Oregon legislature approved three bills earlier this month, all of which — if approved by Governor John Kitzhaber — will impact students and job growth in Oregon.

House Bill 4116 — also known as the Aspiration College bill — was created with the assistance of community college students in mind. The bill requires the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and Higher Education Coordinating Commission to appropriate $750,000 to a competitive grant together.  

The grant will then go on to both develop scholarship programs for community college students in Oregon and support services that work on enrolling more students into a community college so more Oregonians can make progress toward a degree. According to the bill summary, the purpose of the bill is to “increase the number of underserved, low-income and first-generation college-bound students who enroll in community college and make progress toward degree or certificate.”

If passed, House Bill 4117 will provide $500,000 to summer programs and this money will be provided by the Department of Education. This allocation of funds will go to summer programs. The money will enable an additional 60 hours of learning time which K-12 students in Oregon will receive the benefit of.  

Senate Bill 1527 focuses more on job growth than the previous two bills. If approved by Kitzhaber, the bill would establish a retraining program for pilots.

According to Lindsey O’Brein, communications director for the House Majority Office, the program is tailored to the unemployed and underemployed engineers to“address the skills gap in Oregon’s developing bioscience industries.” According to the bill, it will also provide $250,000 for the Dislocated Worker Training Program.  

“The smartest investments we can make are our investments in education,” Representative Joe Gallegos said. “These bills are critical to educate our local workforce, strengthen the state’s economy and put Oregonians back to work.”

As students enter dead and finals week, they also enter a time of high stress levels. To help combat this, the University Health Center, Counseling and Testing Center, Knight Library, PE and Recreation, the ASUO and Active Minds have collaborated to create UO Stress Less.

The program will provide a free break for students to de-stress from the chaos brought on by the end of term.

During March 12 from 6-9 p.m., myriad de-stressing activities will take place in the Browsing Room of the Knight Library. The room will hold a drop-in rest area with yoga mats, a place for chair massages and two 30 minute yoga sessions starting at 8 p.m.

On March 17 from 6-9 p.m, the rest area will reappear accompanied by community acupuncture and two 30-minute meditation sessions starting at 8 p.m. Healthy snacks will also be provided.

“We want to provide an opportunity for students to participate and relieve stress,” Health Promotion Specialist Renee Mulligan said. “We’re all really aware of students perceptions of growing stress. We wanted to have a collaborative effort.”

The activities provided are meant to “relax and de-stress” students according to Mulligan.

“Stress has always been an issue,” Mulligan said. The UHC gets their information on student stress from national college health assessments. “Their (students) perception of stress is usually one of the top factors.”

UO Stress Less started with Active Minds. Fall term 2013 Active Minds provided things like meditation and yoga to help with student stress. “It’s about self care,” Operations Chair of Active Minds Sara Van said.

“I think that the UO stress relief is a fantastic idea,” UO freshman Abigail Taylor said. “I think that as students we naturally get so caught up in our school work that we forget to take a small amount of ‘me time’ to just relax and collect our heads before we enter grueling final exams.”

This is the first UO Stress Less and — if it goes well — it will take place once a term according to Mulligan. Everything offered during UO Stress Less is offered by the UHC. “We want them (students) to know about resources on stress,” Mulligan said. Depending on the attendance, next term the program could be cut down to just one of the weeks according to Mulligan.

“Our approach is to reach students where they are, by offering brief opportunities in the library to take a break from studying and decompress,” reads the event proposal.

On Friday, March 7, 2014, Congressman Peter DeFazio came to a press event put on by Oregon Students Interest Research Group  to speak out about the labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms and OSPIRG’s campaign to ask markets and grocery store chains to label foods that contain GMOs.

“It was a great event,” Hannah Picknell, State Board Chair and UO’s Chapter Chair for OSPIRG, said. “We had a lot of student interest and it was great to hear Peter DeFazio speak since he is such a champion of these issues.”

This week marked the one-year anniversary of a decsion made by Whole Food’s to label GMOs by 2018. OSPIRG has since spoken with chains like Safeway and Market of Choice to ask them to follow this lead.

OSPIRG is continuing speaking with Market of Choice, who according to Picknell, should make their decision in the next few months.

“Consumers have a right to know and make that decision for themselves,” Picknell said. “This is an issue that affect every single person.”

