents about how to raise revenues. It looks like some proposal will go before council and maybe voters soon. The polling asks lots of questions about attitudes and it appears the city is looking at what the citizens are willing to do in terms of taxes and fees, and also testing various arguments and selling points to see if they have traction. Oddly enough, despite hundreds of people shivering under bridges and bushes, no questions were asked about whether we would support new taxes or fees to provide a city shelter for the homeless, or even subsidize a bit of land for the homeless to build their own shelters. We could use some real leadership and definitive action on this matter of life and death, but it’s not coming from the city administration or our elected officials. Our amazing nonprofits and churches cannot handle the growing needs without more city help. • Looks like our Duck Sports Department needs to pay more attention to The Oregonian or even The New York Times to find out what’s really happening in Eugene. On Nov. 25, 26 and 27, the Portland daily wrote about Chip Kelly heading out for a pro coaching job, maybe in Dallas, with offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich hopefully replacing him as head UO football coach. Lots of fun speculation with columnist John Canzano saying, “I can’t see Kelly returning next season to Eugene as head coach.” Not even for $3.5 million in salary and bonuses. • We know The Big One is coming, but will we get useful information, such as which hospital is not surrounded by water when the dams fail in an earthquake? Lane County’s Community Emergency Notification System (CENS) was tested earlier this week, sending out text alerts and recorded phone messages to parts of south Eugene. Thanks to cell phones, land lines and computerized messaging, technology is available to communicate quickly about earthquakes, hazardous material spills, urban interface wildfires, floods, even missing kids. Coastal residents in tsunami hazard zones are very familiar with alert systems and know what to do, but we inlanders are a bit clueless. Not many people have signed up for phone calls or cell phone text alerts. Register your phone at www.lcog.org/alertme • Fox News fired the clownish Glenn Beck last year for being too much of a conservative wingnut, but he still has a huge following, and now he has penned a horror novel, Agenda 21, that describes the tyrannical consequences of the current undermining of America. He says the evil begins at the local government level and he urges his followers to scan city council minutes and report to him key words and phrases that foretell the downfall of freedom: affordable housing, climate change, endangered species, environmental justice, resilient cities, precautionary principle, restorative justice, mixed-use development, sustainable communities, social justice, public/private partnerships, even safe routes to schools. Uh-oh. Looks like we Oregonians are doomed. Wait! Safe routes to schools? S L A N T IN C LU D E S S H O R T O P INI O N P IE C E S , O B S E R VAT I O N S A N D R U M O R- C H A S IN G N OT E S C O M P IL E D B Y T H E E W S TA F F. H E A R D A N Y G O O D R U M O R S L AT E LY ? C O N TA C T T E D TAY LO R AT 4 8 4 - 0 519 , E D I TO R @ E U GE N E W E E K LY. C O M eugeneweekly.com • November 29, 2012 11
