Page 2
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
Council told it needs to put lid on LIDs
Had a visit last Saturday from the #1 favorite cousin
from my List of Favorite Cousins. Good ol’ Frank Robert
Smith finally made it to Cave Junction, after about a five-
year gap since his previous visit.
We had a grand time, although only for the few hours
he was here. But we had a good, enjoyable family visit, a
quick look around part of the valley, and then dinner at a
Cave Junction restaurant. All good stuff.
Frank, although “only” about 10 years older than I, was
a fine mentor for me while I was growing up (still in process
too). He was a father figure for me, and I’ve let him know
how much I appreciate that, although it embarrasses him.
He took me in tow during my family’s annual visits to El
Paso, Texas, birthplace of my parents. And when Frank
moved to San Diego County, when we lived in National
City, he stayed with us for a time while gaining employ-
ment. He hauled me around there too.
We talked over “old times,” although he claims that he
doesn’t remember them as well as I. Thank goodness.
When he was drafted into the U.S. Army he left his
really cool Oldsmobile in our garage. Don’t recall whether it
was a ‘50 or ‘52, but it had a hot engine, and was black
with white-and-pink pinstriping (look it up). Anyway, while
Frank was in basic training I was to care for the car; you
know, run the engine once a week; check the radiator. But,
I decided to drive it out of the garage and up the driveway.
Only dented one side a bit. Frank was very forgiving.
And we reminisced about summers in El Paso: the
time he was fired from his newspaper delivery job because
he decided to do it from his car (about a ‘49 Ford with loud
dual exhausts) instead of by
Senior Nutrition Menu
bicycle; the times we smug-
Sponsored by
gled his buddies into a drive-
in movie theater by placing
them in the trunk of the ’49
and then moving the rear
seat so they could enter the
car; and the time I tried to
steal his Lionel electric train
set by stashing it in my
mom’s suitcase. It didn’t fit.
Meals are served in the
CJ County Bldg.
Hey, I was real young.
592-2126, 955-8839
We shared many memo-
FRIDAY, SEPT. 18
ries, as well as current
BAKED FISH
events and family happen-
WITH TARTAR SAUCE
ings. He’s become a golfer,
Lyonnaise potatoes, broccoli
and lives near San Fran-
Normandy, dill wheat bread,
lemon bar
cisco. Frank still has a posi-
MONDAY, SEPT. 21
tive, humorous take on life.
CHICKEN RICE PILAF
He taught me a lot, although
Winter mixed vegetables,
sometimes the lessons fade.
spring garden salad, onion roll,
But I’m working on them.
chocolate chip bar
And
it was great to see him,
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 23
MEATLOAF WITH GRAVY
as we made plans to get
Sour cream & chive potatoes,
together again. I’m hoping it
peas & carrots, whole wheat
won’t be five years, but
roll, birthday cake
much sooner.
Serving the Valley since 1974
592-4485 Mike Meidinger
License #93173
Slabs & Foundations
Stamped & Colored
Mobile Home Runners
Custom Masonry
Retaining Walls
Concrete
Remodel
New Construction
592-6609
CCB 174891
Illinois Valley News
www.illinois-valley-news.com
An Independent Weekly Newspaper
Co-publishers: Bob & Jan Rodriguez
Editor-in-Chief: Michelle Binker
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
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POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to
P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction OR 97523
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
During its 28-minute
meeting on Monday, Sept.
14, the Cave Junction City
Council was informed that it
will have to rescind an ordi-
nance passed earlier this
year to form a Local Im-
provement District (LID)
for work done on Redwood
Highway.
City Recorder Jim Polk
told councilors that he re-
ceived an e-mail on Friday,
Sept. 11 from Ann Sherman,
a partner at the Portland-
based law firm K&L Gates.
That e-mail states that
“…we are not able to give
an unqualified opinion that
the City can issue assess-
ment bonds payable from
property taxes on the LID
properties.”
Gates wrote that “…the
primary obstacle is that the
City does not have the au-
thority to levy a tax on prop-
erty outside of the perma-
nent rate.”
“In your case, the local
improvement was under-
taken by the State and the
developers, and, therefore,
we do not feel we can give
an unqualified opinion that
the City has the authority to
impose the assessments,”
Gates wrote.
Polk added that he is
drafting an ordinance to
repeal the section of the city
code that enables property
owners to petition the city to
form an LID. The section
allowing for Advance Fi-
nancing Districts (AFD)
also would be eliminated,
Polk said, but the city
wanted to retain its ability to
form LIDs.
In another matter Polk
told councilors about a letter
dated Wednesday, Sept. 9
and sent to the city by Jerry
Reedy, a project manager
for Copeland Sand &
Gravel.
Reedy wrote that the
company installed a 10-inch
water line extension adja-
cent to Redwood Hwy.,
which was finished in June
2008. Payment for $69,202
was sought from developer
Larry Osborne, but never
received, Reedy wrote.
Copeland hasn’t dedi-
cated the improvement to
the city, but the city also is
not financially responsible
to pay for the extension,
Reedy wrote. The company
can either disconnect, re-
move or sell the line.
Copies of plans for the
construction of a water main
for the Kerby Water District
(KWD) project have been
received by Copeland,
Reedy wrote. The project
would connect to the water
line extension, but not until
Copeland has been paid for
its work.
