Med center Students state opinions
project goal on the subject of war
Illinois Valley High
of pipelines
DETECTIVE MIKE VORVERG
Know a ‘clan lab’ when you see it
JOINT detectives share knowledge of meth and meth lab detection
By SAM NEWTON
Staff Writer
Mix two cups of cold
medicine, 1 cup of isopropyl
alcohol, stir in some iodine,
let sit, then apply heat.
Include a few more steps,
ingest, snort, inject or inhale --
and ruin your life.
During a Clandestine Lab
Awareness Workshop on
Wednesday, March 19 at the
county building in Downtown
Cave Junction, Josephine In-
teragency Narcotics Team
(JOINT) Detectives Mike
Vorverg and Dave Raymond
of the Josephine County Sher-
iff’s Office, along with Pete
Jenista of the Grants Pass
Dept. of Public Safety, JOINT
said that manufacturing
methamphetamine (meth) is
just about that easy.
“It seems pretty compli-
cated, but when you’re fol-
lowing step-by-step instruc-
tions that you can get off the
Internet it’s pretty easy,” said
Vorverg.
“The number-one method
of meth manufacture in this
area is what we call “Red P,”
or red phosphorus (from
match box striker plates) and
iodine,” Vorverg said.
“If a manufacturer really
got on it, he or she could make
a batch of meth in approxi-
mately one day,” he said.
Meth or “poor man’s co-
caine,” as some refer to it, is a
central nervous system stimu-
lant and is the most-abused
controlled substance of epi-
demic proportion in the
United States, with Josephine
County being third in the state
for meth lab seizures in 2001
with 63.
Consumption of meth --
whether by snorting, injecting,
ingesting or smoking -- sends
the brain a feeling of pleasure,
but as the drug is abused the
pleasurable feeling is lost. The
abuser suffers the same addic-
tion cycle as crack cocaine
users. The biggest difference
is that while crack binges sel-
dom last more than 72 hours,
meth binges can last up to two
weeks.
Meth increases the heart
rate and blood pressure; and
when the abuser comes down
off the “high” it is a signifi-
cant down -- causing nervous-
ness and depression.
“Behavioral patterns of an
abuser include irritability, ag-
gression, h yperactivit y,
twitchy movements, severe
weight loss, dental problems,
teeth grinding and brittle
bones,” said Vorverg.
Meth is easy and cheap to
make; the labs are easy to
hide; and selling meth can be
quite profitable.
A clandestine laboratory,
or “clan lab,” can be hidden in
something as small as a Tup-
perware bucket, the trunk of a
car, or a garage. “Most labs
are relatively small, or ‘mom
and pop labs,’ according to
Vorverg.
Some common meth lab
location indicators are large
amounts of cold tablet con-
tainers that list Ephedrine or
Pseudoephedrine as an ingre-
dient; match boxes (such as
Diamond Strike Anywhere)
with the striker plates re-
moved; jars containing clear
liquid with a white-colored
(Continued on page 8)
Cave Junction City Coun-
cil members dealt with a
smorgasbord of situations dur-
ing their 90-minute meeting in
city hall on Monday night,
March 24.
Topics included a circus,
alcohol license, swimming
pool funding, a $280,000 re-
quest for an infrastructure
grant, skateboard park expan-
sion, and park concerts.
Councilman Rita Dyer
said that a meeting for those
interested in keeping Illinois
Valley Swimming Pool open
this summer can attend a
meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednes-
day, March 26 in city hall.
She said it appears that
county commissioners might
not be able to provide the
$20,000 for pool operations as
last year. The city kicks in
$2,000; and pool admissions
help pay the bills.
Dyer also noted that if the
county allocates a requested
$10,000 for Tom Pearce Park,
that I.V. Pool should get the
same amount.
In connection with the
pool, uniformed Boy Scout
Sean Norvell addressed the
council, expressing concern
about the lack of the facility
during the coming summer.
The council, with member
Sandi Lund absent, voted 4-0
to proceed with submission of
an application for a $280,000
Community Development
Block Grant for extension of
water and sewer lines. The
extension is seen as a tremen-
dous boost toward realization
of plans for a new facility to
be operated by Siskiyou Com-
mu n i t y He a l t h C e n t e r
(SCHC).
Lines are to run from
River Street to a proposed site
for a new SCHC facility. The
site, on the east side of Red-
wood Hwy., is approximately
300 yards north of Wild River
Brewing & Pizza Co.
In a cooperative move,
SCHC and Illinois Valley Safe
House Association (IVSHA)
mutually agreed to allow the
medical center to seek city
sponsorship of the grant,
rather than IVSHA.
Dyer complimented the
organizations on their spirit of
(Continued on page 5)
R&R Buyout Association hires consultant
School senior Christina
Yanase isn’t angry about the
war in Iraq. She’s disap-
pointed.
Like several other stu-
dents in Steve Morgan’s sec-
ond period history/economics
class, Yanase feels President
Bush needed to have garnered
more global support before
initiating Operation Iraqi
Freedom on March 19.
“I don’t think he should
have gone in without the
U.N.,” she said.
