Mayor seeks
city’s share
of services
Inside:
Your letters
Readers sound off
on recent news
Pages 2 & 3
20
As the music dies
Copyright cops
smother scene
Page 5
Hoops highlights
Cougar basketball
games covered
Page 12
Straight shootin’
CJ firearms dealer
aims to please
Page 12
Deer Creek
EA team to
meet Feb. 12
In anticipation of forest
management work in the
Deer Creek watershed east of
Selma, Bureau of Land Man-
agement will hold an open
house on Thursday, Feb. 12,
from 6 to 8 p.m. at Selma
Community Center on 18255
Redwood Hwy. near Ray’s
Food Place.
The public will have an
opportunity to meet resource
specialists, ask questions,
provide input and obtain in-
formation about the project.
The proposed alterna-
tives integrate restoration
thinning, density reduction,
commercial harvest and road
maintenance. The environ-
mental assessment team will
identify specific actions and
address the environmental
effects of said actions, ac-
cording to BLM.
Questions or comments
can be directed to Mike Mat-
thews at 471-6565.
Gold venture
seeks funds,
partnership
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Is there gold in them thar
hills?
On the evening of Thurs-
day, Jan. 29, some 35 people
attended a presentation by the
Ontario, Canada-based com-
pany, Southern Oregon Gold,
at the Guild Building in
Grants Pass.
Attendees included Jose-
phine County Commissioner
Sandi Cassanelli; a represen-
tative from the office of Ore-
gon Congressman Greg Wal-
den (R-2nd District); Jon Jor-
dan, executive director of the
Grants Pass Chamber of
Commerce; and members of
the Josephine County Chapter
of Americans for Prosperity.
Jeremy Goldman, South-
ern Oregon Gold board mem-
ber and Foundation Markets
president and founder, began
by discussing the region’s
history in the mining indus-
try. He said that gold has per-
formed well in international
markets, and characterized it
as a resource that isn’t “being
taken advantage of.”
Enrique J. Lopez De
Mesa, president of Southern
Oregon Gold, asked audience
members for their help in
making the venture a success.
“We’re looking to build
a world-class company here,”
he said. “That’s only going to
happen if we have partners at
multiple levels.”
Lopez De Mesa said that,
(Continued on page 4)
Illinois Valley Fire District (IVFD), OSP and AMR ambulance responded to the scene. (Photo by IVFD Media Dept.)
Deputy, K-9 involved in Redwood Hwy. roll-over
A deputy sheriff and his
K-9 partner escaped serious
injury after their patrol car
went into a ditch and up an
embankment, wiping out part
of a plastic fence and rolling
once Sunday night, Feb. 1
near milepost 39 of Hwy. 199
on the south side of O’Brien.
Josephine County Sher-
iff's Office (JCSO) Deputy
James K. Geiger, 33, and
Basco were southbound in a
2008 black-and-white four-
door Crown Victoria at ap-
proximately 7 p.m. Geiger, a
deputy for more than 11
years, apparently saw a
northbound vehicle, possibly
a semitruck and trailer, with-
out tail lights. He began a U-
turn and was accelerating, but
swerved and lost control of
the patrol car, which appeared
to be demolished after rolling
and coming to rest on its
wheels near 36500 Redwood
Hwy.
The deputy was able to
radio for assistance, al-
though he seemed to lapse
in and out of consciousness.
His canine partner remained
in the rear of the vehicle,
which was facing north on
the lane for southbound traf-
fic. Emergency personnel
responded in force. Emer-
gency vehicles blocked
Hwy. 199 for some time,
and traffic was halted.
Besides a pair of JCSO
deputies and an OSP trooper,
(Continued on page 7)
Future of the Josephine County Bldg. considered
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
What’s up with the Jose-
phine County Bldg. in Down-
town Cave Junction was dis-
cussed by the county com-
missioners in the facility on
Monday evening, Jan. 26.
Commissioners dis-
cussed a number of matters
with Mayor Don Moore, in-
cluding the building’s future.
Moore said that the
building is a great meeting
area for Illinois Valley resi-
dents, but that a lack of park-
ing remains an issue.
Commissioner Dave
Toler said that Sheriff Gil
Gilbertson plans to fully relo-
cate his department’s substa-
tion from the county building
to the basement of Cave Junc-
tion City Hall at the begin-
ning of the next fiscal year on
July 1. Gilbertson has said
that the move will save his
department some money, but
is mostly doing so for opera-
tional reasons.
The basement facility
once served as the base for
the former Cave Junction
Police Dept., and has holding
cells.
