Eugene weekly., November 10, 2016, Image 6

BY BEN RICKER
• Through a partnership between Willamalane Park and
Recreation District and the city of Springfield, there will be a
new Veterans Memorial Plaza on the corner of Mohawk
Boulevard and I Street in Springfield. The opening ceremony
is 11:30 am Friday, Nov. 11, and will include a new Vietnam
Memorial unveiling. Event parking is available on Mohawk
Boulevard and on I Street; follow parking signage.
• Egan Warming Center, in cooperation with Occupy
Medical and Rite Aid Pharmacy, is offering flu shots noon to
3 pm Sunday, Nov. 13, at OM “winter quarters,” 509 E. 13th
Avenue. OM says, “This effort was made possible by a
generous donation from Episcopal Church of the
Resurrection.” Egan Warming Center is looking for additional
funds to help purchase vaccine at a discounted price “to
ensure that everyone in our community has access to a
vaccination to protect against this winter’s flu season; both
for the individual and the community.” The flu shot is free of
charge to low income/homeless/folks in need.
• Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) is
celebrating 50 years working for peace, justice, and human
rights with a gala event 5 pm Sunday, Nov. 13th, at the UO’s
Ford Alumni Center, 1720 E. 13th. Michael Carrigan of CALC
says, “There will be a buffet dinner and no-host bar, a silent
auction, a video about CALC’s history and a variety of music.
The keynote speaker is former CALC staffer Eric Ward, who is
the program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Gender, Racial
and Ethnic Justice team.” Tickets are $75 and CALC says $32
of your ticket purchase is tax-deductible (you will receive a
receipt at the event). For more information or to purchase
tickets go to calclane.org or call 541-485-1755.
• Eugene School District 4J is looking to the future with
4J Vision 20/20, a strategic visioning and planning process
to develop a roadmap for the next few years. According to 4J,
a draft strategic plan has been developed with community
input. Community members are invited to hear an overview
of the draft plan and give feedback. A community meeting is
from 6 to 7 pm Monday, Nov. 14 at Chávez Elementary
School, 1510 W. 14th Avenue.
• At noon Tuesday, Nov. 15, Eugeneans can participate in
the National No DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) Day of
Action, Rally and March at the Army Corps of Engineers, 211
E. 7th Avenue in Eugene. Contact: Eugene Stands with
Standing Rock on Facebook.
• Lane Community College is offering a sexual assault/
dating and domestic violence awareness/self-defense
training series Nov. 16. Classes run from 9:30 am until 3:30
pm in Building 4, Room 105, on its main 30th Avenue
campus and are open to the college and community. Go to
lanecc.edu/newsroom/n/nr2072 for more information.
• As part of the Stand Up to Oil Trains campaign,
“Awareness & Resistance,” 350 Eugene has organized an
expert panel to look at the facts and discuss options. The
anti-climate change group says, “Across the Pacific
Northwest, residents are talking about the growing risks from
oil train traffic in their communities. The numerous
derailments and fiery disasters since oil-by-rail became the
go-to form of transportation for Bakken shale oil has many
speaking out about concerns for public safety and health.”
The panel is 7 pm Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the First United
Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street in Eugene. A Q&A
follows the panel. Panelists include: Tarika Powell, senior
research associate, Sightline Institute; Gregory Monahan,
Beyond Gas & Oil Team chair, Oregon Sierra Club and Dan
Serres, Conservation Director, Columbia Riverkeeper. In the
weeks following the panel, 350 Eugene says it will present a
resolution opposing oil trains through our community to the
Eugene City Council.
• The Eugene City Council has scheduled a 90-minute
work session for noon Wednesday, Nov. 16, to discuss the
Rest Stop Program and Opportunity Village Eugene with city
staff. Neighborhood activist Heather Sielicki says, “I am
helping to organize a showing of support for expanding local
shelter options at the Monday, Nov. 14, City Council public
forum.” She says, “Supporters from all wards are invited to
speak or to stand in support.” According to Sielicki, “The
urgency for shelter will grow as the temperatures drop. The
city-sanctioned Rest Stop Program and Opportunity Village
have proven to be successful, safe emergency shelter
models that can be deployed rapidly and cost effectively.”
More details at bit.ly/2eqAL5f.
6
November 10, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
LEGO CITY HALL?
Local architect weighs in
M
onths after ballooning construction costs sent
the Eugene City Council back to the drawing
board, councilors and city staff continue to
thumb through a confusing array of City Hall
possibilities.
Without a clue to indicate what the different possibili-
ties might cost taxpayers, the council is taking stabs in the
dark. Councilor Chris Pryor likened the muddled process
to playing with Legos at an Oct. 19 Joint Elected Officials
Work Session.
Architect and EW columnist Jerry Diethelm has long
criticized city management for its lack of foresight and
transparency surrounding the City Hall project. Hoping
to ease the cramped City Hall deliberations, Diethelm put
in his two cents late last month when he circulated his
own plans to city staff, county personnel and consultants
at Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architects.
The city hired Cameron McCarthy this past summer
after Lane County indicated it was interested in a pos-
sible land swap involving the county-owned “butterfly”
parking lot and courthouse for some or all of the former
City Hall site.
Worried that the process had gotten lost in the weeds,
Diethelm says he submitted his own plan in order to help
the City Hall project get back on track.
“I don’t think you’ll find a cheaper, easier, more dis-
tinctive Park Blocks-centered City Hall,” Diethelm says
of his plan. “It’s got all the pluses, I think.”
Diethelm’s plan is similar to some of the options Cam-
eron McCarthy’s Larry Gilbert brought to the table in Oc-
tober, though Diethelm’s work focuses on a more tightly
consolidated campus.
Diethelm, a planning and design consultant who is a
UO professor emeritus after teaching for 35 years in the
School of Architecture and Allied Arts, wants to see the
future City Hall building on the north end of the county’s
butterfly lot. His plan hinges on the city acquiring and
remodeling the existing county courthouse, as well as
some of the office space in the Lane County Public Ser-
vice Building.
Diethelm’s drawing shows the two buildings con-
nected by a nifty sky bridge that stretches across Oak
Street.
Though the city-county real estate deal remains to
be negotiated, Diethelm says it’s not far-fetched to
imagine the city getting its hands on both the butter-
fly lot and the existing courthouse.
Eugene Community Relations Director Jan Bohm-
an says the city received Diethelm’s plan but declines
further comment, noting that the city receives a lot of
suggestions from interested stakeholders.
Gilbert of Cameron McCarthy did not respond to
repeated requests for comment.
Mayor Kitty Piercy says the city is “open to input
and appreciates all thoughts and suggestions. In our
work with the county, we have looked at a variety of
scenarios and narrowed them down to three for the
consultants to delve into more deeply. There are abso-
lutely no decisions made yet on a preferred location.”
Pryor rejects any plan that involves remodeling the
courthouse: “In some cases trying to clean up an old
Lego is more expensive than building a new Lego.”
“I would prefer to build a new building that does
the job than to remodel a building simply because it’s
remodeling,” he emphasized at an Oct. 26 council
session, adding: “My admittedly limited experience
with building new versus remodeling is that remod-
eling is more expensive because you discover all of
these things you didn’t know were there, all of these
things that were not on the plans, all of these unex-
pected things. And that’s always been the case.”
Diethelm, who advocated for remodeling the
former City Hall that was subsequently torn down,
argues the courthouse’s steel bones are strong and
could easily be reinforced and remodeled to meet the
city’s needs.
“It’ll be a little hard for the city to swallow [my
plan] after spending $12 million on the wrong site,”
he adds, “but they will find this is the best way.”