Page 15
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Merkley outreach includes Cave Junction
Cancer survivors, including Jacqui Van Tassel (above, with husband, Gilbert) take a celebra-
tory lap after they were honored during an all-school assembly at Illinois Valley High School
on Friday, March 20. The rally was the culmination of student Stephanie McCluer’s (at left,
below) senior year project to raise awareness about how cancer affects entire families and
communities. With McCluer’s
motivation, the student body
raised some $1,500 for the
Relay For Life fund-raiser in
Grants Pass on June 13 & 14.
The assembly also featured a
mini-relay, poetry and music.
McCluer plans to participate
in the 24-hour event, organ-
ized by the American Cancer
Society. (Photos by Michelle
Binker, Illinois Valley News )
Siskiyou RAC announces Title II projects
Selection of 21 Title II
projects designed to improve
national forest lands and the
rural economies within the
boundaries of Rogue River-
Siskiyou National Forest
were announced by Harry
Hoogesteger, chairman for
the Siskiyou Resource Advi-
sory Committee (RAC).
Some $675,000 in Title
II funds will go to forest im-
provement projects across
Josephine, Coos and Curry
counties.
“The Siskiyou RAC gave
a thorough review and hear-
ing to all Title II projects.”
said Hoogesteger. “We em-
phasize on-the-ground resto-
ration, and putting local peo-
ple to work, especially in to-
day’s economic climate.
“The Siskiyou Resource
Advisory Committee gave
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careful consideration to 30
project proposals. Some pro-
posals came from within the
forest service to address pri-
ority needs such as road
maintenance, and some pro-
posals came from the private
sector,” said Hoogesteger.
In addition to the forest
service, nonprofit groups and
agencies outside the forest
service were all candidates to
receive competitive funding
with Title II projects.
The project selections
were determined during a
Siskiyou RAC meeting held
on March 5 in Grants Pass.
The Title II projects for fiscal
year 2009 were then ap-
proved by Rogue River-
Siskiyou National Forest Su-
pervisor Scott Conroy, who
serves as designated federal
official for the committee.
The 21 funded fiscal year
2009 Title II projects include
five projects in Josephine
County for a funding of
$220,000. They are coopera-
tive deputy law enforcement,
community correction crews,
culvert cleaning, roadside
brushing and danger tree-
felling, noxious weed inven-
tory and control and the
Clean Forest Project that
cleans up illegal dump sites.
The RAC is comprised
of 15 citizen members that
recommend Title II projects
for funding based on an
evaluation of how well these
project meet the intent of the
renewed Secure Rural
Schools Act
(Public Law
110-343). This legislation
was renewed to help to stabi-
lize payments to counties
from declining timber harvest
on federal land.
The Title II projects are
awarded from funds made
available under Title II of this
legislation can be used for
protection, restoration, and
enhancement of fish and
wildlife habitat, and other
resource objectives on federal
land and on nonfederal land
where the work would benefit
the resources on federal land.
Long-term care ombudsman named
THURSDAY, MARCH 26
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FRIDAY, MARCH 27
Spring Break - No Classes
MONDAY, MARCH 30
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TUESDAY, MARCH 31
Big beef taco Tuesday, chicken
nuggets, pepperoni or cheese
pizza, super duper sub, crispy
chicken wrap, chef or garden
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Cheesy macaroni, hamburger,
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sandwich, it’s Italian wrap,
popcorn chicken garden salad.
Illinois Valley resident
George Savord recently was
appointed by the state’s Long-
term Care Ombudsman Me-
ridith Cote to serve as a certi-
fied ombudsman and advocate
for the residents of regional
long-term care facilities.
Savord will serve as om-
budsman for residents of two
adult foster homes in Cave
Junction; Highland House
Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center, and one adult foster
home in Grants Pass.
The Office of the Long-
term Care Ombudsman is a
state program dedicated to
protecting the rights, safety
and dignity of the residents of
nursing homes, residential
care facilities, assisted living
facilities and adult foster care
homes. Training classes for
certified ombudsmen begin
April 28 in Medford. Phone
Kathy Walker at 1-800-522-
2602 for more information or
to report a concern about a
facility.
