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--> --> Associated Press Larry Eaton is shown outside his house in Wilsonville last week. The four yellow school buses he planted nose-first in his front yard represent his recent arrival on the political scene. Man plants buses to protest prison WILSONVILLE (AP) - Larry Eaton has planted four yellow school buses nose-first in his and a neighbor's yard - where the vehicles stand like wheeled trees - to protest a new prison across the street. Eaton says he'll keep planting buses until officials rezone the neighborhood so he and other residents can sell their properties at what they think is a reasonable price and move out of the area. "Pretty soon, there'll be nothing but big yellow toothpicks poking out of the ground all around here," said Eaton. "This is the only way I can show how bad I hate my government." Eaton says the school buses represent the family values the state buried when it put the prison there. An excavation contractor, Eaton finished building his dream home on Clay Street in 1997. Six months later, he learned the state was going to be putting up a new prison across the street. Eaton says during meetings city and county officials promised to rezone the area from residential to industrial. Eaton and other residents say that would make it easier to sell their property because with the prison in the neighborhood, the area is more likely to attract warehouses and light manufacturers than people who want to own homes. State officials deny that area residents were ever promised a zoning change. They have pointed out that residents had ample opportunity to comment on everything from the prison's lighting to how it should be landscaped to minimize visibility. On Oct. 10, Eaton fired up his trackhoe and, with the help of a friend working a similar machine, nudged a 35-foot-long bus nose-first into a pit 10 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Two weeks later, they planted a second bus, this time using the borrowed front yard of Betty Duffield, a neighbor. Two more buses soon followed. "This is exactly what no one else, including all of Wilsonville, wanted to look at," he said of the new women's prison. "Larry's just venting the frustrations that all the rest of us are feeling," said Walt Lawson, who has lived just west of Eaton's property for nearly 50 years. State and county environmental and land-use agencies say that with engines and fluids removed, the buses don't appear to be violating any laws. "When the grass grows back, I'll plant daisies around these things. I'll mow around them," said Eaton. "But I promise you this - these buses won't move until I do. And from the looks of things, that could be a very, very long time." Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing