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Home My WebLink About07/14/11 - City Council Newsletter EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER July 14, 2011 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 TRAINING TOMORROW’S FEMALE HEROES ONE WORLD, MANY STORIES: EUGENE’S SISTER CITIES SHARE THEIR STORIES ENHANCED STREET REPAIR PROGRAM INCLUDES MAINTENANCE PAVING ON UNIMPROVED STREETS WHITEAKER NEIGHBORHOOD RIVER FESTIVAL IS JULY 22 OREGON FACILITIES AUTHORITY TO MEET IN EUGENE WORK ON BLANTON RIDGE IMPROVES TRAIL, ENHANCES HABITAT, AND REDUCES FIRE RISK TRAVEL WRITER CARL “LUNATIC EXPRESS” HOFFMAN AT EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY WINS $17,000 “BIG READ” GRANT AROUND THE CITY Training Tomorrow’s Female Heroes Last week, 15 young women between the ages of 15 and 19 graduated from the first annual Confidence and Leadership Fire Camp for Young Women hosted by the Eugene Fire & EMS and Springfield Fire & Life Safety departments. Fire Captain Jean Woodrich served as incident commander of this incredibly successful event. The goals of the camp were to provide a safe environment to introduce the young women to fire and emergency medical services, teach them leadership, confidence, and team-building skills by providing them with instruction and hands-on drills in rope rappelling, live fire burns, physical fitness training, and emergency medical treatment. Camp participants also heard from a wide variety of local community leaders and department personnel, who spoke on the topics of confidence and leadership. While fire departments in the U.S. have a long history of being predominantly white and male, the camp is part of ongoing efforts to engage under-represented populations to consider careers in fire and emergency medical services. The departments’ ongoing outreach efforts include working with students to help prepare them to successfully pass the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT), as well as running a teen career day outreach program twice a year, which provides high school students with a day of exposure to the fire and emergency medical services fields and a concurrent job fair. To learn more about how to prepare to become a firefighter paramedic, or to inquire about next year’s camp, please visit www.eugene-or.gov/fire; http://www.ci.springfield.or.us/dept_fir.htm, or contact Deputy Chief of Special Operations Joe Zaludek at 541-682-7103. One World, Many Stories: Eugene’s Sister Cities Share Their Stories In a free presentation on Saturday afternoon, July 23, community members can learn about Eugene’s Sister Cities - and creative opportunities to get involved in learning, working, and solving problems internationally. The Sister Cities program promotes mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation through cultural, economic, civic, and humanitarian activities that move participants beyond borders. The interactive session is planned from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. on July 23, in the Bascom/Tykeson Room at the downtown Eugene Public Library. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1 July 14, 2011 The sister cities session is part of the Eugene Public Library’s summer series, with recommended books, free events, activities for all ages, and public lectures. Eugene’s four sister cities are Jinju, South Korea; Kakegawa, Japan; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Irkutsk, Russia. For more information, please contact Keli Osborn, City Manager’s Office, at keli.m.osborn@ci.eugene.or.us or call 541-682-5406. Enhanced Street Repair Program Includes Maintenance Paving on Unimproved Streets Public Works Maintenance crews are hard at work improving the surface and ride quality on several of Eugene’s th older unimproved streets. Streets that recently have received a new top lift of asphalt include segments of 13 Place, Sunshine Acres Drive, Randall Street, Van Duyn Street, and Sandy Drive. These streets make up about 25 percent of the projects planned for this season. Additional projects are planned in the university and west Eugene areas. Although a temporary solution for unimproved streets, maintenance overlays are popular with area residents. A maintenance overlay consists of adding a thin lift of asphalt to the top of the existing street surface. Depending on the condition of the existing street, asphalt thickness varies from 1.5 to two inches of compacted material. This treatment is a relatively inexpensive option for temporarily improving the ride quality and Crew from Public Works Maintenance applies useful life of a street. maintenance overlay on Sandy Drive. Projects completed last year included segments of Inglewood Avenue, Malabar Drive, Prall Lane, Bethel Drive and others. The list of maintenance overlays continues to grow along with the popularity of this program with Eugene residents. For more information, contact Surface Maintenance Supervisor Damon Joyner at 541-682-4835. Whiteaker Neighborhood River Festival is July 22 Recreation Services’ Outdoor Program invites everyone to the Whiteaker Neighborhood River Festival on Friday, July 22, from 4 – 7 p.m. in Maurie Jacobs Park, behind the River House at 301 North Adams Street. The festival is for all ages. At this free, annual event, attendees can try kayaking, play on the “ginormous” slip-n-slide, participate in circus arts, and enjoy music. In nearby Sladden Park, tree climbing will be offered for $5 to those 10- years-old-and-older, from 4 - 8 p.m. The River Festivities will be followed a bike parade, Eugene style. For more information, call Roger Bailey at 541-682-5329. Oregon Facilities Authority to Meet in Eugene The Oregon Facilities Authority (OFA) is the state agency that helps 501(c)(3) organizations access low-cost financing for the purchase, construction and renovation of facilities. Eugene’s Finance Director Sue Cutsogeorge has served on the board of the authority for the past several years. On Aug. 3, from 10:00 to 11:45 a.m. in the Bascom/Tykeson Room of the Eugene Public Library, OFA will be holding an informational session in Eugene to help nonprofits and bankers learn more about its program. OFA has several programs for nonprofits. The recently created SNAP Bond program is of special interest to both nonprofits and bankers. This is a low-cost, streamlined way for nonprofits to access bank real estate loans at low interest rates, and for banks to serve their nonprofit customers with attractive rates. The average SNAP Bond amount is about $2 million. OFA has other financing programs that can help nonprofits save on interest costs for other kinds of projects. OFA financing has been used to assist in several important nonprofit projects in the Eugene area, including several for PeaceHealth, Looking Glass and Pearl Buck Center. Nonprofits, bankers, and others interested in attending the program to learn more, should contact Tillie Hasson of OFA at 503-802-2137 to reserve seats for the presentation. For more information about the OFA, contact Sue Cutsogeorge, at 541-682-5589. