Applegater Winter 2016
■ VITALITY ROADMAP
Continued from page 4
limited, so we must bring our jobs with
us,” and “It’s poverty with a view.” Maybe
most important, RDI reported that
they heard from numerous sources that
Applegate residents respect each other
and try to find common ground.
After hearing RDI’s findings,
the 25 or so attendees (from Upper
Applegate to Williams) provided
their input on priorities for action. It
Focus group meetings were held in October
to help develop priorities for an
Applegate Valley Economic Vitality Roadmap.
quickly became clear that there is an
overarching desire to support existing
farms and businesses without harming
our environment or lifestyle. Education,
housing, travel accommodations,
branding Applegate as “organic,” and
numerous other ideas were added to the
list of priorities.
Over the next two meetings, the
list of priorities will be further discussed
and refined. Once a final “roadmap” is
produced in January, action groups will
be formed to pursue the priorities. RDI
will assist us in identifying potential
funding sources and other resources to
help us make real progress.
Please attend one of the
upcoming meetings to be a part
of this process. Important things can
happen when we proactively engage in
creating our community’s future. Your
input is critical to guiding the future of
the Applegate!
The next meeting will be held
on Thursday, December 1, at 6 pm
at Williams Grange, 20100 Williams
Highway, Williams. Details about
January’s meeting will be posted on the
GACDC website at gacdc.org. Look
for the “AV Roadmap Project” tab. Also
on the website will be the November 3
presentation and a link to provide input
via a short survey.
5
If you can’t attend a meeting, please
arrange an interview with Amanda Close
(aclose@rdiinc.org or 206-919-0186).
Bonnie Rinaldi
Chair, GACDC
bonnie@rinaldinet.com
— CORRECTION —
The statement in Diana Coogle’s article, “What’s Behind the Fence?” (Fall
2016) that “big companies like FutureLand and Dicot Partners are buying
land here” was inaccurate. Dicot Partners (DP) has not purchased land in the
Applegate, according to Richard Gaxiola, corporate counsel, Dicot Partners
Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, Gaxiola is under the impression
that the sentence (in its entirety: “Although rumor has it that many of the owners
behind the fences are not local, and although big companies like FutureLand
and Dicot Partners are buying land here, many marijuana growers are local
farmers who joined the gold rush.”) implicates DP’s owner, Alan Kamben, as
having a “gold rush mentality” (Gaxiola’s phrase). Kamben, Gaxiola says, “has
been growing and producing organic cannabis in Oregon for the past ten years
and formulated Dicot Partners in an effort to protect his chemistry, organic
methodology and overall business internal structure.” The sentence in the
Applegater was not meant to impugn Kamben. It clearly contrasts companies
like Dicot Partners (not local to the Applegate) with local farmers “who joined
the gold rush,” a term phrased by one of the local farmers quoted in the article.
BOOKS & MOVIES
— Book —
Under a Flaming Sky
Daniel James Brown
Under a Flaming Sky is a true story
about the horrors of an unrelenting
forest fire that consumed a corner of
northern Minnesota on the last day of
August 1894.
The Great Hinckley Firestorm was a
fire of unimaginable consequences. The
smoke turned day to a moonless night,
and its hurricane-strength winds carried
flames over 200 feet high.
Ahead of the main fire were huge
flaming bubbles of gas that floated over
the town of Hinckley and exploded over
the heads of the 1,200 or so terrified
townsfolks, raining fire down on both
Hinckley and its inhabitants.
Families ran in a panic of terror,
screaming and begging for mercy. Many
of their tortured cries evaporated into a
heat so intense it melted steel.
This is an intense
read—I was gripping
the book so tightly that
I thought my fingers
might rip through all
the pages.
One of the heroes
in this story is train
engineer William
Bennet Best, who
worked for the Eastern
Minnesota Railroad.
Best held his train at the
Hinckley train station
as folks ran from their
burning town and
scrambled aboard the train. The heat
was so unbearably intense that Best
didn’t know how long he could hold the
train. From his engine, he watched a
little boy trying to run to the train while
carrying his dog that was bigger than
him and a man running toward the train
pushing a wheelchair
with another man in it.
