The city of Eugene will try to purchase Civic Stadium. At Wednesdays' meeting the City Council voted 5 to 3 to have staff draft a proposal to buy the historic baseball park using funds from its voter passed parks and open space bond measure.
The city's offer is contingent on fundraising efforts by a local group, Save Civic Stadium. If they can raise $5.5 million to pay for renovation and maintenance of the site, the council will move forward. Mayor Kitty Piercy gave a deadline of 60 days:
Piercy: "Given our budgetary challenges I can only support using park bonds for this property if we have such a guarantee within 60 days. So that's what I can support."
Councilors Clark, Pryor and Poling voted against the proposal. Eugene 4J School District owns the 10-acre site. Its board this week decided not to extend a December 3 deadline for potential bidders.