Inside:
Give me a sign!
Commissioners
allocate grant for
CJ entrance art
Page 2
SFI reaches out
Partnerships help
Selma center
Page 10
Three-way race
Steve Shields
enters Dem
primary
Page 11
Wilderness as
collateral?
Oregon senator
ponders debt
question
Family home consumed by early morning blaze
An early morning fire on
Monday, Oct. 19 drove an
Illinois Valley family from
their home and resulted in the
total loss of the structure,
contents and one vehicle.
An account has been
established at the Cave Junc-
tion branch of Home Valley
Bank to assist Keith & Mi-
chelle Binker and their sons,
Paul, 11 and Ian, 7.
The fire was discovered
at 3 a.m. by Michelle Binker,
who awoke to the sound of
venting propane tanks and a
crash of breaking glass.
“I sat up in bed and saw
the flames coming in through
the utility room door,” Binker
said. “I yelled ‘Fire’ and my
husband and I rushed to get
the boys out of their bed-
room, which was close to the
ignition point of the fire.”
The home, a timber-
framed, stuccoed straw-bale
structure, quickly filled with
smoke and flame as the fam-
ily fled to the safety of a
nearby outbuilding.
Illinois Valley Fire Dis-
trict (IVFD) responded in
force to fight the blaze, which
was made difficult due to the
durability of the concrete
stucco. Smoldering straw
bales within the walls were
practically impossible to ex-
tinguish. At daybreak, a track
hoe was brought in to demol-
ish the structure as firefighters
saturated the flaming debris.
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Page 12
The fire resulted in the total loss of the structure and one vehicle; fire-
fighters grappled with the burning straw bales, pulling the house apart
with a track hoe. Firefighters fought the fierce blaze for several hours.
(Photos by Michelle Binker, and Dale & Elaine Sandberg, IVFD)
H1N1 flu
clinic set
Oct. 29 at
JoCo Bldg.
The Josephine County
Public Health Dept. will
hold an H1N1 flu clinic at
the County Building in Cave
Junction from 9 a.m. to 3
p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29.
When the clinic was
originally scheduled, it was
assumed that Public Health
Nurses would be providing
both vaccines. However,
since production of the Sea-
sonal Flu vaccine has been
delayed, the only vaccine
available for administration
during the clinic will be the
H1N1 vaccination.
Since this will be an
H1N1 Flu Clinic, vaccina-
tions will only be adminis-
tered to priority groups.
They include pregnant
women; household contacts
and caregivers for children
younger than 6 months of
age; healthcare and emer-
gency medical services per-
sonnel; all persons from 6
months through 24 years of
age; persons ages 25
through 64 with health con-
ditions associated with
higher risk of medical com-
plications from influenza;
front line state and local law
enforcement officers and
firefighters who are likely to
have recurring physical con-
tact with the public as a rou-
tine part of their usual work;
correctional personnel in
state prisons, local jails and
juvenile correctional facili-
ties who come in physical
contact with adult and juve-
nile offenders; public safety
emergency tele-communi-
cators, including 911 and
line dispatchers; and active
service members in the Ore-
gon National Guard.
Public Health will have
limited doses available at
this time. More doses will
be available in the future,
and additional clinics will
be scheduled as supplies
allow.
Once a vaccine be-
comes available for the Sea-
sonal Flu, the Public Health
Dept. will schedule an addi-
tional flu clinic to provide
those vaccinations.
Subscribe to the valley’s
finest news source,
the Illinois Valley News ;
Phone 592-2541
Gov calls for mining ban in
Siskiyou Wild Rivers area
The rain-soaked field made ball handling difficult. (Photo by Michelle Binker, I.V. News )
Cougars meet pair of tough foes
By KENNY HIX
For IVN
The Cougar girls soccer team met two
tough adversaries on Tuesday, Oct. 13 in
Cave Junction -- St. Mary’s and Mother Na-
ture.
However, in soccer you have no rain-
outs, so the Cougars played the Crusaders in
swamp-like conditions. It was so bad that
when the ball was kicked 100 mph and fi-
nally made contact with the two inches of
rain on the field, it stopped on a dime.
Sometimes it seemed as if the ball went
backward as players from both teams, in
soaking wet uniforms, went splashing past.
I.V. weathered the storm, played extremely
hard and had a lot of fun.
In fact, both teams had the times of their
lives in a game to remember. St. Mary’s
scored 7 in the first half and 4 more in the
second half.
Laurissa Tausaga and Jessyka Smith
played in net for the Cougars and had five
and four saves respectively.
“We had some good passes on offense
and stayed aggressive on defense even
though we played in soup,” said coach An-
nette Skidmore. “But the girls loved it.”