“They’ve chosen an interesting and different route,” DeFazio said. “I’m trying to legislate GMO disclosure at a federal level…but this is a market driven approach, and that is a very interesting tactic.”

After the event, DeFazio sat down for a Q&A with the Emerald.

Why is the labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) important?

I was the author of the National Organics Standards, I’ve been a grower as a home gardener and consumer of organics for more than three decades, and I just would like to have food the way nature brought it to us, so I’d like to avoid GMOs.

I know that according to the polls more than 80 percent of the American people would at least like to know if there are GMOs in the food if not actually avoid GMOs. That is what some of these companies are scared to death of. They don’t want consumers to know. Particularly Monsanto and others because people might say “Hey, I can buy that, that is GMO free and right next to it this has GMOs, and they are virtually the same price. I think I will go with the GMO free.” That’s what they are worried about.

Why come to the UO? What do you think students have the ability to do regarding GMO labeling?

Well, particularly what OSPIRG talked about today. First off, this was something generated by OSPIRG and I just came to support their campaign. Their campaign is to try and enlist grocery store chains, that this would be something that customers want. The great thing about getting students involved is it is going to be a lifetime thing. You’re talking about the next generation of people probably in 20 years, if GMOs don’t take over the world, then this wouldn’t even be a controversy anymore. Today it is a huge pitch battle.

Tell me about the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act. What is the likelihood of its passing?

When you introduce a bill you ask other people to indicate they would support it if you could get it to a vote, and I think I’ve got about 50 people on my bill. You need 218 obviously, but that’s not insignificant. There’s a lot of legislation that moves through the floor that has way fewer than 50 people as co-sponsors. The Republicans control the schedule. They’re not going to allow the bill to move. They’re much more likely to move a fake-labeling bill at the behest of the grocery manufacturers. But we’re pushing. I am also encouraging states. Sooner or later we are going to break the log damn here.

Why would Republicans not want to move the bill?

The grocery manufacturers, Monsanto and others who are totally invested in this stuff, are very very generous campaign contributors. I wouldn’t want to impugn anyone’s motives, but that might have something to do with it.

They’re very powerful. They’ve managed to actually covertly insert legislation at the behest of Monsanto, into two pieces of legislation last year that would’ve allowed them to plant GMOs without any federal oversight whatsoever. One of those was in a short-term bill that expired on Oct. 1. The other they had in the Farm Bill, that Monsanto or anyone else that produced GMO seed could just inform the Secretary of Agriculture about it, and if they didn’t immediately say that’s great, they could go out and plant it anyway. Once you get these things into the environment, it is too late.

In January you were one of many who supported a letter to President Obama regarding the FDA and GMO labeling. What was its purpose?

You’ve seen the president begin to assert his executive authority pretty broadly and very clearly. The administration, if it so chose, could require this on packaging. They’re already changing the nutrition labels to make them more meaningful given new health and dietary concerns that have arisen. They could easily just say “There will be one more line on there to change GMOs.” It isn’t going to cost anything. They’re already going to print the label anyway.

In your opinion, is the Obama Administration addressing the GMO labeling issue?

No. The administration itself I think is confusing GMOs with biotechnology, and therefore they think that they are defending biotechnology as opposed to something that is really very very different. I don’t think they’ve put a lot of thought into it.

Senator Merkley was outraged about the Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act being shut down. Do you have any opinions about it?

It was shot down in the senate by the republicans and they say their concern is they didn’t like the way it was paid for. I’m good friends with Bernie Sanders who chairs the veterans subcommittee and he’s going to attempt to bring it back again and work out something on the pay for, and we’ll see if the Republicans were really against it because they didn’t like the pay for or, they just don’t really care about veterans. Given the record of the Bush Administration it could be the former.

What do you think about the current health care provided for veterans in Oregon, specifically the lack of ICU at the VA Hospital in Roseburg?

We had a really bad regional director for the VA who should have been fired or retired decades ago. She was the one who was pushing the agenda of downgrading the hospital there and the former director of the hospital, who was also bad news. Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley and I fought the downgrading of the hospital. We were mostly successful. The only thing we didn’t get, that we wanted, was reopening the ICU. But we kept them from doing other, much more damaging things in terms of the future of the Roseburg hospital. We’re ultimately going to build a veteran’s home on that campus, it would make a lot of sense to have a robust hospital next door.

