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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1997)
•.»ai, P age A 7 D ie P ortland O bserver • A pril 9, 1997 The Information Highway: Oof A Map? II bv Arbor Month with Awards, Activities For the eighth consecutive year the City of Vancouver has again claimed a ‘‘Tree City USA" award from the National Arbor Day Foun dation. The award recognizes the city’s progress in community forestry. The city also boasts a fifth-year Tree City USA “Growth Award,” given for publishing a brochure, hiring an urban forester and olfer- ing a city-wide leaf pick-up pro gram. The following activities are de signed to celebrate April as Arbor Month: • Wednesday, April 9, 11 a.m., O.O. Howard House Dedication Tree Planting. • Wednesday, April 16, !0 a.m.- noon. Frenchman's Par Regional Park School Planting • Saturday, April 19, 10 a m. - 2 p.m.. "Urban Tree Exchange, "ac tion project during Earth Action Day. • Tuesday. April 22. Earth Day Planting, at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. This year marks the 125th anni versary of Arbor Day. Contact the city’s urban forester, at (360) 696- 8005, for more details. City Invites Daughters To Work Millions of girls across America will join their parents at work on Thursday, April 24, to participate in Bring Our Daughters to Work Day. The City of Vancouver has planned activities to coincide with the national campaign that the Ms. Foundation for Women de signed to help ensure that girls remain confident, strong and in school throughout their teen years. At the city, employee’s daughters will spend the morning observing their parent at work, then attend a Brown Bag Lunch presentation in Council Chambers from 11 am to 1 pm. Mary Jo Briggs, deputy city man ager, Suzanne Bick, assistant finance director, will discuss career paths and answer questions. To complete the day, girls will tour city facilities including City Hall, police headquarters. Water Resources Education Center, op erations center and the main fire station. At each location a female em ployee will discuss the job they perform and answer questions. Lisa Sykes in the city's Human Resources and Risk Services De partment is coordinating the activ ity. Sykes can be reached at 360- 696-8142. Free Paint Program The City of Vancouver is ac cepting applications for its Neigh borhood Free Paint Program. The program helps low-and moderate- ipcome city residents improve the exterior appearance of their homes by providing paint and supplies while the residents supply labor. Over the past seven years, the self-help paint program has helped hundreds of city residents improve the look of their homes and neigh borhood. Eligible applicants must be city residents and meet income guide- The program is administered on a first-come, first-served basis. Ap plications will be accepted until all dedicated funding is used. Funding for the program comes to the city from the federal Housing and Ur ban Development Program and is administered by the city through the Community Development Block Grant Program. The City Council determines which programs receive funding. For assistance call the 24-hour hotline at (360) 735-8866. Alarm System Owners Notified of Ordinance Residents and business owners in east Vancouver who may have alarm systems will soon get a letter form the city about alarm user registration. An alarm ordinance was adopted in 1995 to reduce the number ot false alarms from residences and businesses. ■<</// h f,0 ’ Public Invited to Nominate City Employees Nominations of city employees for exceptional service awards are being sought by the Employee Rec ognition Committee for the City ol Vancouver. Every May, employees are rec ognized for the service they pro vide, the manner in which they work and the motivation, values and vision they bring to the work place. This year there are eight awards. One employee or team in each category is selected by the Em ployee Recognition Committee as the award winner. The winners are then considered for the employee of the Year award, chosen by City Manager Vernon Stoner >incite CffltshiniftoH Love, Dad & Family Thank You So Much The world s a whole lot better place Because o f people like you Who give real joy and pleasure Bv the nice things that they do, And with your recent thoughtfulness Still very much in mind. This is meant to bring a 'Thank You' O f the very warmest kind! — The DeWeese Family Flori Roberts MAKE-OVER EVENT Saturday and Sunday April 19th and 20th 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. JC Penney Lloyd Center Mall Join us at our Lloyd Center Flori Roberts Counter on Saturday and Sunday April 19th and 20th as we feature Keith Roquemore National Make-Up Artist. Keith will be demonstrating the new spring color and treatment products. Special gifts with purchase are available for participating in our event. Register for Prizes Call 288-6481 to book an appointment JC Penney® Lloyd Center Mall P rof . M c K inley Bt k | If the topic sounds familiar, maybe it’s because 1 was right on target in November 1993 with “Highway I”, just didn’t have space enough to describe or forecast how convoluted and serendipity these arterials would become. 