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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2008)
Deputies faultless in fatal CJ shooting Inside: County money Court ruling seen as a solution Page 4 Library benefit Concert on tap Page 3 & 8 Rumor mill This week’s hot topic covered Page 5 Cop news Officers busy with various incidents Page 7 Branch office New arborist opens business Page 12 CJ gravel meet 1/14 A public hearing about a land-use request to add prop- erty on Holland Loop in rural Cave Junction to the Jose- phine County Inventory of Significant Aggregate Sites will be held in the city of Cave Junction. The meeting on Monday, Jan. 14 will begin at 7 p.m. in the county building at Red- wood Hwy. and Lister Street. The hearing will be con- ducted by the county plan- ning commission. Barlow Sand & Gravel is the applicant regarding prop- erty at 2612 Holland Loop. Bill Peterson is the represen- tative. The property is owned by Illinois Valley Ranch, rep- resented for the owner by Jennifer Ausland. The hearing is a con- tinuation of one held Nov. 16. Holding the gathering in Cave Junction, rather than Grants Pass, is a result of requests by I.V. residents. The hearing will follow a formal format: The commission chair- man will explain hearing pro- cedures; a planner will sum- marize the request, identify the applicable criteria and explain the issues; the appli- cant will make a presentation; others in favor may speak; opponents may speak; the applicant may offer rebuttal, and opponents, if allowed, may offer surrebuttal. If requested by the com- mission, the planner will summarize the request, crite- ria and evidence; the commis- sion may question partici- pants or involved county staff. Participants may ques- tion staff with permission of the commission, and the com- mission will close the hearing for deliberation and decision. Illinois Valley Fire District (IVFD) responded Friday, Jan. 4 at 6:32 a.m. to a travel trailer fire at Shady Acres RV Park on the south side of Cave Junction. Resi- dent Roy Vance was not home, and the fire cause appeared to be a space heater, said IVFD. Firefight- ers also responded Sunday, Jan. 6 at 2:27 p.m. to a re- ported flue fire at 4281 Takilma Road. Another flue fire brought a response Monday, Jan. 7 at 11:08 a.m. to the 300 block of Logan Cut Drive. (Photos by Dale & Elaine Sandberg, Illinois Valley Fire District Media Dept.) I.V.’s Toler new JoCo board chairman stated that Toler “very much grams, property tax assess- By WALLY AIKEN looks forward to working ment for schools and other For IVN with the media to help keep Josephine County com- governmental bodies.” And citizens apprised of the many missioners resumed work “the list goes on and on,” the critical county services we after the holidays on Wednes- release stated. provide to our citizens. day morning, Jan. 2 in Anne Further: “As we look Basker Audito- toward 2008, and rium in Grants the possible loss Pass with a meet- of federal funding ing that many had that pays for these predicted would be programs, Toler contentious. believes that our The one-year local media can position of com- play a key role in mission chairman, helping citizens traditionally ro- understand what tated among the (From left) Dave Toler, Dwight Ellis and Jim services we provide Raffenburg. (Photo by Wally Aiken/IVN) three commissioners, and how critical was given to Com- they are to our local “They include sheriff’s missioner Dave Toler, a rural economy and our quality of patrols, criminal prosecution, Cave Junction resident, on a life. the adult jail, animal control, 2-1 vote with Commissioner “Commissioner Toler restaurant inspections, county Jim Raffenburg opposing. The looks forward to working road maintenance and con- latter had been the most-recent with the media during 2008,” struction and shelter pro- chairman; Toler was vice the release concludes. chairman. Commissioner Dwight Two community meetings, one in Cave Junction, will be Ellis was named vice chair- held to provide input on finding a replacement for Dr. Jerry man. He said that he had been Fritts, superintendent of Three Rivers School District (TRSD). asked to accept the nomina- Fritts, who has been superintendent for the past three years, tion for chairman should it be has resigned, effective June 30 . offered. But Ellis went on to A community input meeting will be held Thursday, Jan. say that he saw no reason to 17 at Lorna Byrne Middle School in CJ. The gathering, from disrupt the normal non- 7 to 8:30 p.m., is open to anyone. partisan nature of the position A similar meeting at the same time will be held Wednes- and that he would accord- day, Jan. 16 at Fruitdale Elementary School in Grants Pass. ingly not accept the nomina- An input meeting with administrators and the TRSD board of tion for chairman. directors will be held earlier the same day at the district of- After the meeting, a