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Home My WebLink AboutCity Council Newsletter - 03/29/07 EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER March 29, 2007 City of Eugene 777 Pearl Street, Room 105 Eugene, Oregon 97401-2793 (541) 682-5010 (541) 682-5414 (FAX) www.eugene-or.gov IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION RISK SERVICES’ INSURANCE MARKETING MANUAL WINS NATIONAL AWARD MINOR CODE AMENDMENT WORKSHOP SCHEDULED ACT-SO YOUTH MEDALISTS AT EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY’S FIRST FRIDAY PUBLIC ACCESS COMPUTER IN COUNCIL CHAMBER LIVE FIRE TRAINING BURN MAYOR PIERCY WELCOMES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM JAPANESE SISTER CITY AROUND THE CITY Risk Services’ Insurance Marketing Manual Wins National Award The Risk Services Division will be recognized in June at the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA) national conference as the recipient of the first place award for Outstanding Achievement for a Public Risk Management Product for the 2006 Insurance Marketing Manual. The Insurance Marketing Manual is a comprehensive portfolio of information developed annually by Risk Services staff to assist the City’s insurance broker in the marketing of the City’s insurance program. This concise, easy- to- use document enables insurance underwriters to efficiently evaluate the City’s risk exposures and helps the City get the best possible insurance coverage at competitive rates. The Insurance Marketing Manual includes information about the City organization, the Risk Services program and staff, exposures to loss, insurance history, claim history, statutory obligations, safety and loss control programs, and employee training. The manual is compiled by Risk Services staff with the assistance of staff throughout the organization. Risk Services has previously won awards in the national PRIMA competition. In 2001, both the annual Risk Report and the Risk Services Intranet website won achievement awards. A copy of the 2007 Insurance Marketing Manual is available on the City’s website, www.eugene-or.gov/riskservices. For more information, contact Myrnie Daut at 682-5759 or Jan Bergquist at 682-5662. Minor Code Amendment Workshop Scheduled The City of Eugene will be holding a public workshop on Thursday, April 5, from 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. in the Bascom Room at the Eugene Public Library to discuss the next step in the Minor Land Use Code Amendment process. Public open houses have been held over the winter asking the community how they think the Land Use Code can be further improved. Approximately 200 suggestions have been made to date. The focus of the April 5 workshop will be to present a summary of what has been heard so far and to discuss potential means to prioritize the suggested amendments. City staff and the project consultants will also be seeking feedback from the public on this important next step. Following this workshop, the Planning Commission will hold a roundtable discussion with the community to help determine which of these suggested changes will move forward in this year’s process. The EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 April 3, 2007 remaining suggestions would be retained in a library which the City can utilize for future amendment efforts. For more information on the City of Eugene Code Amendment Project visit the webpage at www.eugeneplanning.org (click on “Code Amendments” tab), or contact Steve Nystrom, project manager, at 541-682-8385 or steven.a.nystrom@ci.eugene.or.us. ACT-SO Youth Medalists at Eugene Public Library's First Friday On First Friday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m., the Eugene Public Library presents the teen winners of the Eugene/Springfield NAACP's ACT-SO competition, which was held in the Soreng Theater on March 17. ACT- SO stands for Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, an enrichment program designed to promote high academic and cultural achievement among high school students of African American descent. The competition includes 25 categories in the sciences, humanities, and performing and visual arts. Local gold medalists will go on to compete at the National Competition in Detroit, Michigan in early July. In recent years, several Eugene/Springfield winners have gone on to win national medals. Here are this year’s winners: Churchill High School Doriana Wallace Bronze Vocal/Contemporary Marist Catholic High School Bryson Black Bronze Filmmaking North Eugene High School Alicia Harley Gold Photography Dion Brown Silver Drawing Macque Linder Silver Poetry Takana Thomas Silver Painting Audrey Wiltz Bronze Poetry Riverfront Alternative School Lewis Wallace-Ryan Bronze Photography Sheldon High School Yasha Stubbs Gold Vocal/Contemporary Yasha StubbsSilverVocal/Classical Willamette High School Christina Stubbs Silver Vocal/Contemporary ACT-SO is sponsored by the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Other local sponsors include Lane County Board of Commissioners, Lane County Department of Children and Families, City of Eugene - Library, Recreation and Cultural Services, School Districts 4J and 52, Comcast, and Barnes & Noble. Partners of the ACT-SO program include the City of Springfield, The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts, University of Oregon, Lane Community College, and Oregon Electric Station. Also at 6:30 p.m. in the Downtown Library's Rotunda, The Slow Ponies cowgirl band features guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, tight harmonies, spirited lyrics - and yodeling. The band is made up of relatives and old friends who've made music together for years, and who carry the heritage of the region's history. Singers include Esther Stutzman, descendant of the Kalapuya inhabitants of Western Oregon's Umpqua Valley, and three descendants of the early-settler Applegate family: Susan Applegate, Shannon Applegate, and Marie Helmer. Completing the line-up are banjo player Margaret Corbett, fiddler Linda Danielson, and bass player Susie Harms. The First Friday of each month, in connection with the Lane Arts Council ArtWalk, the Downtown Library stays open until 8 p.m. featuring free cultural events as well as full library services. For more information, call the Eugene Public Library at 682-5450. Public Access Computer in Council Chamber As a part of the City’s continuing efforts to reduce paper use and provide documents in electronic form, a public access computer has been installed in the City Council Chamber. Using telecom funds, a public EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2 April 3, 2007 access computer was installed in the northwest side of the Chamber. The computer is set to the City’s website and specifically to the pages containing the City Council agenda materials. This will enable people attending the council meetings to review the materials in the council packet during the meeting. No printer has been installed. In addition, as previously reported, both the Council Chamber and McNutt Rooms are now WiFi “hot spots”, thus making it easier to access city materials during meetings. For more information contact Mary Walston at 682-5406. Live Fire Training Burn The Eugene Fire & EMS Department recently conducted a training burn in an abandoned residential structure that was donated for use as a live fire training exercise. Although the majority of live fire training is conducted in the burn building prop at the department’s Emergency Services Center (ESC) nd located at 2 and Chambers, the Fire Training Section will occasionally utilize a donated structure to recreate fire scenarios that most accurately reflect the types of fires that the suppression crews respond to regularly. Live fire training exercises are conducted approximately once per year, which gives the department’s veteran and recruit firefighters invaluable training and experience in a controlled and safe environment. For more information, please contact Acting Deputy Chief of Operations Randy DeWitt at 682-7130. Mayor Piercy Welcomes High School Students from Japanese Sister City Mayor Piercy welcomed eight high school students and their two adult leaders to Eugene this week. The students, ages 15 through 17 are from four different high schools in Kakegawa, Eugene’s longtime sister city in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan. The delegation arrived on March 22 and spent the first night at a downtown bed and breakfast and then spent the next four days with home stay families in the Eugene area. The group visited South Eugene High School and the Eugene Hotel where they performed a song for the residents. The home stay experiences varied from going to the Oregon Coast, to shopping, to learning how to cook “American” style, to going to a movie at the new theater, and more than one home stay family enjoyed watching the University of Oregon men’s basketball team compete in the NCAA Tournament. The Mayor presented the delegation members with gifts representing Eugene and in turn the delegation presented a custom-made “hanko” to Mayor Piercy. A hanko is the Japanese way to sign documents; basically a stamp with the individual’s name on it. The hanko presented to Mayor Piercy had been custom made for her and bears the imprint of “Kitty” in Japanese katakana characters. For more information on Kakegawa or Eugene’s other sister cities, contact Mary Walston at 682-5406. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 April 3, 2007