County moves up to high risk, extreme risk potential
As expected, Gov. Brown moved Lane County back up High Risk level, previously at Lower Risk. With this indoor dining is lowered to 25% capacity and grocery stores can not exceed 50% capacity. Gym capacity is also lowered to 25% or 50 people, whichever is lower. A full list of the State’s COVID regulations for the county can be viewed here.
Cases continue to rise in Lane County and a worrying rise in hospitalizations is coming with that. Gov. Brown and Lane County Public Health representative Jason Davis are both anticipating the county to move up to Extreme Risk, which would go into place May 6 if that happens. Davis said Thursday that Lane is seeing 270 cases per 100K.
Budget season commences this week
Both Springfield and Eugene will release their budgets this week. The biggest sector for each city is “Public Safety”, which constitutes Police, Fire, EMS, and Municipal Court. For Springfield, 74% of their General Fund goes to Public Safety, 58% of the General Fund goes to it in Eugene.
With Eugene’s FY22 Budget, the City will resume their Community Safety Budget Initiative budget increases that were put on pause last year. The City of Eugene previously allotted 65% of the CSI funds to the police. In the budget document Eugene says they will potentially change the make-up of the CSI at a Council work session in May.
Local links
Lane County Commissioners voted to approve a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis. Among the actions they list in the resolution is regularly evaluating diversity requirements and urge other institutions to ” to adopt strategies to reduce the long-term impact of systemic racism.” With the only check being that their needs to be biannual updates at Board of Health meetings.
Bozievich was the only commissioner to vote against the resolution and later went on his radio show to say poverty is the real crisis and we must address it through capitalism.
Eugene Weekly in Remembering Eugene Winters : “Winters moved into housing thanks to [Frequent User Service Engagement] but lost it months before his death after violating the lease agreement, according to court documents. He was staying at a motel and was within a week of being admitted to The Commons on MLK, where [St. Vincent de Paul’s Emergency Services Director Roxann] O’Brien says he would’ve received the mental health treatment he needed.”
UO APASU in an open letter to Schill: “While we want to thank UO for speaking up about the anti-Asian rhetoric within the U.S., we can’t help but question why it took so long for the university to even address hate crimes toward AAPI communities.”
Upcoming events
Monday, 11 AM-12 PM — Housing Not Handcuffs Action Zap to reallocate CSI budget funds from policing to housing
Monday, 5:30 PM — City of Eugene Council work session
Proposed Plan to Address Vehicle Camping in Commercial/ Industrial Areas
Monday, 7:00 PM — Springfield Economic Development Agency meeting
Monday, 7:30 PM — City of Eugene Council meeting
Public Hearing and Possible Action: An Ordinance Allowing for the Temporary Establishment of “Safe Parking” and “Safe Tent” sites that are Larger than Allowed Under Section 4.816 of the Eugene Code, 1971; Declaring an Emergency, Providing for an Immediate Effective D ate; and Providing a Sunset Date
Tuesday, 1 PM — NAC Solidarity share fair
Tuesday, 5:30 PM — City of Springfield Budget committee meeting
Wednesday, 12 PM — City of Eugene Council work session
Work Session and Possible Action: 1059 Willamette Redevelopment
Wednesday, 7:30 PM — City of Eugene Budget committee meeting
Saturday & Sunday, 3 PM – 7 PM — QT Clinic Drag queens and vaccines! A vaccine clinic for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community featuring Moderna
Check out solidaritynews.org for more events (This is a new URL, currently the old one will still work, more coming!)