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Ken Neubeck <br />, 4915 West Hillside Drive, commented that his grandchildren came to his house to <br />walk through the Beverly and Green properties. He recalled the book, An Inquiry into the Human <br />Prospect, written by Robert Heilbroner in which Mr. Heilbroner had expressed concern about the <br />impacts of human activities on the environment and that people did not seem to have a sense of the <br />future. He related that Mr. Heilbroner had postulated that people make decisions that have <br />negative implications for people they will never live to see. He believed the kinds of decisions that <br />were being made with regard to the property around the Amazon Creek headwaters were difficult <br />given that it involved money, different stakeholders, and different points of view. He underscored <br />his belief that 100 years from now people would enjoy the property without any recollection of <br />how it came to be preserved or they would wonder why that area was developed and changed. He <br />urged the council to think about future generations. <br /> <br />Carla Hervert <br />, 2948 Dry Creek Road, explained that she was a nurse and an exercise physiologist <br />who worked as a therapist in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation at Sacred Heart Hospital. She <br />said they tried to improve the quality of life for people with heart and lung disease through an <br />extensive exercise and education program. She stated that during the time of year in which field <br />burning occurred she saw first hand how her clients were affected. She related that they often <br />missed therapy sessions because they did not want to chance going outdoors and those who did <br />come were on more oxygen and took more medication. She remarked that she had a few patients <br />who used up to seven different inhalers. She noted that steroids were often used as a “rescue <br />medication,” but if used over a period of years they had powerful side effects. She pointed out that <br />emphysema was the fourth leading killer in the country and that heart disease was on the top of the <br />list. She related that one patient of hers was diagnosed with osteoporosis and had the “bones of a <br />90-year-old” though she was 50. She listed some of the issues people experienced as a result of <br />breathing particulate matter. <br /> <br />Bonnie Blomberg <br />, 5271 Overbrook Lane, said she had asthma. She stated that field burning <br />aggravated the condition and she had been hospitalized several times with asthma attacks, <br />pulmonary infections, and pneumonia after periods of such burning. She related that she had been <br />diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) one year earlier. She felt she was <br />too young for such a “devastating” diagnosis. She underscored that she had never been a smoker. <br />She stated that her doctor attributed her diagnosis directly to field burning. She underscored that <br />her life would be shortened and she would never experience life without invasive drug therapies. <br />She questioned whether she would have COPD if she lived in an area where there was no field <br />burning. She said everyone in the Willamette Valley damaged their lungs when they breathed air <br />polluted by field burning. She declared that this was too high a price to pay to live in this area. <br /> <br />Charlotte Sotto Sandra Guffin <br />read a letter written by , 2580 Hayden Bridge Road, Springfield, <br />that voiced her support for a ban on field burning. It explained that she had serious health <br />problems aggravated by field burning. She believed that it was unfair for the grass seed industry to <br />infuse the air with “terrible contaminants” in the face of research that showed there were alterna- <br />tives to burning. She said her father, a farmer, had opposed field burning because he deemed it <br />unnecessary and harmful to public health. She concluded her letter by asking the council to “act <br />now to end the practice of field burning in the Willamette Valley.” <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 10, 2007 Page 3 <br /> Regular Meeting <br /> <br />