Page 2
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, December 10, 2008
No one dislikes, abhors and otherwise detests mis-
takes in print more than I, especially when there is noth-
ing I can do about an error except to apologize. I can’t
fix something that’s concluded. If we were a daily news-
paper, we could have recovered from the goof we made
on page 1 last issue by reporting that the chamber of
commerce Christmas event would begin at 6 p.m.
It actually began at 4 p.m. So, we have received
some missives from upset folks, and I can certainly
sympathize with them. But that’s all I can do, besides
apologizing, and noting that with three grown children
and five granddaughters, plus dealing with other young-
sters, we are familiar with disappointment of little ones.
To prevent such blunders in future editions, the staff
and I (all four of us in the office) are going to begin utiliz-
ing a triple-check format. We really don’t like mistakes,
and hopefully one will not occur again. However, I can’t
promise. I can only say we are striving to avoid them.
And as Linus said to Charlie Brown: “Why worry
about minor embarrassment when you can achieve total
public humiliation.”
Regarding my inaccuracy, there are only so many
ways to express my regret, except to say Lo siento,
Прошу прощения, Excusez-moi, Es tut mir furchtbar leid,
Moushiwake gozaimasen -- and I’m sorry.
Open:
Tuesdays - Fridays, 9 to 6
Most Saturdays, 10 to 4
23772 Redwood Hwy., Kerby
592-4838
www.yanasejewelers.com
Christmas Decorating Contest
For ALL businesses & ALL residences.
Decorations must be ready for judging by
Friday, December 19th (entry deadline also)
Sponsored by
Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce
Business ______________________
Address ______________________
Indoor
Outdoor
7Send to I.V. Chamber at
P.O. Box 312
Cave Junction OR 97523
7Deliver to chamber office at
I.V. Visitor Center
7or Phone 592-3326
Illinois Valley News
www.illinois-valley-news.com
An Independent Weekly Newspaper
Co-publishers: Bob & 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
P.O. Box 1370 USPS 258-820
Telephone (541) 592-2541, FAX (541) 592-4330
Email: newsroom1@frontiernet.net or newsdesk@illinois-valley-news.com
Volume 71, No. 39
Staff: Michelle Binker, Zina Booth, Brenda Encinas, and Millie Watkins
Website maintenance by Ashgrove Visual Arts
Member: Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association
(Editor’s Note: Views
and commentary, including
statements made as fact, are
strictly those of the letter-
writers.)
* * *
Typed, double-spaced
letters are considered for
publication. Hand-written
letters that are double-
spaced and legible also can
be considered. “Thank you”
submissions are not ac-
cepted as letters.
Editor made mistake
From Tonia Lavine
Cave Junction
My mom and I took my
4-year-old son to the tree
lighting at 6 p.m. Saturday
night, Dec. 6 like the paper
stated. When we showed up,
the tree was lit, and everyone
was gone, including Santa.
Not only did we show
up at the appropriate time, but
so did about 20 to 25 other
families with their young
children in hopes of seeing
Santa, and go caroling with
the high school choir, and
have cookies and cider.
We asked the people at
the Junction Inn, and they
said that everything had hap-
pened between 4:15 and 4:30
p.m. So now I and a lot of
other families have a bunch
of disappointed children, and
it is up to us to try and explain
to them why Santa let them
down and was not there.
Merry Christmas from a
very disappointed parent.
Editor big Grinch
From Karen L.
Cave Junction
Last night (Dec. 6) was
the saddest night I have seen
in Cave Junction. It wasn’t
about someone dying or a bad
accident, it was the sound of
around 20 cars of children at
6 p.m. when Santa Claus was
not there (on the Junction Inn
vacant lot) as printed by the
newspaper.
So we as parents, grand-
parents or loving relatives
gathered our beloved children
out in the cold to go see “the
man of the hour” for all kids,
only to see that at 6 p.m. as
the paper said he would be
there, turn to a large disap-
pointment and to calm their
crying children trying to ex-
plain to 2-to-8-year-olds
what happened and why eve-
rything was gone.
