Northeast Neighbors
Northeast Neighbors, c/o Pastor David Martin, NeN Chair
Gilham Community Church
3633 Gilham Rd.
Eugene, OR 97408
ph: 541-556-1795
Chair
Meetings
NeN’s Sept. 24, 2019
Annual Meeting Highlights
Northeast Neighbors (NeN), Annual Meeting Minutes
Gilham Community Church, September 24, 2019
Call to Order: 7:00 pm
Attendance: 78, including 7 board members, 3 presenters
Officials: Senator Manning, Representative Nathanson, EWEB Board Chair John Brown, Eugene Police Commissioner Board member Matt Siel
May 16 General Meeting Minutes: approved unanimously
Thanks: Newsletter sponsor B2 Bar and Grill
Election: Bill Haynes unanimously approved as Area West Representative
There is now an opening for an At Large Board Rep, to be appointed by Chair.
Board Chairman David Martin
EWEB Rate Update: John Brown
- EWEB is the greenest utility in the U.S.
- There will not be an electricity rate increase for at least two years. (Rates depend on Bonneville.)
- There will be no water rate increase for at least 4-5 years.
- Emergency water centers have been created at Sheldon HS and at wells on the golf course. In the future, one will be created at Eugene Swim and Tennis Club.
Senator Manning: Comments on 2019 legislation he was involved with
- Senate Bill 770 takes a step towards affordable, high quality health care for all Oregon residents. Manning was chief sponsor and will serve on the task force it creates. It will create a plan that can be implemented in 2023. Some parameters:
- Build on the Affordable Care Act, particularly Medicare expansion
- Cover everyone in the state, particularly seniors and low income, and include dental
- Create access to high quality healthcare and take away nobody’s private insurance
- Bills that stalled and died in a divided Oregon senate:
- Senate Bill 978, an omnibus bill related to firearms. Safe gun storage was Manning’s part.
- Senate Bill 500, which would have allowed property tax exemptions for disabled veterans.
- House Bill 2020, which would have created a “cap and trade” system to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Senator Manning
Chief Skinner: State of public safety in Eugene
- EPD is now fully staffed, with 192 officers (including Skinner), but the numbers have not kept up with community growth and needs. Years of inadequate support have created inadequate staffing.
- Response times are too slow and police presence is inadequate. Nevertheless, report all crimes, those in progress as well as low-level crimes such as vandalism and graffiti. EPD needs “an accurate picture.”
- There is a “game plan” for using funds projected to be generated starting in July 2020 from the recently adopted Community Safety System payroll tax. It will take at least three years to fully implement the hiring and training of additional sworn officers and other staff. The city should see a difference on the streets towards the end of the first year.
- Camping under the Ferry Street Bridge. A section owned by ODOT, with its many layers of bureaucracy, makes it difficult to remove illegal campers.
- City Council. The current council is the most willing to invest in community safety that we’ve ever had. It allocated money for short-term funding and created the payroll tax for longer term staffing.
- Panhandling and large groups downtown.
- Fears are understandable, but it’s hard to prevent behavior with “overtones of free speech.”
- What can help? Increased police presence, more officers stopping to talk with people, cameras (the current mobile cameras and a planned permanent one at Broadway and Olive).
- What will help in the long term? The “right kind of housing” downtown and more business moving in there. Good behaviors outnumbering “bad behavior.”
- Location of services downtown (like the Mission) draw people there, especially to Whiteaker.
- The unhoused.
- The EPD “does not criminalize homelessness, just behaviors.”
- There are some who won’t accept services, who turned Camp 99 into a failure, who drain resources. The City and EPD focus will be on the many who do need and want the help.
- The system needs to grow significantly to keep up with these real needs in the community.
- Sex trafficking.
It exists everywhere and initial contact is almost always made online. - Volunteers in PolicingA volunteer group whose activities—checking homes for people on vacation, staffing events, walking bike paths, maintaining the squad cars, moving camera trailers, etc.—free up the time of licensed officers.
Police Chief Skinner
Neighborhood Mapping: Bill Haynes
- A 9.1 quake will be worse than we imagine. NeN will be cut off for weeks, potentially flooded.
- Neighbor Mapping forms groups of 10-20 nearby neighbors who determine what resources they have to pool in case of an emergency. Andy Davis of CERT can help neighborhoods organize.
- Funds and training exist for dispersing short-range radios through the community.
November 12 NeN General Meeting Added: ODOT plans for the Delta interchange and longer term for Beltline, N Gilham Road upgrade, Eugene Carbon Free Challenge.
Speed Study on Gilham north of Ayres: ODOT proposes lowering limits from 35 to 30. To argue for a limit of 25 instead, send emails to Steve Gallup, Lane County Traffic Engineer: Steve.Gallup@co.lane.or.us
Adjourned: 9:00 pm
Northeast Neighbors, c/o Pastor David Martin, NeN Chair
Gilham Community Church
3633 Gilham Rd.
Eugene, OR 97408
ph: 541-556-1795
Chair