News: Page 361

Asbestos raining down from mill fire?

News

LRAPA just sent out his notice this afternoon (July 24) about pollution from the mill fire in Springfield last week: Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) has received a complaint of possible debris from Swanson Mill Fire on private property. These burned materials range from small flakes of ash to larger palm-sized charred debris. Some of these materials have tested positive for containing asbestos. Further testing is being conducted to confirm these results at an accredited lab and results are expected by tomorrow. Continue reading →

Activist Alert 7-24-2014

Activist Alert

• Verizon Wireless is planning to construct a 90-foot cell tower in the vicinity of 888 W. 2nd Ave. in Eugene. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days to Trileaf Corp, 19442 E. Warner Rd., Suite 220, Mesa, AZ 85212, or call (480) 850-0575 or email p.rees@trileaf.com. The site is just north of the railroad tracks. Continue reading →

Biz Beat 7-24-2014

Biz Beat

The local real estate market appears to be doing well with residential sale prices improving in all areas, many by double digits, according to a flyer sent out last week by broker Sally Nunn. Nunn’s numbers compare June 2013 with June 2014 and show the biggest gains in the McKenzie Valley (16.9 percent) and Springfield (13.4 percent). West Eugene home sales went up 10 percent with other parts of Eugene showing single-digit growth. The number of closed sales in the metro area increased 3.7 percent and the number of new listings grew by 6.5 percent.  Continue reading →

Nancy-Diane Mannelli Brewer

Happening People
Nancy-Diane Mannelli Brewer.

“New York didn’t resonate with me,” says Nancy-Diane Mannelli Brewer, who grew up in Northport, on Long Island. “It’s too fast-paced and competitive. I left when I was 18.” Mannelli studied for a year at West Virginia University in Morgantown, where she discovered Transcendental Meditation, and spent three years of quiet spiritual practice at an ashram in the Catskills, where she met her husband-to-be Bill Brewer, an artist. She taught TM for a while in Annapolis and in Bermuda, until she and Brewer got married, moved to Seattle and had a daughter, Rhice. Continue reading →

EPD’s ‘Sustained’ Rate Of Misconduct Grows

News

The Eugene Police Department (EPD) finds that in approximately 44 percent of the cases investigated for serious misconduct, the officer investigated has committed serious misconduct. That is a rate higher than many other cities, according to the city of Eugene Police Auditor’s 2013 Annual Report. The report, released May 31, shows four other cities with “sustained” rates ranging from 2 to 20 percent. Continue reading →

Gravel Mining Laws Overdue For Updates

News

All around Oregon exist areas of land that were zoned for mining back in the 1970s. These mines are sometimes nearly unused or lie dormant for a decade. Homeowners who thought they bought country property in an agricultural area wake up to discover a gravel mine as their loud, new next-door neighbor, and there is often little they can do to stop it or reduce the effects of truck traffic, noise and dust. State Sen. Floyd Prozanski says current mining laws are out of date in Oregon and need to be modernized.  Continue reading →

Pollution Update 7-24-14

Pollution Update

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) followed up on the pre-enforcement notice it sent to Hollingsworth & Vose Fiber Company (H&V) in May for hazardous waste law violations at its Corvallis facility (see EW 5/22, goo.gl/yde2bm) with a $10,400 civil penalty on July 16. The most serious of H&V’s multiple violations concerned failure to clean up releases of crushed brick dust containing barium, cadmium and chromium. Continue reading →