munity Center was delayed until 1973 because of higher-thanexpected costs for the other centers and financial complications arising from the city’s acquisition of Laurelwood Golf Course. The center is named for the park. As for the naming of the park, the August 8, 1955, City Council meeting minutes present this cryptically redundant entry: “After discussion on this matter, it was the recommendation of the (Health and Recreation) committee that ‘Amazon Park’ be called ‘AMAZON PARK.’” This appears to be an official ratification of the name already informally used for this park development near Amazon Creek. As for the name of the creek itself, Lewis McArthur’s estimable Oregon Geographic Names calls Amazon Creek “a small creek with a big name” but can’t say why that’s so, except to offer someone’s suggestion that it was simply because the stream tended to flood very wide in imitation of its South American namesake.
Innovations in Staffing A “redshirt” season for a University of Oregon quarterback would prove beneficial to more than the football team. Doug Post earned his four-year degree by 1964 and used his fifth year of athletic scholarship to start work on a graduate degree in Parks and Recreation Management. The UO program at that time was highly regarded nationally. Ed Smith sat on the interview panel for Post’s first professional job with the Lane County Youth Project, and in the mid-sixties offered him a position with Eugene Parks and Recreation. Post soon became the assistant recreation superintendent under Pompel, and helped guide the division into the new era of community centers. One of his tasks was to hire Aquatics staff to handle the city’s doubling of pools from two to four. Payments from the public schools, who at that time sent all students to the city for swim lessons, helped make this possible. Like Smith and Pompel, Post would be with the department for three decades. 60
The sudden addition of so many facilities presented a huge challenge to the small Recreation staff. Pompel had seen in Seattle that a center staffed solely by the city’s Rec professionals would be vastly underused, as activities would be limited by the time and skills possessed by those few people. Prior to the 1961 election he suggested to Smith that community members be invited not only to suggest classes but to teach them as well. That way, “The number of programs we can offer is only limited by the number of people in the community who can teach things.” Ed Smith told him, “If the bond issue passes, you’re on the hot seat,” Pompel recalls. When it did, Smith gave the Recreation superintendent the backing to try his idea. “I went ahead with no reins at all,” says Pompel. Eugene proved to be chock full of people willing to share their skills, for a modest pay check, in all manner of recreational activities. [Your author, just to cite an example, Dumpster-dove at lumber mills for wood scraps and cut them into pieces at the Campbell Center shop to teach woodworking to young kids in the late 1980s.] A small fee – five dollars was typical in the early days – was charged more for the purpose of gaining commitment from patrons than for revenue, Pompel says. But the added income did make Recreation programs more self-supporting, less dependent on budget cycles. People didn’t mind paying because the instructors knew their stuff. The idea took off and community center activities burgeoned. Though this concept was simple, it wasn’t being implemented in any other rec department Pompel knew of. “We were the trendsetters for the Northwest.”
Gold! Pompel is not alone in characterizing the late 1960s through the 1970s as a “Golden Age” for Eugene Recreation. Supervisors took responsibility for programming and overseeing the offerings at their own centers. The City Council was supportive, 61