HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/13/11 - City Council Newsletter
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
October 13, 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 EDITION
EUGENE AND LANE COUNTY INCREASE RECYCLING
CALL FOR ARTISTS – PUBLIC ART FOR POLICE BUILDING
BESTSELLING WRITER AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER AT EUGENE PUBLIC LIBRARY
AROUND THE CITY
Eugene and Lane County Increase Recycling
Eugene residents have a lot to be happy about when it comes to recycling this year. For the first time ever, Eugene
and Lane County’s recycling rate has exceeded statewide targets set in the 1995 and 2001 Oregon Recycling Act.
In the 2010 Recovery Rate Report released last week, the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) confirms that the Lane County
wasteshed reached a 57.4 percent recycling rate – easily passing the 54
percent goal set for 2009. Eugene produces over 52 percent of all the waste
generated and recycled in the Lane County wasteshed.
In addition to an increased recycling rate, the area’s per capita waste
generation remains lower than the statewide average. A number of factors
support this success in reduce, reuse, recycle efforts.
Eugene and Lane County have a strong recycling infrastructure that is
served by many reuse and recycling private businesses and non-profits.
Organic recycling is strongly valued in the community, as evidenced in a
recent solid waste hauler customer survey that revealed over 50 percent of
respondents compost in their backyard.
The DEQ report is great news for the community. It confirms the trajectory of the community’s Climate and Energy
Action Plan and new initiatives of the City of Eugene including a new Commercial Food Waste Program, a
Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling Initiative, and the internal Waste Reduction Project. New programs in
the community such as the University of Oregon Athletics Department’s move toward zero waste in the Moshofsky
Center and Matt Knight Arena in 2011, will also help meet future goals to reduce waste throughout the area.
For more information, please contact Ethan Nelson in Planning and Development at 541-682-5224 or
ethan.a.nelson@ci.eugene.or.us.
Call for Artists – Public Art for Police Building
The Police Art Committee is placing a call for artists interested in creating art for the future police headquarters at
300 Country Club Road. Over the last two months, a Police Art Committee has been developing goals and a
selection process for new art to be commissioned for the future police headquarters. This committee is responsible
for the development, selection and implementation of an art project triggered by the City’s 1% for Art Ordinance. The
overall art process is expected to take between nine months to a year; the initial project budget is $75,000. The focus
of the public art is within the public areas of the building only.
The Police Art Committee is seeking applicants with the ability to generate outstanding artistic concepts that are
relevant to the department. The new art will strive to create a memorable and welcoming building and be a timeless,
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October 13, 2011
proud celebration of the positive connections between the Eugene Police Department (EPD) and the community.
The goals of the artwork are as follows:
Goal 1) Celebrate and affirm the spirit of service for EPD staff, volunteers and officers.
Concepts supporting this goal will serve as positive daily affirmations for officers and staff who have
dedicated themselves to protect and serve. These reminders will provide an ideal to reach for every day as
people enter and exit the grounds.
Goal 2) Support the people who are served by EPD.
Concepts achieving this goal will support people who need the services of EPD after experiencing something
very difficult or, at times, horrible. The artwork should provide positive reminders of care and affirmations of
strength while helping create a welcoming, trusting, dignified environment.
The committee is composed of Sergeant Angie San Miguel, Officer Dale Dawson, Dimitri Von Klein (photographer),
Joe Moore (Public Art Committee member), Charly Prichard (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art chief preparatory),
Mike Penwell (City of Eugene design and construction manager), Kari Turner (PIVOT architect), and Isaac Marquez
(City of Eugene public art manager).
The Art Committee encourages everyone to share this opportunity with artists who might be interested. To apply,
contact City of Eugene Public Art Manager Isaac Marquez at 541-682-2057 or isaac.r.marquez@ci.eugene.or.us.
Best-Selling Writer and National Book Award Winner at Eugene Public Library
On Saturday, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m.,the Downtown Eugene Public Library will host a free talk by National Book Award-
winning writer, M.T. Anderson.
An astonishingly inventive writer for all ages, Anderson creates thought-provoking novels, literary short stories,
picture books, adventure tales, and more. His page-turners inspire and challenge readers’ beliefs about individual
rights and the human spirit. Also, he's funny.
Anderson’s most recent best sellers are the novels “The Astonishing Life of Octavian
Nothing, Traitor to the Nation,” Volume 1 and Volume 2. He was honored with a
National Book Award for Volume 1, which was also a Printz Honor Book and a Boston
Globe – Horn Book Winner.The novel was listed among the best books of the year by
The New York Times Book Review, Amazon.com, and Publishers Weekly.
A gripping tale told in the form of diary entries, letters, newspaper clippings, scientific
papers, and more, the “Octavian Nothing” series “fascinates, appalls, condemns, and
enthralls” (New York Times Book Review). It takes place in Revolutionary-era Boston,
where an African boy is raised in luxury and given a classical education by a group of
philosophers. But Octavian’s life changes drastically when he discovers that, in fact, he
is not an honored guest, but a captive subject in an experiment regarding Africans’
intellectual abilities – and that while American patriots are beginning to fight for their
own liberty, most Africans in the colonies are enslaved under horrific conditions.
Although the specifics are fictional, the novels are based on in-depth research and reveal much about the actual
circumstances, organizations, and moral questions of the period – as well as their continuing reverberations in
today’s conflicts over power, class, racism, citizenship, patriotism, and freedom.
Anderson’s sharply satirical “Feed,” set in the not-too-distant future, will grab the attention of anyone who has
wondered about the ultimate implications of Internet marketing. The title refers to a constant stream of customized
ads sent directly into every teen’s brain, thanks to chip implants that make independent thought nearly impossible.
This story of a few youths who try to break free in order to experience life directly is both chilling and touching.
Like Anderson’s best-known books, this talk is for teens and adults. Books for purchase and signing will be available
at the talk courtesy of the UO Duck Store.
For more information, contact the Eugene Public Library at 541-682-8316 or www.eugene-or.gov/library.
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October 13, 2011