A few months ago you came to the UO for a forum about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Are there any updates about the TPP?

Big progress. When I was here and did the forum it looked like they were going to try and get it done this month, and that is off the table now. At least until after the election. I’m concerned about what will happen after the election, that is called a lame duck session. That is when Clinton did NAFTA and the WTO. We can’t drop our guard. I’m not declaring total victory, but we have made tremendous progress in the last couple of months and are at least slowing it down if not stopping it.

In 2011 you objected to the Budget Control Act. In recent years have you put any action in place regarding college costs and student loans?

No. The Republicans are in the pocket of the banks. When we took over the house in 2007, we made major reforms to student loans. We stopped subsidising the banks. Wall Street and the banks were weak in 2007, 2008 because of all the destruction they had caused. We said, look, we’re going to lend the money directly to the students, they’ll get lower interest rates, it’ll cost the taxpayers less money and we can build in all sorts of flexibility in terms of repayment.

You don’t have to pay more than a certain percent of your income every year, you don’t have to pay for more than a certain number of years, if you haven’t worked it off by then, we forgive it. You can go into one of many professions or jobs that provide public service and you can get part of your loan forgiven every year. During that so called “Budget Control Act fight” we had the compromise, which I didn’t support. We kept those provisions for undergraduates but they were wiped out for graduate students… At the moment we aren’t going to get a chance to restore those benefits, but what we will be doing is fighting further attempts by the Republicans to gut student financial aid even more.

What is your opinion of the current cost of education in Oregon?

The average debt for a graduating undergraduate is over $20,000 in our public universities. The state has pretty much walked away from its responsibilities to fund higher education. The state should be putting more money in and depending less on jacking up tuition than they have.

On Feb. 5, Oregon’s Human Services Committee heard House Bill 4115. The bill, submitted by Representative Phil Barnhart, amends laws that concern minors use of tobacco and vapor products, as well as where vapor-smokers can smoke in public places.

Testimony was given at the Human Services Committee hearing, much of which was from vapor store owners, according to Barnhart. Barnhart hopes that the bill will ban e-cigarette smoking in established non-smoking areas as well as prevent the sale of them to minors.

“The longer we wait to adopt this law, the more teen addicts there will be and the more child, teen and adult victims there will be of second hand e-cigarette smoke,” wrote Barnhart in a letter to The Register-Guard.

Currently the bill is with the House Committee on Human Services and Housing, although the committee’s last meeting was cancelled on Feb. 7.

When heard by the Human Services Committee, testimony was given, much of which was from vapor store owners, according to Barnhart. He became involved with e-cigarette legislation after witnessing a stranger smoke an e-cigarette beside him in the Eugene airport.

“I was shocked,” Barnhart said. “Airports are non-smoking areas. People are there because they have to be.” Barnhart first brought up the bill as a concept in January.

“The longer we wait to adopt this law, the more teen addicts there will be and the more child, teen and adult victims there will be of second hand e-cigarette smoke,” wrote Barnhart in a legislative report.

The main complications arose in regards to the definitions and enforcement. Eventually the bill restricted the use of e-cigarettes in non-smoking areas whether or not they contain nicotine to reduce enforcement issues.

Currently, the bill is dead, although, according to Barnhart, the bill “will certainly be reintroduced in 2015.”

“We got a lot of support,” Barnhart said. “(Many people) are worried about addicting another generation to nicotine.”

A number of counties in Oregon already outlaw the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and the smoking of them in public areas including Benton, Clatsop, Deschutes, Hood River and Umatilla Counties.

The UO has been a tobacco free campus since 2012 and is the first school in the PAC-12 to make the change. “The campus has now been smoke tobacco free for 18 months and it’s been going well,” Health Promotion Specialist Renee Mulligan said. “Most people seem to appreciate and respect the policy.”

“We are still working on enforcement and reducing cigarette butt litter around the perimeter of campus,” Mulligan said.

The Health Center provides nicotine replacement therapy for students. This free program provides these students with either the patch or gum. “We have approximately 40 students per term,” Mulligan said.