As he waited
for folks to board,
Best witnessed the
horrific sight of people
exploding into flames
and incinerating before
his eyes.
Another hero, Ed
Boyle, a general store
proprietor from the
little burg of Mission
Creek, directed the
residents to the center
of a two-acre potato
field as the fire from hell devoured their
little town and ordered his employees
to bring barrels of water on a wagon.
People flung themselves into the furrows
of the potato field, burying their faces
into the scorching soil, gasping for
cool air that was not to be found; some
covered themselves with
wet blankets and shawls.
Over the roar of the all-devouring fire
that was louder than a tornado, they
could hear the screams of their children.
The heavens above were raining blazing
branches, cinders, and flaming pinecones
down on their backs. They all survived.
Under a Flaming Sky is one
adrenaline-pumping, sweaty, exhausting
ride into the teeth of terror. Brown
researched and wrote this book because
his grandfather was a nine-year-old
survivor of this Armageddon of a fire. His
grandfather was plagued with nightmares
about the fire for the rest of his life.
I found this book so riveting that
I could hardly put it down. This review
barely touches the tip of the flames that
burn through this spellbinding book.
Be sure to read this one!
J.D. Rogers
541-846-7736
— Movie —
Sully
the heroic
measures
1 Apple—Don’t bother
Reviewer rating: 4 Apples
of Captain
5 Apples—Don’t miss
Genre: Biography/Drama
Sully and his
PG-13
co-pilot, Jeff
Opened: September 2016
Skiles (Aaron Eckhart),
Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart,
but centers largely on
Laura Linney
what happens after the
Director: Clint Eastwood
passengers and crew
Sully, directed and produced by are plucked from the
Clint Eastwood and starring Tom f re e z i n g r i ve r a n d
Hanks, is based on the true story of how Captain Sully has to
veteran pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” defend his actions
Sullenberger became a national hero t o t h e N a t i o n a l
when he made a successful emergency Transportation Safety
landing in New York’s Hudson River on Board (NTSB). As tension-filled as the
January 15, 2009, after his plane struck actual emergency landing was, the post
a flock of geese, disabling both engines. inquiry, on Sully’s decision to land in the
The lives of all 155 passengers and crew Hudson instead of trying to make it to a
members aboard were saved.
nearby airport, was even more so.
Although this story was big news,
I think the average person watching
and I think it’s safe to say that all of this part of the movie would question if
America—and most of the world for the NTSB inquiry was even necessary!
that matter—knows the story, it is still a The reality is that 155 people owe their
movie not to be missed. It is not just about lives to Sully’s accurate under-pressure
decision, so why aren’t
they throwing him a
parade instead? Well,
every good story has
to have an antagonist,
of course, and in this
story, it’s the NTSB
that seems bound and
determined to prove
that Sully was in error.
I found this part of
the movie to be quite
interesting, engrossing,
and inspiring, but
there also was a level
of heartbreak about what Sully had to
endure when both his reputation and
career were on the line as he was being
investigated. And the truth of the matter,
which was soon discovered, is that
quick judgments based on computer
reenactments often do not match up to
real human experience. There are too
many factors involved, and this movie
proved just that!
All in all, I found
this movie to be a
powerful story with a strong sense of
realism from the actors. Tom Hanks, as
always, was captivating, and his co-star,
Aaron Eckhart, offered just enough edge
to Hanks’s calm and quiet confidence to
make them a great team, both on-screen
and “in the air.” Clint Eastwood did a
masterful job at depicting this true-life
rescue drama—by putting the audience
right in the cockpit during those tense
moments with Captain Sully—and in
creating the imagery of Sully’s conception
of what could have happened if he hadn’t
make a successful landing.
Overall, my opinion is that this is a
well-done movie that not only honors the
actual hero, but also offers a story with a
whole lot of heart. And, as I mentioned,
even though you already know how the
story ends, it’s still worth watching for
good edge-of-your-seat entertainment.
Kathy Kliewer
kkliewer19@gmail.com