According to documents
provided by Josephine
County Property Manager
Phil Killian, the sheriff’s of-
fice pays approximately
$11,272 per year for use of
the county building. The
county’s public health depart-
ment pays $3,094 and the
community corrections de-
partment $6,512 per year.
Expenses for building
and maintenance and custo-
dial services total $9,600 per
year, and utilities cost
$14,000 annually, for a total
of $23,600. As such, the total
cost to the county is $2,722
per year.
Without the rent paid by
the sheriff’s office, total reve-
nue for the building would be
reduced to $9,606. That
means that the county will
have to make up approxi-
mately $13,994 per year.
Toler said that the Senior
Nutrition meals pro-
gram will start paying
for its use of the
building, which will
help recover some of
the revenue lost from
the sheriff’s substation
departure. Also, he
said, Friends of the
Illinois Valley County
Building (FIVCB)
plan to soon present a
proposal to the county
board.
Sue Lily, a mem-
ber of the Friends
group, was out of
town and unavailable
to comment. How-
ever, in a Jan. 31 e-
mail, Lily said her
initial goal was to
“improve the facility
so it would be more
versatile.”
Sue Lily, of FIVCB. ( IVN photo)
No formal meet-
ings have been scheduled for
slily/Friends_of_the_IV_
the FIVCB group, Lily wrote,
County_Building/
but she has set up a website
Welcome.html.
dedicated towards the build-
Moore said that it would
ing, at http://web.mac.com/
be a “tragedy” to lose the
county building as a meeting
area. He added that it could
also serve as an emergency
facility. Commission Chair-
man Dwight Ellis observed
that in such an event, cots
could be placed inside the
building to accommodate
disaster victims.
Toler described the facil-
ity as an important resource
for the Illinois Valley com-
munity, and said that citizens
and groups can use it. He
added that the county has
taken care of the building as
an asset, and Ellis agreed that
it’s in pretty good shape, as it
has a new roof.
Toler said that the build-
ing would need only two
more tenants to make up the
difference in rent revenue
once the sheriff’s substation
relocates. He said rent for the
building is “very affordable”
at around 70-cents per square
foot, including utilities.
In front of the Josephine County Bldg. in Downtown Cave Junction. (Photo by Scott Jorgensen, IVN )
illinois-valley-news.com
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Cave Junction Mayor
Don Moore spent part of last
week networking with re-
gional and state officials to
try and bring more services to
the city.
On Tuesday, Jan. 27,
Moore attended a function
held by the Rogue Valley
Council of Governments
(RVCOG) in Central Point.
Moore met there with
representatives from several
state agencies. They included
the Dept. of Environmental
Quality (DEQ), Dept. of En-
ergy, ODOT, Land Conserva-
tion and Development Dept.,
Economic & Community
Development Dept., and the
Dept. of State Lands.
Moore said he spoke
with DEQ representative
John Becker about using state
grant dollars to fund picking
up leaves that Cave Junction
residents currently burn.
Those leaves and biomass
from the city’s sewer plant
could be used for compost,
Moore said.
“I think we can improve
the air quality here,” Moore
said. “It’s a win-win situa-
(Continued on page 11)
Green:
SFI plans
‘ambitious’
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
During the past few
years, the Siskiyou Field In-
stitute (SFI) has come a long
way, as the vision of creating
a facility at the Deer Creek
Ranch in Selma has become a
reality.
But Executive Director
Arnie Green is optimistic that
SFI’s best days still lie ahead.
During 2003, the
Eugene-based company Echo
Northwest conducted a feasi-
bility study on the possibility
of SFI acquiring the 850-acre
property. That study stated
that purchasing the Deer
Creek Ranch would be viable
if SFI partnered with a re-
gional education leader like
Southern Oregon University
(SOU) at Ashland and con-
sidered renting the facility for
special events like weddings
and parties.
The Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board
(OWEB) put up a $500,000
grant, and an additional
$250,000 was donated toward
a new bathhouse facility.
Those contributions then
opened the doors to a $3 mil-
lion lead gift pledged by a
donor.
Renovating the Deer
Creek Ranch facility cost
around $1.5 million. That
included improvements to the
water and septic systems, as
well as bringing it into com-
pliance with the federal
Americans with Disabilities
Act through the installation of
sidewalks and handicapped
parking spots.
Green took over as ex-
ecutive director in June 2008.
He said that SFI’s path for-
ward involves trying
to operate three busi-
nesses from the Deer Creek
Ranch site.
“We’ve got a lot of am-
bitious plans,” Green said.
For the first, Green said
that SFI hopes to expand its
existing partnership with the
Klamath Bird Observatory.
That group works with chil-
(Continued on page 11)