“There is currently no evidence that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking … E-cigarettes are not regulated and therefore have been found to vary greatly in the amount of Nicotine released from each cartridge,” Mulligan said.

In December, e-cigarettes were included in bans on smoking in public places in New York by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Chicago has also adopted similar resolutions.

This winter the city of Eugene has been hit by a series of winter storms. As most locals know this weather is unusual for the area and very few expected the aftermath that the winter blast left.

An ice storm blew through Eugene on Feb. 8, which was preceded by days of snow. As a result, the University of Oregon campus suffered damage.

According to Garrick Mishaga, a campus exterior supervisor, no major trees fell, though the accumulation of icy weather snapped branches throughout campus.

When the UO campus is faced with severe weather campus operations turns to inclement weather plans they have in place for snow, ice and heavy rain.

“We plan as far ahead as possible,” Mishaga said. “We will plan, schedule and execute.” 

For this particular storm, campus operations went in “very confident,” according to Mishaga. The higher accumulation and lack of a rising temperature threw them off a bit, said Mishaga and they were forced to change modes once the ice build up reached a critical point.

The Eugene Police Department went into the weather confident as well.

“I felt like we were really prepared, because we had the one in December,” said John Hankemeier from the EPD Public Information Office. “We’re always ready.”

Joe Harwood, spokesman for the Eugene Water and Electric Board echoed this sentiment saying, “We felt pretty prepared.”

“I think it is harder to prepare for an ice storm, we don’t get those very often,” said Harwood. “At the height of the event we only lost about eight percent of out customers…It would have been a lot worse if we didn’t have an intensive tree trimming program.”

For the extreme weather that hit at the end of last week, campus operations brought in a contractor to plow major streets and parking lots because the university doesn’t own one. For snow, campus operations also uses utility vehicles with small plows and sand units for walkways. When there is typical Eugene snowfall (about one inch or less) they utilize blowers, broom equipment and manpower with hand brooms and shovels to clean streets and walkways.

Two years ago, UO went through a similar storm on March 21, 2012.

“We learned quite a bit from the last storm,” Mishaga said. That March, UO saw 12 major trees fall and campus operations had to take out another six due to severe damage. This storm, according to Mishaga, didn’t have as severe repercussions for the trees on campus. “We will probably have to remove some,” Mishaga said. “We felt much better going into this one.”

Several areas experienced power outages throughout Eugene. For those still without power, EWEB has released a work list for estimated restoration times for powerless areas. 

The Emerald created a map of the areas of Eugene that had prolonged outages. 

The University Counseling and Testing Center kicks off All Sizes Fit this week, a campaign focused on positive body image and health at all sizes.

“It is an important (issue) to discuss, especially on a college campus,” said Elizabeth Asta, counseling center psychologist. Asta holds an interest in the area of body image concern and disordered eating.

“It is a common struggle that I hear on college campuses,” Asta said.

All Sizes Fit is an awareness campaign that will hold events promoting healthy body image throughout the week. The main event for the campaign is a presentation by a Health at All Sizes advocate and researcher, Ragen Chastain, entitled “The Positive Body: Real Options for Health Happiness and High Self-esteem.” The presentation will take place on Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the EMU Gumwood Room.

Prior to the presentation, Chastain will also lead a Dance for Every Body Class at 4 p.m. at the Student Recreation Center, room 41.

On Feb. 13 three members of the UO Rehearsals for Life, Jennifer Chain, Eric Garcia and Nina Hidalgo will hold an interactive workshop about biases stemming from size and weight in Gerlinger room 246.

In addition, throughout the week tabling to raise awareness will take place in ResLife.

According to Asta, the purpose of the event is to raise awareness and “create more conversation and dialogue” on the topic of body image, a problem that “naturally comes up in our society in general.”

Suzie Stadelman, Mental Health Educator and Administrative Services Assistant for the counseling center emphasized the importance of raising awareness about this issue. “There is a lot of pressure on men and women to look a certain way,” said Stadelman. “It’s a larger issue than just the UO. It is universal.”

Asta emphasized the availability of the counseling center to students struggling with body image issues.

“For anyone exploring (these issues) the UCTC wants to be available,” she said.

The center offers both individual and group counseling.

The Environmental Protection Agency is now accepting written comments concerning their proposed carbon pollution standards for new power plants until March 10. The new standards would end construction of any new coal-fired power plants in the U.S.

