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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1997)
( ’ommiHed lo cultural diversity, Volume X X V II, Number 10 March 5, 1997 (Lbr Ja rlia n i» (©bscrlier ZiT n nt tn u n i t o VJ<t I r n h a r MAX Light rail access expanding Greater Portland Flute Society Northwest Composers’ Concert Saturday. March 15, at 8 PM at Lin coln Hall. (Room 75) Portland State U ni versity. Admission is only $5 GPFS Mem ber/$8 Non-members. Are you suffering from shortness of breath? If you worked and had eight to ten years or more of exposure to Asbestos before 1973 and reside in Alaska, Cali fornia. Oregon, W ashington and orTexas you have approximately 90 days to report in for your free screening Dave W orthington. Asbestos Investi gator. 2205 N. Lombard. Room 103, Portland, OR 97217, Monday - Friday 9- 4:30 pm. Parents of Children With Asthma and Allergies •4 Parents of Children with Asthma and Allergies Support Group will meet M on day evening, March 17, 7 p.m. at Lake O sw ego B ap tist C h u rch . 4565 SW Carman Drive, Room 254 (corner of Carman Drive & Kruseway-- Route 217 becomes Kruseway ). Please call 579-8375 to RSVP. “Speaking of Art” lecture Pacific Northwest College of A rt's “Speaking of Art” lecture series now is taking place on Tuesdays at noon. The location for “Speaking o f A rt” remains the Berg Swann Auditorium. 1219 S.W. Park Ave. The exciting lectures for March and April are as follows: • M a r c h 11 - Horatio Law, Portland Printmaker and PNCA professor. • M a r c h 18 - "M aya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision,” film. • M a r c h 25 & A p r il 2 - Spring Break. • A p r i l 9 -Special "Art W ithout Class” event. • A p ril 16 - Tom Prochaska, Portland Printmaker, painter and PNCA professor. For more information about PNCA. please all (503) 226-4391. A Comedy of Errors Mt. Hood Community College will host A Comedy o f Errors, by William S h a k e sp e a re at 8 :0 0 pm , M arch 6,7,8,13,14, & 15 in the Main Theatre. $6 general admission, $4 students/seniors. Call the Box office at 667-7154. For information call 667-7157 or 669-6969 PCC Celebrates Women’s History Month in March “G irls’ Town". Friday. March 7. 7 p.m.. CT Bldg., Little Theater. “Beyond B orders” Tuesday, March 11.11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., SS Bldg., Rm. 102 Free meditation instructions A uthorized representatives of Sant Thakar Singh will be offering a free pro gram which includes instructions for the inner Light and Sound meditation. This process, which brings inner peace, can be learned by young and old alike regardless of faith, religion or lifestyle. Saturday. March 8th I PM. Room 102 Building 3; PCC Rock Creek Campus; 17705 NW Springville Rd. Portland. For any ques tions call 541-459-5647 Tri-Met Tri-Met job fairs to recruit part-time bus operators, 9 a.m .-3:30 p.m. at Center Street Garage, 4012 SE 17th Ave. in Portland, and Merlo Garage, 16130 SW Merlo Road in Beaverton. Wages start at $9.07 and progress to $ 16.49 within three years. For information on applying in person at Tri-Met, or receiving a joh application by mail, call 238-4835. S U B M IS S IO N S : C o m m u n ity C a le n d a r in fo rm a tio n w ill be given p r io r ity i f d a te d tw o weeks b efo re the event d ate. Westside MAX crews are nearing the two-mile mark as they install rail in one o f the two three-mile long light rail tunnels (above, left) through Portland's West Hills Rai installation in the tunnel is a five-step process that begins with placing concrete blocks to hold the rail. Working in the westbound tunnel since mid-January, nearly 10,000 feet o f rail has been bolted onto the concrete blocks. Crews expect to have rail the whole length of the tunnel by the end o f February The remaining installation work in the westbound tunnel, including encasing the rail and ties in concrete, is scheduled to be completed by mid April. In the eastbound tunnel rail installation will take place this summer. Max tracks are also spreading West to NW 231st (above right). Behind Intel's Hawthorne Farm facility on Elam Young Parkway in Hillsboro, light rail crews work with crowbars to finesse westbound track into place. Nearly one and one half miles of eastbound MAX track is installed between SW 185th and NW 231st. Work is continuing on the westbound track. Work Force Training anticipated by N e il H eilpern urrently employed workers in North Portland may have greater access to skills training if the legislature approves a proposed provide funding and tax incentives to businesses which join the program. Dubbed “The Oregon Labor and Industry Training Act,” the bill would create a pro gram that promotes em ployer-based skill training and educat ion o f currently employed workers from funds that come from a variety o f sources. