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Home My WebLink AboutCC Newsletter - 01/27/05EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER January 27, 2005 City of Eugene 777 Pearl Street, Room 105 Eugene, Oregon 97401-2793 (541) 682-5010 (541) 682-5414 (FAX) www.ci.eugene.or, us STORYTIME IN BRAILLE SURVEY SOLUTIONS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FUND SUPPORTS LOCAL SWEET SHOP READIN' IN THE RAIN 2005! HEALING HANDS OF EUGENE TSUNAMI BENEFIT PESTICIDE-FREE HOT FOAM KILLS MOSS, IVY IN PARKS ACROSS EUGENE Stoqrtime in Braille Eugene Public Library's Pre-school Storytimes on Wednesday, January 19, celebrated Braille Literacy Month with a featured guest reader, Heidi von Ravensberg. Heidi, a community member who is blind, collaborated with Youth Librarian Michele "Pigg" Green to develop and present the program. Heidi read aloud from Braille text while Pigg displayed the illustrations and the children enthusiastically described the pictures. More than 60 kids and parents enjoyed the stories, watching intently as Heidi's fingers glided over the Braille. Along with tales on themes such as helping others and bravery, the presenters provided introductory information about blindness, tactile and auditory senses, and appropriate behavior around working guide dogs, with Heidi's dog Curry as an example. Kids also got the chance to feel the Braille alphabet for themselves. Eugene Public Library thanks Heidi for contributing her time and talents at Storytime, as well as for serving as a past consultant to the Library's Adaptive Technology Committee. Heidi works at the U of O College of Education and is a patron of Oregon Talking Books and Braille Services. For more information, contact Librarian Michele Green at 652-6623 Survey Solutions LRCS is ready to rollout a new, powerful and versatile software/hardware package that will vastly improve the City's survey and evaluation capabilities. The Telecom funded software, "Survey Solutions," enables the use of PDAs, the Intranet, and the Internet to collect responses in addition to paper forms. With this system, patrons can now enter their own information, which will reduce staff time/costs for that tedious duty. It also creates convenience for the web-savvy customer and vastly expands our polling ability. Two other key strengths of the system are the ease of survey creation, and the quick production of results in graphical and/or data form. In a demonstration this week, 5 PDA's were passed around in a staff meeting with a simple survey onboard. The 14 responses were quickly downloaded to a laptop, and the results were tabulated and displayed in four charts. The total time for entry, download and crunching was less than 10 minutes. The product is very user-friendly, the database is fully-accessible, and our LRCS Department Automation Team--Sharon Edwards and Julie Gilbert--are already adept with the software. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 January 28, 2005 The Recreation Division began using the new system this week with an Aquatics survey. PDA's are at Echo Hollow and Sheldon Pools, allowing patrons to use the handheld devices, or fill out a paper survey. All of Recreation's customer evaluations will soon be converted to Survey Solutions. When the three LRCS divisions begin using the system, data from any standardized questions about patron demographics, marketing information, assessment of satisfaction and more will now be easily merged for department-wide comprehensive comparison and cross- tabulation. Special thanks to Sharon Edwards for the research, acquisition and implementation of this amazing new system; to the DAT Team for supporting the product; and to Barb Bertsch, Tim Patrick and Sarah Rankin for taking the lead in the Recreation rollout. For more information, contact Youth and Family Services Manager Tim Patrick at 682-6347. Business Development Fund Supports Local Sweet Shop Sweet Life Patisserie recently received a $160,000 loan from the Business Development Fund program to expand their current retail operation located at 755 Monroe Street. City of Eugene funds were used to purchase equipment and inventory, and for additional working capital. The expanded and updated retail outlet began serving a wider selection of sweet treats in December 2004. Sweet Life Patisserie was founded as a home- based wholesale bakery in 1993 by sisters Catherine and Cheryl Reinhart. Demand for the wonderful pastries created a market for retail sales. In 1999, Sweet Life moved into their Monroe Street location and began serving the community directly. Shortly thereafter, the patisserie became a popular spot for community members to meet and socialize while satisfying their sweet tooth with one of the many specialty pastries, pies, and cakes. With elbow room only and lines out the door, it was time for the Reinhart sisters to expand again. The production portion of the business was moved to a new facility nearby in the summer of 2004 allowing for the expansion and remodel of the retail space. The City's Business Development Loans are funded by federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds and are tied to job creation. The expansion