Nearly 40 neighbors, business owners, and organizations testified at the Eugene City Council meeting on Monday night about downtown public safety concerns -- and initiative the Eugene Chamber and downtown Eugene partners have been working on shared advocacy priorities for the past two years.

This summer our attention turned to the growing safety concerns, illegal and intolerable behavior taking place in the core of our community. Following two-and-a-half hours of testimony, Eugene City Councilor's acknowledged this is an important issue and committed to a public work session on this topic.

The Eugene Chamber will continue to work with partners to identify solutions and advocate for tangible progress to improve the safety and livability of downtown before the Summer of 2017.

 

For more information or to get involved in this effort, contact   Brittany Quick-Warner, Director of Advocacy at the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce. 

We also announced our Future First Citizen award winner at Celebration of Business last night.  The award is given annually to an outstanding high school senior for dedication to the community.

This year's award went to Maya Dotson from Marist Catholic High School. Maya is a member of the National Honor Society, the Marist Speech & Debate Team and a newspaper editor. Her volunteer activities and numerous and she is one of the founding members of Eugene's 15th Night Initiative providing options for homeless youth.  Congratulations, Maya!