Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2013)
NEWS Emerald Meadows is a nice bit of county-owned acreage out at Buford Park where Faerieworlds has been held the last couple of years. We hear the county is planning on improving the site, maybe bringing in electrical power and even adding RV hook-ups in order to accommodate music festivals and other big events. The Cascadia Music Festival has booked the site for July 5 and is starting to sell tickets this week at cascadiamusicfestival.com Headlining the event will be Bruce Hornsby, Railroad Earth, Tony Furtado, Jelly Bread and more. The festival hopes to grow to three days next year. Faerieworlds, by the way, will be July 26-28 this year. The Dirty Dash mud run obstacle course is also at the site, this year June 29-30. Lane County’s fourth annual Spring Propagation Fair will be from 11 am to 3 pm Saturday, March 23, at the LCC main campus cafeteria. The event is free and open to the public, made possible by a volunteer effort to support home orchardists, vegetable gardeners and native plant enthusiasts in and around the southern Willamette Valley. See springpropagationfair.com Party@Jo’s is the latest “Westraunt Concept” from the West Brothers in Eugene. The restaurant attached to Dickie Jo’s Burgers on Valley River Way across from the mall is designed to accommodate evening dinner parties and afternoon kid events, such as birthday parties. The restaurant opened March 6 and can be contacted at 912- 9091. We hear Level Up Arcade at 13th and Oak west of campus is planning to expand into the old Cornucopia Maize Lounge space next door, sometime soon. Level Up has arcade games, old and new, along with a bar and restaurant. See leveluparcade.com Need a small, cheap offi ce downtown with wi-fi , a meeting space and a group of friendly lefties to rub elbows with and share a bathroom and kitchenette? The nonprofi t Helios Resource Network has a cubicle available at 120 W. Broadway. Email Cary at cdt@efn.org Hummingbird Wholesale in Eugene has gotten attention in this column in the past, and here’s more. The innovative bulk food distributor and food business incubator has earned national recognition from Green America’s People & Planet Awards for businesses that “deeply integrate environmental and social considerations in their strategies and operations.” Green America is a nonprofi t that promotes ethical consumerism. Kristie Steele of Hummingbird says the $5,000 prize will be used to purchase a second electric bike cart for use in local deliveries. Plant Nerd Night begins at 6 pm Thursday, March 28, at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645 High St., and nursery folks from Territorial Seed, Bloom River Gardens, Doak Creek, Dancing Lizard and Johnson Brothers will be there to show off their plants and share their expertise. The event is free but raffl e tickets will be sold to help fund local civic and youth gardening projects. Hop Valley Brewing received a Regional Award of Merit for Economic Enhancement at a recent Lane Council of Governments member appreciation dinner at LCC. Hop Valley operates a restaurant and brewery in Springfi eld and is planning a 30,000 sq. ft. facility in the Whiteaker neighborhood that will include a tasting room. Two of Hop Valley’s founders, Ron Howard and Jonas Kungys, accepted the award. A second Togo’s sandwich shop opened March 16 on West 11th at Seneca. The fi rst of the West Coast franchises in Lane County opened in January at 954 Pearl St. See togoseugene.com NO CITIZEN INPUT ON CITY HALL ARCHITECT City Hall may be fenced-off, padlocked and dormant, but seven proposals in response to the city’s request for proposals (RFP) from architects show that the process of redesigning and rebuilding the award-winning structure has begun. City Manager Jon Ruiz will announce fi nalists March 29 and is expected to select the winning fi rm (or fi rms) by April 12, after evaluating the applications on a points scale with city staff. The lack of a citizens committee to guide the selection process irks some Eugeneans, including Kevin Matthews, editor of ArchitectureWeek. “This is a project of a type and a scope for which the city of Eugene has in the past traditionally assembled a citizen committee to provide input on reviewing the applications,” Matthews says. “The hiring of fi rms to do jobs for the city comes under the job of the city manager,” Mayor Kitty Piercy says. She says that Ruiz told her that the City Council will be able to give him input in the selection. “We have talked and he wants this to be as open and engaging a process for the council as possible,” she says. Piercy says that every city should have a city hall, and getting back into Eugene’s own building is a priority. “It’s very important to me that we not be out of a city hall for too long,” she says, and she hopes to keep “as close to the two- year timeline as possible.” Matthews says that the city’s RFP raised a couple of red fl ags for him, especially the portion that calls for a design