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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2014)
LET TERS MILLIONS HAVE BEEN LOST Is PAC money from out of state being fused into Lane County politics? How much of it is from the Koch Bros? What does your gut tell you? This money is fi lling the political coffers of commissioners Jay Bozievich, Sid Leiken and Faye Stewart and has bought their loyalty at the expense of Lane County citizens. These commissioners have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars; add to that: scandals, corporate welfare, gerrymandering, lack of government transparency and lawsuits. Weyerhaeuser in Cottage Grove received a property tax break worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Think how that would have helped small business owners in Lane County. Stewart has been helping the McDougal Bros/Greg Demers, who mined Parvin Butte, as far back as February 2012 with the Connect Oregon Grant [R-G, 2/20/2012]. He is still helping them today with the brownfi eld site in Goshen (they own property in Goshen and supply water to Goshen). Taxpayers build the infrastructure while they make a nice profi t. Good deal for whom? Bozievich has no regrets for hiring former county administrator Liane Richardson (Inkster) even though she created a county scandal. Marc Kardell, the former Lane County attorney, is suing Lane County because he was fi red for questioning the actions of Inkster and District Attorney Alex Gardner (case pending). Leiken rubber-stamps the polarizing politics of his fellow conservatives, hoping to use his current position for future political ambitions. Let’s not go down this road again. Dawn Lesley, Kevin Matthews and Sheri Moore will bring new blood, transparency and trust back to Lane County politics. It’s time to kick the bums out! Arlen Markus Dexter DESIGN MATTERS TO THE UO PRESIDENT Where I live they have a place for the Oregon Athletic Department and their so- called “student-athletes.” Here we call the place for these types San Quentin or Pelican Bay. The criminal aspect of the University of Oregon Athletic Department has been going on for years and closely parallels your “big buck” athletic donors. Congratulations on your “noted” educational enterprise. Charles Desler, architect Placerville, Calif. HE’S GOOD ON DRAINAGE I’m writing a letter supporting Jay Bozievich to be re-elected as West Lane County Commissioner. Jay has always given me his ear and help when problems or issues affect me. I live in the Blachly area on Hwy. DOES THE COUNTY REALLY NEED MORE LAND? nly those who see Brussels sprouts as a subversive food plot are against having a more permanent Farmers Market where the “butterfl y lot” sits downtown. The parking lot with the tilted surfaces that give it its name knows that it is years past its shelf life and yearns for removal. Give the city and county the credit they deserve for trying to fi nd a way to tear it down and bring us the courthouse square that the Skinners intended as a center of our civic life. Only a Mr. Cranky would fi nd issues with the city’s proposed land exchange of the county’s Butterfl y site for the eastern half of their demolished City Hall block. So I asked Mr. Cranky what he thought those issues might be. Well, he said, “I think people need to consider more carefully whether it is really a good idea to move our Lane County Courthouse over to High Street. It would separate the Public Service Building (PSB) from the courthouse by two whole blocks. People would go to the PSB information desk looking for the courthouse and be told they now had to go on over to High Street. “I heard someone from the county say, ‘Why not give us the western half of the City Hall block so the courthouse would still be connected,’ but that of course would send the proposed new City Hall even farther down 8th." All this breaking apart and spreading out reminds me of the Yeats poem, he said, Things fall apart The center will not hold … “The trade also assumes that the county needs more land,” he continued, “which isn’t the case. The PSB’s original architect said that the courthouse could expand with two more fl oors over the north end of the PSB. That would be so much less expensive, and more sustainable, than moving and building anew. Besides it could be years and years before the state gets far enough down its courthouse list to fund our project. 4 May 15, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com FIGHT CLIMATE CRISIS East Lane voters have the unique opportunity to directly reduce BY JERRY DIE THEL M Downside of the Trade O 36 with my wife and over the last few years drainage on Hwy. 36 and our side roads have been fl ooding my property as well as my neighbors during the mild to heavy rains. Jay listened carefully to our problems and helped devise a plan for my drainage issue. State and county lands were involved and Jay had a conversation with the appropriate people to address it. Jay helped navigate the conversation so that both jurisdictions could get results. I was impressed with how well Jay listened to me and found a quality solution. Jay deserves a second term as our West Lane County commissioner and I will be supporting him. Dwight Coon Former mayor of Junction City “Besides that, I like keeping the courthouse on its historic site and connected to what was supposed to be its permanent open space. That was before we sat idly by and let 'lawyer magic' turn park into parking on tilt. We call them the Park Blocks, after the ones in Portland, but it’s really our pioneer courthouse square like all the other pioneer courthouse squares in Oregon cities.” I asked Mr. Cranky if he had seen the plan that would restore the north Park Block, add a Farmers Market and Skinner Market Square, site the farmers’ building along West Park where the historic county market began, build the new City Hall on the north end of the Butterfl y along 7th, and add two new fl oors over the PSB for the new county courtrooms. He said, “Why no,” and so I showed it to him. “It creates the strong town center I was trying to talk about,” he said. I pointed out that the farmers street market on West Park would open through the new market building and out into the square. And it would avoid the mistake of siting the market building too far to the north and losing its 8th Avenue center of intensity. Seventh is for driving through town. Eighth is for going to market. And as long as the city and county are talking deals, maybe the upper fl oors of the new City Hall could be the courtrooms the county needs until the county money comes through. There could even be a bridge across. And when the County Courthouse eventually gets to expand, there would be a reservoir of new space freed up for City Hall. Anyway, I agreed with Mr. Cranky about the downside of the trade. I would hate to have the people at the PSB information desk whispering regretfully behind their hands to one another that the County Courthouse was now Farr, Farr away. Jerry Diethelm is a Eugene architect, landscape architect and planning and urban design consultant. Search for his name on our website for his earlier analyses of the quandary involving Eugene’s City Hall, County Courthouse and Farmers Market.
