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Home My WebLink About02/06/14 - City Council Newsletter City of Eugene 125 East 8 Avenue, 2 Floor thnd Eugene, Oregon 97401 (541) 682-5010 (541) 682-5414 (FAX) www.eugene-or.gov EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER February 6, 2014 IN THIS EDITION CITY SUPPORTS 29 ANNUAL ASIA CELEBRATION TH NEXT WORKING CITY EPISODE: EUGENE SPRINGFIELD FIRE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TEAM SNOWSHOEING HELPS INJURED VETERANS GET OUTDOORS PUBLIC INVITED TO REVIEW FUTURE TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS GET ORGANIZED WITH EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY AROUND THE CITY City Supports 29 Annual Asia Celebration th The City of Eugene is again co-sponsoring the annual Oregon Asian Celebration, now in its 29 year. The event, on Feb. 15 th and 16, is presented annually by the Eugene/Springfield Asian Council at the Lane Events Center/Fairgrounds. The 2014 theme, "Year of the Horse – Riding into a New Era," highlights energy, warm- hearted fun, and an outlook of good fortune. Bring family and friends to experience two full days of Asian cultural heritage. Enjoy colorful performances on three stages – the Main Stage, Martial Arts Stage, and the Atrium Stage; demonstrations of Asian crafts, martial arts, and cooking; a fine arts exhibit, Asian heritage exhibit, children’s interactive performances and workshops; a Kumoricon room for youth that includes crafts, video gaming, and karaoke; a marketplace of more than 70 vendors and an Asian food court featuring tempting treats at 22 food booths, and much more. Stop by the City of Eugene booth, number 53. The theme of the City’s booth will be “What’s New at the City” featuring new ways to volunteer, connect with the organization, apply for positions, and an update on the City Hall building process. The popular Art a La Cart will be silk-screening the celebration’s horse image on kerchiefs. Watch the process and take a kerchief home (while supplies last). For more information, contact Jen McCulley at jenna.b.mcculley@ci.eugene.or.us. Next Working City Episode: Eugene Springfield Fire Hazardous Materials Team The next Working City episode will feature the Eugene Springfield Fire Hazardous Materials Team (Hazmat), and is scheduled to run on Comcast’s cable channel 21. Working City segments air on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, and before the start of each regular Eugene City Council meeting on Monday evenings. The Hazmat Team is just one of three specialty teams that are a part of the Eugene Springfield Fire Department. The team consists of 22 members and is housed at the Valley River Station in Eugene. As one of 13 Hazmat teams in the state, its response area consists of all of Lane County from the coast to the area just east of La Pine. The Hazmat Team is called out to respond to any biological, chemical or physical agent that has the potential to cause harm to humans, animals or the environment. The Eugene Springfield Fire Hazmat Team is funded by federal, state and local agencies. In addition, the team has procured grants to provide state- of-the-art equipment to assist it during call responses. Team funding also EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 February 6, 2014 allows outreach training with other agencies such as the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB), area hospitals, and volunteer fire departments throughout the county, so they are better prepared for large-scale scenarios that may occur in the region. To view the episode online, go to the City’s home page www.eugene-or.gov and click “Videos.” Episodes can also be seen via the City’s Facebook site, or online at www.metrotv.org or http://vimeo.com/85361222. For more information, contact Deputy Chief Joe Zaludek at 541-682-7103. Snowshoeing Helps Injured Veterans Get Outdoors The sky was blue, the weather crisp and excitement was in the air as a group of six injured veterans and three guests from the Wounded Warrior Project strapped on their snowshoes for a seven-mile hike around the rim of Crater Lake recently. The weekend was a culmination of a four-week snowshoeing program conducted and funded by the Wounded Warrior Project. Lead-up trips included Gold Lake, Odell Lake overlook and a hike up Mary’s Peak. The staff from Adaptive Recreation and Outdoor Recreation led each outing. Adaptive sports and other forms of "non-conventional" therapy are helping veterans heal physically and emotionally. Whether they participate in sailing, downhill skiing, snowboarding or snowshoeing, many disabled veterans are experiencing forms of outdoor recreation they thought were a part of their past. “Our efforts are designed to promote independence and quality of life for veterans who incurred life-changing injury as a result of service to America,” says Adaptive Recreation Programmer Patty Prather. "Over the past couple of years we worked with a number of injured service people, and found that their bonding and inadvertent mentoring has had a profoundly positive affect on each individual.” Another program that brings injured veterans together is Archery for Veterans. Through a grant from the USA Paralympics, Prather obtained archery instructor certification and is now teaching a six-week archery program for injured veterans and those with physical disabilities. The program teaches safety and proper archery techniques to promote and provide a means to practice all forms of archery. Upcoming programs for veterans include a sled hockey clinic in March and a dragon boat clinic in May. For more information regarding programs for injured veterans, please contact Patty Prather at 541-682-6365 or patty.l.prather@ci.eugene.or.us. Public Invited to Review Future Transportation Projects A list of transportation projects to keep Eugeneans moving through the next 20 years is now available for public review and comment. This project list is important because, once adopted as a component of Eugene’s Transportation System Plan, it will guide how the City spends its limited transportation monies, for what purposes, and when. The Transportation System Plan will become an element of Envision Eugene, the City’s long-range plan for creating a future that is livable, sustainable, beautiful and prosperous. Working from goals and objectives developed by the Transportation Community Resource Group, City staff filtered and prioritized a draft list of transportation projects. The Transportation Community Resource Group, a task force advising City staff about local transportation needs, structured their goals and objectives to integrate triple bottom line sustainability considerations, i.e. economy, equity, and environment, into the transportation plan from the outset. The projects list is available on the project website at www.EugeneTSP.org/Resources. The Transportation Community Resource Group will review the project list on Tuesday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Bascom-Tykeson Room in the Eugene Public Library. After the project list is established, City staff will prepare cost estimates for these projects, craft policies that will guide future transportation decisions, coordinate non-construction programs (such as demand management, bus pass programs, and marketing), and package the Transportation System Plan for adoption by the City Council. The transportation plan is being coordinated with Envision Eugene, Lane Transit District’s Long-Range Transit Plan, the Eugene Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan, and other long-range plans in the region. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2 February 6, 2014 The public is invited to comment on all phases of Eugene’s Transportation System Plan. All materials are available online at www.EugeneTSP.org. For more information about the transportation system plan, please contact Senior Transportation Planner Kurt Yeiter at 541-682-8379, or visit the project website at www.EugeneTSP.org. Get Organized with Eugene Public Library Overwhelmed with papers? Don’t know where to begin to get organized? Hear expert Jan Lehman for “Can the Clutter,” a free talk at the Downtown Eugene Public Library at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 12. Lehman will share tips on getting control of paper piles to save time, lower stress, and enjoy the ability to find what’s needed quickly and easily. She will provide guidance on how to move past confusion, frustration, and embarrassment to take action; how to limit which information to keep; and how to store valuable documents in smarter ways. Lehman is the founder and president of Can the Clutter® and a professional organizer and efficiency coach. For more information, contact the Eugene Public Library at 541-682-5450 or www.eugene- or.gov/library EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 February 6, 2014