“For a payment of
$73,700, we would relin-
quish all interest in the wa-
ter line and provide dedica-
tion to the City of Cave
Junction, the Kerby Water
District, or whoever is the
appropriate party,” Reedy
wrote.
Polk asked councilors
for consensus to respond to
the letter with the input of
City Attorney Pat Kelly.
Councilors gave consensus,
but no formal vote was
taken.
Councilors also voted to
declare a pair of nuisances.
The first was for bark-
ing dogs at a residence near
the 500 block of W. River
Street. Polk said that the city
first received a complaint
letter on Feb. 11.
During a July meeting,
councilors agreed to let the
dog owners construct a ken-
nel for the dogs to try and
mitigate the situation. A 30-
day extension was subse-
quently granted, but expired
on Aug. 13, Polk said.
Neighbors provided
written testimony to the city
verifying that the dogs still
are not kenneled, Polk said,
as well as a list of times that
the dogs have barked.
However, Polk said that
a kennel was purchased by
the dog owners on Sunday,
Sept. 13, and that they seem
“to be making some effort”
towards resolution.
Polk asked councilors if
(Continued on page 5)
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cepted as letters.
Firefighter response
From William
& Glenn Woodbury
O’Brien
We appreciate all the
firefighters who saved our
property and home two
weeks ago.
The professionalism,
courtesy and speed with
which the alarm was an-
swered were incredible. The
firemen said, “Don’t worry,
Bill, we will have a pumper
to your property all night.”
Upon returning the next
day, everything was saved,
and the fire had come within
100 feet.
onto the next floor. How
would that turn every floor
of this massive construction
into powder every 10-13
feet? Survey says ... well,
you know.
And I know the differ-
ence here is that some folks
have the ability to think and
do the math while others
prefer denial and trust in a
government that has lied
through its filthy mouth
while looking you right in
the eyes since Pearl Harbor.
Only Pearl Harbor was an
attack allowed to take place,
whereas 9/11 was an inside
job.
You wonder why Dick
Cheney is so adamant about
going forward and not back-
ward with investigations
into the criminality of the
past administration?
Oh yeah, one more
point. What happened to the
massive 47 steel columns
that ran up the middle of the
towers? Popular Mechanics
conveniently left them out
of its diagrams of how the
building was constructed.
They, too, just disappeared.
Poof. Gone. And Building 7
down smooth as a baby’s
butt in 8 seconds. Poof.
Gone. Figure it out.
I would think that it
would hurt way too bad to
sit down on this one.
Oh yeah, one more
point. How could anyone
read the logo on a plane
flying by at 500+ mph? Like
at the Pentagon. Oh, there’s
a whole lot more to the Pen-
tagon and Shanksville than
we saw on TV. A lot more. I
could go on and on, but it is
my true intent to simply
cause one to consider the
science of the matter and the
conspiracy theory presented
by the U.S. government
which is proven at every
turn to be a lie.
See for yourselves. I
have in-depth step-by-step
debunking of the govern-
ment’s lie on several DVDs
and would be most happy to
share the truth with anyone
who wishes to see it.
Government programs
From Bob Armstrong
Grants Pass
Government programs
began in the Johnson Ad-
ministration that were to
“eliminate poverty as we
know it.”
All with the intent of
redistributing wealth. It did,
$4.6 trillion later, the same
amount of poverty and a
bunch of wasteful programs.
A total disaster and a failure
The U.S. Postal Service
-- runs a deficit of nearly
$1.2 billion a year. Medi-
care -- bankrupt, Social Se-
curity -- bankrupt. Dept. of
Defense contracts with cost
overruns in the billions of
dollars. California issuing
IOUs. Senators and con-
gressmen who vote them-
selves full salary retirements
after serving one term in
office and with health care
like none other for life.
A president who ap-
points an avowed radical
Communist to be his “Green
Czar” (Van Jones); a man
who believes in population
control by forced abortions,
limiting family size and
even putting sterilization
chemicals in the drinking
water (John Holdren); an-
other (Mark Ward), who
believes that the govern-
ment should take over and
control all the media. Yet
another, (Cass Sunstein)
believes that the very young
and the elderly should not
have the same level of
health care as those from
teens to age 50.
Still another (Ezekial
Emanuel) who stated that,
“Services provided to indi-
viduals who are irreversibly
prevented from being or
becoming participating citi-
zens are not basic and
should not be guaranteed.”
Obama has 36 such “Czars”
none of who go through a
vetting process.
The irony is that some
people want government to
take over the health-care
system in this country. Un-
believable.
Support your community newspaper - advertise in the Illinois Valley News. 592-2541
9/11 truth ‘obvious’
From William Schneider
Cave Junction
I saw the 9/11 Con-
spiracies on the History
Channel. What an incredibly
watered-down theory and
rebuttal session.
In light of the truth,
shame on Popular Mechan-
ics magazine and the “9/11
Omission Report.” The gov-
ernment would have you
believe that all laws of
physics and mathematics
were suspended that day.
Two points are most
screamingly obvious. First,
the collapse of the building
was at free-fall speed. Fig-
ure it out. No resistance
from below anywhere. How
does a thousand-foot-plus
skyscraper made of steel
and concrete disappear with
no resistance in 10 seconds?
Survey says explosives.
Secondly, each floor
only had 10-15 feet to fall
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