“They are the first of their kind,” said Dalton Fusco, global warming coordinator for OSPIRG at the UO.

To begin the 60-day comment period, OSPIRG and Environment Oregon had two days of action to collect public comments in favor of the regulations on power plants. In addition to Eugene, grassroots action took place in Portland and Ashland. On Jan. 23  Environment Oregon held a news conference with Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, an aid to Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio and Fusco. “It went really well,” Fusco said.

The regulations stem from the climate action plan President Obama announced in June 2013. While the current proposed regulations will not affect existing power plants, new regulations directed toward them are expected later this year.

Oregon’s only coal power plant, Boardman Coal Plant is closing in 2020 and will be the youngest coal plant to close based on environmental decisions, The Oregonian reports.

“Climate change is the single greatest environmental challenge of our time,” said DeFazio at the news conference.”We must act now.”

DeFazio hasn’t pulled punches with his opinions recently. He gained national attention when in a Jan 8. speech he referred to “climate change deniers and some of the blithering idiots on talk shows,” who don’t want to use government resources to help prevent climate change. He also recently visited to the UO to talk about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he said has some “really evil stuff.”

“I believe it is a problem that affects everyone,” said Fusco. “Personally I am glad the EPA is taking notice.”

Field organizer for Environment Oregon, Charlie Fisher, was cited in a press release as saying , “Today, Oregonians have the opportunity to say ‘no’ to dirty power plants, the nation’ single largest source of carbon pollution.”

According to a press release on the topic by OSPIRG, a report by Environment Oregon Research and Policy Center found that 50 American power plants that emit the most carbon pollute over the national total output of all but six other countries in the world.

To submit a comment to the EPA on this topic, citizens can email a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov with reference to docket id EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0495, or follow the instructions provided on Environment Oregon’s website. According to Fusco, OSPIRG will continue to raise awareness about global warming as well as the EPA’s comment period.

Medical marijuana will be regulated for dispensaries starting this spring when a new bill goes into effect on March 3. According to House Bill 3460, signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber on August 13, 2013,  the “Oregon Health Authority shall establish by rule medical marijuana facility registration system to authorize the transfer of usable marijuana and immature marijuana plants.”

Sam Chapman, 2012 University of Oregon graduate, co-wrote and lobbied for HB 3460. Chapman said the bill proves “the sky isn’t going to fall” once marijuana is regulated for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Colorado legalized dispensary sale of medical marijuana in 2010 with their own version of 3460, HB 10-1284.  This bill, according to Chapman, “proved it could be regulated successfully.” When writing HB 3460, Chapman said they learned from Colorado’s bill what regulations worked and what didn’t. Colorado had a “seed to sale” regulation which required security cameras to be focused on plants from the time they were planted until they were sold.

“Literally watching the weeds grow,” Chapman said.

Oregon’s own attempt at marijuana legalization, Measure 80, failed to pass on the November 2012 ballot. Chapman said this was because of a number of reasons: the way it was written, the fact that it allowed for unlimited growth and kids to purchase cannabis seeds and the overall poor representation of the measure.

The passing of HB 3460 “laid the ground floor” for the legalization of marijuana in Oregon, something that is inevitable according to Chapman. Chapman believes the legalization of cannabis is necessary for many reasons including the safety found in regulation and the opportunities for medical research that can expand when it is open to everyone over 21.

Chapman called it “the next great American industry,” and said all sorts of people are looking to invest, from venture capitalists to restaurants to politicians, now that there is less of a risk to their reputation.

“(It will be) just like craft brew. There will be a Pabst version (of cannabis). A cheaper hipster option with a green ribbon,” he said.

Glen Johnson from Natures Meds Delivery Service, which delivers cannabis to OMMP cardholders in the Eugene and Springfield area said HB 3460 is ”not treating it (cannabis) like a normal product.”

According to Johnson, the bill did a good job in making it possible for dispensaries to make money as a business but “made it so the grower can’t be a business that makes money.” Johnson said the delivery system enables the product to go straight from the garden to the cardholder, but that the bill was made “to push delivery out.”

Johnson also said that the bill is “something that growers are not going to like,” because it has dispensaries track their growers and make their information accessible to the government, which, according to Johnson, will not make growers want to branch out of the black market. “The black market is easy,” he said.

