Inside:
Mine your business
Groups seek USFS
enforcement
Page 3
Council punts
AFD hearing
delayed again
Page 4
Fiber Arts fanfare
Quilts, yarns &
beads featured
Page 5
Soccer heads up
IVHS girls, boys
teams face
challenges
Page 12
Enchanted evening
Kerby Art & Wine
highlights
Page 14
I.V. garners
Kellogg’s
field funds
Indications are that the
Illinois Valley High School’s
athletic fields will receive a
$15,000 face-lift thanks to the
Plant a Seed promotion and
Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.
Said Mike Morrissey, a
Kellogg Company spokes-
man, “This is good news for
the community.”
Supporters nominated
fields nationwide and 100
finalists were selected. The
final selection was based on
popular vote and the input of
a “panel of experts,” said
Morrissey.
I.V. was one of 30 ulti-
mately selected for the award.
Governor’s ERT talk
about JoCo challenges
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Members of Gov. Kulon-
goski’s Economic Revitaliza-
tion Team (ERT) visited Jo-
sephine County last week,
with stops in Grants Pass and
Illinois Valley.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7,
ERT met at the Siskiyou
Field Institute’s (SFI) Deer
Creek Center in Selma.
There, the group heard pres-
entations from SFI Executive
Director Arnie Green and
Josephine County Commis-
sioner Dave Toler.
Green discussed the
functions of SFI and the edu-
cational opportunities it pro-
vides for university and K-12
students, along with the bene-
fits of eco-tourism. Toler
gave a presentation in tandem
with Bear Mountain Forest
Products on wood bricks and
the need for a biomass pro-
duction center in Josephine
County.
“We talked a lot about
the general concept of the
need to put biomass on the
same plane as you will other
renewable energy,” Toler
said. “It’s a way of creating
jobs by creating an energy
source that’s right here.”
Promoting biomass has
consumed much of Toler’s
time during the past several
months, he said. He added
that his emphasis is on pro-
ducing employment opportu-
nities and cleaner air at the
same time.
Toler points out that 90
percent of the money Orego-
nians spend on energy goes
out of the state, and that bio-
mass can help keep those
dollars circulating in the local
economy.
Also discussed by Toler
were land-use issues.
“We talked about our
challenge in creating enough
industrial lands for the county
to produce family wage jobs,”
he said.
ERT visited Grants Pass
on Thursday, Oct. 8. Team
members toured Encore Ce-
ramics and Electronic Sub-
Assembly Manufacturing
(ESAM) at Spalding Indus-
trial Park, then had lunch with
Commissioner Dwight Ellis
at Evergreen Federal Bank’s
Bear Hotel.
Evergreen President
Brady Adams provided a tour
and a slideshow of the bank’s
various community events,
Ellis said. Grants Pass Mayor
Mike Murphy also addressed
ERT, and discussed that
city’s recent recall of five city
councilors, the positive rela-
tionship between the city and
county and the opening of a
new call center downtown,
with the anticipation of hun-
dreds of jobs.
Also visited by ERT
members was the site of Sav-
age Rapids Dam, which was
breached the following day,
Friday, Oct. 9.
Toler said that the ERT
visit was largely beneficial
for all involved.
“I think they were pretty
engaged,” Toler said. “They
learned a lot.”
ERT is headed by Ray
Naff, who serves as director
of intergovernmental rela-
tions for Kulongoski’s office.
Also present from the gover-
nor’s office was Jeff Griffin,
the regional coordinator for
Southwest Oregon, and mem-
bers of several state agencies,
including the Dept. of Envi-
ronmental Quality, Dept. of
Energy, Dept. of Forestry and
the Dept. of Land Conserva-
tion and Development.
Cougars play well vs. Pirates, Stangs
By KENNY HIX
For IVN
On Monday, Oct. 5 at
Phoenix, the Cougar volley-
ball players had one of their
best performances of the sea-
son, as they were in every set
and pushed the talented Pi-
rates to the bricks.
“You were on your toes
the whole time,” assistant
coach Jeannie Sherman told
the team. “It was really fun to
watch. They have improved
so much.”
The Cougars lost the first
set 25-19, but came back to
win the second set 25-18.
Both teams rallied back and
forth in the next two sets only
to have the Cougars come up
short, 25-15 in the third and a
fierce battle in the fourth 25-
20.
Alex Miller had 35 digs,
Kayla “Jo Jo” Johnson 10
blocks, Callie Harland 30
assists, Heidi Unger 4 blocks
and Bekah Kaberline 5 kills.
No statis-
tics or re-
ported infor-
mation avail-
able
for
Wednesday,
Oct. 7
at
North Valley.
The Cou-
gars played
the
6th-
ranked Mus-
tangs at home
in Ken Mann
Memorial
Gym. They
improved in
every
set
against one of
the best teams
in the entire
state, losing
all three, 25-
8, 25-14 and
25-19. Coach Cathy Pope
saw how hard her girls were
playing for her and decided to
help in any way.
Pope questioned a net
call with a “Just a little bit of
contact” something she might
not have done another time.
But her Cougars were bat-
tling. And she got the call
changed. Cougar
point. How many
times do you see
that?
Pope and her
staff have got these
Cougars playing as
a team on all cylin-
ders and are com-
petitive every time
they step on the
court. Breanne
Smith played one
of her best all-
around games this
year.
Miller had 7
digs, Johnson 5
kills and 4 blocks,
The girls team played hard against the Hidden Valley Mustangs at
Unger 3 assists and
Ken Mann Memorial Gym in Cave Junction. (Photos by Michelle Binker,
2 aces.