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Wooten (D-Eugene), is expected to be intro duced this week, according to Portland con sultant Chris Apgar, who assisted Wooten in preparing the proposed legislation He said it had not yet been determined whether the bill would be introduced first in the House or the Senate. “This will open-a larger market for jobs in Northeast Portland as well as the rest o f Oregon,” said Apgar He noted that at least one third o f the approved contract funds would be used to C train workers in businesses with fewer than 50 employees. “ If you work at a company with 25 em ployees and the company doesn’t have the bill to to send workers to a specific training money that will help increase skill levels,” said Apgar, “this fund would pay for the train ing.” “ It would also pay the wages o f the re placement workers while the regular work ers are taking time off for the training.” “This means having better skilled work and a higher retention rate,” said Apgar. “ If people know they can get training they might stick around a work place a little longer.” “As an example, turnaround is a problem in the health care industry," he said, noting that smaller assisted living health organiza tions could train their workers under this plan. He also listed Freightliner and the Or egon Food Bank as organizations in North east Portland which could be included in the training, as part o f the Oregon Employer Council Apgar said that during recent talks with Ron Young, employment relations manager for Freightliner's truck division in northeast Portland, “ He expressed support for the pro gram that includes training for the current work force " Other areas o f expected support, he said, include long term care facilities, food pro cessors who seem to like the literacy training aspects o f the program . and other groups I le said temporary help agency Brooks & Asso ciates in North Portland had indicated sup port. in addition to their presence on the Unemployment Insurance Advisorv Coun cil. Apgar said he was enthusiastic about discussions with organized labor leaders noting that the AFI ,-CIO “has been support ive in the past ' He is planning further talks with AFL-CIO President Irv Fletcher in the near future Some o f the funding would be available for unions to create new training packages and current training programs would not be displaced by the new funding, he said One important element, said Apgar, is a literacy component which would be targeted “ for areas such as North and Northeast Port land.” "W e want to encourage employers to pro vide adult training education for their em ployees,'' he said. “After the employers show proof they provided the training, the follow ing year they would get a tax break - re duced state unemployment taxes.” An important part o f the proposed legis lation is skill set development, said Apgar. " this includes developing training pack ages for high tech industries, including spe cific skills such as statistics and accounting, certified nurses aides and other practical applications Apgar said that small businesses do not usually have the funds to provide training for specitic workers. A company could re ceive a max imuin o f $5.000 to train a worker “This bill would provide funding for a consortium o f several small businesses in Northeast Portland to provide training for a specific skill for people from each o f the businesses.” he said. “ I he businesses could ♦ Continued to page A3 Charity auction to benefit area kids ortland, OR - On March 8, at tendees at the Boys & Girls Club's Kids Auction will have a “golden opportunity” to support land-area youth. Billed as “Your Golden Opportunity to Help Kids,” the 13th annual black-tie gala P will beheld at The Portland Hilton Hotel and will feature a silent auction beginning at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and oral auc Port- tion. The state’s single largest charity auction netted $360,000 in 1996 and is expected to draw record dollar figures once again. Among the more than 1700 auction items are a trip to view the taping o f a “Seinfeld” episode, and original John Lennon painting and a classic ’49 Chevy 1/2 ton pick-up Also included in the auction block are a variety o f vacations from the Wallowa Moun tains to Hawaii and