Monday Mailing
Year 20 • Issue 18 13 January 2014 1. Sauvie Island Rural Plan Update: Multnomah County Survey Asks Participants to Define 'Rural' 2. Toolkit for Working with Rural Volunteers 3. Renew Rural America (Resource) 4. Oregon LNG: State Delays Decision, Frustrating Everyone Involved 5. Interest Revived in Natural History Park 6. State Ignored Plan for Tougher Chemical Oversight 7. New Trains Making First Runs 8. Ease Up On The Throttle 9. Oregon Small Farms Conference 10. At This Coworking Space In A Climbing Gym, You Can Do Pull-Ups At Your Standing Desk 11. Funding Opportunities 1. Sauvie Island Rural Plan Update: Multnomah County Survey Asks Participants to Define 'Rural' If Sauvie Island's future matters to you, here's your chance to shape it. County planners who are working to update the island's outdated land use and transportation plans want to know what "rural" means to you and the other million-plus people who use the island each year. Until Jan. 17, anyone with Internet access can give their opinion. Taking a cue from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology project that uses visual cues to capture impressions that can be hard to describe with words, county planners have created an online survey to gauge how island residents and visitors view the island's rural character.
Quote of the Week: "See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy."
~Stephen R. Covey
Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon’s state motto is “Alis volat propriis” (She flies with her own wings)
They hope the results will help guide discussions among community advisory groups tasked with making recommendations to the County Planning Commission. A large focus of their recommendations is maintaining the island's rural character for the next 20 years. To access the full story, click here. 2. Toolkit for Working with Rural Volunteers This is a toolkit for little places, the ones that don’t have a Volunteer Coordinator or a Development Officer or even a full-time Director, the ones that depend almost exclusively on volunteers. These communities are the sum and substance of both the Appalachian Coal Country Team and the Western Hardrock Watershed Team and it was these rural communities that provided the research base for this project. You will find three basic sections, each of which can provide significant insight and ideas for rural volunteers. The first is Rural Volunteer Statistics, an extensive survey of the volunteers themselves— learn just who our rural volunteers are, what they do, where they associate and how best they can be reached. Page 1 of 5
The second, Rural Volunteer Management Practices, summarizes 25 different volunteer practices that work. We know they work because we first identified practices that were working well in a rural community, transplanted those practices to 50 other places and then watched them for a year to see how they worked in a different context. Think of this section as a good idea catalogue, a collection of approaches to volunteer management that have been tested and documented, whether successful or unsuccessful. To access the toolkit, click here. 3. Renew Rural America Resources, news and information that rural residents can access and utilize in providing leadership to their communities' revitalization efforts. To access this site, click here. 4. Oregon LNG: State Delays Decision, Frustrating Everyone Involved Oregon officials have put off deciding whether a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal near the mouth of the Columbia River in Warrenton is consistent with its coastal management plan. The Department of Land Conservation and Development says it doesn't have what it needs to make the call. That rankles both backers of the project and its opponents. They don't think it's true, for one. And they say the ongoing delays lock everyone in a regulatory holding pattern, including the applicant, taxpayers bankrolling the agencies, and community members and landowners waiting for a decision. Various LNG proposals in Oregon have been in a similar spot for more than a decade. Backers of one project on the Columbia River gave up after spending $100 million, complaining they were caught in a never-ending regulatory loop. The two proposals still standing are Oregon LNG in Warrenton and Jordan Cove in Coos Bay. To access the full story, click here. 5. Interest Revived in Natural History Park A long-discussed citywide park took one step closer to realization last week. A technical committee composed of representatives from nine area organizations – including the City Council, Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, National Park Service, Necanicum Watershed Council, Seaside Visitors Bureau and the Seaside School District – met to discuss the future of the Necanicum Estuary Natural History Park. The proposed park would encompass all of Seaside and highlight ecologically significant sites in the Clatsop Plains watershed. Jeremy Goldsmith, the planning assistant and emergency preparedness outreach coordinator for the city of Seaside, has worked on constructing the committee and sees the potential for the park. To access the full story, click here. 6. State Ignored Plan for Tougher Chemical Oversight Three years ago this month, a team of federal experts urged the state of West Virginia to help the Kanawha Valley create a new program to prevent hazardous chemical accidents. Page 2 of 5
