City Council JoCo. Commissioners
OK’s club
pay visit to Illinois Valley
free use of
showers as well as other reno-
By SAM NEWTON
vations, according to the com-
Staff Writer
missioners.
An unusually high turnout
Jubilee Park
COUGARS
SILENCE
HONKERS - The Illi-
nois
Valley
High
School Cougar varsity
boys basketball team
was
outscored
by
Lakeview 8-2 in the first
quarter of the fourth
game of Skyline Con-
ference
competition.
At the start of the sec-
ond quarter the Cou-
gars charged past the
Honkers
intimidating
zone defense to win the
game with a score of
49-26 on Friday, Jan. 24
at Illinois Valley High
School in Cave Junc-
tion. The Cougars next
home game will be on
Friday, Feb. 7 against
the Phoenix Pirates.
The Cougars’ Skyline
Conference record is 1-
3.
(Photos by Gary Bell)
(Additional photos on
page 12)
Biscuit Fire funds help to make
improvements at Lake Selmac
By BRITT FAIRCHILD
Staff Writer
A $70,000 project to
build a new shower facility at
Lake Selmac Park won’t cost
Josephine County one-cent.
Under an Oregon Oppor-
tunity Grant, the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Dept. agreed
to foot half of the total cost,
provided the county comes up
with the other $35,000.
During its Wednesday,
Jan. 22 morning meeting in
the Anne G. Basker Audito-
rium in Grants Pass, the
county board of commission-
ers approved allocating some
of the rent money it received
from the U.S. Forest Service
(USFS) to cover its portion of
the bill.
USFS used the park dur-
ing the height of the Biscuit
Fire as a base camp for more
than 6,000 firefighters and
support personnel helping
contain the blaze.
Besides the little more
than $100,000 it paid in rent,
USFS also covered some of
the rehabilitation costs for
areas damaged while assisting
with the fire.
A public meeting was
held at the Selma Community
Center in October so that area
residents could suggest how
the money should be spent.
“This isn’t going to cost
the county anything,” said
Mike Strahan, park supervi-
sor, who explained some of
the project’s details to the
commissioners at the meeting.
The new facility will
house four private unisex
showers, with doors that lock,
in a building separate from the
two existing showers, Strahan
said.
At least one of the four
showers will comply with
ADA standards. Neither of the
two showers there now meet
such requirements, he added.
And, adding more show-
ers will help better serve visi-
tors at the park’s 50 camp-
sites, he said.
Strahan said that construc-
tion is scheduled to begin in
the spring when the tempera-
ture warms and the weather
improves.
But Strahan noted that he
is not yet sure how long the
project will take, or which
company will be contracted to
do the work.
Strahan also noted that
plans for the construction of a
Frisbee golf course -- another
idea suggested at the October
meeting -- are under way.
However, he didn’t give a
time frame as to when the golf
course would be completed.
By SHARON SILVA
Staff Writer
The Cave Junction Lion’s
Club will be able to use Jubi-
lee Park at no cost for its an-
nual car show on June 28.
The Cave Junction City
Council quickly approved
club President Bobbette San’s
request during its short Mon-
day, Jan. 27 meeting.
“Most of the money we
take in as a non-profit organi-
zation goes right back to the
community,” San said. “We
donate to the Boys & Girls
Club of Illinois Valley, the
Illinois Valley Safe House
Alliance, Illinois Valley High
School’s grad night event, and
the Christmas Basket Pro-
gram.
“We send donations to the
Lion’s Sight and Hearing Cen-
ter in Medford, where they
process applications for peo-
ple here in the valley,” San
said.
Council member Rita
Dyer said she wanted to make
sure that the council treated all
non-profits the same. She then
made a motion to approve free
use of the park by the Lion’s
Club.
The motion was approved
4-0, as council member Dan
Fiske was absent from the
meeting.
Barbara Silva and Laron
Estes, owners of the Blue
(Continued on page 12)
was noted at the Josephine
County Commissioners quar-
terly citizens meeting on Mon-
day evening, Jan. 27 at the
county building in downtown
Cave Junction.
The I.V. Airport Industrial
Park and improvements at
Lake Selmac Park were a few
of the items on the agenda
More than 20 people at-
tended the meeting, including
members of the I.V. Airport
Advisory Board and Friends
of the I.V. Airport. Commis-
sioners Harold Haugen, Jim
Brock and Jim Riddle led a
discussion on the subject of
improvements to the airport.
Portions of the discussion
included the possible leasing
of land on the west side of the
runway and the construction
of a hangar by a private citi-
zen.
Matching grant money for
further developments were
also discussed.
