For-profit banks are losing billions as more and
more people discover not-for-profit credit unions, which
often offer better savings and loan rates and fewer of
those fees that irritate bank customers. Bankers,
naturally, have big clout in Congress and regulations are
being proposed that would require credit unions to pay
the same taxes as for-profit banks. Several of our local
credit unions are joining to educate their members and
the public about the issues. Three CEOs, Bob Newcomb
of SELCO Community Credit Union, Mandy Jones of
Oregon Community Credit Union and John Iglesias of
Northwest Community Credit Union, are collaborating
on a series of videos outlining the benefits to the public
of maintaining their tax-exempt status. See the videos at
selco.org.CUtaxation or check out the national website
DontTaxMyCreditUnion.org.
Need help enrolling in Obamacare? Cover Oregon
and The Sharing Health Care Options from White Bird
Clinic will be available from 11 am to 1 pm Tuesday, Nov.
26, at Springfield City Hall. Call 726-2237.
Due Donne Boutique, a longtime Eugene-based
fashion store, has moved to a new location at 5th Street
Public Market. The business, owned by Chris Hayward-
Mahew and her daughter Clarice Hayward, was
previously at 450 Coburg Rd. Due Donne, which is Italian
for “two women,” had its grand opening Nov. 14. Hours
are 10 am to 7 pm Monday through Saturday and 11 am
to 5 pm Sunday. Call 345-4411.
Cascadian Courier Collective has joined Falling Sky
Delicatessen to offer pastrami and other food by bike
delivery daily from 11 am to 10 pm, rain or shine, says
Rob Cohen, one of the owners of Falling Sky. The
delivery route covers most of downtown and south
Eugene. Call 653-9167.
Just a reminder: Holiday Market will begin at the
Lane County Fairgrounds this weekend, Nov. 23-24.
Hours will be from 10 am to 6 pm weekends (plus the
Friday after Thanksgiving) but will close at 4 pm
Christmas Eve. See full schedule at holidaymarket.org
or call 686-8885. Lane County Farmers Market’s
Holiday Market in the adjacent Performance Hall will
follow the same schedule.
The UO raised $1.4 million from local donors to keep
the Ken Kesey archives in Eugene, and $100,000 came
from Rogue Ales & Spirits of Newport. The company,
founded by three UO grads, has a new product, a Kesey-
inspired “One Brew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” in a colorful
glass-enamel bottle. A portion of the proceeds will
contribute to the Ken Kesey Fund at UO libraries. See
rogue.com.
We hear the annual Basic Rights Oregon Eugene
Garden Party Sept. 22 raised $12,240, and contributions
are still coming in. All proceeds will be used by BRO to
fund its education advocacy activities, including the
campaign to place a marriage equality initiative on the
statewide 2014 ballot. See basicrights.org.
The Benton Soil & Water Conservation District is now
holding its annual Native Plant Sale and Eugene area
residents can take advantage of the event to purchase
low-cost native plants. Available are some 60 varieties
of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, grasses and flowers
with prices ranging from 50 cents to $4. This event
has contributed to the planting of more than 250,000
native plants in the Willamette Valley. Ordering is
available online at bentonswcd.org and the deadline for
orders is Jan. 31. Plant orders are distributed in Corvallis
Feb. 22.
NEWS
MEGALOADS COMING TO
EASTERN OREGON ROADS
On Nov. 24 massive loads of tar sands equipment
— some as long as a football fi eld — will hit the
roads of rural Eastern Oregon, traveling from Uma-
tilla through the small towns of Prairie City and John
Day to Homedale, Idaho. Activists, Native Ameri-
cans, rural dwellers and more have been fi ghting the
so-called megaload shipments for three years now in
Idaho and Montana, and now the fi ght has come to
Oregon.
A press release from the Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT) warning Thanksgiving-week
travelers that roads will be held up for 20 minutes at
a time says the megaloads are of “water purifi cation
equipment and parts.” According to the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle, Oregon-based shipping company Omega
Morgan confi rmed that “the shipments would be
parts of giant evaporators, equipment used in power
generation and oil sands refi nery processes.” The
route goes from the Port of Umatilla, east to Pend-
leton, then south on Hwy. 395 to Mount Vernon and
east through John Day and Prairie City on Hwy. 26.
