HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/24/14 - City Council Newsletter
City of Eugene
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thnd
Eugene, Oregon 97401
(541) 682-5010
(541) 682-5414 (FAX)
www.eugene-or.gov
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
April 24, 2014
IN THIS EDITION
WILDFLOWER CELEBRATION AT AWBREY PARK
2014 BUSINESS COMMUTE CHALLENGE IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER
WILLAMETTE HIGH SCHOOL RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD
DANGERS OF DRUNK DRIVING EMPHASIZED IN STAGED CRASH
NOVELIST KAREN JOY FOWLER AT EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY
ADULT AND SENIOR CLASSES OFFERED AT CAMPBELL CENTER
AROUND THE CITY
Wildflower Celebration at Awbrey Park
For more than five years, the dedicated Friends of Awbrey Park have been focused on restoring the riparian area along
Spring Creek that flows through this 4 ½-acre neighborhood park in Santa Clara. Over this short period of time, their first-
Saturday-of-the-month volunteer work parties have had a dramatic effect.
What was once completely covered by a wall of blackberry and choked out by
English ivy is now a thriving creek and natural area with native wildflowers in
full bloom.
This Sunday, the Friends of Awbrey Park will host a family-friendly
Wildflower Celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring a picnic lunch and see for
yourself what volunteers can accomplish together! Enjoy native wildflower
tours and treasure hunt, s’mores over the campfire, horseshoes, disc golf and
live music by the North Eugene High School Ukulele Orchestra.
Eugene Park Stewards builds community through hands-on volunteerism in
Eugene’s parks and open space system. Currently there are more than 30
adoption groups and growing.
Volunteers at Awbrey Park
For more information about this Sunday’s celebration at Awbrey Park or about the Eugene Park Stewards program, contact
West Region Volunteer Coordinator Lorna Baldwin at 541-682-4845 or lorna.j.baldwin@ci.eugene.or.us.
2014 Business Commute Challenge is Right around the Corner
The Business Commute Challenge is a weeklong friendly competition among local area businesses that encourages
employees to walk, bike, bus, carpool, or telework for their daily commute as an alternative to driving alone. Participants
have the opportunity to win prizes, have fun, promote teamwork,
and help reduce carbon emissions all at the same time.
The 2014 BCC will be held May 10-16. The event is coordinated by
Point2point and sponsored by City of Eugene, Lane Transit District,
City of Springfield, Arriving By Bike™, Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life,
Clif Bar, and KEZI 9 News.
Last year, more than 2,100 people, representing 172 business teams participated in the Business Commute Challenge! In
just one week, the BCC participants reduced more than 69,030 drive-alone miles, and reduced more than 70,600 pounds of
carbon dioxide.
Visit the website at www.commutechallenge.org for a list of activities and to sign up to participate. For more information,
contact Jordan Bailey, Sunday Streets coordinator at Public Works Engineering, 541-501-0390.
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1
April 24, 2014
Willamette High School Receives National Award
Willamette High School (WHS) is one of 48 schools across the country to
receive recognition as a 2014 National Green Ribbon School.
The honor, announced this week on Earth Day (April 22) by the U.S.
Department of Education, is for the school’s efforts to improve the
health and wellness of its students and staff, reduce environmental
impacts, and provide environmental and sustainability education. The
recognition award is part of a larger U.S. Department of Education effort
to identify and disseminate knowledge about practices that are proven
to result in improved student engagement, higher academic
achievement and graduation rates, and workforce preparedness, as well
as a government wide goal of increasing energy independence and
economic security.
Some of the activities which earned WHS the honor include: collection of 2,000+ pounds of recycled material each week,
use of paper towels that are EPA-certified 85-percent post-consumer waste, participation in the City of Eugene’s Love Food
Not Waste commercial compost program, an annual community Recycle Round-Up, use of raised garden beds and
hydroponic garden systems that serve as skills training for students, a student-led recycling effort incorporated into
instructional program, and much more.
The City of Eugene partners with Bethel School District to integrate investments in buildings, curricula, educational
programming, and on-going facility operations.
