Page 7
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Jim Raffenburg Washington, D.C-bound for WOPR
(Continued from page 1)
FASHIONS & PASSIONS - Grants Pass Christian
Women’s Club is sponsoring a Fashion Show & Dessert
event at the county building in Cave Junction on Thurs-
day, Sept. 6 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Colene Talley from Bear
Images Boutique will present clothing, gifts and jewelry.
The inspirational speaker will be Nancy Reed, from
Union, Ore., known as “Martha Stewart’s twin sister.”
And Medford soloist Barbara Wygal will perform.
Tickets at $5 will be available at the door, and reserva-
tions are requested by Thursday, Aug. 30. Phone Gayl
Bohey at 592-6452, or Carol Angus at 592-4742.
I.V. VOLUNTEER GOLF - Friday, Aug. 31 is the
deadline to sign up for an Illinois Valley Volunteer Fire-
fighters Association open event at I.V. Golf Course on
Saturday, Sept. 15. The three-person mixed scramble will
include door prizes and hole-in-one challenge prizes. To
enter, phone Firefighter Joe Brown at 659-8726.
WINEMAKERS WINGDING - A special eight-
course dinner will be served Wednesday, Sept. 12, high-
lighting the wines and food offered in Illinois Valley. The
event in the dining room of the historic Chateau at Oregon
Caves National Monument, 22 miles east of Cave Junc-
tion, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Representatives from valley
wineries will present each course and discuss the interac-
tion of the flavors. Reservations are being accepted at $55
per person. Those who wish to spend the night will re-
ceive a $20 room discount. Reservations are required and
can be made by phoning 592-3400.
SWEET & DEER - Rachel Goodman had sliced
apples and honey ready for participants in a recent bicycle
tour of Takilma organic gardens, organized by Spiral Liv-
ing Center. But when they arrived, she was so excited she
forgot about the snack, and then joined the tour. When she
returned home, the plate of apples and honey on her back
porch had been consumed by the mostly tame deer who
hang around the house. Rachel initially worried about the
plastic wrap that had covered the plate, but found it
nearby. How the hoofed visitors removed the wrap is not
yet known.
NOTEPAD - Illinois Valley Boosters Club for
IVHS and Lorna Byrne Middle School will elect officers
during an open meeting on Monday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at
IVHS … Lelo Kerivan from Bridgeview Winery has
taken a spot on the I.V. Chamber board vacated by Vicki
Gill ... Some $900 in a wallet was turned in last week by a
man at the Cave Junction Post Office. The owner was
telephoned in Happy Camp, and he rewarded the man’s
honesty with 100 bucks … Following the death of a deaf
Cave Junction resident in connection with a rope swing
along the Rogue River, the tree was cut down two days
later by persons unknown (See obituaries on page 8) …
Great Cats World Park will host a mixer for Illinois Val-
ley Chamber of Commerce Friday, Sept. 7. The time will
be in next week’s I.V. Noose ... Wine, cheese and art will
be featured during a fund-raiser at Bridgeview Winery
Sept. 15 to benefit the SMART (Start Making A Reader
Today) program at Evergreen Elementary School. Artists
who want to donate a work for the auction can phone
Nancy Brown at 592-2250 … T-shirts: *I can’t wait to
procrastinate. *If you can’t live without me, why aren’t
you dead? *Yes, I am the town drunk. *My other T-shirt
is dirty.
LAST WORDS - All other holidays are in a more or
less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s
prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and
power, of glories achieved by one nation over another.
Labor Day ... is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no
sect, race, or nation. (Samuel Gompers)
★ N OW U NDER N EW O WNERSHIP ★
Grand Re-Opening
for Monday & Tuesday Nights
SPECIALS START AT 3:00 P.M.
— Monday —
All-You-Can-Eat Tacos, $4.99
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of Legislative Affairs for the
Dept. of the Interior. He also
wants to meet with her
counterpart at the U.S. Dept.
of Agriculture.
And he’ll get with as
many senators and con-
gressman on The Hill as he
can.
“We need to make sure
that D.C. is on board with
The Whopper,” he said.
“At hand is this federal
issue of county funding
through timber receipts,” he
continued. “It’ll be two to
six years before funds
would begin flowing, so we
need the impetus to get that
plan OK’d, plus we need to
fill the void with funding for
in-between,” he noted.
Raffenburg said that he
is hopeful the WOPR can be
implemented and “not be
ground to a halt in the
courts.” He added it’s clear
that BLM has presented a
plan showing scientifically
that harvesting can be ac-
complished while still hon-
oring environmental and
habitat concerns.
He feels that the WOPR
shows actual scientific evi-
dence “that is not a default.”
In that case, he said, those
opposed to the plan should
be able to accept the data.
Redwoods
Restaurant
1720 Redwood Ave., 472-1344
Congress has been
called upon to make the Se-
cure Rural Schools program
permanent if Congress
allows the secretaries of
Agriculture and Interior to
increase public land-user
fees to fund it.
The Western Counties
Alliance (WCA), based in
Salt Lake City, said that it
represents rural public land
counties around the West.