that “favors new construction to the extent possible” beyond the council chambers, public art and parking. “That’s the opposite of sustainable,” Matthews says. He thinks that a citizens committee could better refl ect what the public wants in its City Hall architect, including higher standards for sustainability and honoring what he calls one of the Willamette Valley’s best examples of mid-century modern architecture. “For the city to be only requiring LEED silver is a low bar for sustainability,” he says, citing the LEED platinum and gold buildings that LCC constructed downtown. Retired architect Dan Herbert says he hopes the design chosen refl ects the need for a building that will last. “Any serious proposal would pay strong attention to the implications of a hundred year building,” he says, including the ability to easily update electric, heating and cooling systems and other internal workings. At this phase, Matthews says, responses to the requests for proposals aren’t very detailed, typically a 25- to 50-page ACTIVIST • A new group, Students Against Imperialism, has formed after a recent speaking event in which two controversial Israeli soldiers came to speak at UO. “The need to challenge imperialism is dire, as the United States is the world’s leading colonial power,” reads a statement from the group. The group is focusing on a range of issues, from immigration policy to “Israel’s war machine.” For more information, email uoregon.sai@gmail.com lighten up BY RAFAEL ALDAVE The other paper in town reported that the proponents of a county tax levy to run the jail said that the extra money would “possibly cut the number of early releases of jail inmates.” Well, that’s almost enough to make me possibly consider voting for the measure. POLLUTION UPDATE The City of Eugene has referred Pacifi c Recycling to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for enforcement regarding violations at its facility on Cross Street near Roosevelt Boulevard. The referral concerns two different Clean Water Act violations. First, Pacifi c Recycling has failed to submit a plan to the city regarding how it will reduce high pollution levels in stormwater discharges from the site. The city has sent Pacifi c Recycling three separate letters since November 2012 seeking such a plan, to no avail. Second, Pacifi c Recycling has failed to submit a separate plan to the city regarding how it will address signifi cant track out of sediment from the site. The city notes that Pacifi c Recycling has “demonstrated unwillingness to comply with” its Clean Water Act permit, and that the violations are considered to be signifi cant violations of Oregon environmental law. DEQ sent Pacifi c Seafood a pre-enforcement notice on Feb. 20 concerning Clean Water Act discharge violations at two facilities in Newport, more specifi cally for exceeding oil and grease and total suspended solids levels in its permit. DEQ’s notice notes the repeated nature of the violations over the last year. DEQ’s enforcement databases indicate similar violations in Newport dating back to at least 2009 (including a fi ne of almost $8,000), as well as violations in Clatsop County in 2006. — Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project • The annual recruitment for Eugene city boards, committees and commissions is now under way. Vacancies are coming up on the Budget Committee, Planning Commission, Civilian Review Board and several others. Deadline for applications is March 29. See eugene-or.gov/bcc or stop by the city manager’s office. • Beyond Toxics and supporters are traveling to in Salem for the first public hearing of HB 3364, the Safe Public Places Act, at 8 am Thursday, March 28. The bill was written by Beyond Toxics and outlines a “well-thought out approach to pest management.” See safepublicplaces.org for more information. traveling soon? M EDICAL M ARIJUANA C LINIC medical advice for global travelers Are You Tired of Pills? t he t ravel c linic John D. Wilson, M.D. 1200 Hilyard St., Suite S-560 541/343-6028 www.TravelClinicOregon.com Questions? Email us at travelclinicoregon.3436028@gmail.com Questions? Email us at travelclinic3436028 @ gmail.com 10 LERT notebook or bound package with descriptions of the fi rm and its leaders, photographs of their relevant projects, an outline how they would approach the project conceptually and “blather” about integrated design, a key term in the RFP. Proposals are not online, but the city’s purchasing offi ce writes, “Interested parties can either come in to our offi ce to view the fi le for free or they can request information through a public records request process.” — Shannon Finnell March 21 , 2013 • eugeneweekly.com Do You Suffer From: • Severe Pain • Muscle Spasms • Seizures • Glaucoma • Cancer • AIDS • Severe Nausea • Cachexia • Alzheimer’s An Established & Respected Clinic For Over 13 Years • We’ve Been Here For You! Southern Oregon Alternative Medicine Springfi eld Location 152 Main St. www.southernoregonalternativemedicine.com (541) 844-1708
