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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2014)
Sweet Potato Pie is closing after 20 years in business in Eugene, first downtown on 11th Avenue and then at 775 Monroe St. next to Sweet Life in the Whiteaker. The store features locally made clothing and natural products and Saturday will be the last day. Owner Elizabeth Thompson says the move away from downtown was expensive and foot traffic in the Whiteaker has been bad. She has kept the store going over the past five years by working full-time jobs around town. Find updates on the closing and fixtures that are for sale on the store’s Facebook page or email sweetpotatopiegirl@comcast.net. CruiseOne, a travel agency, is adding new jobs and opening a new storefront this month at 1132 5th St. in Springfield. Owner is Gary E. Smith who teaches small business management full-time at LCC. Smith says he “hopes to bring the advantages of top-volume production partnerships and exceptional pricing to the local market as well.” The company provides employee travel benefits to Fortune 500 and top technology firms including Apple, Microsoft and Intel. The official ribbon- cutting will be Oct. 23, but visitors to the business the week of Oct. 20 can get discounts and sign up for a cruise giveaway drawing. See travelperks.biz or call 349-0036. Dandelions Flowers & Gifts is organizing “Bras for a Cure,” a bra-decorating contest to raise money for the Oregon Cancer Foundation and aid local cancer patients. The deadline for entering decorated bras is Saturday, Oct. 18. Bras will be on display Oct. 20-31, and the “Reveal Party” will be Tuesday, Oct. 21. Entry fee is $10 and votes are $1 each. Dandelions is at 1710 Chambers St. Call Shirley Lyons at 485-1261 or visit dandelionsflowers.com. Claim 52 Brewing is now serving up its handcrafted beers at the Sprout! Regional Food Hub, a community building operated by NEDCO that includes the year-round farmers market, pop- up restaurants and commercial kitchen. Sprout! is at 418 A. St. in Springfield; the new space faces 4th Street and is named The Abbey to reflect the historic nature of the building, as well as the brewery’s focus on European beer styles like Kolsch, Weiss beers and Belgian ales. Hours will be 4 to 8 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 3 to 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. SunWorks, a Eugene-based manufacturer of solar food dryers owned by Eben Fodor, is looking to win a grant from Mission Main Street, and the grant is based in part on community support. It’s easy to make a vote of support through Facebook at solarfooddryer.com or wkly.ws/1tu. Fodor says he’s just 89 votes short of the 250 votes needed to get to the next step. Twenty grants will be awarded of $150,000 cash, a laptop computer, a trip to meet with small business experts and customized market research. Deadline to vote is Oct. 17. The American Water Works Association Young Professionals are hosting a talk by Karl Morgenstern of EWEB on EWEB’s efforts to promote conservation in the McKenzie River watershed at a meeting from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, Oct. 16, at the LCC Downtown Campus, 4th floor. Call 514-3001 for more information. Beginning farmers and ranchers are invited to Oregon’s first “Farmers Rising” weekend of learning, networking and socializing for farmers and ranchers across the state, beginning Friday evening, Oct. 17, at Two Rivers Farm, 89060 Old Mohawk Rd. in Springfield. Email beth@ friendsoffamilyfarmers.org or call 359-8987. The Greenlane Sustainable Business Network is celebrating its fifth anniversary with an event from 5 to 8 pm Wednesday, Oct. 22, at Sprout! Marketplace, 418 A St. in Springfield. $5 for members, $8 for non-members. See greenlane- sbn.org. 8 October 16, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com voters do not renew the levy, 4J will lose the equivalent of fund- ing for 80 teachers or 16 school days, according to 4J’s website. Geller says the local option levy is the only way that 4J can receive local funds for school operations. In 1990, Measure 5 amended the Oregon Constitution to cap property taxes dedi- cated to school funding, limiting the amount of funds directed toward education. In other states, sales tax supplements funding With full-day kindergarten and the new Smarter Balanced for education, but Oregon has no such sales tax. standardized tests looming on the horizon, Eugene School Dis- “Education has so much to do with the well-being of a com- trict 4J can’t afford to lose any source of funding. That’s why munity,” Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy the district is asking voters to renew a says. “The success of students affects five-year local option levy on the Nov. the success of our community.” 