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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Brandt selected for Oregon Heritage Award
Illinois Valley resident
Roger Brandt has been cho-
sen to receive an Oregon
Heritage Excellence Award
from the Heritage Programs
Division of Oregon State
Parks & Recreation Dept.
Said Roger Roper, assis-
tant director for Heritage Pro-
grams, “The Heritage Excel-
lence Award recognizes indi-
viduals, businesses and or-
ganizations for outstanding
efforts on behalf of Oregon
heritage.” Those making the
most of available resources
and skill are recognized.
Brandt, who is retired
from the National Park Ser-
vice, is a tireless promoter of
tourism and history in Illinois
Valley and Southwestern
Oregon. During the past 10
years he has volunteered to
conduct history programs and
field trips for area schools and
authored numerous articles
for Illinois Valley News and
other newspapers and radio
stations.
Brandt also established
and maintained a Website --
highway199.org -- which
features road guides and sto-
Club.
“From what I under-
stand, this is the first time
anyone from Josephine
County has received this
award,” Brandt said.
The award will be pre-
sented by Oregon “first lady”
Mary Oberst on Friday night,
April 17 during the North-
west History and Heritage
Extravaganza, “Rendezvous
2009,” in Portland.
American Recovery Act
includes payment for vets
Roger Brandt ( IVN photo)
ries spanning the region from
“Crater Lake to Crescent
City.” Something like a vir-
tual tour or holistic guide-
book, the site explains the
geologic, biologic and his-
toric value of the Hwy. 199
corridor mile-by-mile.
Brandt has said that he
had no idea he’d been nomi-
nated until his wife, Pat, told
him he’d been selected. He
was nominated by O’Brien
resident Kathy Lombardo, a
longtime valley promoter
whose efforts include work
with Illinois Valley Garden
Disabled U.S. military veterans will receive a special pay-
ment, as President Obama has signed the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The Congressionally approved legislation includes tax-
related provisions providing cash payments to certain veterans.
The Economic Recovery Payment only will be paid by the So-
cial Security Administration, Dept. of Veterans Affairs (V.A.)
and the Railroad Retirement Board.
Disabled veterans receiving V.A. Compensation and Pen-
sion (C&P) will automatically receive a cash payment of $250.
Economic Recovery one-time payments will be deposited to the
account on file with V.A. and should arrive during the summer.
Last year, veterans and spouses received an economic stimu-
lus payment. Unlike the last payment, no action is required on
the part of the veteran to receive this economic recovery pay-
ment. Also, there is no additional amount allotted for spouses of
veterans like the 2008 Economic Stimulus.
For more information, phone (800) 827-1000.
After graduation Mor-
gan will attend College of the
Siskiyous in Weed, Calif., to
play softball and earn a trans-
ferable associate’s degree.
She then plans to attend a
university to become a physi-
cal education/health teacher.
OSU Honors Two
From Valley
Two students from Illi-
nois Valley earned grade-
point averages of at least 3.5
during winter term to achieve
the honor roll at Oregon State
University at Corvallis.
To be on the honor roll,
students must carry at least 12
graded hours of course work.
Gaining recognition are
Douglas A. Hoskins, of Cave
Junction, a freshman taking
pre-general engineering; and
Mideon S. Hoffman, of
O’Brien, a freshman taking
pre-business courses.
Morgan Brown Chosen
Student of the Month
Illinois Valley High
School senior Morgan Brown
is April Student of the Month
sponsored by Kerby Belt Ma-
sonic Lodge 18 AF&AM.
Brown is the daughter of
Troy & Michelle Brown, of
Cave Junction. She has main-
tained a 3.5 grade-point aver-
age.
She is the Associated
Student Body secretary. Ad-
ditionally, the honored stu-
dent is a member of the Guid-
ing Lights Mentoring Pro-
gram, Cougar Pals, leadership
class, Honors Choir, and the
volleyball and softball teams
Brown has received
awards as Best Junior Musi-
cian, Most Improved in vol-
leyball, and Skyline Confer-
ence Honorable Mention as
softball first baseman.
illinois-valley-news.com
State budget hacking seen as prelude ...
(Continued from page 1)
those cuts would be restored
through an increase in the
state’s beer tax.
Approximately 28,000
Oregonians are covered
through OHP’s standard plan,
Richardson said. But the gov-
ernor’s recommended budget
eliminates health coverage for
all of those citizens as of
Sept. 30 and allocates the $97
million in funding toward
other programs. In such a
scenario, Richardson said, the
proposed provider tax would
be used to fund the OHP stan-
dard plan.
