Articles

City Hall may be fenced-off, padlocked and dormant, but seven proposals in response to the city’s request for proposals (RFP) from architects show that the process of redesigning and rebuilding the award-winning structure has begun. City Manager Jon Ruiz will announce finalists March 29 and is expected to select the winning firm (or firms) by April 12, after evaluating the applications on a points scale with city staff.

While former commissioner Rob Handy might have a lost a battle in the fight for better public records disclosure from Lane County government, he feels that he made some headway in the war. He said in a press statement that the goal of his suit “was to shine a light on the arbitrary nature in which Lane County” responds to public records requests, and with this goal in mind, Handy says the suit was a success. 

Emerald Meadows is a nice bit of county-owned acreage out at Buford Park where Faerieworlds has been held the last couple of years. We hear the county is planning on improving the site, maybe bringing in electrical power and even adding RV hook-ups in order to accommodate music festivals and other big events. The Cascadia Music Festival has booked the site for July 5 and is starting to sell tickets this week at cascadiamusicfestival.com Headlining the event will be Bruce Hornsby, Railroad Earth, Tony Furtado, Jelly Bread and more. The festival hopes to grow to three days next year.

• A new group, Students Against Imperialism, has formed after a recent speaking event in which two controversial Israeli soldiers came to speak at UO. “The need to challenge imperialism is dire, as the United States is the world’s leading colonial power,” reads a statement from the group.  The group is focusing on a range of issues, from immigration policy to “Israel’s war machine.” For more information, email uoregon.sai@gmail.com

The other paper in town reported that the proponents of a county tax levy to run the jail said that the extra money would “possibly cut the number of early releases of jail inmates.” Well, that’s almost enough to make me possibly consider voting for the measure.

DEAR READERS: I’m off this week. To tide all of your hot and/or kinky and/or sore asses over, here’s a column I wrote 15 years ago. Some newer readers might’ve missed this column when it originally appeared — some of you who were still in grade school, diapers, or amniotic sacs back in 1998 — so I’m rerunning it now because I still get questions about “gerbiling” on a daily basis.  — Dan