France, plus premier County Acts to Increase Diversity ultnomah County Commission Exceptions would be made for contracts ers have finalized changes in where no contractors meeting the criteria purchasing rules to increase were available to do the needed work. the diversity of contractors utilized by The focus on small contracts was recom the County. The rule changes represent mended by the Oregon Regional Consor a portion of the County's response to tium Disparity Study. The study found that the recent Regional Disparity Study the diversity o f available contractors was w hich id e n tifie d s u b s ta n tia l greatest for smaller contracts. underutilization of minority and women's The Disparity Study was funded by Mult business enterprises. nomah County, the City o f Portland, Metro “ I am very pleased that we can move and seven other local government agencies. forward to provide opportunities for busi It examined public construction contracting nesses that have not always been treated practices for the period 1991-1994 and de fairly ,” said M ultnom ah C ounty C hair termined that M WBEs were underutilized. Beverly Stein. “These new rules should help At the same time, Multnomah County con to increase the diversity o f contractors who ducted a review o f contracting in areas other get business from the County.” than c o n s tru c tio n and fo u n d s im ila r The rules changes focus on public im underutilization The County is in the initial provement and architectural and engineer phase o f addressing the underutilization in ing contracts with a dollar value under the non-construction contracting areas. $50,000. Those contracts will be awarded “This is just one of many steps that we under an “ informal" system. County staff need to take to fight the effects o f historic will be required to solicit quotes from state discrim ination,” Stein said "We have made certified firms, get one bid from a Minority great strides in increasing the diversity o f Business Enterprise (M BE). one from a the County workforce, but we are still behind W om en's Business Enterprise (W BE) and in the areas o f contracting.” one from a Emerging Small Business (ESB). Reportson County w ork force di vers ity find M that the County has a larger representation of racial minority workers than any other gov ernment in the State and that the composition of the workforce mirrors the diversity of the community. However, recent tallies o f con tractor diversity show very low numbers. In addition to the change in purchasing rules the County has recently undertaken several steps on increase contracting oppor tunities It now distributes a list of all state certified M/WBEs and ESBs to all County employees who do purchasing. The County operates a contracting hotline jointly with Metro and provides information on con tracting opportunities via the internet and by fax to potential contractors. t he County is in the planning stages of developing a sheltered market program for contracts over $50,000 in conjunction with the City o f Portland and creating the posi tion of Compliance Officer to monitor ef forts in increase contractor diversity t hose programs will be considered by the Board of County (om m issioners when they adopt the budget for the coming fiscal year I he new purchasing rules will take effect March 31. 1997 sports events such as USTA tennis at the 1997 U S . Open and the NHRA Drag Races to Major League Baseball's 1997 All-Star Game For reservation, call the Boys & Girls Clubs o f Portland Metropolitan Areaat(5O3) 232-0077. Labor Party leader to speak in Portland Adolph Reed, a member o f the new Labor Party's National Council, and Con tributing Editor to its national journal. Labor Party Press, will speak in Portland Sunday, March 9 and Monday, March 10. The Sunday speech, “ Rebuilding W orking-Class M ovements” will be at. Koinoma House, 633 SW M ontgonv ery (by PSU), 7 pm On Monday Mr Reed will speak on “G ender in A fro-A m erican Political Thought", at Reed College from their press office, which will be at Vollum Lecture Hall at 7 pm Mr Reed will be available for questions after each speech, as well as at home in Chicago at (773) 947-0327 Fax (773)947-0328 Mr. Reed is a professor o f political science and American studies at North western University in Chicago, IL. He is an African-American, an author of many books and articles, including The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon! 1986). and the forth coming W E B. Dubois and American Political Fhought He writes a monthly column for the Progressive magazine.