Effects considered in light of ballot measures
Inside:
Readers sound off
A mountain of
Letters to the Editor
Pages 2&3
24-hour coverage
IVFD explores
overnight program
Page 5
Burglary bust?
JCSO serves warrant
at CJ residence
Statewide referendum on legislated tax increases set Jan. 26
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Oregon voters will de-
cide on a pair of tax measures
with the vote-by-mail special
election that has a ballot
deadline of Tuesday, Jan. 26.
Ballots must reach the
Josephine County Clerk’s
Office by 8 p.m. the 26th.
They also can be placed in the
ballot box outside Cave Junc-
tion City Hall until 8 p.m. on
election day.
Facing a growing budget
shortfall, the Legislature
voted last year to raise parts
of the state’s personal and
corporate income tax rates.
Conservative and business
groups gathered enough sig-
natures to refer the hikes to
voters, which resulted in
measures 66 and 67.
If passed, Measure 66
would raise the tax on in-
comes at or above $250,000
for households and $125,000
for individuals. It would raise
an estimated $472 million in
revenues for the state during
its first year.
Measure 67 would raise
the corporate minimum tax
from $10 to $150; increase
the tax rate that some corpo-
Page 9
Page 10
I.V. Airport
layout plan
update set
for Jan. 25
in city hall
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541-592-2541
vote, was J.L. Wilson, vice
president of Associated Ore-
gon Industries (AOI).
Wilson said that despite
its budgetary woes, the state
government’s all-funds
budget still increased by $4.5
billion. He added that while
131,000 private sector jobs
were lost, the state added
more than 5,000 employees.
AOI proposed a tempo-
rary two-year tax in exchange
(Continued on page 8)
Wind, solar options
task force topics
County candidates
Hopefuls announce
for commissioner
position
A public meeting has
been set for Monday, Jan.
25 regarding the Illinois
Valley Airport’s layout plan
update.
The meeting is sched-
uled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. at
Cave Junction City Hall.
In a Tuesday, Jan. 12
press release, Josephine
County Airports Manager
Alex Grossi said that the
airport’s current layout plan
was established in 2001, and
needs to be updated.
“This document is over
seven years old and needs to
be updated to reflect new
facilities, current projections
of airport activity, new envi-
ronmental and other regula-
tory constraints, and to plan
for an appropriate mix of
land uses to support pro-
jected aviation and non-
aviation needs and the long-
term financial health of the
airport,” Grossi said.
The layout plan update
also will include a revised
capital improvement plan,
Grossi said, “that will pro-
vide the airport with a
method and proposed sched-
ule for correcting identified
airport design deficiencies.”
“It is the intent of this
study to update existing
drawings and provide a re-
view of existing and long-
range needs of the airport,”
Grossi said.
“Specific items that will
be addressed within the nar-
rative report include a re-
view of the historic build-
ings on the airport and how
they may affect future de-
velopment, along with a
detailed discussion of the
appropriate Airport Refer-
ence Code (ARC). The
ARC dictates the Federal
Aviation Administration’s
design and safety standards
for the airport.”
The Jan. 25 meeting
will address the develop-
ment alternatives for the
airport for the next 20 years,
Grossi said.
Members of the public
are welcome and highly
encouraged to attend.
rations pay on profits by 1.3
percentage points; and in-
crease certain business filing
fees. It would raise an esti-
mated $255 million in its first
year of implementation.
Representatives of both
sides of the tax debate got to
state their cases during the
Wednesday, Jan. 13 KAJO
Radio talk show based in
Grants Pass.
Speaking in opposition to
the measures, seeking a “No”
Illinois Valley Little
League hosted a chili
cook off and fund-raiser
dinner on Saturday, Jan.
16 at the Josephine
County Bldg. in Downtown
Cave Junction. First prize
from among ten entries
went to Don Pickern
(above, right). He was
awarded a gift basket and
half the entry fees, which
he donated back to the
Little League. Bobbie Loyd took second place, and Robert Kihs earned third. Contest
judges (from left) Harry Johnson, Don Moore and Joe Berklich took their duties seriously.
(Photos by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News )
Merkley talks health care bill,
blasts Bernanke at town hall
until the age of 26 under that
However, Merkley said
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
provision, he said.
that the Senate bill has a
IVN Staff Writer
Health care
and banking pol-
icy were the main
topics discussed
by U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley (D-Ore.)
during a Wednes-
day, Jan. 13 town
hall meeting at the
National Guard
Armory in Merlin.