1 began neatly and con cisely as follows. "The word information' has one of the most expansive definitions in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary [see Tenth, C 1996). We are advised No 1, The communica tion or reception of knowledge or intelligence’, and No. 2 Knowl edge obtained from investigation, study or instruction’-and that’s just the beginning of a potpourri." In my ‘perspectives’ column for this week, "Doing Small Business On A Small Planet”, pg 2, I try to remain "on target” by citing several of the ‘information retrieval’ pit- falls that await the unwary entrepre neur I le with 32 MB RAM, 2 Gs of hard disk and considers himself un conquerable in the information wars would do well to pay some attention to that daily comic strip, “Adam". This beleaguered house-husband is a piteous spectacle as he tries to launch a computer-assisted enter prise from the depths of his office- in-the-basement. His is never to be a "carpe diem" existence, on the con trary, "each day seizes him." Adam has become what I’ve described as tool of the information hucksters— acknowledging their existence and thereby becoming their transcriber and stenographer, filling up acres ot files and upgrades with relevant (?) intrusions. Rather than "compiling books’ on the services and merchandise of other merchandisers, I find some friends have returned their comput ers to their original productive (and profitable) use-listing and retriev ing the cash flow-type entities and persons for real-time marketing. A neighbor tells me, "I love the ser vices and profiles of the reopening public library. They’re formatted as 1 could never be, these are the ‘list masters’.” Threatens to market from the Reading Room. O f course all of us regret that the “ Information Service’ has been dis continued. This has been such a valuable tool for the acquisition of valuable information not always readily accessible to either layper son or the expert. Believe it or not, Portland, Oregon now becomes the only large city in the entire United States without a public information phone line at it’s public library. This is a terrible situation, and especially at this time when we are deploring the decline of our education system overall. Year 2000 and the implica tions for technological readiness are not going away. Well, for the moment I may have distracted you from the m on strous volume o f junk U S. Mail, junk fax and junk e-mail. Can we look forward to junk U P S. or junk Eed-Ex, don’t laugh, you read it here first. But, let us return to fu rth e r c o n s id e ra tio n o f the "A dam -at-hom e” type entrepre neur. That is, those who have not been rendered dysfunctional by the hypnotic influence o f the NET. Last Sunday’s Oregonian has an excellent article by staff writer Fred Leeson, "Working At home”. I like it because the focus is on Portland and it addresses the specific areas of commercial enterprise peculiar to small scale enterprise in the region (Has somebody been peeping at my Portland Observer columns the past several years?). “Micro enterprises are heavily concentrated in services- -sole proprietorships, a category dominated by companies with fewer than ten employees, generate 8% of the cities income.” And, finally, keep it in mind that 99% of the so called “Information” you get each day is from the entre preneurs who’s only business expe rience has been selling information on “how to succeed in business”- The same situation we had in the 1849 Gold Strike at Sutter’s Mill and during the Yukon Gold Rush’. Avoid Workplace Drug Problems Over 70% o f drug users are em ployed. One in ten Oregon adults abuses or is dependent on alcohol. Larger em ployers already use "drug-free workplace” programs to eliminate these problems. The result9 Workers with alco hol and drug problems are flood ing smaller em ployers.. Today, companies of all sizes need to start or update their own drug-free workplace programs to meet this challenge, prevent problems, save money, improve productivity, and foster employee health. You can learn how to start a drug-free workplace program by attending the workshop to be held Wednesday, April 23rd in Van couver, Washington. Experts in drug-free workplace implementation, drug testing, sub stance abuse treatment, employee assistance programs, violence pre vention programs, legal aspects, and writing drug-free workplace policies will provide a compre hensive day-long train ingco-spon- sored by the Regional Drug Initia tiv e, C lark C ounty S ubstance Abuse Coalition, and the Vancou ver Chamber o f Commerce. The workshop costs $35 includ ing a continental breakfast and lunch. Handouts and a compre hensive guidebook will be in- cluded. Call now and reserve your spot before the April 16 deadline or get more information. Call toll-free to 1-888-JOINDRI or call Karyl at (3 6 0 )6 8 7 -7 1 2 6 or L arry at (503)294-7074. Drug and alcohol abusers are five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim, in cur 300% more health costs, are one third less productive, are ab sent from work three times as much, and are involved in over 50% o f all violent acts. The esti mated cost per alcohol or drug using em ployee is $12,000 to $25,000 per year. The 39th Annual EBONY FASHION FAIR The Great presents pH Fashion Mix Sponsored by Portland Chapter Of The Links, Inc. Benefit of Links Educational Scholarship Fund Friday, April 18, 1997 8:00 pm Red Lion Hotel/Jantzen Beach Portland, Oregon Ticket Price: $30?"’ Tickets A vailable at: Mrs. C ’s Wigs 707 NE Fremont 281-6525 One Stop Record Shop 615 NE Killingsworth 284-2435 HouscofSound 3620 N Williams 287-1960 J. Kurls & Co. 2948 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. 282-5809 Sylvan Learning C enter 4300 NE Fremont Suite 150 249-2855 Or from any Link Member WIN A ROUND-TRIP AIR TRANSPORTATION FOR TWO TO ANY DOMESTIC 48 U.S. DESTINATION SERVED BY AMERICAN AIRLINES AND/OR AMERICAN EAGLE (Includes 1 yr. subscription to EBONY/EM or 6-month subscription to JET
