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Mr. Clark said he attended the council's August 6 Center Court development tour to view progress on the project. <br />He had learned that if the construction proceeded as planned and Lane Community College proceeded with its <br />development proposal downtown, those efforts in conjunction with other downtown initiatives meant there would <br />be about $80 million of new construction occurring downtown at the height of one of the worst recessions since the <br />Depression. He thought that deserved more recognition, adding he was pretty happy about it. <br />Mr. Clark acknowledged he spoke only for himself when he addressed the council's representatives to the <br />Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC), Mr. Zelenka and Ms. Ortiz. He said the Board of County Commissioners' <br />actions to significantly change the parameters of a road project that the citizens of Coburg and past County <br />commissioners had worked on for so long, was awful and he feared it would cost the County and many people a <br />number of jobs. He believed the action would cause significant harm to the County if the County commission was <br />allowed to have its way. He hoped that Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Zelenka, as representatives of Eugene to the MPC, <br />which would discuss the project later in the week, would vote against the changes. <br />Mr. Zelenka said the MPC would meet on August 12 at the Bascom - Tykeson Room at the Eugene Library to <br />discuss the subject mentioned by Mr. Clark. He believed that an agreement had been reached on how to proceed <br />without doing too much harm to anybody. <br />Mr. Zelenka also toured the Center Court development and commended its quality. He suggested the building be <br />returned to its original name, the McMorran Building, since it would be returned to more of its initial appearance. <br />He commended the quality of the spaces in the building and noted that some commercial space in it was still <br />available for lease. <br />Ms. Ortiz also thanked Sergeant Barrong and the volunteers who rode in the caravan with the council. She <br />reported that the caravan visited a neighborhood in the River Road /Santa Clara area composed of apartments <br />whose residents were trying to organize. She thought the residents benefited from the event, which representatives <br />of two neighborhood organizations had also attended. <br />Ms. Ortiz reported that she attended a recent town hall on the Lane County Fairgrounds held by the Board of <br />County Commissioners to discuss what could happen with the fairgrounds. She encouraged people to get involved <br />in the issue because those coming forward with proposals were not necessarily current users of the fairgrounds. <br />Many in attendance had expressed a sense of disconnection from what was presented. <br />Ms. Ortiz said the Trainsong Neighbors were happy to have the slurry seal surface on their street. <br />Mr. Pryor noted the dedication of the new Sponsors' facility on Highway 99, which provided services to parolees, <br />a population which had been ignored for a long time. He said those services helped such individuals to integrate <br />back into society. <br />Mr. Pryor had been pleased to take the Center Court tour, saying it was a great building, many exciting things were <br />going on, and he thought people would want to be there when it was complete. <br />Mr. Pryor said there were exciting things happening downtown that had not happened for a long time. He said the <br />pace of street repairs and renovations was unbelievable. He recalled that transportation had been a key issue for <br />him when he was first elected to the council. Since that time, the council had worked very hard to make conditions <br />better, and he thought the council should be proud of both the downtown improvements and the street <br />improvements that were occurring. <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 2 <br />Work Session <br />