Neither the newspaper
nor the Illinois Valley Cham-
ber of Commerce had this
awful duty. Did the editor
even care when he was care-
fully typing out the night’s
events; was it a typo in the
time? Can this town explain
to our kids why Santa did not
show at the hour they were
told by us all day, while they
waited for the right time?
It was pretty sad, like the
Who who stole Christmas.
My grandson was crying and
saying that “all he wanted to
do was see Santa Claus and
have a nice Christmas,” now
in his 4-year-old mind he
feels that he won’t because he
didn't get to “tell” Santa his
Christmas wishes.
This was so wrong and
there is no way the editor can
Senior Nutrition Menu
Sponsored by
fix this big “Uh Oh!” This
town and the paper that we
rely on to guide us needs to
get it straight, especially in
these times when we are all
trying to give our kids a good
Christmas and enjoy all the
things that town has to offer at
the times the paper has told us.
I won’t say “Thank you”
at the end of this note because
there was no thanks last night
for these children, maybe
they are (the children) more
forgiving?
(Editor’s Note: The
error is entirely mine, and
no fault of the chamber.
Also see Bob’s Corner.)
‘David & Goliath’
From Jean Blevins
Grants Pass
A David & Goliath-type
story emerged during the
Dec. 3. Grants Pass City
Council meeting when it up-
held the Urban Area Planning
Commission’s decision to
deny Hellgate Jetboats Excur-
sions a major site plan review
and major variance.
Hellgate, a multimillion
dollar corporation, and one
lone woman, locked horns
several years ago. The issue
was an above-ground 4,000-
gallon gasoline tank used to
fuel the jetboats.
Since 1995, Arden
McConnell, whose home is
across the street from Hell-
gate’s gas tank, often had
complained to owner Robert
Hamlyn that toxic diesel
fumes from the gasoline de-
livery truck fueling Hellgate’s
tank, and the fumes released
during the transfer of the fuel
to the tank, were polluting the
air in and around her home
and grounds, as well as the
rest of the neighborhood.
When McConnell even-
tually filed a formal com-
plaint with the city of Grants
Pass, it became apparent that
the above-ground gasoline
tank should have originally
been classified as a Marine
Fueling Station, a classifica-
tion that requires compliance
with stringent safety codes.
The city found that the gas
tank had been operating un-
der a misclassification since
its installation in 1991.
Marine Fueling Stations
have safety codes which the
existing tank does not meet.
The tank sits next to the Riv-
erside Inn Motel, behind a
fence, on S.E. Eighth Street
overlooking Rogue River.
Hamlyn, faced with replacing
a nonconforming gas tank,
filed for a major variance to
replace the existing tank with
a larger 6,000 gallon gasoline
tank in the same location.
That variance was denied.
McConnell has persisted
since 1995. “This is a com-
munity issue. I’m grateful
city officials have taken this
action,” she stated. “Our
community comes first. Toxic
fumes overpower our homes,
yards, and pollute the very air
we breath each year during
Hellgate’s yearly five-month
operating season. It’s been
going on for nearly 20 years
with little cooperation offered
by Hellgate to provide a solu-
tion.” McConnell proposed
keeping the new fueling op-
eration away from residences
and neighborhoods.
Hamlyn stated that he is
undecided if he will appeal
the council’s decision. “It’s
been a 13-year struggle. What
a wonderful Christmas pre-
sent,” said McConnell.
One person can make a
difference.
WOPR needs rewriting
From Roger Brandt
Cave Junction
BLM wants to create
timber jobs by increasing
logging in Josephine County
under the new Western Ore-
gon Plan Revision (WOPR),
but acknowledges that these
jobs would be created at the
expense of losing an undeter-
mined number of jobs and
income in other economic
sectors.
BLM provides no infor-
mation to explain what these
losses might be and who
would be affected.
The following is an at-
tempt to answer the question
about who would be affected,
and how much we might lose
under WOPR. The informa-
tion comes from a report that
can be downloaded from a
link at the bottom of the
highway199.org home page.
The report explains how
increased clear-cutting of
BLM forest could result in
most Illinois Valley homes
losing approximately $11,000
in property value. Josephine
County can expect to lose a
total of around $500 million
and the state of Oregon some
$9 billion. Ironically, many
land owners support WOPR
because of “O&C tax sav-
ings” without realizing that it
would take more than 80
years for these so-called “tax
savings” to pay back to land
owners what they likely
would lose in land value.
