Churchill Area Neighbors

Churchill Area Neighbors

Next General Meeting: Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 7:00 to 8:30 pm

Churchill Estates, 1919 Bailey Hill Road, Eugene, Oregon

Topic of discussion: Youth Mental Health, A Panel Discussion

From our Newsletter

Youth Mental & Emotional Well Being in Our Neighborhood

by David W. Oaks, CAN Board Member

Our neighborhood's future, of course, is ultimately in the hands of
youth. Too often our society addresses emotional issues of youth only
when there is a crisis. What can our neighborhood do to help? CAN's May
28th meeting will include a special panel:

* Damien Sands is Lane County suicide prevention coordinator. His
position is funded through the "Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act."
Garrett Lee was Senator Gordon Smith's son who committed suicide at age
21.

Says Damien, "As community members we all play a role when it comes
to the well being of our youth. I'll talk about empowering ourselves,
with some fundamental skills in regards to helping one another."

* Kara Penniman, LCSW, is Mental Health Therapist at Churchill High School.

Said Kara, "For the past three years I have been meeting with
students and families in crisis. I provide individual and family
counseling. I also help schools deal with mental health issues that
arise and refer folks to appropriate community resources."

Kara feels tht mental well being is as important as physical well
being for youth. She says, "Most young people struggling with mental
health problems do not get sufficient services. Services in schools
provide a crucial link for youth who would otherwise not receive any
support."

Philip Richardson from the Eugene Parks Department will be joining us to talk about Eugene Parks and Open Space.

AAdditionally, Jesse Hobbs will be talking about the restoration work taking place on Wild Iris Ridge.

We invite all of our neighbors to attend, please bring your questions about Eugene Parks.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
7:00-8:30 pm
Churchill Estates, 1919 Bailey Hill Road

In conjunction with this city process parents at McCornack Elementary and Kennedy Middle, and the Arts and Technology Academy at Jefferson Schools are developing a “Safe Routes to School” proposal. Marina Hajek is leading the effort at McCornack. Several parents are organizing the Kennedy project including; Debi Cornell and Michelle Couts. Jonathan Ohlsen-Johnson, the parent chair of the ATA Site Council will lead the effort there.

Learn more at; http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/oregon?tid=21841 or http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/saferoutes.shtml

This SRTS process requires quite a bit of data collection to meet the federal standards required to be awarded a grant. We need people who will walk various bike and pedestrian routes to school and note on a checklist any hazards that exist. Any volunteers will be most welcome. Contact the people named above.

 Walkability Survey

Bikability Survey 

Neighbors,

The City of Eugene Neighborhood Matching Grant program is in full swing.

Details and applications can be found on the City's website:

http://www.eugene-or.gov/matchinggrants

Please note that proposals must be endorsed by the Churchill Area Neighbors before being submitted to the City. Since we only have one regularly scheduled meeting before the CIty's scheduled deadline, you may bring your proposal to the January meeting, or alternately contact us through the website and we will make arrangements to view your proposal before the deadline.

 

As we discuss ways to maintain or improve the livability of existing neighborhoods along the proposed EMX West Eugene corridor, these are examples of problems and suggestions to encourage pedestrian travel rather than cars or bikes use as current policies and funding now do. Making it easy to walk to or between businesses, EMX or LTD stations will encourage foot traffic and public transportation use while reducing car traffic. Statutes need to be developed to have the true costs of Infill housing impacts be born by the projects themselves, not by the residents who are left with the increased vehicular traffic. I believe the EMX routing and Infill housing are intertwinded.

#1 Example: Over 20 years, within a west Eugene neighborhood, the City approved 13 separate new or expanded apartment complexes or dense single family dwellings and Acorn Park Road became their primary or secondary access. None of those developments were compelled to assist paying for sidewalks between their developments and Acorn Park itself or provide non-vehicular access to nearby businesses or LTD’s Seneca Station. Safe sidewalks could have reduced the impacts of additional the 300 vehicles gradually added to this neighborhood. Acorn Park Rd is the only vehicle access point north across the Amazon canal between Oakpatch and Bailey Hill road a distance of nearly 10 blocks. Each of these “Infill” projects on its own wasn’t a big problem but their total now is. The City’s unacceptable solution is for the 24 single family homes along the route to pay $125-150/ linear foot ($15,000 each) for those sidewalks as the current statute required 50% of sidewalks be done at the time the developments are approved. This is simply not fair and does not charge developers the true cost of developments.