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2 July 14, 2011 Work on Blanton Ridge Improves Trail, Enhances Habitat, and Reduces Fire Risk Eugene Parks and Open Space Division’s Natural Resources staff is implementing projects this summer on Blanton Ridge to improve the Ridgeline Trail, reduce fire risk, and improve oak and pine habitat. Staff began the work with several weeks of blackberry and exotic tree removal on Blanton Ridge near Pinewood Drive. This work reduced fire risk to neighbors along Pinewood Drive, which is one of the few areas in Eugene’s Ridgeline where houses are uphill from Ridgeline Park. An added benefit of the fuels reduction effort is that it creates space around oaks and pines, helping to improve growing conditions for these ecologically important remnant trees and the other plants and animals associated with their habitat. Natural Resource staff will be following up this fall with reseeding of native wildflowers and grasses along with additional weed control work. s Blackberries in thiarea were cleared to reduce fire risk to Beginning in mid-July, a trail contractor will begin the first of nearby homes and create space around oaks and pines. several planned projects to improve the 1.8-mile-long Blanton Ridge segment of the Ridgeline Trail. The trail follows the ridge between Willamette Street and Blanton Road while passing through fir forest and oak woodlands. Wintertime views of the city to the north and east offer a unique perspective of Eugene. Since the trail’s construction in 1985, several segments of the trail have become so narrow that segments are increasingly dangerous to users, and trail maintenance equipment cannot access the trail. The trail contractor will install heavy timber retaining walls at narrow segments on the trail to widen the trail and will then resurface a quarter-mile stretch of trail with gravel. The trail may be closed between Pinewood Drive and Solar Heights Drive for up to three weeks starting in mid-July. Signs will be posted at the trailheads and at the closure points. Staff will seek to perform additional repairs to the trail in subsequent years as funding allows. For more information, contact Natural Resource Specialist Jesse Cary-Hobbs at 541-682-4843. Travel Writer Carl “Lunatic Express” Hoffman at Eugene Public Library The downtown Eugene Public Library will host a free talk by award-winning travel writer, Carl Hoffman, the author of “The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World Via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes,” on Thursday, July 21, at 6 p.m. His visit is part of the Public Library’s Summer Reading 2011, a series of events for all ages united by the theme, “One World, Many Stories.” After years as a successful travel journalist, Hoffman found his attention drawn to those brief news items with striking headlines like “Indonesian Ferry Sinks,” “Peruvian Bus Plunges off Cliff,” and “African Train Attacked by Mobs.” Though offering little detail, they clearly reflected the difference between the travel-for- pleasure Hoffman wrote about and the travel experiences of the vast majority of the world’s people, who must get where they’re going by any means possible. Inspired to learn more, Hoffman designed a six-month journey including a perilous flight from Havana to Bogotá, overcrowded ferries in Indonesia and Bangladesh, commuter trains in Mumbai, a bus ride through war-torn Afghanistan, and the Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. In his book and talk, he recounts these stories and shares how the trip changed his perspective. The Wall Street Journal named “Lunatic Express” one of the 10 best books of 2010, calling it “funny, warm, and filled with astonishing characters.” The New York Times Book Review included it on a list of recommended travel reading for this summer. A four-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers, Hoffman has traveled to 65 countries. He is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler, Wired, and Popular Mechanics. At his Eugene talk, books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of the UO Duck Store. For more information, contact the Eugene Public Library at 541-682-5450 or www.eugene-or.gov/library. Eugene Public Library Wins $17,000 “Big Read” Grant The Eugene Public Library has received a grant of $17,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to host The Big Read in March 2012. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 July 14, 2011 The Eugene Public Library is one of 75 not-for-profits nationwide - including arts and cultural organizations, libraries, and universities - to receive a grant to host a Big Read project in the coming year. The Big Read in Eugene/Springfield will focus on the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. Community members will be encouraged to read the book and participate in a range of community events now being planned for March 2012. The Eugene Public Library’s major partners in The Big Read are the Springfield Public Library, local schools, and Lord Leebrick Theatre Company, which will present performances of the play “Fahrenheit 451.” Famously gripping, “Fahrenheit 451” addresses the issue of censorship through the tale of a society where firemen burn books, the government suppresses learning, and the public sits by in drug-induced, media-saturated indifference. More relevant than ever, a half-century after it was written, Bradbury’s work has achieved the rare distinction of being both a literary classic and a perennial bestseller. For more information, contact the Eugene Public Library at 541-682-5450 or www.eugene-or.gov/library. EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 4 July 14, 2011