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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2013)
NEWS ACTIVIST LERT • Robert Anderson, professor of law and director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington, will present “A Problem-Prone Promise: Recurring Issues in Fulfilling the Federal Trust Responsibility to Indian Nations” at 5 pm Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Knight Law Center, Room 110. • Noted Oregon water-rights activist and Alliance for Democracy member Nancy Matela will discuss the ongoing dangers of the Columbia Generating Station (CGS) nuclear power plant and the Shutdown CGS campaign at 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 21, at the First United Methodist Church in Eugene. The event is sponsored by Oregon WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions). It is free and open to the public. • “The Fungal Kingdom” is the topic of the Many Rivers Group Sierra Club free public meeting at 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645 High St. Speaker will be Bruce Newhouse of the Cascade Mycological Society. • “New Revenue for the City” is the topic at City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, Nov. 22, at the Eugene Hilton, lobby level. Speakers will be John Barofsky and Dave Funk of the Meeting the Challenge Task Force and Lane County assessor Michael Cowles. $5 for non-members. See cityclubofeugene.org to get on the email list. • Deadline for applying for the city’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee is Friday, Nov. 22. BPAC advises city staff, community organizations and partner agencies on implementation of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Plan, and other duties. Meetings are monthly and terms are one or two years. Email lee. shoemaker@ci.eugene.or.us or call 682-5471 or see the city website. • Mayor Kitty Piercy’s One-on-One public session for November will be from 5 to 6 pm Tuesday, Nov. 26, at Rite Aid, 57 W. 29th Ave. She will be joined by Councilor George Brown of Ward 1. EUGENE LIBRARY RANKS HIGH BUT NEEDS UPGRADE In the midst of the city’s budget crisis, the Library Jour- nal rated Eugene Public Library a three-star library. The journal looks per capita at circulation, visits, program at- tendance and public internet terminal use and ranks librar- ies across the U.S according to their budget class. By the Library Journal’s metrics, a three-star rating equates to be- ing in the top 3 percent of a library’s budget class in terms of cost-effectiveness. Connie Bennett, the library’s director, says the library continues to look into ways that it can be cost-effective, such as analyzing improvements to the library’s decade- old, 24-hour automated book return system. It requested information from various companies last year. “We’ve done some modifi cations to it over the years, and it oper- ates much faster than it did when it was initially installed,” she says, though it sometimes requires scheduled mainte- nance such as oiling ball bearings, and sometimes its belt jams. Funding for any rebuild to the system wouldn’t come from the city’s General Fund, which has a projected $5 million shortfall. Capital funding in the library’s tentative FY15 budget has a placeholder item of $750,000, which Bennett says will be “more than enough.” While Bennett adds that she wouldn’t describe the book return system as prone to breakdowns, she says it’s an important piece of equipment to maintain correctly. “The book return system is one that is essential to getting those items back in the library and getting them back to be reshelved,” she says. “Otherwise people couldn’t fi nd them and check them out again. The way that you see whether that’s working is in the three million checkouts per year.” Of the Library Journal’s metrics, Bennett says she EUGENE YOUTH TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUES STUDENTS PAINT A CLIMATE CHANGE MURAL ON ARRIVING BY BIKE hopes that the organization adds more modern categories in the future. “Things like hits on library websites, use of Wi-Fi in libraries or digital checkouts of download- able, digital media, eBooks and things like that,” she says, “three things which I think Eugene would do really well in.” — Shannon Finnell WANT TO WEIGH IN ON COUNTY SPENDING? Over the past couple years there have been cuts in Lane County’s funding to the animal shelter, cuts in funding for Womenspace and cuts to other groups that provide aid to women, children and others in need, while at the same time the Lane County administrator who was making more than $150,000 a year was seeking to have her salary raised. If these county fi nancial issues have raised your ire, now is the time to do something about it and weigh in. Lane County’s Budget Committee has an opening for a citizen member from Commissioner Pete Sorenson’s South Eugene district. The county is accepting applica- tions until Jan. 13. The committee is made up of the fi ve Lane County commissioners and of fi ve residents — one from each commissioner’s district. The current committee members are Herb Vloed- man from Jay Bozievich’s West Eugene district; Shanna Reichenberger, who is Sid Leiken’s Springfi eld appointee; Rose Wilde, who was appointed by former commissioner Rob Handy for North Eugene; and Denis Hijmans for Faye Stewart’s East Lane district. Sorenson, who is looking to replace Ashley Miller, whose term expires Dec. 21, says the Budget Committee allocates over $400 million each year “and has a lot of fl ex- ibility on how that’s done. Just as a family budget can be allocated in a variety of ways, so can a county budget.” On Nov. 17 a mural sprung up on the side of Arriving by Bike fac- ing 27th Avenue and Willamette. Far from graffi ti, this work speaks to the civic engagement that a group of Eugene youth have been involved in for the last three months. A group of students ranging in age from 8 to 18, with the support of local nonprofi t Our Children’s Trust, have attended every Eugene City Council meeting since Sept. 23 to present their argument for solidifying law on climate change in the city. On Nov. 11 the group submitted a Climate Recovery Ordinance for the council to consider. Our Children’s Trust is working to compel governments to imple- ment climate recovery plans based on science, rather than politics, in the U.S. and internationally. The local ordinance concerns “the protection of the health, safety and welfare of residents and ecosystems of Eugene, Oregon,” as it is stated on the document. But the main goal of the ordinance is to “le- gally obligate the city of Eugene to meet the climate goals it set out and to plan for future action on climate change,” says Gordon Levitt, a legal intern for Our Children’s Trust who worked on the ordinance. Currently, the Climate and Energy Action Plan outlines much of what the city strives for in environmental protections but does not solidify them as law. “The city of Eugene has climate and energy goals, but they’re just goals; there’s no legal obligation behind them,” Levitt says. Mayor Kitty Piercy has been impressed by the initiative these students have taken. “They have done an excellent job and they get better by the week,” she says. With the ordinance submitted, the City Council must decide if it wants a public work session. “If the majority wants a work sessions, we will put it on our calendar and go to work,” Piercy says. The purpose of the mural, conceived by artist Esteban Steffensen, is to bring public awareness to the issue and the specifi c work the group has been a part of. “I think it’s great. They are the ones who are going to deal with the consequences of what’s going on. All of us could be working on doing what we can now to reduce our impact to climate change,” Piercy says. — Jordan Tichenor PHOTO CREDIT: JULIA OLSON 10 November 21, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