For more information, contact Waste Prevention and Green Building Analyst Stephanie Scafa, 541-682-5652.
Dangers of Drunk Driving Emphasized in Staged Crash
On April 15, personnel from Eugene Springfield Fire, Eugene Police, Lane County Sheriff’s Office, Life Flight air ambulance,
and Churchill High School staff and students participated in the “Every 15 Minutes Program.” This emotionally charged
program offers real-life experience without the real-life risks and is designed to dramatically instill teenagers with the
potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol and texting while driving. This powerful program challenges
students to think about drinking, texting while driving, personal safety, and the responsibility of making mature decisions
when lives are involved. The event involved a staged motor vehicle accident in the parking lot of Churchill High School
involving six students with realistic make-up to simulate injuries as the result of a crash. In this simulation one student dies
in the accident and four students are extricated from the vehicle by firefighters. Three of the extricated students are loaded
into medic units and leave the scene code 3 with lights and sirens. The fourth extricated student is loaded into the Life
Flight helicopter. Another student is given a field sobriety test, arrested and taken away in a police car. The one student
who was pronounced “dead” at the scene is placed in a body bag and leaves in a funeral car. The entire reenactment is
performed in front of hundreds of students. The next day students gathered for an assembly. The focus of the assembly
stresses the dangers of texting while driving, and that the decision to consume alcohol can affect many more people than
just the one who drinks. This very emotional and heart-wrenching event illustrates to students the potentially dangerous
consequences of their use of alcohol and texting while driving, regardless of how casual they believe their use is.
For more information about the “Every 15 Minutes Program”, contact Deputy Chief of Shift Operations Randy DeWitt at
541-682-7147 or Randy.C.DeWitt@ci.eugene.or.us.
Novelist Karen Joy Fowler at Eugene Public Library
Bestselling writer Karen Joy Fowler, winner of the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for
Fiction, will speak at the Downtown Eugene Public Library on Friday, May 2, at 6 p.m.
Admission is free.
The PEN/Faulkner Award is America’s largest peer-juried award for fiction, with aprize
of $15,000. Past winners include Sherman Alexie, E.L. Doctorow, Ann Patchett, Annie
Proulx, Philip Roth, and John Updike. Fowler was honored for her latest novel, “We Are
All Completely Beside Ourselves,” which explores family dynamics, animal rights, and
activism through the story of a woman whose researcher father raised a chimpanzee at
home as her “sister.” Writing for the New York Times, Barbara Kingsolver praises the
work as “so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can
get.”
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2
April 24, 2014
Fowler is the author of six previous novels, including the New York Times bestseller “The Jane Austen Book Club,” and
three short story collections. Her novel “Sister Noon” was a finalist for the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her short
story collection “Black Glass” won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection “What I Didn’t See” won the World
Fantasy Award in 2011.
Fowler’s visit is part of the third annual Northwest Women Writers Symposium sponsored by UO Center for the Study of
Women in Society in cooperation with Eugene Public Library. The 2014 theme is "Family, Animal, Story." Free events,
including panel discussions and writing workshops, will be held at the University of Oregon and the Downtown Eugene
Public Library.
For more information, contact the Eugene Public Library at www.eugene-or.gov/library or 541-682-5450.
Adult and Senior Classes Offered at Campbell Center
Fraud Prevention for Seniors, Quality Medical Tourism, and Understanding Reverse
Mortgages are the topics of three upcoming presentations at Campbell Community
Center. They are typical of the kind of presentations held almost weekly at Campbell.
Each presentation provides information that is useful to adults and seniors – from
serious health and financial issues, to fun topics such as Turning Trash to Treasure,
Culture Explorations or how to “Can The Clutter.” By far the most popular presentation
for the Baby Boomer crowd, and the one that is repeated monthly, is “So, You’re Going
on Medicare.”
From learning how to use a smart phone to birding at home, the presentations provide
useful information for free to help adults maintain their health, independence, social
connections, support networks and quality of life. For more information about this and
other programs and activities at Campbell Center, contact Recreation Manager Diane
Sconce at 541-682-5318.
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3
April 24, 2014