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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2007)
Page 2 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, January 17, 2007 All this talk about our current home menagerie has put me in a mind mode of memories about pets through the years. Back in the Olden Days, my family lived on Hyatt Street in the Linda Vista section of San Diego, and I recall having a gold fish and a hamster, although not simultaneously. Unfortunately (for the fish), I was too young to un- derstand about the need for gilled critters to stay under- water. My experimenting with “fish out of water” was fatal (for poor Goldie). The hamster, who was unnamed, escaped from his cage, and then darted outside when my Mom opened the back door, eliciting several shrieks (from my Mom, not the hamster.) Some time later, my Dad recaptured the rodent, and I think he (the hamster) was given to a neighbor. A few years later, we acquired a bow-legged, oddly shaped Chow. He was the runt of the litter, and I named him Yankee Clover, having stolen the name from my Mom’s perfume bottle. Yankee and I had some great adventures in the canyons that then existed in Linda Vista. He used to follow me to Chesterton Elementary School too, and my Mom would have to trudge there to get the pet. The canyons are all filled now and covered with houses and stuff. After we moved to Dunlop Street, some nasty person made up stories about Yankee, and we had to take him to the Humane Society. Too bad. I loved that little guy. On Dunlop, maybe to make up for the loss of Yan- kee, my Dad got me a white rabbit. That was a mistake, as all he wanted (the rabbit) was to get outside. We had little room in the house, so the bunny was relegated to a small space between the refrigerator and the kitchen counter. Mr. Bunny was not happy, and kept crashing against the chunk of plywood that served as his cell door. I don’t remember what happened to the carrot chomper. Maybe he was given to a neighbor? We’ve had a Google number of cats and dogs, es- pecially when we lived in rural Poway. Uncaring folks would dump unwanted felines and canines nearby, and quite a few managed to escape becoming coyote en- trees; then live with us. Also in Poway, we had a terrific Standard Poodle named “Sheba,” several other dogs that were mostly insane, plus a donkey and two Shetlands; and we raised rabbits, chickens, and a milk goat. We also had a white rat and a tarantula. Fortunately, as I have herpetopho- bia, none of our children or their friends brought us any snakes. But we did have some lizards as temporary guests. I don’t mind them; it’s snakes that creep me out. If you have pets, you’ll need vets, which can lead to debts and sometimes nets. But the happiness they bring lessens the sting. And that’s enough rhyming and alliteration for this week, except to say that we enjoy the features of our creatures. Sorry. Mon-Thurs, 6 am-7 pm Fri, 6 am-8:30 pm Sat, 7 am-8:30 pm Sun, 7 am-7 pm Downtown Cave Junction COUNTRY STORE & DELI: Boneless Pork Loin R OASTS OR C HOPS $ 2 79 lb. Lean & Tender! Lean, Tender B EEF S TEW M EAT $ 2 79 lb. Warm up your belly! BREAKFAST & LUNCH: HUGE MENU! Delicious & Nutritious Big Breakfast... C HICKEN F AJITA B URRITO , just $ 3 50 each At our processing plant we will cus- Have breakfast & lunch tom cut & wrap your farm animals for with us! 59¢ per lb. Call 592-4185 for details. WEEKEND DINNER & MUSIC: Join us for great food and fine live entertainment. Steaks, Seafood, Specials, and more. Friday Music: Dale Hopper, great country fun Saturday Music: Ross & Sam; acoustic guitar, flute, & vocals Illinois Valley News www.illinois-valley-news.com An Independent Weekly Newspaper Co-owned and published by Robert R. (AKA Bob or El Jefe), Editor and Jan Rodriguez Entered as second class matter June 11, 1937 at Post Office as Official Newspaper for Josephine County and Josephine County Three Rivers School District, published at 321 S. Redwood Hwy., Cave Junction, OR 97523 Periodicals postage paid at Cave Junction, OR 97523 Post Office Box 1370 USPS 258-820 Telephone (541) 592-2541, FAX (541) 592-4330 Email: newsroom1@frontiernet.net or newsdesk@illinois-valley-news.com Volume 69, No. 44 Staff: Michelle Binker, Zina Booth, Josiah Dean, Scott Jorgensen Millie Watkins, and Tina Grow Member: Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association DEADLINES: News, Classified & Display Ads, Announcements & Letters 5 P.M. THURSDAYS (Classified ads & uncomplicated display ads can be accepted until Noon, Fridays with an additional charge.) POLICY ON LETTERS: ‘Illinois Valley News’ welcomes letters to the editor provided they are of general interest, in good taste, legible and not libelous. All letters must be signed, using complete name, and contain the writer’s address and telephone number. The latter need not be published, but will be used to verify authenticity. The ‘News’ reserves the right to edit letters. Generally, one letter per person per month at publishers’ discretion. Letters are used at the discretion of the publishers. Unpublished letters are neither acknowledged nor returned. A prepaid charge may be levied if a letter is inordinately long in the publishers’ opinion. POLICY ON “HERE, THERE & EVERYWHERE,” DISPLAY & CLASSIFIED ADS & NOTICES: All submissions must be hand delivered, faxed or e-mailed to us for publica- tion. Submissions must be resubmitted weekly if the item is to run more than one week. SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year in Josephine County - $22.80 One year in Jackson and Douglas counties - $26.40 One year in all other Oregon counties and out-of-state - $36 POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction OR 97523 Possibilities of layoffs at RCC studied Administrative staff at Rogue Community College (RCC) have been meeting since August to evaluate suggested staff and program cuts necessitated by a de- cline of nearly $2 million in state funding from fiscal year 2006 to FY ’08. Some faculty and staff members have received “unofficial” layoff notices, the college announced, in advance of the anticipated June 30 cut-off date. “We have great concern for our employees and want to provide as much notice as possible,” said RCC Presi- dent Peter Angstadt, “so staff members can plan for their future.” Official notice of lay- offs will be issued this month, after which faculty and classified staff