Not NIMBY?

On an island of public land at 40th Avenue and Patterson Street the Eugene Water and Electric Board is planning to destroy a city forest. Logging is to begin in August. 

Steve Mital’s personal attack letter against me (EW 6/17) is a perfect PR ploy. It detracts and spins. It takes attention away from the real issue. EWEB’s original infrastructure plan was to build one water storage tank on this large 10.74 acre site now. A tank needs less than 2.5 acres of land. This is not an either/or situation. We can have a new earthquake-proof water tank, save open land with oaks, and save a forest grove with 100- to 150-year-old trees on the property. There’s no need for EWEB to log this mature fir pine habitat. 

EWEB Commissioners can prevent this environmental disaster. The plan was to build one tank. Build it. I and other neighbors have never opposed building one tank on this site. Our support was lost when the general manager arbitrarily decided, without consulting the board or other staff, to build two gigantic tanks at 40th now. Ask your EWEB elected commissioner to vote on this massive, expensive project, rather than simply “endorse” a general manager’s decision. Come and judge for yourself. Is this city forest worth saving? This is not about private property. This is not NIMBY. It’s about a public treasure.  

Sandra Bishop, former
EWEB Commissioner

Eugene

Editor’s Note: Like Sandra Bishop, Steve Mital is a former EWEB commissioner, not current as was implied by the signature EW printed in last week’s letters. Mital stated it correctly in his submission. Alas, there was an editing error.