Congress is considering
a bill, H.R. 3058, that would
give this authority to the two
secretaries to fund both the
Secure Rural Schools pro-
gram and the Payment in
Lieu of Taxes program
(PILT) that are so critical to
counties. The recommenda-
tion came in testimony
WCA provided to a con-
gressional subcommittee
which recently held hearings
on the bill.
A copy of the testimony
is available at westerncoun-
t i e s . o r g / w c a /
hr3058_testimony.cfm.
“This legislation would
reauthorize a retooled Se-
cure Rural Schools
program for five years, but
at the end of that time there
is no provision to remove or
lower the fees that Congress
is authorizing the secretaries
to impose to pay for it and
for the PILT program,”
noted WCA Executive Di-
rector Mark Walsh.
“There are very few
instances where fees,
once imposed or raised, are
ever removed or lowered,”
said Walsh. “If the fees are
- Kathleen Norris -
Sun. - Th. 7:30am - 7:30pm, Fri. & Sat. 7:30am - 8pm
IVCDO Meeting Schedule
Making Things Happen!
September, 2007
Day
Date
Meeting
Time
Location
Mon
9/3
Community Relations
5:30-6:30 PM
IVCDO Office
9/12
Operational Oversight &
Projects & Programs
5:30-6:30 PM
Wed
Executive Comm.
6:30-7:30 PM
Workshop / Board
Meeting
6:00-9:00 PM
Thurs 9/20
spectrum of business, civic
and environmental interests
and concerns, they are Cave
Junction resident Don
Moore, a member of the
county planning commis-
sion, Jim Frick, Cameron
Krauss, Grant Pencille,
Lowell Gibson, Jack Ship-
ley, Kevin Mars, and county
forester Vic Harris.
Raffenburg noted that
all except Harris also are
members of the county’s
Long-Term Funding Com-
mittee.
Nifty Gifty
Thrift
Saturday, September 1
across from Shop Smart on Watkins
Secure funding for schools
tied to public land-use fees
All that is
necessary is to
accept the impossible,
do without the
indispensable, and
bear the intolerable.
The
Landmark court cases
could result, should various
groups file suits, he feels.
Although encouraged
by the WOPR preferred al-
ternative, if it does not come
to fruition Raffenburg noted
that there is a “fail-safe”
plan put forward by the As-
sociation of O&C Counties.
It involves privatizing half
the federal land lying in the
18 O&C counties.
But that plan is on the
back burner, he said, pend-
ing the outcome of the
WOPR revision. A final
decision is not anticipated
until late during 2008.
Meanwhile, in a related
matter, Raffenburg stated
that the county has estab-
lished a Natural Resource
Advisory Committee. Its
first task is to review the
WOPR and draft a docu-
ment by Nov. 9.
“The long-term goal,”
said Raffenburg, “is to de-
velop a long-term resource
plan for the county; not only
federal land, but all land in
the county.
“That way, we can de-
termine the effects of federal
and private activity on land
within Josephine County.”
The committee consists
of nine members. Besides
Raffenburg, to represent a
Visitor Center
Visitor Center
going to be imposed, the
revenue generated should go
into a dedicated fund to be
used only for these two criti-
cal programs in perpetuity.”
The Secure Rural
Schools program was en-
acted as a temporary meas-
ure in 2000 to help counties
affected by the drastic re-
duction in timber harvesting
on federal lands. PILT was
passed in 1976 to partially
compensate counties, which
cannot tax federal land, for
the costs of the services they
must provide as a result of
the federal presence.
It has never been fully
funded, Walsh said. In its
testimony, WCA also cau-
tioned that Congress must
provide guidelines to the
secretaries so that any fees
imposed will not fall dispro-
portionately on local resi-
dents. This means that ac-
tions such as increasing
grazing, logging and similar
fees would be excluded.
“These are two criti-
cally important programs to
rural public lands counties,”
Walsh said, “but Congress
must not give the secretaries
blanket authority.
“It makes no sense to
try to pay for these pro-
grams on the backs of
county taxpayers who are
already subsidizing the fed-
eral government and all
Americans, who are the
owners of the public lands,
through the property taxes
which they already pay.
“The increases should
be imposed in a way that
allows all Americans to help
pay equally for these costs
that the presence of public
lands imposes on counties.”
I.V. links ...
(Continued from page 1)
of active members de-
creased, that the time had
come to pass the torch to a
new entity to bring a new
future for golf enthusiasts in
the region.”
The land on which the
course sits is surrounded by
current and planned residen-
tial and commercial devel-
opments. It is at the intersec-
tion of Hwy. 199 and Laurel
road; and the highway is
being widened at this time
“to accommodate the grow-
ing development activity.”
* Biscuits & Gravy * Pancakes
* Eggs * Bacon * Sausage
* Coffee, Milk, Juice
Adults - $5
Children 12
& under - $2.50
BIG Y Swap Meet
Shop or Sell in air-conditioned comfort
Every Saturday & Sunday, 7 to 4
Approximately 100 vendors!
Across from Bi-Mart
at the crossroads of
199, 6th St., & Rogue River Hwy.
Sellers call (541) 659-9307
for reservations
Dr. Joe’s Pet Hospital
Saturday,
September 8th
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Come see the
new addition!
50/50 Raffle
Proceeds go to
“Help Save the Animals”