The decision to send in
U.S. military troops hits too
close to home for Yanase,
whose brother, Gregory is on
a U.S. naval battleship in Bah-
rain.
Sitting in class the follow-
ing morning, an involved dis-
cussion about the first few
hours of war having just
ended, Yanase couldn’t help
but think of her brother. She
and her family spoke with him
recently, she said, but she said
she couldn’t disclose where he
was.
“I know he’s going to be
OK,” she said, becoming
teary.
Many of Yanase’s class-
mates are further removed
from the direct effect of the
war. They don’t have brothers
in combat. Living in such a
rural area, they don’t feel
threatened with possible ter-
rorist retaliation. Rising gas
prices are perhaps the most
noticeable result of the con-
flict.
Yet, for them, the war is
as personal.
“I think it’s really stupid,”
said junior Alex Eaton. “You
would think our government
would be more concerned
about imminent threats” like
North Korea, who we know
has nuclear weapons.
Describing the situation as
somewhat of a “political
game” between President
Bush and Saddam Hussein,
Eaton added that Bush should
be more concerned about the
problems, the economic defi-
cit especially, here at home.
Another junior in the
class, Lisa Teunissen, echoed
similar views as to why she is
against the war. The Bush ad-
ministration, she said, did not
succeed in proving that Sad-
dam Hussein has weapons of
mass destruction. However,
she said a war in Iraq was in-
ALEX EATON
‘Regardless of (our) opin-
ions, (we) need to sup-
port the troops over
there,’ Eaton said.
evitable.
“I think if it hadn’t come
now, it would have come
later,” she said.
Since talk of probable
military action climaxed, sen-
ior Jessica McMahan, who
supports the war, said she
finds that she’s watching the
news more and driving less.
“I think he’s (President
Bush) going in the right direc-
tion. He wants to free the peo-
ple of Iraq,” she said.
Junior David Peckham,
who is in Morgan’s third pe-
riod AP History class, also
believes Bush did the right
thing.
“Saddam Hussein does
not deserve to be alive,” he
said, noting he trusts the presi-
dent and thinks he did a valid
job of showing the American
people that Iraq’s leader has
weapons of mass destruction.
Less trusting of the presi-
dent’s reasons for why the
United States is engaged in
war, senior Brittany Robertson
compared the current situation
to the story of David & Goli-
ath.
“There was never really a
question of if we are going to
war, (but) when are we going
to war,” she said.
Some seventh- and eighth-
graders in Bill Dunham’s cur-
rent events class at Lorna
Byrne Middle School shared
similar, impassioned thoughts
about the war on Friday,
March 21.
“I don’t support this,” said
seventh-grader Nolan Bock-
steigel, noting that the U.N.
should have been able to look
harder for weapons of mass
destruction.
(Continued on page 8)
Employee efforts continue to save county’s last lumber company, and 150 valley jobs
By SAM NEWTON
Staff Writer
To keep 150 family wage-
earners employed, the Rough
& Ready Buyout Association
is entering another stage in the
Employee Stock Ownership
Plan (ESOP).
The plan has been in the
works since shortly after the
December announcement that
Rough & Ready Lumber Co.
would be closed due to the
lack of timber supply.
Bob Webb, association
coordinator said that the The
Beck Group (BECK), a forest
products consulting, planning
and benchmarking firm, has
been hired to conduct a feasi-
bility study.
BECK will study the fea-
sibility of changing the owner-
ship of Rough & Ready to an
ESOP. When completed, the
study will include a business
plan, market analysis, supply
analysis, debt study, risks and
rewards of reopening the mill
and investigate the possibility
of new income streams, such
as co-generation or increased
small log utilization.
Webb, who made a trip to
Salem in early March, was on
the selection panel that deter-
mined which firm was hired to
do the study.
“There were four firms to
choose from -- it came down
to two, but BECK by far had
the most impressive project
proposal,” said Webb.
During the last decade,
BECK has completed more
than 30 separate competitive
assessments or benchmarking
studies in many segments of
the forest products industry,
including western and south-
ern lumber, plywood, studs,
and hardwood. The firm has
international experience
throughout Canada, as well as
New Zealand and Australia.
“Tom Beck, president of
BECK, complimented Rough
& Ready on its workforce,”
said Webb, “and how the mill
took care of its product
(lumber). He said, ‘I can tell
that the lumber had been cre-
ated by a “real lumber man’,”
said Webb.
“It’s going to cost be-
tween $30,000 and $35,000 to
get the feasibility study done,”
said Webb.
“One of the other groups
that was up for the job wanted
$48,000, so that’s pretty
good,” he said.
After the study is com-
pleted, the buyout association
will present a business plan to
financial institutions specializ-
ing in loaning money to
ESOPs.
“The next step will be
getting the financial assis-
tance, then putting it out there
that we are looking for logs
and hopefully we can start
purchasing them,” said Webb.
CIVIL WAR HISTORY - Clay Feeter, a Curry County resident
and Civil War history buff, will be at the Book Exchange in
Western Plaza in Cave Junction on Friday, March 28. He
helps people locate Civil War relatives. (See story on page 5)