He that would live in peace and at ease
must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
592-6609
towns and county commis-
sioners and touching bases
regularly with a local focus to
see how we can partner with
them to help local communi-
ties,” Edwards said. “We’re
all in this together, and we
want all the communities to
do well.”
Moore said that the
group met for approximately
90 minutes regarding the
community’s needs.
“I was able to convey
that we’re extremely hard-hit
by this recession, mainly be-
cause we don’t have any in-
dustry out here and we’re a
bedroom community of
Grants Pass, which has been
hit heavily with layoffs also,”
Moore said. “She genuinely
seemed like she cared, and
wanted to take our message
back to our U.S. senator and
convey what we think here in
Southern Oregon.”
Edwards said that the
economy has emerged as the
main topic during these out-
reach efforts.
“Clearly, there are a lot
of questions these days about
the economic recovery pack-
age and how that’s going to
work,” she said. “That’s a
huge, huge concern right
now, is how we can facilitate
the creation of jobs and how
to make sure communities are
having their infrastructure
needs met and have what’s
needed when it comes to
schools and health care.”
Moore said that it was
“refreshing” to have a field
representative available as a
resource.
According to Polk, a
staffer from former senator
Gordon Smith’s office visited
Cave Junction when Smith
first was elected. Staffers
from Sen. Ron Wyden’s of-
fice have called city hall, but
never visited, Polk said.
“I think we’ve been ne-
glected here for a long time,”
Moore said. “(But) I think
we’ve gotten their attention
now.”
Recently, Moore met
with Jeff Griffin from Gov.
Kulongoski’s office, and is
helping to coordinate a local
retreat for representatives
from several state agencies.
“The squeaky wheel gets
the grease anymore,” said the
mayor. “I’m squeaking as
loud as I can.”
Edwards said that Merk-
ley has already opened offices
in Portland and Eugene, and
is in the process of finalizing
a location for a Medford of-
fice. Future offices are
planned for eastern and cen-
tral Oregon and the Salem
area, she said, and Merkley
plans to hold yearly town hall
meetings in every county.
DeFazio denies raising ‘ruckus’ at PDX
Following a complaint
that he was singled out on
Monday, March 16 for spe-
cial security screening at
Portland International Air-
port, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-
Ore.) met the next day with
Transportation Security Ad-
ministration (TSA) officials
in Washington, D.C.
Roll Call, a Capital Hill
newspaper, reported that De-
Fazio became angry and
called the security “stupid”
after being searched by agents
wearing rubber gloves.
The 12-term Congressman
denied that he caused a
“ruckus” attracting extra secu-
rity officers. He stated: “I did-
n’t lose my temper. I was not
happy and I told them it was a
stupid practice” because he had
already had gone through
screening, but was pulled from
line for extra checking, appar-
ently at random.
Noted DeFazio in a letter
to a constituent, “The story
first appeared in Roll Call in
the column titled, ‘Heard on
the Hill.’ Since many of the
subsequent stories were based
on the initial Roll Call story, I
thought you might be inter-
ested to know that in a sepa-
rate March 19 ‘Heard on the
Hill’ column they explicitly
describe the column as
“gossipy fun.”
“So the exaggerated
‘news’ accounts were based
on a single anonymous source
calling a gossip columnist and
those accounts were contra-
dicted by the TSA and Con-
gressman Blumenauer.”
DeFazio also noted in his
letter, “I have been active on
aviation and aviation security
issues throughout my tenure
in Congress, and am consid-
ered one of the most knowl-
edgeable members of the
House on these issues. I have
served on the House Aviation
Subcommittee for more than
20 years, and the House
Homeland Security Commit-
tee since it was created seven
years ago. I served as the
ranking Democrat on the
Aviation Subcommittee after
the 9/11 terrorist attacks and
helped draft the legislation
that created the TSA.
