Community Voices Weekly: Introducing our new newsletter

Since our launch back in April, we’ve published more than 400 opinion pieces on issues important to Lane County residents: editorials demanding accountability from local, state and federal officials; columns on topics from faith to finances; and hundreds of letters to the editor from readers on issues big and small.

In the past week, we received nearly two dozen letter to the editor or guest column submissions, more than triple what we were getting just a few months ago. Clearly, Lane County needed a new forum, and it looks like Community Voices is becoming that.

Now, we launch the Community Voices Weekly newsletter as Lookout’s town square. We’ll highlight the best, most read, most relevant and thought-provoking perspectives on Lane County issues from the week past – and add a few thoughts about a national issue with local impacts that may be flying under the radar.

Oregon has been my home for 36 years, and Lane County for 15 of those. As a reporter at The Register-Guard from 2014 to 2019, I covered stories not just in Eugene and Springfield, but in Cottage Grove, Creswell, Coburg, Florence, Junction City, Veneta, Oakridge and beyond. I know our communities well because they’re just about all I know. My goal has always been for Community Voices to reflect the politically, socially and culturally diverse viewpoints of Lane County, and that’s what you’ll get here every Sunday.

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PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend in Springfield, Feb. 12, 2026. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Changes at RiverBend’s emergency department

PeaceHealth’s announcement last month that it was ending a 35-year-old contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians to staff its emergency department at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend set off a firestorm of reactions. Doctors decried the announced staffing switch to Atlanta-based ApolloMD as a “disaster” they wanted no part of. Last weekend, the local emergency group overwhelmingly voted in favor of a no-confidence declaration against hospital leadership.

Hospital officials and Lookout readers have had plenty to say in response. Dr. Jim McGovern, Chief Hospital Executive of PeaceHealth Oregon, wrote a guest column stressing that, while he’s heard the concerns from the public, he still feels ApolloMD is the right provider for emergency care.

ApolloMD CEO Yogin Patel followed up in a guest column, stressing his Oregon ties and pledging to build on Eugene Emergency Physicians’ work.

Most of our readers don’t share their optimism. Letter writer Quena Keis of Eugene argues what we’ll lose with the switch from Eugene Emergency Physicians to ApolloMD is about more than profit margins.

Letter writer Michael Smith, a retired neurologist with cancer, heard what McGovern had to say, but wonders just what he means by “reliable, high quality care.”

And for Eugene letter writer Laura Shand, who says RiverBend ER doctors once saved her husband’s life, the move is just the latest in a string of discouraging changes at the hospital.

Community Voices is fast-becoming the most energized opinion forum in the county. Contribute your own voices. You can submit a letter to the editor – a 350-word-maximum take on a local, state or national issue that affects us here in Lane County. Or you can write a guest column up to 800 words that makes a clear argument about a topical issue with local impact. See how here.

Continued drama in Springfield schools

The board room at the Springfield Public Schools district office was packed at the Jan. 12, 2025 board meeting. Eight people, including teachers, a student, parents and other Springfield residents spoke. Credit: Lilly St. Angelo / Lookout Eugene-Springfield

Springfield Public Schools has been making lots of headlines. Too often lately, it hasn’t been for great reasons. From the state investigation of its elementary curriculum, to mid-year teacher layoffs, to the resignation of a school board member and its superintendent, readers – and our Editorial Board – have sounded off on the issues in Springfield schools.

Our editorial board argued last week that district leaders and board members deserve a failing grade for their inexplicable decision to pass a budget that didn’t account for anticipated teacher raises – despite the fact that the district and teachers union were negotiating contract terms that included them.

But three former Springfield Public Schools board chairs argued in a guest column that the debates – and media coverage of the district – overlook much of the progress that the district has made recently, including record graduation rates.

Does Oregon need a sales tax?

Sometimes, readers get worked up by something happening in the news. Other times, it’s a reaction to a letter to the editor. That’s what recent letter writer Alice Parman kicked off with a short argument in favor of a sales tax for Oregon.

Eugene letter writer K.T. Willett and Jay Mosely agreed, arguing that critical services like schools and social services are sorely underfunded. But Steven Hunnicutt of Eugene says not so fast: Oregon is already one of the most taxed states in the country.

(This is well past a week old, but Richard Steers, former vice provost for International Affairs at the University of Oregon, wrote a guest column in Lookout back in December highlighting his arguments for a sales tax).

The economics of ICE

February started off with a flurry of letters about the anti-ICE protests at the Eugene Federal Building. But before signing off on the inaugural edition of Community Voices, I have some thoughts about an underreported aspect of ICE’s presence in Oregon: its impact on our economy.

Research recently shared by the University of California, Irvine, found businesses in the region lost nearly $59 million in economic output in a two-month span following heightened immigration enforcement in Southern California last year. The effects are especially notable in the agricultural and construction industries, whose contributions to the state’s massive GDP would fall by roughly 15% without undocumented immigrants, according to an economic think tank.

While Oregon lacks the diversity and economic might of its neighbor to the south, it’s hard not to imagine a similar scenario playing out here. The state lost 3,300 non-farm jobs last year, the first annual decline since 2020. And the construction sector accounted for 1,900 of those losses, despite making up less than 6% of Oregon’s workforce.

What do you think? Is immigration enforcement contributing to Oregon’s economic malaise? Or should our state’s political leadership – controlled uninterrupted by Democrats for nearly three decades now – look at themselves in the mirror before placing blame at Trump’s feet?

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No, mayors can’t tell police which laws to enforce. But we also expect honesty from law enforcement | Letter to the editor

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Community Voices Weekly: Introducing our new newsletter