The report also explains
how WOPR would impair the
future of travel-and-recreation
dependent businesses in Ore-
gon by eliminating forest
assets that the community
needs to make it attractive to
the traveling public. In Jose-
phine County, this represents
an impairment that could cost
us an annual loss of tens of
millions of dollars in tourism
revenues and related jobs.
Quality of life could be
significantly diminished un-
der WOPR, which would
reduce the marketability of
Josephine County to retirees,
home-based entrepreneurs,
inventors, telecommuters and
knowledge-based industries
looking to locate their enter-
prise. This represents thou-
sands of future jobs and in-
come sources that would be
driven out of Oregon to
places that offer quality-of-
life assets these people want.
WOPR would commit
each acre of BLM land to an
unimaginable sluggish eco-
nomic production cycle of 80
to 100 years while rejecting
all other participants who
could help to make this land
productive every year. In the
vicious playing field of the
global economy, WOPR is
sending the slowest player
onto the field of fast-moving
global economic challenges
while the rest of us are forced
to sit on the bench and hope
for the best.
The current WOPR ver-
sion must be rejected and
rewritten to assure that the
timberland is managed to
retain our property value,
increase our marketability,
and contribute to our eco-
nomic adaptability by creat-
ing jobs for timber and non-
timber industries. The plan
needs to focus on timber
management that makes these
lands economically produc-
tive every year, not once in
the lifetime of a human.
Wonders about sheriff
From Donna Lasater
Redmond, Ore.
What was Sheriff
Gilbertson thinking when he
wrote that letter to the editor
in response to Carol Dick-
son’s complaint to the Grants
Pass newspaper?
What prompted him to
call her a despot; of accusing
her of attacking the sheriff’s
office with misleading ques-
tions? His response came
across as paranoid and unpro-
fessional.
What was he thinking
when he responded by e-mail
to her letter? Mrs. Dickson
simply complained about the
use of manpower for a cross-
walk sting in Cave Junction
when there is such a shortage
of deputies to provide ser-
vices to the county. He called
her “unethical, evil, a true
despot and vindictive.” Is this
the example he set for his
employees on how to treat the
public?
He is an elected official,
the chief law enforcement
officer in Josephine County.
He certainly isn’t acting like
it. Does he treat all his con-
stituents that way when they
question/disagree with the
way he runs his department?
Last I knew, Josephine
County was still part of the
United States, where we are
allowed to hold our elected
officials responsible without
fear of recrimination.
What was he thinking
when he claimed to have
learned a lot about the type of
employee Mrs. Dickson was
while employed at the sher-
iff’s office, and then saying
he would have fired her? His
sources are woefully wrong,
and the conclusion he drew
from them shows poor judg-
ment on his part.
I am a retired Josephine
County Sheriff’s Office ser-
(Continued on page 3)
For your financial planning*, investment*,
and insurance needs, come to
Crocker Financial Services
204B West Lister St. • Cave Junction
592-4454
Ted Crocker, Advisory Representative*
*Services offered through H.D. Vest Investment Services, Member: SIPC. Advisory services offered
through H.D. Vest Advisory Services. Non-bank subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Company.
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POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to
P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction OR 97523
Meals are served in the
CJ County Bldg.
592-2126, 955-8839
FRIDAY, DEC. 12
ROAST BEEF WITH GRAVY
Parslied potatoes, broccoli
Normandy, onion bread, sugar
cookie
MONDAY, DEC. 15
CHICKEN CHOP SUEY
WITH RICE
Green peas, sunshine salad
mold, potato wheat roll, lemon
square
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17
KING RANCH CHICKEN
BAKE
Cut green beans, country
coleslaw, oat bran roll,
butterscotch pudding
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning
Discounts
Call for details
State of the art truck-mounted unit
“Keep it in the Valley!”
Don Shaw
IICRC Certified Technician
Phone: 592-3095
Cell: 660-9074
Licensed-Bonded-Insured