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommended the step after its extensive investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute. Since then, the proposal has gone nowhere. The state Department of Health and Human Resources hasn't stepped in to provide the legal authority the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department needs to start such a program. And Kanawha County officials never funded the plan, and seldom mention that the CSB recommendation was even made. To access the full story, click here. 7. New Trains Making First Runs Two new trains that are part of the Amtrak Cascades Corridor schedule began running last week with stops in Albany. According to Kathy Holmes of the Oregon Department of Transportation, the new Talgo Series 8 trains were purchased by Oregon with funds from the federal stimulus. They will run the route from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C., Canada. “Amtrak is still trying to get the schedule updated so people will need to check online to see when trains run,” Holmes said. “A lot of people are interested in riding these trains.” The two trains, dubbed Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Bachelor following a contest to name them earlier this year, are the very latest in passenger trains. They are the only ones of their kind operating in the country. To access the full story, click here. 8. Ease Up On The Throttle Nothing has the power to set people off quite as quickly as road striping. More specifically, changes in road striping proposed by the Oregon Department of Transportation that appear to favor bicycles (gasp) over motorized vehicles. We recommend deep breaths and a bit of calm reflection. The most recent outrage perpetrated by the good folks at ODOT is a draft plan to (maybe) change Highway 99 (eventually) from four lanes to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane and new bike lanes. The "road diet" configuration could extend from Valley View Road north of Ashland to the north edge of Phoenix. ODOT spokesman Gary Leaming stresses there are no plans to reduce the number of vehicle lanes between south Medford and Phoenix, although changes could include more sidewalks and crosswalks to accommodate pedestrians. To access the full story, click here. 9. Oregon Small Farms Conference Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis at the LaSells Stewart Center and CH2M Hill Alumni Center on Saturday, February 22, 2014 This daylong event is geared toward farmers, agriculture professionals, food policy advocates, students and managers of farmers markets.
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Twenty-four sessions will be offered on a variety of topics relevant to the Oregon small farmers. This year there will be a session track in Spanish. Speakers will include farmers, OSU Extension faculty, agribusiness, and more For more information about this event, click here. 10. At This Coworking Space In A Climbing Gym, You Can Do Pull-Ups At Your Standing Desk Most people hate open offices. They're loud, people sneeze every minute, and there's barely any privacy. But what if your open office was a climbing gym and your coworkers constantly cheered in admiration at people scaling the walls in the background? At Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, a combination climbing gym and collaborative workspace in Somerville, Massachusetts, people do their work in the middle of utter chaos--and according to Jesse Levin, the facility's "Senior Cultural Chameleon" (he deals with everything that isn't related to rockclimbing), they love it. To access the full story, click here. 11. Funding Opportunities EPA Technical Assistance for Communities Implementing Green Infrastructure - The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted a series of technical assistance projects focused on green infrastructure implementation. These technical assistance projects are intended to address significant technical, regulatory, and institutional barriers to green infrastructure, and to build community capacity by sharing lessons learned. EPA selected 17 communities to receive technical assistance in 2012, and six communities in 2013. In 2014, EPA plans to select another five to seven communities to receive targeted technical assistance. A total of $400,000 is available for technical assistance to communities interested in implementing green infrastructure and issued a Request for Letters of Interest EPA plans to select five to seven communities to receive approximately $60,000 in technical assistance via direct contractor support. Click here for more information‌ Deadline for Letters of Interest: Jan. 24, 2014 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Invites Grant Applications from Latino Artists and Arts Organizations- Grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded to support NALACmember working artists, ensembles, and arts organizations that demonstrate artistic excellence in pursuit of social justice through the arts... Deadline: Feb. 6, 2014 Community Action Grants Program-The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is providing grants for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equality for women and girls‌ Deadline: Feb. 15, 2014 NIFA has released its Request for Applications for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundational Program: In fiscal year 2014, NIFA plans to award approximately $82 million to continue building a foundation of knowledge in fundamental and applied food and agricultural sciences that are critical for solving current and future societal challenges. * For projects related to food safety, nutrition and health, the letter of intent is due February 19 with an application deadline of April 19. * For projects related to agriculture economics and rural communities, the letter of intent is due February 19 with an application deadline of April 28. Please refer all questions in the RFA under your program area of interest. Page 4 of 5
Champions for Healthy Kids Program- In partnership with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the General Mills Foundation is distributing more than $5 million in grants to nonprofits working to improve nutrition and physical fitness behaviors for youth… Deadline: Mar. 15, 2014 Grant Proposals for Youth Creativity Programs-Lego Children's Fund is offering quarterly grant opportunities for innovative youth education programs… Deadline: Apr. 15, 2014 Proposals for Environmental, Education, Human Services Projects- The Lawrence Foundation offers grants to support environmental, human services and other causes… Deadline: Apr. 30, 2014 Support for Organizations Assisting Low-Income Communities-The Kresge Foundation is providing support for critically needed assistance to individuals and families living in poverty and anchor us in the reality, challenges and promising and proven practices of day-to-day human-services work… Deadline: Ongoing
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