On Saturday the 17th, also at home in
Cave Junction, the Lady Cougars played the
Rogue River Chieftains, who with Illinois
Valley will be a part of the new 3-A/2-A
Special District in fall 2010.
The Cougars, led by Tausaga, came out
fired up. The Chieftains were in trouble
early, and they knew it. RR finally adjusted
to the fact that the Cougars came to play and
worked the ball down the field and scored
first at the six-minute mark.
That didn’t faze the Cougars as they con-
tinued to stymie Rogue River for 15 minutes
more before the Chieftains found the corner
of the Cougar net at the 21-minute mark to
take a 2-0 lead.
Again the Cougars were not fazed, and
30 seconds after kickoff they made three
passes through the defense and found
Marisol “Smiley” Sanchez and her “Golden
Toe” for Illinois Valley’s first goal of the
season. It was a sight for sore eyes.
I.V. and its fans erupted in jubilation.
The inspired Cougs then held RR scoreless
for the remaining 18 minutes of the first half
with a 2-1 score in Rogue River’s favor.
The second half began with I.V. apply-
ing pressure at both ends of the field for the
first five minutes. However, you could see
that RR was applying a different offensive
attack, thus confusing the Cougars on match-
ups and who to mark up with.
Before the dust cleared, the Chieftains
had a 7-1 lead, scoring six times in 10 min-
utes.
“It was the worst 10 minutes we have
played all year. It was as if they weren’t even
there,” said Skidmore. The Cougs came back to
Earth, buckled down and were re-inspired by
Xenia Velasco and her spectacular block, div-
ing high and to the right to deflect a point-blank
Chieftain shot over the top of the goal.
For the next 25 minutes the Cougs
played great team soccer as they held Rogue
River to end the match 7-1.
“The first half was amazing; it was a
total team effort,” observed Skidmore.
“Everyone played well. But that 10 minutes
of the second half killed us.”
Velasco had 21 saves.
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
“If it can’t be grown, it
must be mined.”
That’s the Southwest
Oregon Mining Association
motto, which Vice President
Ron Gibson has printed on
his business card.
But Gibson and his fel-
low miners soon may be with
fewer places to engage in
their livelihood, as Gov. Ku-
longoski last week called for
greater protections of the
Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.
In a Thursday, Oct. 15
press release, Kulongoski
announced that he sent letters
to U.S. Secretary of Agricul-
ture Tom Vilsack and U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Ken
Salazar urging the reinstate-
ment of mining withdrawal
for the million-acre space,
which spans Bureau of Land
Management and national
forest land in Josephine and
Curry counties.
President Clinton first
proposed the withdrawal in
January 2001, shortly before
leaving office, but it never
was finalized by George W.
Bush during his two terms.
“The Siskiyou Wild
Rivers area is the most unique
and biologically diverse re-
gion of our state, and without
greater protections, we could
lose what makes this area so
special,” Kulongoski said in
the press release. “The first
step should be to withdraw
mining, and the second
should be a wilderness desig-
nation – the greatest protec-
tion federal law provides.”
Gibson said that there is
“no lawful authority” for the
governor to make such a re-
quest. He added that he thinks
Kulongoski is essentially ask-
ing the federal agencies to
trample on miners’ rights.
“That’s exactly what he’s
trying to do,” Gibson said.
“But there’s no provision in
law for it.”
According to Gibson and
other mining advocates, their
rights are codified by an 1866
mineral grant, which cannot
be trumped by any subse-
quent legislation or adminis-
trative rule changes.
“It never ceases to amaze
me that regulatory agencies or
the state as a whole or the
federal government thinks it
can just come and walk all
over anybody they want to
promote their agenda. That’s
incredibly naïve on their
part,” Gibson said.
“There are some in-
stances where they can get by
with it and people don’t raise
enough resistance to it. The
mining community is not one
of those.”
Kulongoski has been
among the politicians calling
for changes to existing min-
ing laws, some of which were
enacted in 1872. In the Oct.
15 press release, Kulongoski
raised the issue yet again.
“Without the withdrawal,
the area is subject to the 1872
federal mining law, which
does not reflect modern envi-
ronmental protections or as-
sure adequate royalties to
public coffers,” the release
states.
California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger recently
banned the use of suction
dredge mining in that state,
which has caused Kulongoski
to be concerned that those
miners may try to move their
operations to Oregon.
Gibson acknowledges
that may be the case, but adds
that lawsuits already have
been filed challenging Cali-
fornia’s suction dredge ban.
Kulongoski also has raised
concerns about reports of
increased mining in the Siski-
you Wild Rivers region.
However, Gibson said that
miners are coming under in-
creased harassment from
agency representatives.
“We are under attack
from all sides,” Gibson said.
A mining withdrawal for
the area would not affect
valid mining claims, Kulon-
goski wrote in his letter to
Salazar and Vilsack.
“It would give the man-
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