Illinois Valley News )
Gleaner Kelly Green harvests apples at Deer Creek Orchards. (Photo by Michelle Binker, I.V. News )
Gleaners’ harvest helps hungry
The Illinois Valley
Gleaning Project is a new
collaboration of community
members forming a sustain-
able food-harvesting network
to identify public and private
food resources, with sur-
pluses given to people in
need.
The I.V. Gleaning Pro-
ject further states that it was
founded by the Illinois Valley
Food Coalition (IVFoodCo),
a project of the Spiral Living
Center. To help facilitate the
gleaning project, volunteer
work parties are organized to
harvest food that would oth-
erwise go to waste.
Freshly picked fruit, nuts
and vegetables are gathered
and then distributed to volun-
teer workers, land owners,
food banks and the gleaning
project. Gleaning sites in the
Illinois Valley are sought.
Besides organizing com-
munity events, the project
seeks to encourage steward-
ship of the land by teaching
tree care and food preserva-
tion in hands-on workshops.
By empowering neighbors to
share in the harvest and care
of the land, the I.V. Gleaning
Project said that it hopes to
reduce waste, build commu-
nity, and create a cost-free
means to obtain healthy,
locally grown food.
On Sept. 22, the first
Illinois Valley Gleaning event
was held at Deer Creek Or-
chards in Selma. Working
together, a group of 11 volun-
teers harvested a total of 540
pounds of apples. The
gleaned fruit was distributed
among the volunteers, and a
portion was delivered to the
Illinois Valley Family Coali-
tion in Cave Junction.
Eight boxes of apples
were pressed into cider, and
given away during the Illinois
Valley Farm & Garden Festi-
val on Sept. 26 at Jubilee
Park in Cave Junction.
The project is looking for
donations of these harvesting
tools or supplies: 3-5 gallon
buckets with handles, gloves,
tarps, fruit pickers with exten-
sions, loppers, pruners, prun-
ing saws, fruit scale (hanging,
#50), first aid kit, water
cooler, wheelbarrows, wag-
ons, 10-ft. orchard ladders
and a refrigeration unit.
To donate or to volunteer
for a gleaning event, e-mail
ivgleaners@gmail.com or
phone 592-3642. The next
meeting of IVFoodCo is set
for Nov. 5 at the Josephine
County Bldg. in Downtown
Cave Junction.
IVFD seeks to recoup fire funds
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Reimbursement for ex-
penses incurred helping to
fight a pair of blazes in Jack-
son County last month will be
sought, according to Chief
Harry Rich of Illinois Valley
Fire District (IVFD).
Rich advised the IVFD
Board of Directors of that
plan during its meeting on
Thursday, Oct. 8 at district
headquarters on Caves Hwy.
On Sept. 21, a 153-acre
fire broke out near Siskiyou
Boulevard in Ashland. Rich
went to assist, along with
another IVFD staffer, and
brought a fire engine.
Although he arrived in
Ashland around noon, Rich
said the fire was mostly con-
tained. He said that he was
about to leave when he and
other firefighters received
word of a fire in the hills of
east Medford.
That fire eventually con-
sumed 633 acres of vegeta-
tion before being extin-
guished. Rich said that there
were “significant hiccups” in
the first stage of that firefight,
and added that he was on the
scene until midnight.
Gov. Kulongoski in-
voked the Emergency Confla-
gration Act in response to
both blazes. As such, Rich
said, fire agencies can be paid
back for their costs in fighting
the fires. He added that he
plans to pursue those funds.
Rich also briefed IVFD
directors on a Sept. 8 after-
action review of the Aug. 24
Lone Mountain fire west of
O’Brien that burned 48 acres.
No homes were burned,
but a garage, pump house and
another outbuilding were
destroyed. There were no
injuries, but a dog died as a
result of the blaze.
Units from the Grants
Pass Dept. of Public Safety,
Rural/Metro Fire Dept., Ore-
gon Dept. of Forestry, U.S.
Forest Service and Jackson
County agencies all re-
sponded. Three helicopters
(Continued on page 8)
Stand-down order issued
As of Monday, Oct. 12,
Illinois Valley Fire District
(IVFD) will implement a
directive ordering personnel
to stand-down during inci-
dents requiring law enforce-
ment response if officers are
unable to arrive on scene.
Chief Harry Rich made
the announcement during the
hour-long IVFD Board of
Directors meeting on Thurs-
day, Oct. 8 at the district
headquarters on Caves Hwy.
He had briefed the board on
his intentions during its meet-
ing on Sept. 10.
Under the new policy,
IVFD will respond if Dispatch
confirms that law enforcement
is on its way, with an estimated
arrival time of 15 minutes or
less. If the response time is
estimated to be between 15
and 30 minutes, IVFD units
“shall remain available and
stage in quarters.”
However, fire crews will
be asked to stop their re-
sponse if there is an unknown
deputy arrival time or if dis-
patch confirms that officers
are not available. IVFD per-
sonnel also will treat suspi-
cious circumstances as hostile
in the absence of law enforce-
ment officers.
Similar procedures al-
ready are in place for Ameri-
can Medical Response per-
sonnel, as well as most fire
districts countrywide.
Rich has stated that per-
sonnel safety is the main rea-
son for the new directive, as
funding cuts have dwindled
Josephine County Sheriff’s
Office (JCSO) patrols to a
single 12-hour shift. A plan to
increase JCSO staffing levels
to enable two 10-hour shifts
is under way, but will not be
fully realized until sometime
next year.