Site work set for summer on 13th Ave. fire station.

Byline: City Beat / Eugene by Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

The city of Eugene expects to begin site preparation for its new fire station in early summer.

The city paid $1.1 million for the property at the southwest corner of 13th Avenue and Willamette Street in September to relocate the fire crews now housed in City Hall.

A tire dealership and a record store currently occupy a building at the site, but the city plans to tear down the structure to make room for a two-story fire station and fire marshal's office, said Glen Svendsen, city facilities management division manager.

Eugene voters last May passed an $8.68 million bond to cover the cost of the new building and a fire training station on Second Avenue and Chambers Street.

The move is part of a plan the City Council adopted two years ago to relocate essential services out of City Hall, which is vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake.

The new fire station location also improves response times for neighborhoods south of the Lane County Fairgrounds and provides better backup for the South Willamette fire station, Svendsen said.

Property owner Denis Hijmans owned all three parcels that make up the site and willingly sold them, Svendsen said.

"We were very lucky. That was the No. 1 site for the fire department," he said.

WBGS Architecture has been hired to design the new fire station, and the firm expects to have a design completed by late spring with the job going out to bid in early summer at about the same time as site preparation begins, Svendsen said.

School levy crusade in full swing

Mayor Jim Torrey continues to stump for a "gap levy," a constitutional amendment allowing local governments to raise property taxes for schools until a broader solution to the school funding crisis emerges.

Last weekend, the mayor took his crusade to the Dorchester Conference in Seaside, an annual convention of Republicans. He has pledged to eventually meet with officials in every county in the state.

Currently, Oregon's constitution limits the amount of property tax money that can go to schools, but Eugene voters passed a levy last November that directs $31.5 million to schools over a four-year period. That levy skirted the constitution by directing the money to noncore programs such as music and physical education, its supporters said.

The mayor says a constitutional amendment would protect levies from being challenged, which is exactly what's happening in Eugene, where political activist Nick Urhausen has been sending out letters, quoting the following excerpt from the state constitution:

"Property tax revenues are deemed to be dedicated to funding the public school system if the revenues are to be used exclusively for educational services, including support services, provided by some unit of government at any level from pre-kindergarten through post-graduate training."

To Urhausen, "support services" means programs such as music and physical education. With help from the political action committee Taxpayers Association of Oregon, he's begun a low-key campaign soliciting support to challenge the levy in court.

Contact Susan Palmer at 338-2571 or [e-mail].