Category: Survey

Are you ready to evacuate if necessary? Emergency evacuations are a reality for some Lane County residents every year.

To help develop area-specific evacuation plans, Lane County has partnered with the University of Oregon’s Institute for Policy Research and Engagement to take a close look at six rural areas and to conduct a county-wide survey about residents’ preparedness for evacuations.

YOU CAN HELP! Please take a few moments to complete the survey.

The survey is available at www.lanecounty.org/evacplanning. It will remain open through March 31, 2021.

The six areas that are included in this round of evacuation planning are: Mapleton, Swisshome, Crow-Applegate, Lorane, Row River and the Eugene #1 RFPD. The templates developed will help us create more area-specific plans in the future.

You can find preparedness resources at www.lanecounty.org/prepare and www.ready.gov.

This update provides information on the latest City activities and links to more information. For health and safety information about COVID-19 including confirmed cases and testing data, please visit Lane County Public Health or Oregon Health Authority’s websites.

Lane County Vaccinations 

More people in Oregon and Lane County continue to get the COVID-19 vaccinations. These safe and effective vaccines are the latest in the efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. To date, more than 7,300 people in Lane County have taken at least the first round of vaccination – including the 999 first responders vaccinated by Eugene Springfield Fire.

Oregon is currently in Phase 1a, with all groups in that phase currently eligible, including hospitals, urgent care, skilled nursing and memory care facility healthcare personnel and residents, tribal health programs, EMS providers and other first responders. See OHA’s Frequently Asked Questions regarding Oregon’s Phase 1a Vaccine Sequencing Plan.

Lane County is continuing to work with community partners to actively administer all doses of vaccines that are provided to local agencies from the State of Oregon. Here’s a simple breakdown to understand who is doing what: the federal and state governments are in charge of 1) establishing the rules/priorities for who gets vaccinated, and 2) distributing the vaccines to local agencies. The local agencies (health care, hospitals, EMS, pharmacies, local public health, etc.) are responsible for administering the vaccinations to people in the established sequence and with the supplies they receive.

Lane County Public Health shared this information on their COVID-19 Vaccine Information webpage: “The State of Oregon is currently receiving approximately 30,000 doses of vaccine each week, for the entire state. Lane County is approximately 10 percent of the state population, so while the state has not provided us a guarantee of the amounts it will provide to our community, just based on population we could expect to receive approximately 3,000 doses of vaccine to our community each week. At this time, we don’t have enough supply from the federal/state governments to meet the demand in our local community.” To see more, visit Lane County’s Vaccine Information page (view “How is it determined who gets the vaccine and when?” tab).

To date Lane County has shared that approximately 7,300 people in Lane County have received COVID-19 vaccine from the various local agencies noted above, as part of Phase 1A. Statewide, a total of 99,620 people in Oregon have received COVID-19 vaccine so far. Up to date vaccination numbers can be found on the OHA website.

Stay up to date on vaccine information:

• Oregon Health Authority Vaccine Information
• Lane County Public Health Vaccine Information

Lane County Remains in Extreme Risk Category

Oregon’s Risk and Protection Framework uses data to help inform safety measures at the county level. Every two weeks, Governor Kate Brown’s office announces the revised risk status of each county based on current data. Lane County will continue to be in the extreme risk category for the two-week period beginning January 15.

See Oregon Health Authority’s guidance for activities at each risk level.

COVID-19 Household Survey

The challenges of COVID-19 and its impacts on our lives have been significant. As a city, we have changed and adapted our services and programs to support the health and safety of community members and staff during this pandemic. We know you’ve had to make sacrifices and faced challenges too, and it is important to know how you have been doing since the onset of COVID-19.

We launched a COVID-19 Household Survey, which will give us a chance to gather data to determine how best to focus our efforts to recover from the pandemic. Your input on this survey is critical: Your responses will help inform decisions on programs and policies as we move into the future.

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and we greatly appreciate your time. The information you share with us will remain confidential, and results from the survey will only be shared as a group – no individual responses will be shared. To access the survey, community members must create an account on Engage Eugene, the City’s online engagement platform. The COVID-19 Household Survey will be open through January 31.

FREE PPE for Eugene Nonprofit and Small Businesses

The City of Eugene, in partnership with Business Oregon, is offering free personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies to local nonprofit and small businesses with 100 or fewer employees. Sanitation remains a key component to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and the City is grateful to be able to offer this opportunity to local businesses.