of the retail location is expected to create 5 new jobs. For more information regarding the Planning and Development Department's Business Development Loan Fund, contact either Ramona Mitchell at 682-5535 (ramona.j.mitchell@ci.eugene.or. us) or Denny Braud at 682-5536 (denny.braud@ci.eugene.or. us). Readin' in the Rain 2005! Eugene-Springfield's community reading celebration, Readin' in the Rain, has announced its book for 2005: The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss. The novel, a story of a widow il who homesteads on her own, explores frontier Oregon from a refreshing point of view. The book has been widely praised, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award. The season kicks off at the "Umbrella Opening," Tuesday, February 1, 7 p.m., at the UO Bookstore. During February, all of Eugene Public Library's drop-in adult book groups will discuss the novel. On Saturday, February 12, at 2:00 p.m., enjoy a storytelling performance, "Two-Way Seeing: Pioneers and Native Oregonians," at Eugene Public Library, Downtown. Author Gloss will visit to read and talk about her work on Friday, February 18, 7:00, at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2 January 28, 2005 For the full schedule of free events, pick up a Readin' in the Rain bookmark at your library or bookstore, or visit www.read-rain.or.q. Readin' in the Rain is organized by Eugene Public Library, Springfield Public Library, UO Libraries, Oregon Council for the Humanities, Lane Arts Council, as well as being joined by local bookstores and book lovers. Read The Jump-Off Creek with your neighbors this winter, and discover new ideas, friends, and facets of Oregon's past! For more information, contact Eugene Public Librarian Mary Kontny at 682-8311. Healinq Hands of Euqene Tsunami Benefit You probably will never forget where you were when you heard about the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, but where will you be on January 30, 2005 from 12:00 - 7:00 p.m.? Come to the Hult Center for Healing Hands of Eugene: A Benefit for the Survivors of the TsunamL This is a unique opportunity to provide healing at home and abroad in this time of crisis for so many in our human family. Many healers will come together, donating their services to the public through small mini-sessions. Practitioners include shamanic healers, massage therapists, reiki masters, breema practitioners, energy healers and acupuncturists. People attending the event will make a suggested donation at the door and receive healing work from a practitioner of their choice. The Hult Center is a partner in this event, and has made the Hult Center Lobby available for this event. One hundred percent of the funds raised will be donated to the international relief and development agency, AMURT (,www.amurt.net), a volunteer-based non-profit organization. AMURT and its sister organization AMURTEL have been working since day one of the crisis and are now beginning rebuilding efforts. See the AMURT website for more information on the organization. Don't miss this opportunity to come together as a community and help make a difference in the world. For information on attending or volunteer opportunities, contact info@dharmalaya.org or call Hult Center Operations Director Mark Loigman at 682-5307 or Hult Center Administrative Aide Theresa Sizemore at 682-5242. Pesticide-Free Hot Foam Kills Moss, Ivy in Parks Across Euqene What looks like a blanket of powdery snow but is only hot water, corn sugar and coconut oil? Though it's made in New Zealand, it's not an exotic beverage but rather the newest, pesticide-free, weed control technique in the parks maintenance arsenal. The hot foam treatment was recently applied to the moss-covered sidewalks on the north side of Skinner Butte. "It's essentially just hot water with only 0.04 percent organic surfactant to create the insulating foam," says Eric Cramer, owner of Green Life, organic weed control contractor and the sole proprietor of the Waipuna hot foam product in the northwest. "It's particularly ideal when the site is near a river, other waterway or a catch basin." The way the method works is by using very hot water, 205 degrees to be exact. The hot water mixes with air and creates foam that insulates and literally cooks the weed down to its roots. The system attacks the plant on the cellular level; the cell walls burst because the temperature outside the plant is hotter than inside the cell. Follow-up is only necessary on flat surfaces, requiring that the dead plant EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 January 28, 2005 debris be swept away the day after the application. On a slope, the dead material just sloughs away. The hot foam has been successfully used on ivy and other weeds at Washington-Jefferson Park, Scobert Park, Hays Tree Garden, and Cuthbert, and so far, has significantly squelched regrowth as well. For more information about this and other pesticide-free methods at work in Eugene's parks and open space system, contact Turf and Grounds Supervisor Rob Hallett at 682-4935 or Landscape & Medians Supervisor Chris Girard at 682-4824. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 4 January 28, 2005