We've got issues.
• A $35 annual vehicle registration fee is heading for the May ballot as Lane County struggles to provide basic services. We’re not fond of flat taxes since they exacerbate the gap between rich and poor, but this fee is a bit more progressive than some we’ve seen. Very poor (or green) households don’t even own a car, low-income households might have one car and wealthier households are likely to have several vehicles plus boats and trailers. Continue reading
• Lane Transit District is planning new routes and taking public input from 3 to 5 pm Thursday, Feb. 12, at the LTD Customer Service Center lobby at 10th and Willamette. Comments can also be made through a survey online at ltd.org. LTD Board public hearings are coming up at 5:30 pm March 18 and 5:30 pm April 6 at the Eugene Public Library. Continue reading
Weyerhaeuser Company, 746-2511, plans to aerially spray 47.8 acres and 96.4 acres near Mohawk River tributaries with Velpar DF, Velossa, Vista XRT, Transline, Sulfomet XP, Rodeo, Hardball, Crosshair, Epoleon N-100 odor masking agent, Foam Buster and/or No Foam. See ODF notifications 2015-771-02709 and 2015-771-02586, call Brian Dally or Nikolai B. Hall at 726-3588 with questions. Continue reading
Big turnout for the Womenspace fifth annual “End the Silence” community breakfast Feb. 4. An estimated 320 to 350 people, including many local dignitaries and business owners, showed up on a cold, dark, wet morning for the 7 am free buffet at Valley River Inn. A “survivor panel” of women told their personal stories about intimate partner violence and how Womenspace services helped and continues to help them through the challenges. Continue reading
• Seneca Jones Timber Company LLC, 689-1011, plans to aerial and ground spray 69.9 acres near Crow Road with 2,4-D, atrazine, clopyralid, glyphosate, hexazinone. sulfometuron methyl, Crosshair, Foam Buster and/or Grounded. See ODF notifications 2015-781-02394 and 2015-781-02596, call Brian Peterson at 935-2283 with questions. • Seneca Jones also plans to aerially spray 54.4 acres near Wolf Creek Road and 56.9 acres near Hamm and Territorial with some of the same chemicals listed above. See ODF notification 2015-781-02390, call Dan Men Continue reading
• We would like to assure parents and their children that Mickey Mouse lives. Continue reading
• Noted historian Randall Balmer of Dartmouth College will speak on “Jimmy Carter, Progressive Evangelism and the Religious Right” at 7 pm Thursday, Feb. 5, at 110 Knight Law Center on the UO campus. Ballmer is considered a leading expert on the role of religion in American life. Sponsored by The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics. Find more upcoming Morse Center lectures at wkly.ws/1xe. Continue reading
Tiny Tavern at 394 Blair Blvd. in the Whit has reopened under new management after being shut down by the Lane County Health Department Dec. 5. The self-described dive bar, restaurant and live music venue had a Superbowl party Sunday, and we’re hearing good things about the new, improved and more sanitary Tiny’s. It was missed while it was closed. See our Letters this week. Continue reading
• The Eugene City Council is expected to take the next step this week in expanding our urban growth boundary to provide more space for industrial land. It appears the controversial 300-acre expansion for housing is not needed, thanks to a math error being discovered. Puzzling. But the plan to expand 924 acres to create industrial land near the airport is also flawed. Strong arguments against UGB industrial expansion can be found in the Envision Eugene online survey done in December and January. Continue reading
• Slow Money South Willamette Valley and Willamette Food and Farm Coalition are hosting a launch event from 6 to 9 pm Thursday, Jan. 29, at Red Wagon Creamery, 55 W. Broadway, to celebrate the first local companies and other Oregon entrepreneurs to build their businesses through Oregon’s new Community Public Offering (CPO) crowdfunding rules. See slowmoneyswv.org. Continue reading