“I do think (marijuana in Oregon) is moving in the right direction slowly,” said Johnson.

A recreation of Ken Kesey’s famous psycheldelic bus, Further,  drove through Eugene last week, driven by son Zane Kesey.

“It was about the kids, the truth and the weed,” said former University of Oregon English professor Jenie Murphy of Ken Kesey’s life, while riding Further. The bus traveled Eugene on Thursday Jan. 16 in celebration of the premiere of a documentary about Kesey at the McDonald Theatre.

Kesey put his more storable works on deposit in the Knight Library in the late ’60s upon his realization of their value. “He knew it was valuable,” said manuscripts librarian Linda Long. Throughout the years he would come to see them. Upon his death in 2001, to view the collection, researchers and scholars would have to get permission from widow Faye Kesey to view the archives. In June 2013, UO gained the property rights to the collection, which makes it available to anyone without having to gain permissions from the Kesey family. The acquisition of the property rights was “at least a two-year process,” Long said.

UO President Michael Gottfredson put up a majority of the money of the purchase himself, and Keri Aronson and the library are now fundraising to pay him back for his contribution to the purchase of the collection and to fund its preservation. “(The collection) strikes a chord in a lot of Oregonians’ hearts,” said Aronson.

According to Aronson, the library is “trying to work with the community” in attempts to fundraise. Prior to the collections purchase, Voodoo Doughnuts  donated $10,000 with proceeds from their “Easy Peasy Lemon Kesey” doughnut. Currently, Rogue Ales has created the “One Brew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” ale, part of the proceeds of which will go to the collection. They are also working with Townshend’s Eugene Tea House, who are creating the “Just Ginger” tea, part of the proceeds will also go to the collection.

The archives include the original manuscript for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” original screenplay for “Sometimes a Great Notion,” as well as letters, illustrations and his Jail Journal, which were published after his death.

Matt Love, author of “Sometimes a Great Movie,” a non-fiction book about the filming of Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion” on the Oregon Coast, began getting audiences at his readings to write postcards addressed to Phil Knight asking him to fund the collection in May 2012. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Love said. “I’ve probably sent a couple thousand.”

To promote the documentary, Further and its followers came to the UO campus on Jan. 16. While “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas played out of the speakers on the bus, Zane Kesey entertained his riders with anecdotes about driving the bus that lacks power steering. “Five percent of people will ignore the fuck out of you when you drive by.”

“I almost went to class and then I was like, that’s a sick bus,” said UO senior Jamie Gerber.

The bus drove from its home at the Kesey farm in Pleasant Hill. “The bus was his best work,” Murphy said.

New additions came to the collection around 2008 according to Long. The newer additions include notes, photos and slides.

“I’m never going to stop,” said Love. “I’ll send thank you postcards.”

On Jan. 27, the Eugene City Council held a work session, addressing fireworks in Eugene as their second order of business.

Lieutenant from the Eugene Police Department Scott Fellman and Fire Marshall Al Gerard addressed the council about the issues within the community regarding fireworks like health and safety of pets and people including veterans. According to Feldman, the people who usually light illegal fireworks “aren’t criminals.” Gerard said the main problem with use of illegal fireworks is the “incorrect usage.”

According to Fellman, July 4 2013, dispatch received about 340 calls about fireworks and about 247 complaints.

“Last year we had a house that was lost,” Gerard said.

A number of solutions were discussed by the council including an increase in fines, increased enforcement, use of technology, a limitation of days in which fireworks would be allowed and an outright ban were all brought up by different council members at various points of the work session.

City Council member Mike Clark said the problems with fireworks “is a matter of enforcement.” Clark voiced his doubt for the helpfulness of an out-and-out ban and said, “we need a better plan.” Clark emphasized his desire for the use of technology, calling on the example of red light camera as a technological solution to an existing enforcement problem. Clark also expressed a desire for instituting a higher fine.

Many members echoed Clark’s desire for instituting a alterations in fines including members George Poling, Claire Syrett, Greg Evans, Betty Taylor and Chris Pryor. In Evan’s opinion, if fines are increased “word will get out real fast.”

“The higher the fine the better the deterrent,” Evans said.