Richardson also served
on the Ways & Means Com-
mittee during the 2005 legis-
lative session. As such, he
said that he is familiar with
some of the budgetary tactics
used by Kulongoski and the
state agencies.
“If he designs a budget
that hurts people who are the
most vulnerable, the outrage
will be so great that whatever
it takes to fix the problem will
be accepted,” Richardson
said.
Richardson has already
publicly criticized the gover-
nor for not retracting 30 per-
cent pay raises for his top
lieutenants. Those raises total
$358 million, he said.
But despite all that,
Richardson said, the May 15
revenue forecast may show
more of a shortfall than the
current $4.4 billion estimate.
“There is no indication of
an improving economy,”
Richardson said.
A subsequent revenue
forecast is scheduled for Sep-
tember, and could be bad
enough to constitute a special
legislative session, Richard-
son said.
The co-chairmen of the
Ways & Means Committee
are scheduled to release their
budget on Friday, May 22.
Richardson said that the co-
chairmen have the ability to
alter the governor’s recom-
mended budget.
However, Democrats
have a supermajority in the
Oregon House of Representa-
tives, which means that they
can pass tax increases without
any Republican votes to do
so. Because of that, Richard-
son said, Kulongoski still has
tremendous sway over what-
ever budget ends up being
passed.
“He’s the head Democ-
rat in the state, and it’s his
budget, the one he gave the
Legislature, which is con-
trolled by his party,” Richard-
son said.
Workplace death increase ‘significant’ during 2008
Forty-four people cov-
ered by the Oregon’s Work-
ers’ Compensation system
died on the job during 2008.
The new figures were
announced in mid-March by
Oregon OSHA Administrator
Michael Wood during his
opening remarks of the 2009
Oregon Governor’s Occupa-
tional Safety and Health
(GOSH) Conference at the
Oregon Convention Center.
The data are compiled by the
Dept. of Consumer and Busi-
ness Services (DCBS).
The ‘08 total is a signifi-
cant increase from the ‘07
total of 35 fatalities. How-
ever, the ‘08 figure includes
eight workers who died in a
fire-fighting helicopter crash
in the Northern California
wilderness. The eight workers
were among 15 who died in
the agriculture, forestry, and
fishing industry.
The second-highest con-
centration of deaths was in
truck transportation, which
accounted for six deaths.
Overall, 12 of the deaths --
more than 27 percent of the
total -- were the result of mo-
tor vehicle crashes.
Oregon is one of only a
few states that require work-
place motor vehicle accidents
to be reported. Since ‘07,
Oregon OSHA has been ana-
lyzing data from the colli-
sions and from employers
about the use of vehicles for
business and driver safety
procedures.
The numbers show a
dramatic improvement in
construction, where there
were 12 deaths during ‘07.
During ‘08, five workers died
on construction jobs.
“I am pleased to see the
upward trend in construction
deaths didn’t continue,” said
Wood, “but five deaths are
still too many. “I know that
we can do more to reduce
those risks.”
Historically, the lowest
number of workers who died
on the job was during 2005,
when 31 fatalities occurred.
There was an average of 55
workplace deaths per year in
Oregon in the 1990s and 81
per year in the 1980s.
“We have made great
strides in recent decades in
reducing deaths as well as
workplace injuries and ill-
nesses,” said Cory Streis-
inger, DCBS director. “But,
there are still Oregonians who
don’t get to go home to their
families. We must work
harder to ensure their safety
every day.”
Oregon OSHA offers
educational workshops, con-
sultation services, training
videos, and Website informa-
tion to help Oregon employ-
ers create or improve their
safety and health programs.
DCBS compiles fatality
statistics from records of
death claim benefits paid by
Oregon Workers’ Compensa-
tion insurers during the calen-
dar year. The data reported
may exclude workplace fa-
talities involving self-
employed individuals, city of
Portland police and fire em-
ployees, federal employees,
and incidents occurring in
Oregon to individuals with
out-of-state employers. These
workers are either not subject
to Oregon Workers’ Compen-
sation coverage requirements
or are covered by other com-
pensation systems.
Deaths that occur during
a prior calendar year may
appear in the comparable
fatality count for a later year
because of the time required
to process a claim.
Complete data on all
deaths caused by injuries in
Oregon workplaces, regard-
less of whether they are cov-
ered by workers’ compensa-
tion insurance, are computed
separately and reported in the
annual Census of Fatal Occu-
pational Injuries (CFOI) ad-
ministered by the U.S. Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics. The
2008 CFOI report likely will
not be available until fall ‘09.
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