We know many businesses have been hit hard by the effects of the virus and these supplies are a small way to help. Available supplies include large and medium gloves (14,000 boxes), disposable masks (39,600 boxes) and antiseptic wipes (32,000 boxes). As long as supplies last, each eligible business may pick up a two-month supply. The supplies will be dispersed on a first come, first served basis.

Eligible businesses must meet all of the following requirements to receive supplies:

• be in Eugene and headquartered in Oregon;
• have 100 or fewer employees; and
• have an Oregon Business Registry number for completing the form.

You must make an appointment to pick up supplies. See the online appointment form. Once a business’s eligibility has been verified, the contact person will receive an email confirmation with the pickup date, time and location.

For over the phone assistance filling out this form, you may call the Eugene Public Library at 541-682-5450. Press 2 for English and 5 for Spanish.

State of Oregon Eviction Moratorium and Landlord Compensation Fund

*Action May Be Required*

During a special session in December, the Oregon Legislature passed an eviction moratorium extension (HB 4401) that will last until June 30, 2021. The protections for renters under the new statewide moratorium are not automatic! Please visit the City of Eugene’s Housing Support webpage for important updated information.

• For information specifically regarding Renter Protections view the Resources for Renters tab.
• For information specifically for support for Landlords including potential financial support view the Resources for Landlords tab.

Calling All Artists for Downtown Program Fund

Is there an event or artistic installation you have been wanting to present downtown? The City of Eugene Cultural Services Downtown Program Fund offers you an opportunity to transform downtown outdoor spaces into arts and culture destinations.

Funding of up to $5,000 per project will be awarded to organizations or individuals who wish to produce their own quality programming in publicly accessible outdoor spaces in Eugene’s downtown core. Funding can support any artistic or cultural discipline, including visual, dance, music, theatre, film/video/media and multidisciplinary fields. Culturally diverse programming is encouraged. More information can be found on the Eugene’s Downtown Program Fund website.

Follow the Four:

1. Stay six feet apart
2. Wear a mask
3. Wash Your hands
4. Avoid large gatherings

COVID-19 Resources 

See a list of Community Resources for physical and mental health, food, housing, businesses, employees, schools and children, as well as information in Spanish.

Also learn how you can help. Our partners have a significant amount of information available online. Please visit these resources for the most up to date information:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• State of Oregon
• Oregon Health Authority
• Lane County Public Health

Lane County Call Center: Open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., 541-682-1380

For almost a year, Beyond Toxics has been surveying households in West Eugene neighborhoods to learn about air quality and health conditions residents are facing. Bethel neighborhood, the area where we have been canvassing, is where 99% of Eugene’s air toxic emissions are released from industry facilities. We are now asking residents across the city to take our online survey, so that we can expand and also contextualize our knowledge.

Our right to clean air and water is our right to life. Residents of Eugene’s westside neighborhoods–where polluting industries are overwhelmingly located–have to fight harder for this right. Air doesn’t stay in one zip code, we all breathe dirty air! Whatever your neighborhood, you can help Beyond Toxics document our community health concerns.

Visit BeyondToxics.org and look for the link on the bottom right: “If you live in Lane County, you can take our Environmental Community Health Survey.” The survey takes just 7-10 minutes to participate. Thank you for helping achieve environmental justice and a healthy community.

Questions?
Call Beyond Toxics: 541-465-8860
Email Ana: amolina@beyondtoxics.org

Take Our Survey

The city of Eugene put out the call for street name ideas for the Downtown Riverfront redevelopment and the community responded! More than 600 people contributed about 1,100 ideas. The 12 semi-finalists are now available to be voted on and we’d love your input.

Community members are invited to select their favorite street name options for the new Downtown Riverfront at https://engage.eugene-or.gov/name-our-streets.

Voting will be open through October 18. The voting results will be given to the Mayor, who will help make the final decision. 

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To ensure that street names are relevant to Eugene and the new Downtown Riverfront neighborhood, suggestions had to fall into one of three categories:

Community/Culture – From Kalapuyans to Bill Bowerman, choose a person, place, or thing that embodies Eugene.

Ecology/River – From our rivers to surrounding mountains and the valley we live in, ideas representing the ecology of Eugene are as abundant as our native plants. 

Industry/Energy – There are major industries that are important to Eugene’s history and the energy of steam and water have played an important role at the riverfront site. While timber has historically been a large driver of our economy, agriculture and education have also played major roles, and the technology community is steadily growing. 

Additionally, names had to meet practical guidelines such as not exceeding 20 characters or being too similar to another street name in Lane County. Names of people who are still living or already have a public space named after them were also removed. An internal group at the City reviewed all suggested names and narrowed down the choices based on the criteria.