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B Y K E L LY K E N O Y E R
NOT SO FAST
Skinner descendant seeks end
to city-county land swap
PHOTO COURTESY OF KEN DARLING
A
descendant of Eugene Skinner — the
founder of the city of Eugene — is seek-
ing to prevent the proposed land swap for
a new Eugene City Hall and Lane County
courthouse, on the grounds that such a
trade would violate the legal requirements placed on
the land when it was donated to the county.
The land swap in question is a deal in which the
county would build its new courthouse on the empty
lot that previously housed City Hall, and the new
City Hall would be built on county land. Officials in
both governments say the swap would help re-create
the public square at the location of the Park Blocks.
It’s unclear why Ken Darling, who claims to be
Skinner’s great-great-grandson, is troubled by the
proposal. He says the proposed land swap disrespects
his forefather’s wishes. “You don’t mess with fam-
ily,” Darling says, “especially if you discount how
important these people were to the development of
the area.”
The original deed donated 40 acres to Lane Coun-
ty, and Skinner required a public square within that
acreage and “that the court house be built in the cen-
ter of said square,” the deed says. It further reads that
the land was donated “upon condition that the said
county seat be and remain at Eugene City, and that
said 40 acres of land be appropriated and used for
said purposes.”
The public square referenced is the Park Blocks
at Oak Street and Eighth Avenue, an area which has
shrunk significantly since the founding of Eugene
due to development in the area. The courthouse is
no longer on the public square, and hasn’t been since
1960.
The city and county brought their proposed land
swap to a judge in Coos County last year, but Judge
Richard Barron declined to rule on the case. Lane
County’s public information officer Devon Ash-
bridge says, “The judge declined to rule on a simi-
lar set of issues as no formal commitments, such as
an executed purchase and sale agreement, had been
made.” At the time of that first petition Darling chose
not to intervene in the case.
“I’d like to see the county use the land that they
already own and take down the butterfly lot, and start
building there,” Darling says, adding that he is con-
cerned primarily about the government violating the
restrictions of the original deed by moving the city
onto the land that was originally the public square
and removing the county buildings from that loca-
tion.
“They just need to follow the deed,” he says.
“That’s it.”
Local architect Otto Poticha has done some re-
search into the issue and says he doesn’t think the
deed still applies to the land in question.
“The north half of the butterfly site and the north
half of the courthouse site were not part of the dona-
tion, they had already been sold from the donation to
private citizens and bought back,” Poticha says. “It
seems to me the north half, which is the best part for
the city hall to be on, is a non-issue.”
Deed records from the county assessors’office
show that the butterfly lot hasn’t changed hands since
the county started tracking ownership. The plot cur-
rently housing the Lane County courthouse and Har-
ris Hall was sold to R.A. Babb Hardware Company
sometime after the land was donated and was sold
back to the county in 1958.
On Sept. 5, the county and city filed a new joint
petition seeking judicial examination on whether the
Skinner deed could prevent the land swap.
Ashbridge says, “A petition would allow both
agencies to establish clear legal understanding of the
range of property uses available for the Butterfly Lot
and for siting the Courthouse.” She adds that the pro-
cess “ensures that any interested person has an op-
portunity to participate.”
A recent opinion piece in The Register-Guard by
Jim Hargreaves, retired circuit judge, says the worst
possible outcome “would be that the title to all of the
40-acre donation by the Skinners that is still owned
by the county could revert to the Skinners’ heirs.”
That would put the land between Seventh and
Eighth streets and West Park and Pearl streets back in
the hands of the those heirs, according to Hargreaves.
Darling says his family likely won’t fight to ac-
quire the land from the county, but instead he will try
to ensure that the deed is followed. “We just want to
be validated,” he says.
The joint petition for judicial examination of the
issue is set to be filed in September.
• Eugene Opera’s
dramatic resurrection
from near bankruptcy
continued this week with
the naming of Andrew
Bizantz as artistic director
and Erika Rauer as executive director. Bisantz is a familiar and much-
loved figure at the podium here. Rauer, a soprano who’s performed at
Oper Bremen, Opera Boston and Tanglewood, has also worked as director
of education for New York City Opera and manager of elementary school
programs at Carnegie Hall. The opera also announced a new season:
Barber of Seville Dec. 30-31 and Ástor Piazzolla’s tango operetta María
de Buenos Aires on May 4 and 6. You can meet the new leadership team
when the opera holds a town hall meeting from 6 to 7:30 pm Monday,
Sept. 11, at the Eugene Public Library, 100 W. 10th Avenue.
• Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America,
lays out the best advice for all of us after Trump’s cruel DACA decision on
Sept. 5: Organize, register to vote, file citizenship papers now and
organize to affect the 2018 elections. She was responding to questions
from Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! The subject of a new film
Dolores, Huerta is a frequent speaker and visitor to Lane County. She’s is
a lifelong civil rights activist and is now president of the Dolores Huerta
Foundation for Community Organizing. We at EW also recommend calling
your representatives and demanding action.
• Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis’ study group on performance auditors
will hold its sixth public meeting at 5:30 pm Monday, Sept. 11, at 990 W.
Seventh Avenue. Members are contacting cities and counties around the
country that have performance auditors, asking a rather lengthy list of
questions. Results of the queries will be presented this fall to a City
Council work session. The study group’s formation has raised eyebrows
since a separate initiative petition to establish an independent elected
performance auditor is already collecting signatures and is likely headed
for the ballot in May. Will the mayor’s study group enlighten, or will it just
confuse the public when it comes time to vote? Meeting notices and
rough minutes are available online at eugeneperformanceauditor.org.
• We’ve started listening to the podcast “Small Town Dicks,” which
takes listeners behind the scenes of “small town” crimes. The town isn’t
so small — it’s actually Eugene/Springfield. And the show strengthens
the area’s Simpsons connections with star Yeardley Smith doing much of
the voicing. The podcast, while perhaps lacking the smoothness of a
show like “S-Town,” is engrossing because it does what so many shows
try to do and takes listeners beyond the headlines. While names have
been changed and the stories made anonymous, anyone who follows
the news can easily deduce just which crime the show is delving into.
The first episode goes behind the scenes — in some grisly detail — of
the murder of a young woman by her former boyfriend. While the show
hides the names, Lane County will remember this is the case of Casey
Wright, who was killed in a brutal incident of intimate partner violence.
And that perhaps is the biggest strength of “Small Town Dicks”: That it
doesn’t let us forget what goes on in our town. You can find episodes at
smalltowndicks.com/media. You can check out EW’s own “What’s
Happening” podcast on our website.
Midcentury Sofas
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eugeneweekly.com • September 7, 2017
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