“In establishing TSA, I
successfully fought to feder-
alize airport security workers
and increase our investment
in state-of-the art screening
technology. Prior to 9/11,
airport security was con-
tracted to the lowest bidder.
Workers were notoriously
poorly trained, poorly paid,
and used antiquated equip-
ment. The quality of security
reflected the lack of invest-
ment.
“Security isn’t every-
thing it needs to be yet, but it
has significantly improved
since 9/11,” DeFazio said.
Oregon Lions offers vision assistance
Since 1986, the Oregon
Lions Sight & Hearing Foun-
dation has been serving chil-
dren with visual impairment
through its Lions Statewide
Low Vision Clinic.
Each year the clinic pro-
vides developmental low-
vision exams for approxi-
mately 150 children, resulting
in new strategies for growth
and learning at home and in
school.
Dr. J.P. Lowery, Low
Vision Clinic director and
chief pediatric optometrist for
Pacific University Optometry
Clinic, has traveled through-
out Oregon working with dis-
abled students and their fami-
lies to determine their vision
needs. Lowery has served as
director of the Oregon Lions
Statewide Low Vision Clinic
since 1995.
He is a faculty member at
Pacific University College of
Optometry where he teaches
courses in clinical procedures
and visual function in relation
to learning. Lowery is also
chief of pediatrics for Pacific’s
optometry clinics and is in-
volved in research and con-
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By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
While campaigning for
office last fall, U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley visited more than
100 towns throughout Ore-
gon.
Now, Merkley and his
staff are making an extra ef-
fort to maintain those con-
tacts, they say, for the sake of
providing good constituent
services.
On Tuesday, March 10,
Cave Junction City Hall was
visited by Amy Amrhein, a
field representative from
Merkley’s office. Amrhein
met with Mayor Don Moore
and City Recorder Jim Polk
to see how the new Democ-
ratic senator can help Cave
Junction residents.
“She wanted to know
how we were doing, what we
were doing and gave us infor-
mation about them setting up
a Medford office,” Polk said.
Amrhein is the field rep-
resentative for the region cov-
ering Josephine, Jackson,
Coos, Curry and Douglas
counties.
Julie Edwards, the com-
munication director for Merk-
ley’s office, said that
Amrhein’s visit was part of a
larger effort to establish an
active presence statewide.
“Part of the work they’re
doing is reaching out to cities,
tinuing education regarding
pediatric visual impairments
and developmental low-vision
care.
A teacher or school repre-
sentative working with re-
gional programs for the visu-
ally impaired refers these stu-
dents. Once Lowery has made
a diagnosis, he works with the
foundation, which provides
the necessary low-vision aids
free of charge for those who
cannot afford it.
The majority of children
with visual impairments in
Oregon have some usable
vision. However, people are
considered to have “low vi-
sion” when their eyesight can-
not be corrected by ordinary
glasses, contact lenses, medi-
cation or surgery. With ade-
quate utilization of new tech-
nology, including special low-
vision eyeglasses, microscopic
and telescopic aids, rehabilita-
tion services and adaptive
techniques, many of these
students can maximize the use
of their remaining vision.
With the correct low-
vision aids, they can learn to
cope with vision loss and pre-
vent a disability from becom-
ing a handicap.
“We see so many chil-
dren whose parents want to do
the right thing for their chil-
dren but they have to priori-
tize,” said Lowery. “Vision
care and glasses often take a
back seat to more basic neces-
sities of daily living.
“As we get to know these
children, get the full picture of
life stories, the developmental
and social effect of poverty,
along with the effect of unmet
health care and vision care
needs, what unfolds is a very
rich experience for all of those
involved.”
To refer a child for assis-
tance, contact Janet Allenby at
janet.allenby@state.or.us or
phone (503) 378-3820.
To help serve children
with low vision through the
Oregon Lions Statewide Low
Vision Clinic, phone (800)
635-4667, as “Community
support of this program is
imperative and provides life
changing assistance to Orego-
nian children in need.”
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