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News: News: Happening Person: George Braddock The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted 4 to 1 on July 2 in favor of passing a county-wide resolution rejecting the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA). Commissioners Dwyer, Green, Lininger and Sorenson voted for the resolution. Commissioner Morrison voted against it, saying the UPA was a matter that should be handled at the federal level. In a Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee (LCBORDC) e-mail announcement following the vote, member and organizer Hope Marston wrote, "There are teeth in this resolution. … the Board of Commissioners took a strong stand keeping our county tax dollars from supporting the UPA [and] post-9/11 Executive and Department of Justice orders that violate our Constitutional guarantees. … I think it may be one of the strongest resolutions passed to date by a county government." This decision makes for 132 city and county resolutions nationwide and three state resolutions against the UPA. — Bobbie Willis
On July 4, the day Americans celebrate things like free speech, the Clackamas County Sheriff arrested Lloyd K. Marbet, Oregon's long-time campaign finance reform and public power advocate, in the City of Estacada's Timber Park for trying to collect signatures on a measure to create a People's Utility District (PUD) in Clackamas County in order to get Enron out of Oregon.
The officers on the scene refused to read or comply with the recent decision of the federal court for Oregon that cities cannot halt lawful activities in public parks supposedly booked by private groups. Marbet handed them the court decision, but they would not read it. Timber Park is a a public park of the City of Estacada located on land owned by Portland General Electric (PGE) but under long-term lease to the city. A security guard told Marbet that PGE did not want him to collect signatures there. The park at the time was being used for the annual 4th of July celebration, open to the public, sponsored by the Estacada Chamber of Commerce. Marbet paid to enter the park but security guards would not allow him to do so. Instead, they physically grabbed and held him. The guards also stopped people from approaching Marbet. The Clackamas County Sheriff sent two squad cars with several officers, who handcuffed Marbet, arresting him for criminal trespass, and transported him to the county jail in Oregon City. All of the events at the park were videotaped, as the security guards tried to block the view of the person doing the taping. "People have the right to collect signatures on public property," says attorney Dan Meek. "Forbidding someone from entering a public park, simply because he is carrying a petition and openly admits his intention to collect signatures, is a pure content-based restriction on speech and is clearly in direct violation of Article I, Section 8, of the Oregon Constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." In April, U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty issued a decision forbidding the City of Portland from excluding Edward Gathright from Waterfront Park during events sponsored by private organizations. The court concluded that the City could not exclude or arrest anyone "unless there is probable cause to believe they have violated a valid statute, City ordinance, or park regulation." He ruled that exercising First Amendment rights in the park cannot violate a park regulation and that event sponsors cannot stop people from expressing views they disagree with. "A city cannot 'lease' a public park to the Chamber of Commerce or to any other private group for a day or a week or a year and then claim that the park is somehow 'private property,'" says Meek. "That would be like renting a city park to the Ku Klux Klan and then claiming that only white people are allowed to enter the park, because it is suddenly no longer a public park." Marbet, who says he had no intention of interfering with park events, says, "How ironic that I was arrested on the 4th of July for exercising the freedoms that this day is supposed to represent." Marbet was released on personal recognizance after being held for four hours. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 4. "It's mindboggling to realize how bad it's becoming — this encroachment upon our civil liberties," says Marbet. "It's bad enough that the Supreme Court reversed themselves on allowing people to petition in shopping centers." Now, Marbet says people are being arrested for petitioning near post offices. "That's public property. What is going on here?" — Aria Seligmann
Concerned that terrorists may crash an airliner into the Eugene Hilton? Don't you worry. The city of Eugene has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office for Domestic Preparedness. The Eugene Fire Department says it will use the money to buy a new vehicle to tow around rescue equipment for structural and trench collapses. Meanwhile state and local governments continue their struggle to rescue the elderly and disabled trapped under a collapsing state budget. — Alan Pittman
The City of Eugene has been getting complaints from apartment dwellers who want to recycle but their apartment manager refuses. Eugene has an estimated 23,000 apartments, according to a memo from Eugene Planning and Development Director Tom Coyle. But, unlike other cities in the Northwest, Eugene has no law requiring that apartment managers provide recycling service. Apartment managers often refuse recycling service because of perceived space limitations and mess. But the city's recent move to commingled recycling may alleviate some of those problems. The city plans to study how many apartments don't have recycling and look at options to promote waste reduction, including requiring that managers allow their tenants to recycle. —AP
As of June 30, at least 248 American and British forces have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. About 70 have died since the war officially ended May 1. Estimates of Iraqi civilians killed grows daily and currently ranges from 6,011 to 7,653. Source: www.pigstye.net/iraq/
The Fringe Festival, originally scheduled for this weekend to keep the party going at Secret House Vineyards Winery long after the Country Fair closed its gates, isn't happening. Promoter Dave Ammon pulled the plug on the event after agreements he made with Secret House Vineyards weren't working out.
