`Mountain' design piques interest.

Byline: COUNTY BEAT by Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

SOME LUCKY ARTIST will be named the winner of this year's "Run for the Mountain" design contest today and will be rewarded not only with a $75 cash prize - to be handed over during the medal ceremony June 7 - but also the chance to see his or her artwork splashed on posters and T-shirts all over town.

Loralyn Osborne, who coordinated the contest for the county parks department, said 35 artists submitted designs. The entries will be on display through Feb. 14 on the second level of the Public Service Building, 125 E. Eighth Ave., across the hall from the Human Resources Department.

That's also where the suspense will end at 1 p.m. today when the panel of judges - made up of two members of the arts community, one county commissioner and a few county staff members - will reveal its decision.

The Run for the Mountain, co-sponsored by the county and REI Inc. and supported by many local businesses, raises money to maintain the trail system at Mount Pisgah and support the Adopt-a-Trail and Volunteer Trail Patrol programs and the Mount Pisgah Arboretum.

The fourth annual event includes a 5-kilometer trail run and a one-mile trail hike at Mount Pisgah, 10 miles southeast of Eugene off Seavey Loop Road, near the confluence of the Coast and Middle forks of the Willamette River.

For more information, call 682-2000.

Library group seeks support

Members of the Lane Library League filled the room at the county commissioners' meeting this week, asking for the board's cooperation in putting a measure on the November 2004 ballot to provide library service for all county residents.

The league hopes to follow the example of the two existing library districts in western Lane County - Fern Ridge and Siuslaw - and organize the rest of the county into two similar districts that would tax residents to provide library services.

"What we want to do would not affect these two existing library districts - they're doing a good job, and they're in good shape," said Bill Sullivan, president of the volunteer league.

Sullivan told the commissioners that of all the people in Oregon who don't have access to library service, one-third - about 90,000 people - live in Lane County.

"This has an especially negative impact on many young children, poor people and the elderly," he said. "We're cutting off all these people from the whole communication age."

Two surveys have shown solid support for a library measure, in all parts of the county and even when considering the tax impact, Sullivan said.

Commissioner Tom Lininger warned the league members that having the county forward a ballot measure to voters might not be such a good idea.

"My question's one of strategy," Lininger said. "We sent six ballot measures to the voters in November, and not one of them passed. We no longer bring the cachet to the table that we once did."

Maybe so, Sullivan said, "but we believe it would pass, and it probably wouldn't hurt you to have that on your record."

In the end, the commissioners didn't make a commitment. Instead, they voted to send the issue to staff for a quick analysis of what it would take to lend support to the library league, and to take another look at the request in 30 days.

Poultry disease alert

A new disease-related scare could threaten this year's Lane County Fair, but this time it's one that afflicts poultry, not people.

Jim Hermes, a poultry specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Service, recently alerted local extension and fair officials that an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease, or END, had hit poultry flocks in the southern parts of California and Nevada and could be moving this way.

"We are hopeful that the disease will be contained in California and Nevada," Hermes said. "However, we must be ready if the worst occurs."

That probably would mean canceling bird and poultry shows all over the state, including those at state and county fairs, he said.

The best method to get rid of END involves isolating individual flocks because the disease spreads by direct bird-to-bird contact as well as by human traffic in bird pens, moving infection from flock to flock.

Poultry afflicted with the disease experience labored breathing, coughing, sneezing, lethargy, head bobbing or wagging, malformed eggs, even paralysis.

The disease normally occurs only in tropical areas but occasionally shows up in other places due to illegal smuggling of pet or domestic birds.

The good news, Hermes said, "is that while devastating to poultry and other birds, END is not infectious to people or other mammalian livestock or pets. The poultry and egg supply remains as safe to consume as always."

Anyone who raises poultry and notices birds with any of the END symptoms should contact the OSU veterinary diagnostic lab immediately, by calling [phone], Hermes said.

"At this time, the disease is not in Oregon," he said, "and there is no legal limitation on bird movement in or out of the state."

Lane County reporter Randi Bjornstad can be reached at 338-2321 or by e-mail at rbjornstad @guardnet.com