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Mr. Fart called the council's attention to the upcoming roundtable meeting of five of six living <br />Oregon governors on February 14, in which his son would participate. The event would be <br />broadcast live on PBS. <br />Mr. Pap~ thanked City Manager Jim Johnson, Public Works Director Kurt Corey, and Public Works <br />Department staff for their work addressing the ramifications of the wind storm. He said the work <br />the City's Urban Forester had to do in maintaining Eugene's urban forest was awesome. Mr. Pap~ <br />suggested to Ms. Nathanson it would probably be easier to map where there was no damage to <br />trees. He had received calls from constituents asking him if he could do something because <br />EWEB was part of the City, and thought the council should have a discussion of the City's <br />relationship with EWEB. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ asked that his thanks be forwarded to Public Works Director Kurt Corey for his recent <br />memorandum on Ayres Road. He recommended the memorandum to other councilors. <br /> <br />Mr. Johnson also thanked Public Works Department staff. He said that department did a <br />tremendous amount of work. He spoke of the time put in by City crews over the past four days, <br />reporting that more than 40 people worked through Thursday night and the daylight hours Friday; <br />the crews were sent home Friday night and a skeleton crew was maintained until midnight; more <br />than 20 people worked through the daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday. All crews had been <br />working on general cleanup that day. He anticipated staff would probably return to the council <br />with a Contingency Fund request to address the extra expenses caused by the wind storm. Mr. <br />Johnson reminded the council it had about $40,000 in its Contingency Fund, which would be <br />insufficient; he anticipated staff would return with other funding options as well. <br /> <br />Mr. Johnson noted for the benefit of the public that free wood was being stockpiled at the north <br />end of Washington Street. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey also thanked City staff for its efforts following the wind storm. He expressed <br />concern about the liability the City might bear from its failure to cut trees because of community <br />opposition to tree removal for any reason. He cited both personal public safety and the loss of <br />power experienced by residents because of trees that came down on electric lines because they <br />had been retained when they should have been removed as examples of that liability. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey noted he recently counted 22 bicyclists safely using the bicycle path on Ayres Road. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey thanked the American Red Cross for its service to the community following the wind <br />storm. <br /> <br />Noting a recent visit to the State Legislature to testify in favor of a vehicle registration increase, <br />Mayor Torrey expressed concern about the lack of leadership in the Oregon Legislature. He said <br />that a portion of the increase would have directly benefitted Eugene residents, and suggested <br />legislators needed education about the need for road maintenance funds. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey said that he and Mr. Johnson had been meeting with the two school districts and the <br />City of Springfield regarding the status of education funding, and indicated that he would have <br />more to report to the council when the scope of the education funding reduction was known. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 2002 Page 3 <br /> State of the City <br /> <br /> <br />