Initially, the festival, which is not related at all to the Oregon Country Fair as has erroneously been reported in the R-G, was meant to bring in Country Fairgoers who get "swept out" at 7 pm. Acts were booked long into the night, with the midnight show being the main attraction. The event was created by Reverend Chumleigh and Patti Chappel, Secret House owner. The initial blow that stunned organizers, according to Ammon, was the permit issued by the county commission stipulating the event be shut down by 10 pm. "I got blindsided," he says, adding if he had known the commission was going to meet to discuss the permit, he would have attended the meeting. The earlier closing time meant the Fringe Festival organizers had to move up the times of some of their acts, which overlapped with Country Fair hours. "That's not what we intended," says Ben Schroeter, event publicist. "It goes against what we were trying to accomplish." Even so, Ammon reworked arrangements to keep the ball rolling, but eventually, he says, contractual agreements with Chappel began to unravel. Chappel says problems occurred because of Ammon's "inability to facilitate all of the production necessities." No word yet on whether another Fringe Fest will be planned. — AS
Last week's story "Watch Your Back," about the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA), implied that pharmacies allow customers to sign the disclosure regarding release of personal information to various government agencies. In fact, the document does not give the opportunity for a signature, and says simply that information can be released at the request of those agencies.
Gravel
Pits Two years ago, Lane County shot down an unpopular bid by Eugene Sand and Gravel to turn hundreds of acres of prime, scenic River Road farmland into a gravel pit. Now, lobbyists for the state gravel industry have pushed a bill through both houses of the state legislature that critics fear could grease the skids for another attack on River Road and prime farmland throughout the state.
"It's basically mining anywhere," says Carrie MacLaren, staff attorney with 1,000 Friends of Oregon. "It threatens all of the prime farmland in the valley," says Mark Reed, a UO geology professor who helped lead the fight against the proposed River Road pit. Current state land-use laws restrict gravel mining in high quality farmland where aggregate deposits don't meet certain minimum quality criteria. But House Bill 3013, now in a House-Senate conference committee, could let counties decide to allow top farmland to be destroyed for even low quality gravel deposits. "There basically is no farmland under 3013 that would be deemed important to protect," MacLaren says, adding, "There's no balance" in the bill in between protecting farmland and allowing mining. "This bill appears to be geared to circumvent the problems Eugene Sand had out here" in the River Road area, says Reed. Reed says Eugene Sand and Gravel's pit was denied by the county and by the state Land Use Board of Appeals and is now before the state appeals court. "They're trying to change the laws to push it through at a later time," he says. The River Road pit still could face hurdles in showing it would have minimal traffic, dust, groundwater and flooding impacts on surrounding farmland. But if "this [bill] passed it could definitely make it easier for them," Reed says. "The bar is lower." Ironically, provisions in the bill could make it even easier to mine in areas with high quality farmland but poor quality gravel, according to Reed. "It's a backwards twist on the intent of the protections," he says. Another key provision in the bill would weaken farming protections from gravel pit dust, according to Reed. Currently, counties are allowed to refuse a mining permit because of a "significant" dust impact on neighboring farms. The new law would set a rigid standard of what is significant using Oregon Department of Environmental Quality restrictions on dust pollution levels that are unsafe to breathe. Reed says the proposed dust standard is too weak and doesn't take into account that farm stands in River Road are much more vulnerable to dust than cannery farms or grass seed growers. Raspberry farmers, for example, can't wash their berries of dust without turning them to "mush" that no one would buy, Reed says. "Not all farms are the same." Gravel industry lobbyists at the Oregon Concrete and Aggregate Producers Association pushed the bill after the defeat of Eugene Sand and Gravel's proposed pit and another pit near Roseburg. In that case, Beaver State Sand and Gravel lost at the county, LUBA and court of appeals in a bid to mine farmland. Bill Austin, a neighboring farmer to the proposed Roseburg pit, told the Capital Press, "I feel most farmers and ranchers would be opposed to this [HB 3013]. I'm not against taking alluvial rock, but I'm against taking the best farmland in Oregon to do it." Reed says mined farmland can't be restored afterward and is forever lost. Even if topsoil is replaced, removing so much material from the pit creates low lands that are prone to flooding, he says. Proponents of the gravel bill say it's needed to provide mining and construction jobs in the down economy. MacLaren says protecting "farmland is critical to our state's economy and it's critical to our quality of life." Farming is a $3.5 billion industry in Oregon and provides 8 percent of the state's jobs, according to 1,000 Friends. Versions of 3013 have so far passed easily in both houses of the legislature. In May, the House voted for the bill 41-16. Last month, the Senate passed it 17-9. But it's uncertain what, if any bill will emerge from the conference committee and whether it will be signed by the governor. The gravel industry is a powerful lobby in the legislature but the bill is also opposed by the Oregon Farm Bureau, League of Conservation Voters and League of Women Voters. The bill "has legs" and is moving through the legislature, MacLaren says. But its fate, and that of farmland in River Road and around the state, "is up in the air right now."