4 ballot. Piercy says that good schools “A big thing voters should be are a huge asset to a city in that the aware of is that this is not a new tax,” benefits of a good education bolster says Jennifer Geller, 4J board member. a community over the long term, She says that voters have approved and Geller adds that 4J can’t afford the levy three times since 2000, and any more cuts. This year, the district the district is not raising the property — K I T T Y P I E R C Y, M AYOR added back days to the calendar and tax rate but instead maintaining the hired more teachers to reduce class current rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of as- sizes, but the local option levy represents sessed value. A person owning property about 5 percent of 4J’s operating budget, with a total real market value of around Geller says, and the district needs that $310,000 and an assessed value of money to continue adding back what around $270,000 would pay about was lost. $66 per year for the levy. “Voting for this is one of the few Currently, the Oregon Depart- ways we can express how much we ment of Education provides the care about our schools and our kids,” majority of 4J’s funds, while the Piercy says. local option levy comes specifically Levy supporters will meet to talk from Eugene taxpayers and amounts to voters at 9:30 am Saturday, Oct. 25, to about $8 million per year, going at River Road Elementary School, 120 toward school programs, teachers’ sala- Hilliard Ln. — Amy Schneider ries and other school operations costs. If 4J SEEKS SUPPORT FOR LOCAL OPTION LEVY ‘ Voting for this is one of the few ways we can express how much we care about our schools and our kids.’ TOUR TALKS REWILDING, WOLVES AND CAPITALISM Ferris points to conservation work on Turner’s 2 million acres of land holdings as an example of the media mogul’s views as an “eco-capitalist-humanitarian.” Mikhail Gorbachev says that CNN creator Ted Turner “has “Ted’s a good model for successful people to aspire to,” set a new standard for what a single individual can do to ad- Ferris says. “His sort of attitude and thinking anybody could dress the most challenging problems threatening our survival.” adopt.” He says Turner puts the That is according to the blurb on same spirit that led to his creation the back of author Todd Wilkin- of the 24-hour news station into son’s Last Stand: Ted Turner’s conservation. Some of the most Quest to Save a Troubled Planet, economically successful busi- published by Lyons Press in 2013 nesses are also the most environ- and copyrighted to Turner Works, mental, Ferris adds. LLC. According to Ferris, the fact Wilkinson and Cascadia —BOB FERRIS, that wolves could successfully Wildlands Executive Director C A S C A D I A W I L D L A ND S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR return to Oregon and that Journey Bob Ferris are currently touring and Wanda could “hook up” dem- Oregon and Washington talking onstrates that, with enough wild about Turner, conservation and land, sensitive species can return, capitalism on a “Two Talking but the loss of biodiversity must Wolves” tour that starts this week. be slowed before that can happen. Ferris says that Turner talks Ferris and Wilkinson urge that about “the need for people that people come out and learn about have been successful to be em- how “the Pacific Northwest fig- pathetic in terms of realizing ures at the center of many urgent their wealth comes from natural environmental issues affecting resources, and they need to put America and the world.” something back in the bank to The Two Talking Wolves tour keep human and ecological sys- comes to Eugene at noon Thurs- tems healthy.” day, Oct. 16, at the Knight Law Wilkinson’s biography of School, Room 110 on the UO Turner kicks off with a dream of campus, and 7 pm the same day a wolf and the concept of rewild- at Tsunami Books, 2585 Wil- ing — bringing back some of the lamette St. At 7 pm Friday, Oct. native species from hundreds of 17, Ferris and Wilkinson will years ago to the lands they once speak in Cottage Grove at The roamed. Ferris says that rewilding Healing Matrix, 632 E. Main and Oregon’s roaming wolf pair, St., and they speak again 7 pm known to some as OR-7 and his Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Cor- “uncollared female” and to oth- vallis-Benton County Public ers as Journey and Wanda, will Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. be part of the wide-ranging dis- — Camilla Mortensen cussions on the Two Wolves tour. ‘ The Pacific Northwest figures at the center of many urgent environmental issues affecting America and the world.’