fice. news release was provided. It Snowy weather contrib- uted to a number of road- way mishaps during the past several days. A non- injury crash (right) on Hays Hill Sunday, Jan. 6 was typical. In another incident, at 7:25 a.m. Tuesday Jan. 1, OSP said that John S. Kofi, 27, of McKinleyville, Calif., was uninjured. He swerved to avoid a deer in Selma. The deer survived. (Photos by Dale & Elaine Sandberg, Illinois Valley Fire District Media Dept.) *“Suicide by cop.” *Deputies “did every- thing they could to prevent the shooting.” *Officers “conducted themselves with remarkable restraint and in the highest of professional standards.” Those are among find- ings and remarks in a report in connection with the fatal shooting of rural Cave Junc- tion resident Paul Harrison Chesser on Nov. 10, 2007, a week to the day after his 66th birthday, following an early morning standoff. The report notes that the “highly intoxicated” man went into a shooter’s stance and began to aim toward two deputies when another deputy fired three rounds from his AR-15 rifle, and another offi- cer fired his handgun. Chesser died of wounds from two semiautomatic weapons, an AR-15 rifle and a .40-caliber handgun, fired by deputies at 28351 Red- wood Hwy., said Josephine County District Attorney Stephen D. Campbell on Fri- day, Jan. 4. Campbell, in issuing a media news release, said that he had concluded his review of the “police shooting on Nov. 10 at approximately 2:57 a.m. (that) resulted in the death of Chesser.” Campbell added that he appreciates the “full-and- complete investigation of the incident.” It was conducted, he said, by the Josephine County Major Crime Re- sponse Team, an interagency group comprised of detectives from Oregon State Police, Grants Pass Dept. of Public Safety, and Josephine County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO). The D.A.’s report in- cluded the following: “Evidence revealed that in the early morning hours of Nov. 10, a highly intoxicated Paul Chesser had fired at least five shots at the property, which resulted in a 911 call to JCSO by Robert Godina, the owner of the property. “Two of those shots were fired directly over the heads of Della Mewes, Paul Chesser’s domestic partner, and Cynthia Conrad, a friend of Chesser who also lived on the property with Godina. “As a result of the 911 call, four JCSO officers ar- rived at the property; Cpl. Ray Webb, Cpl. Edythe Deu- bert, Deputy Shawn Shaw and Deputy John Auborn. The officers contacted Chesser’s motorhome resi- dence on the property and requested that he come out and talk with them. “Cynthia Conrad came out of the residence and fol- (Continued on page 8) $400k low-income loan approved 2-1 by county By WALLY AIKEN For IVN With a 2-1 vote, a re- quest to apply for a $400,000 grant to aid low-income home owners was approved by the Josephine County Board of Commissioners. The board voted during its meeting Wednesday, Jan. 2 in Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass. Betty McRoberts and Linda Reid, of the Jackson County Housing Authority, approached the commission with the request for authori- zation to apply for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant for Josephine County. Such funds are used to fund a loan program for low-income home owners at a zero interest rate that is paid back upon sale of a home. Reid said that the loans are targeted to specific prob- lems such as repair of septic systems or wells and accessi- bility for handicapped per- sons. She said that there has never been a default on any loans given in Josephine County. Raffenberg was the lone vote against the program. “I will not support the program in ‘08,” he said. He continued, saying that the program represented a “redistribution of wealth through taxation” and that it was a “matter of conscience” for him. Because the money for the program already is in the state’s budget, Raffenburg was asked if he then felt that this money should go to other counties. He said that he felt it should be refunded to the taxpayers. For her part, Reid reiter- ated that the funds already were available to Josephine County. The county just needed to authorize her group to apply for the grant. She said that the money ends up recirculating throughout the community by allowing for the purchase of building sup- plies, and that it provides jobs for the contractors and work- ers who complete the jobs. She emphasized the neg- ligible default rate, noting that this is not a welfare type pro- gram, but a self-sustaining home improvement loan pro- gram for low-income fami- lies. She said that the program creates higher property values as well as providing direct economic gains to the county. A point of contention during the meeting centered around the county employee taking notes for the minutes. Raffenburg complained that Angel Osipovich, an assistant to the commissioners, had (Continued on page 8)