Growing
on Borrowed Time Lettuce, beets, eggplant, artichokes and rhubarb are among a few of the violators of newly formed UO policy. This was the startling news delivered to UO student/employee, east campus housing resident and garden enthusiast John Boosinger in mid-April.
Boosinger, 27, a June graduate of the UO architecture school, has a 2-1/2-year-old garden in his front yard. East campus maintenance policy, adopted April 8, stipulates that vegetable gardening is only permitted in the back yard. (See EW 5/15 for initial story). East campus properties are located between East 15th and 19th avenues and Agate and Villard Streets. The university provides water and landscape maintenance to properties in the area. "I am using water and land in a responsible, healthy, efficient, and beautiful way, and I believe the university should support my efforts instead of literally trying to destroy them," Boosinger wrote in an e-mail to the university after being told he had until May 1 to uproot his garden. The potential for a front-yard garden was key in Boosinger's decision to rent the paint-blistered house on Villard Street. The garden is the center of activity for Boosinger, his wife and their three children, ages 1, 5 and 7. Bicycles and garden tools are scattered among the perennials, herbs and vegetables that make up the 28-by-40-foot plot. UO Planning Associate Christine Thompson said although there have been no direct complaints about Boosinger's garden, property owners in the adjoining Fairmount neighborhood have complained about the "perceived lack of maintenance" along the Villard edge. In an e-mail addressed to the Office of University Planning, one Fairmount resident said, "Much of the angst … stems from the slow deterioration of the neighborhood while under UO management." In another letter, a neighbor referred to "the ghetto-type approach in the wreckage of the older neighborhood that once existed." Now, new wording in the university's family-housing rental agreement specifically disallows front-yard gardening. Restrictions against front porch and front lawn storage and/or display of yard art, patio furniture, bicycles, child play toys, outdoor grills, bird feeders, and flower pots, to name but a few, are also included in the agreement. "The new rental agreement language is not unusual language," UO Housing Director Mike Eyster says. "Lots of real estate management organizations use similar language to maintain the quality of appearance of their facilities. "The objective, generally, is to try to make the exteriors look more like owner-occupied homes," adds Eyster. In Boosinger's garden, the red-leaf lettuce now looks withered, the beets have bolted, and thirsty strawberry runners compete for space with dandelions and crab grass. Trays of shriveled lettuce, tomato and pepper starts sit at the garden's edge. "Our garden is not looking like it usually does," says Boosinger. "This whole issue has affected our garden this year a lot." Generally, the patch includes numerous tomato plants, melons, squash, peppers, herbs, kale, collards, peas and carrots. But Boosinger was hesitant to engage in spring planting after receiving notification that university staff would restore the front-yard area to lawn on May 1 if he failed to do so. A day or two before the May Day deadline, Boosinger contacted the Office of Student Advocacy, as well as an attorney. Both advised that he stood on firm legal ground in his refusal to comply. Boosinger advised the university that it risked legal action if it proceeded to unearth his garden. Within hours, university staff advised that he would be allowed to complete the growing season but would be expected to remove his garden in September. Boosinger perceives his garden as a neighborly endeavor. During the summer when he has surplus, he gives food away. "It has encouraged a lot of play with other children and discussion with other neighbors and a lot of positive feedback," he says. Some neighbors have told him they've even re-routed their evening walks because they enjoy walking by his garden. Although he's been accepted to graduate school, Boosinger has chosen not to attend. Come late July, Boosinger and family will leave Eugene. "If I were staying in family housing, I feel strongly enough that I would take them to court for myself and for all future residents to have the new (rental agreement) wording removed," Boosinger says. "It should not be within (the UO's) jurisdiction to decide which species of plants are acceptable for me to grow in the dirt in the front of my home with my water."
George Braddock After spending three years at UNLV on a football scholarship, and doing summer work as a union carpenter, in 1974 Pittsburgh native George Braddock moved to Oregon. "I worked in the woods a couple of years, then went back to carpentry," he notes. "I helped build Autzen Stadium and remodel Mac Court."
When the bottom fell out of construction in 1980, Braddock got licensed and went into business for himself. A client, UO psychology professor Dan Close, got him interested in specialized construction to meet the needs of developmentally disabled adults. "Dan envisioned the closure of Fairview," he says. "He saw potential for the physical environment to empower people in the community." Since 1986, Braddock Construction has completed more than 1500 projects for people with disabilities, from wheelcair ramps to entire houses. Since 1999, Braddock has been asked to consult with regional centers in California on housing projects that integrate the disabled. "It's fascinating stuff," he says. "People can become citizens in the full meaning of the term." But Braddock has brought comfort to others, as well. This weekend's Oregon Country Fair will be the 27th in succession for Braddock's popular booth, the Ritz Sauna. |
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