NEWS BRIEFS
ANTI-PESTICIDE RALLY
DRAWS BIG CROWD
quest for more coupons continues.” As does the quest to ban
the practice of aerial spray, Owen says, starting with a buffer
zone around homes and schools. — Stacey M. Hollis
A July 7 downtown Eugene rally against aerial spraying of
pesticides drew more than 800 people, according to Day
Owen, founder of Pitchfork Rebellion. The group, which
Owen describes as “a forest dwellers’ support group consisting
of people concerned about aerial spraying of pesticides near
our homes,” said it is celebrating having conducted the largest
anti-pesticide rally in the history of Oregon.
Rally-goers heard an impromptu talk by a man who
illustrated the lasting impacts of working as a pesticide
applicator in the forest industry. He showed the scars on
his arms, which had been burned by the harmful chemicals,
and described neurological damage he also suffers as a
result of his job.
To illustrate the issue of pesticide use, Owen conducted
a mock trial where three companies — Dow Chemical,
Monsanto and Syngenta — were found guilty of “corporate
eco-terrorism” and “chemical tresspass on our bodies.”
“We let the audience be the jury,” Owen says, and the
verdict was unanimous.
Other speakers included nurse practitioner Ingrid Edstrom,
forester Roy Keene and Triangle Lake residents affected by
the pesticide sprays.
At the end of the trial, the crowd received “coupons” to fill
out and send to Gov. Kitzhaber. “That was a big focus of the
event,” Owen says, “calling for the aerial spray ban.” The
forms can be found on the back of the June 5 issue of EW.
“We still want people to send in the coupons,” he says. “The
LOCKOUT CONTINUES
FOR HANDY
Commissioner Rob Handy remains locked out of his
county office with “as far as we know no legal basis,”
according to his attorney Lauren Regan.
Regan says Handy is still going out and meeting with
constituents despite not having access to his county office
but “excluding a popular liberal commissioner in this way
is problematic.”
Fellow Commissioner Faye Stewart excoriated Handy
for not being around the office on the July 5 Morning
Wakeup Call on KPNW, a conservative radio station
(wkly.ws/1bk).
Stewart said he has only seen Handy at meetings and a
couple times at the front desk. “I would say if you are
concerned about communicating you ought to come to the
office more,” Stewart told host Bill Lundun.
When Lundun asked, “Are you going to be glad when
he’s gone?” Stewart said, “Yes,” and went on to accuse
Handy of being paranoid. Stewart did not mention that
Handy had no access to his office.
Handy was locked out after an investigation was
launched into donations he had requested to help with his
$20,000 settlement over a controversial Seneca Jones
timber-funded open meetings lawsuit. Handy says that he
happening people
ACTIVIST ALERT
• Springfield’s Clean Water Gardens Program, which
encourages homeowners to install rain gardens,
naturescapes, pervious surfaces and rainwater harvesting
systems in their landscapes, will be on display from 10 am
to 4 pm Friday, July 13, at Roger’s Gardens, 1792 N. 42nd
St. in Springfield. For more info, call 726-3695.
• A town hall meeting on health care is planned for
6:30 to 8:30 pm Tuesday, July 17, in the main lobby at the
Sacred Heart University District, 1255 Hilyard St. in
Eugene. The meeting will be hosted by Sen. Lee Beyer and
Reps. Phil Barnhart and Paul Holvey, and guest speakers
will include Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon
Health Authority, and Rocky King, director of the Oregon
Health Insurance Exchange. Free parking will be provided
in PeaceHealth parking structures and the small lot at 13th
and Alder.
• The NW Oregon and SW Oregon Regional Forest
Practices Committees (RFPC) are planning a joint meeting
of the two groups from 9 am to 3 pm Tuesday, July 17, at
the USFS Willamette National Forest offices, 3106 Pierce
Parkway, Room 145, in Springfield. Public comment will be
taken at the beginning of the meeting. The panels advise
the Oregon Board of Forestry on current forestry issues
and forest management approaches. See http://wkly.
ws/1bj for more information.
• An online petition to the Eugene City Council
supporting a resolution against coal trains passing
through Lane County can be found at http://wkly.ws/1bh
The council is currently split on whether to support such a
resolution.
• Plastic bags will be on the agenda of a work session
of the Eugene City Council Monday, July 23, and a draft
ordinance can be read at www.Eugene-or.gov Corvallis
recently became the second city in Oregon to ban single-
use plastic bags at grocery check-out stands. Contact the
OLCV at 968-8269 or email Ashley@olcv.org
checked with the county finance department before asking
for donations.
Handy has been locked out of his office and his key
card has not worked since May. Regan says County
Counsel Alex Gardner finally got back to Handy and his
attorneys on their questions about Handy’s lack of access
on July 9, but “we don’t understand exactly what he was
saying.”
Gardner told the attorney that County Administrator
Liane Richardson has provided Handy with an “alternative
office,” but Regan says Handy as not been made aware of
any such office, and Richardson has not responded to
requests for more information.
“It’s been shocking to watch,” Regan says. “I’m sure
he’d love to make a big deal of it,” but Handy “wants the
attention to be on his work as a county commissioner and
not on his issues with the administration,” she says.
Attorney Marianne Dugan has been told her public
records request to the county will cost $1.6 million. Dugan
represents Handy in his case alleging the May 3 emergency
meeting with Gardner, Richardson, Stewart and fellow
conservatives Sid Leiken and Jay Bozievich violated
Oregon’s open meetings statutes.
Regan says the way Handy has been treated, as well as
the county’s efforts to stymie recent public records
requests, call attention to “bad apples within the county
administration that have their own personal motives, and
are not acting with good ethical behavior.” Not being open
with public records is a sign of a county government that
“does not have the community’s best interest in mind,”
Regan says. — Camilla Mortensen
BY PAUL NEEVEL
DANA FURGERSON
“I’ve always been a writer,” says Dana
Furgerson, who was editor of her high school’s
literary journal in suburban Lombard, Ill. She
was an English major for two years at Northern
Illinois, then eloped, ran off to Phoenix, and
gave birth to her son Keith Moses, who is now
an art teacher in Corvallis. Divorced after five
years, she finished an education degree at
Arizona State, married Cecil Furgerson and
moved to Halfway, Ore., in 1978, for a job as a
special ed teacher. “I taught for more than 30
years,” says Furgerson, who stayed on in
Halfway for 13 years (10 more than Cecil)
before moving to western Oregon. She taught
special ed in several area towns, and in
Springfield and Eugene schools, until 2002,
and later worked with troubled kids in Looking
Glass programs until she retired last November.
Wherever she has lived, Furgerson has
continued to write and to join with other
writers in critique groups. “I’ve written five
novels,” she says. “This one, Three Boys Living,
is the first I’ve published. Each chapter takes
the point of view of one of the boys, who
interact in a remedial history class.” Furgerson
has also self-published Life Without Fiction, a
collection of stories. Both books can be found
at Amazon.com and at Tsunami Books in
Eugene, where Furgerson will deliver a reading
at 4 pm Sunday, July 29. Joining her in the
photo is her furry friend Hank.
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EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 12, 2012 11