Sharon Westcott of
Friends of the I.V. Airport
said that hopefully a lot of the
airport issues will be resolved
during the airport advisory
workshop on Monday, Feb. 3.
Bringing the smokejum-
pers back to the valley and
possible use of the airport for
helicopter training for initial
response in case of another
fire like the Biscuit Fire were
also discussed.
At Lake Selmac, plans are
under way to install new
IVHS health center closes
due to shortage of funds
By BRITT FAIRCHILD
Staff Writer
Even Measure 28’s suc-
cess won’t likely save the stu-
dent health center at Illinois
Valley High School.
The Josephine County
Public Health Division is pre-
paring to close the facility Fri-
day, Jan. 31, leaving hundreds
of students and parents with-
out access to basic health care.
“There are a number of
students that use the center,”
said Linda Stohlman, a regis-
tered nurse with the county
Health and Community Ac-
tion who has been at the cen-
ter since its inception in 1994.
Once it closes, no health
services whatsoever will be
provided at the high school, as
the Three Rivers School Dis-
trict does not employ any
school nurses, Stohlman said.
Students from private and
home schools use the IVHS
center as well.
“It’s a very busy clinic,”
Stohlman said.
During the last school
year alone, 311 of the 410 stu-
dents enrolled at IVHS re-
ceived care at the clinic, for a
total of 1,179 visits, according
to a 2002 report on Oregon’s
school-based health centers.
Not to mention the
amount of parents who have
grown accustomed to having
many of their children's’
health needs taken care of,
Stohlman added.
The IVHS clinic is not
alone in its pending closure.
The 43 other Oregon school-
based health centers that are
funded by the state will also
shut down as a result of the
budget shortfall, according to
Stohlman.
The IVHS clinic provides
a wide range of services at no
cost to students, including
treatment of common ill-
nesses, such as a cold, or sore
throat and some injuries; and
drug and smoking prevention.,
with parental consent required
for all services. There is a fee
sports physicals and for im-
munizations that state law re-
quires for enrollment in public
schools.
Without a lab or X-ray
equipment, for example, some
services aren’t available at the
clinic and students are referred
to family physicians.
“We like to do a lot of
preventative (medicine),”
Stohlman said, adding that
education is a main function
of the center, including teach-
ing students and their parents
how they can access health
care beyond the school-based
clinic.
But many IVHS students
who use the center do not
have health insurance,
Stohlman said. Plus, transpor-
tation is limited in such a rural
area.
Serving students at the
high school means they can
receive care and return to
class quicker than if they had
(Continued on page 12)
During their meeting
Wednesday, Jan. 22, the com-
missioners approved using
part of the money the U.S.
Forest Service paid in rent for
use of the park during the Bis-
cuit Fire to go toward con-
struction of the shower facil-
ity.
It was one of several sug-
gestions made during a previ-
ous public forum regarding
how the USFS funds should
be spent.
Cave Junction city council
member, Rita Dyer, said that
the city, county and YMCA
had entered into an agreement
to split the cost of operating
the I.V. Pool and hoped it
would continue.
“It has been a successful
partnership,” Dyer said.
“Even though the pool
was closed quite a bit during
the Biscuit Fire, the pool was
able to save some funds last
year that can be used this
year,” she added.
Brock noted that the com-
missioners were trying to
maintain the agreement for
five years.
In addition, Haugen re-
ported the results of a county-
wide survey conducted by
Oregon State University in
Corvallis.
For the survey, 406 Jose-
phine County residents were
asked if they felt it was ac-
ceptable to harvest timber
burned in the Biscuit Fire.
Some 85.5 percent answered
“yes.” In response to another
question, 89.7 percent agreed
(Continued on page 12)
USFS Biscuit
open house
set for Jan. 30
The U.S. Forest Service
invites the community to dis-
cuss and share information
with resource specialists re-
garding land management rec-
ommendations presented in
the Biscuit Post-Fire Assess-
ment concerning Siskiyou Na-
tional Forest lands affected by
the Biscuit Fire.
The Cave Junction com-
munity open-house will be
held at the county building in
downtown Cave Junction on
Thursday, Jan. 30, 3-7 p.m.
For more information contact
Janice Schultz at (541) 471-
6722.
Measure 28
‘Pass or Fail’
By SAM NEWTON
Staff Writer
As of 9 p.m. on Tuesday,
Jan. 28 preliminary results
from the Josephine County
Clerks office for the 2003
January Special Election for
Measure 28 are as follows:
With 86.95 percent of the bal-
lots returned from 40 of 46
Oregon counties: - No votes -
14,334 - 57.67 percent. Yes
votes - 10,477 - 42.15 percent.
Final results of the elec-
tion will be in next weeks is-
sue of the ‘Noose.’