The Canadian tar sands are massive open pit
mines that opponents say destroy forests and poison
land, water and people in the oil-extraction process.
The controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which
would ship the dirty tar sands crude across the U.S.,
and a recent increase in oil-by-rail and oil export
proposals in the Northwest are related to climate
change-inducing tar sands mining.
In September, the Nez Perce Tribal Council was
arrested protesting the megaloads through their
lands. Local Native American climate change ac-
tivist Kayla Godowa Tufti says, “All four Colum-
bia River Treaty Tribes, Umatilla, Yakama, Warm
Springs and Nez Perce, issued a resolution opposing
the development of the Canadian tar sands oil and the
‘megaloads’ of equipment they require, in August of
this year.” She adds, “Though Omega Morgan main-
tains these evaporators
are destined for Nevada, it’s
p
obvious to many of us that this is a blatant lie. From
extraction to export, we do not want this destructive
industry in our homelands, nor our river. No compro-
mise, no question.”
Holly Zander, a press representative for Omega
Morgan, says the company reached out to the Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
but the route does not cross tribal lands. It does go
through national forest lands. Zander says the loads
will not move on the Thanksgiving holiday.
According to ODOT, the fi rst load of water purifi -
cation equipment and its transport vehicle will be 380
feet long, 23 feet wide and 19 feet tall. The height
means the loads cannot be transported on most major
highways as they won’t fi t under overpasses.
Trish Weber of All Against the Haul, which suc-
cessfully fought megaloads in Montana, says, “This
plan exemplifi es the arrogance of Big Oil in thinking
that Oregonians will subsidize their transportation
costs after they were turned back in Idaho.” She says
that Oregonians will “pick up the tab in the form of
inconvenience at best and risks to safety and infra-
structure at worst.” Weber points out that it was an
oversized load carrying housing for drilling equip-
ment that knocked down the I-5 bridge over Wash-
ington’s Skagit River last year. The transport compa-
ny in that instance was Mullen Trucking, a frequent
shipper of tar sands equipment.
“All other industries build their equipment to
fi t on our highways, and there is no reason Big Oil
shouldn’t either — their desire for profi ts doesn’t put
them above the rules,” she says.
The current load of General Electric water evapo-
rating equipment is scheduled to begin moving Nov.
24, and Christy Jordan, ODOT’s permit manager and
freight mobility coordinator, says a permit will not be
issued before Nov. 22. Weber says, “ODOT needs to
refrain from issuing permits until these applications
have undergone a thorough review process, including
input from the public.”
Tom Strandberg of ODOT tells EW, “My under-
standing is that three loads will be part of this permit.
There may be requests begin moving additional loads
in the future.” He says some fi xtures along the route
will have to be moved to allow the loads to pass.
Strandberg says representatives of Omega Mor-
gan have been invited to answer questions at the
regularly scheduled South East Area Commission
on Transportation
meeting
p
g in Ontario, Ore., on Nov.
25, and an earlier meeting was held in Grant County
Nov. 18.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide, which has been protest-
ing and documenting megaloads, is planning “six
days of direct action” against the Oregon loads. The
group will be joined by 350 Corvallis, Portland Ris-
ing Tide and other members of an anti-Keystone
XL and anti-fossil fuel infrastructure coalition. For
more information go to wildidahorisingtide.org.
— Camilla Mortensen
To honor the rare and special event of Thanksgiving
falling on the first night of Hanukkah, Jewish Events
Willamette-Valley has teamed up with Market of Choice
to do a kosher cheese and wine tasting at 3 pm Sunday,
Nov. 24, at Market of Choice on 29th Avenue. It is a free
tasting to “encourage people to discover award-winning
kosher wines from around the world and find one to
bring to their Thanksgiving or Hanukkah gatherings
without fear of leaving out your Jewish friends.”
Send suggestions for Biz Beat items to editor@eugeneweekly.com
and please put “Biz Beat” in the subject line.
AN OMEGA MORGAN
MEGALOAD IN IDAHO
PHOTO: JESSICA ROBINSON/NORTHWEST NEWS NET WORK
8
November 21, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com