will have 30 days to comment and discuss alternatives, the col- lege said. RCC is facing a 10 per- cent reduction in staff and faculty positions, due to low enrollments, and has said it will furlough the diesel tech- nology degree and electron- ics programs. College offi- cials also are considering a reduction in the number of days the college is open. The budgetary crisis stems from the increased expense of personnel costs, utilities, fuel, materials, and services, as well as a state funding formula that uses a “rolling average” of current and past years’ enrollment. Low student numbers dur- ing the 2001-2002 recession still figure into the funding RCC receives from the state, Angstadt said. Even though there has been a 12.3 percent upswing in enrollment this year from last, the student full-time enrollment is down more than 900 from 2000-01. The recent upturn in enrollment, according to Angstadt, “reflects a con- tinuing demand for RCC services.” The previous decline in students, Anstadt believes, was a result of reduced of- ferings and increased tuition due to budget cuts. RCC is working with legislators to enact changes in the allocation formula, especially the stipulation that locally raised property tax revenue be sent to the state for redistribution throughout the state com- munity college system. “RCC is one of a num- ber of community college districts with a high level of support through local prop- erty taxes,” said Dr. Kevin Talbert, board chairman. “The unfortunate conse- quence of the state board decision (to include all prop- erty taxes in the state com- munity college support fund for redistribution) is that Southern Oregon taxpayers end up subsidizing other community colleges ...” As a result, Talbert em- phasized, Rogue Commu- nity College is left with fewer general fund dollars and higher tuition costs. Should the state im- prove the funding picture for community colleges, Ang- stadt said, staff would be recalled. “(We) may not know until June what the state- wide level of community college support will be,” he concluded. Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. - Malcolm Forbes - (Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including state- ments made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.) * * * Typed, double-spaced let- ters written solely to this news- paper are considered for publi- cation. Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and legible also can be considered. ‘Thank you’ submissions are not accepted as letters. gaze dreamily out the win- dow thinking about how righteously religious we all are? American the Beauti- ful. Family values and all. It is happening down the street and just across the ocean. A few hours away by jet. A few hours away. Not far, far away. Close enough to almost touch. As close as, say, Iraq. As of this writing, as far as I know, Omar Al Bashir still runs Sudan. I am not sure of the status of Charles Taylor. I believe he is still a free man, or should I say monster. Not hanging with -- but still hanging out. * * * Still hanging out; he cites two more From William Schneider Cave Junction They hung Saddam in late-December. Big deal. There should have been two more bodies dangling: Charles Taylor, of Liberia; and Omar Al Bashir, of Sudan, whose regimes are responsible for much of the terror happening in Africa. Between 2003-2006, 400,000 dead and more than 1 million displaced. Terror far more heinous than a clean gassing of the multitudes of Kurds. Sad- dam’s acts are almost clini- cally sterile compared with what is happening in Africa. Rather than go into detail, I urge that we be- come informed as to the literal Hell-on-Earth that is Sudan and other places on the continent where gold and diamonds are awash in blood, and babies are thrown into fires while mothers are raped and hacked to pieces with 15- cent machetes made in China, and child soldiers shoot their parents and sib- lings with AK-47s (made in China and Russia). Where the Jangaweed ride through villages hack- ing and shooting anything and anyone while rounding up girls for sex slaves and boys, 5-, 6-, 9-, 12-years old for soldiers, whose first acts are to shoot their parents, in many instances. All under the guidance and watchful eyes of some world leaders who are not dangling with Saddam, but still carry on their terror as I write. Family values? War on Terror? Empty echoing rhetoric. When we think of dia- monds and gold let us re- member Africa, littered with the corpses of hundreds of thousands of our fellow hu- man beings. When we pray in our churches, maybe ask what is our share of respon- sibility by the money we spend and things we don’t do for the suffering of others not so far away. If we saw it down the street, a baby being hacked to death while its mother is being unmentionably abused and tortured, would we still 30 years experience in water, sewer & pipeline construction, brush clearing, septic installation & utility line trenching Specializing in alternative septic systems READY TO DIG & AIMING TO PLEASE 24 HOURS A DAY 1-(541) 597-4486 CCB#159580 Riverside Physical Therapy Full Rehabilitation Services: *Physical Therapy *Occupational Therapy *Anodyne therapy TWO LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU Cave Junction Office 218N. Redwood Hwy. (541) 592-6580 Grants Pass Office 1619 N.W. Hawthorne Ave. Suite 109 (541) 476-2502 Jeff Wood, M.S., P.T. Luz Moore Presents: Low-Income Housing Workshop Friday, February 9, 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Cave Junction City Hall Council Chambers. Financing is available for up to 100% of value with no down payment required for purchase of a new or existing home in rural areas. Eligibility based on household size, income, credit history, & debt to income ratio. Depending on household income, mortgage payments may be subsidized to as low as 1% inter- est. Eligibility requirements & area income limits will be discussed at the workshop. Those needing help with credit scores should attend the Credit Repair Workshop. Guest Speakers: Sponsored by: Bret Dixon, Area Director of Luz Moore the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture with Susan Cherry Century 21, Harris & Taylor Seating is limited. For registration, call (541) 415-1961 The Kerby Transfer Station is open to help you... Hours: Mondays - Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information phone (800) 922-1025