More than 70
people attended to
hear from Merk-
ley, who was in-
troduced by Jose-
phine
County
Commissioner
and Illinois Valley
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (right) chats with Josephine County Sheriff Gil
resident
Dave
Gilbertson (left) and Board of Commissioners Chairman Dwight Ellis.
Toler.
M e r k l e y (Photo by Scott Jorgensen, Illinois Valley News )
briefed the audience on the
A health insurance ex-
model that would enable
health-care reform bill mak-
change currently is available
states to establish their own
ing its way through Congress.
for employees of the federal
public option programs.
He said that the public option
government, which provides
“That is a door that re-
still is included in the House
a larger pool of purchasers
mains open,” Merkley said.
version of the bill, but not the
and market clout and drives
The health-care package
Senate.
down prices, the senator said.
is estimated to cost $850 bil-
The emphasis of the leg-
He added that participation in
lion throughout the next 10
islation is on prevention and
the exchange would not be
years, Merkley said. He put
disease management, Merk-
mandatory under the existing
that figure into perspective by
ley said.
draft of the legislation.
stating that the United States
Also included is a Health
Merkley said that the
is spending between 17 and
Care Bill of Rights, he said,
public option was excluded
18 percent of its Gross Do-
which would eliminate the
from the Senate version, de-
mestic Product on health care
ability of insurance compa-
spite his objections.
right now, he said. By con-
nies to deny coverage based
“There weren’t 60 votes
trast, Europe spends only 10
on pre-existing conditions.
for the public option,” said
percent.
Children would be allowed to
the law-maker “I fought for it.
Those costs put Ameri-
stay on their parents’ policies
I argued for it.”
(Continued on page 4)
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
The Josephine County
Courthouse typically is pretty
empty after 5 o’clock in the
evening, save for the occa-
sional janitor dutifully mov-
ing through the marble halls.
But every first Wednes-
day, Room 157 fills during
that time as members of the
county’s Renewable Energy
Task Force arrive for their
regular meeting.
The group has been to-
gether nearly two years, dis-
cussing ways that Josephine
County can capitalize on the
trend toward renewable en-
ergy. It was put together by
Commissioner Dave Toler,
an Illinois Valley resident.
Members are Karen
Zimmer from the Josephine
County Homebuilders Asso-
ciation; Steve Dahl, the eco-
nomic development director
for the city of Grants Pass;
Michael Smith from Southern
Oregon Regional Economic
Development Inc.; a represen-
tative from the Bureau of
Land Management, and some
citizens just hoping to make a
difference.
During the group’s
Wednesday, Jan. 6 meeting,
Toler discussed his recent trip
to the SolarWorld Hillsboro
facility, comprising 480,000
square feet of space.
Toler said that the com-
pany has grown 30 percent
during the past two years,
despite the bad economy. It
will eventually expand to
approximately 1,000 full-time
employees, he added, and
there are plans to build the
(Continued on page 8)
JoCo gains from net
revenue exchange
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
A “net revenue ex-
change” between Josephine
County and the cities of
Phoenix, Talent and Ashland
in Jackson County has area
officials pleased that they
have been able to benefit all
involved.
The exchange was final-
ized unanimously by the Jo-
sephine County Board of
Commissioners during a
Tuesday, Jan. 5 administra-
tive meeting at the courthouse
in Grants Pass.
Public Works Director
Rob Brandes said that the
county received $1.1 million
last year for road projects
through the federal American
Recovery & Reinvestment
Act (ARRA). It was adminis-
tered at the state level through
the Oregon Dept. of Trans-
portation (ODOT).
Most of the money was
used to pay for a project on
New Hope Road in rural
Grants Pass, Brandes said.
But once that project was
complete, he said, the county
had approximately $70,000 of
the ARRA bucks remaining.
It also had a list of other
needed projects, Brandes
said, and Old Hwy. 99 near
Wolf Creek floated to the top
of the list.
“That area was a disas-
ter,” he said, adding that it
was beyond chip-sealing or
any kind of quick fix.
He added that the total
cost for the Hwy. 99 project
was around $200,000.
If the county didn’t
spend the $70,000 remaining
from the New Hope project,
the money would have re-
verted to ODOT, according to
Brandes.
Because of all those fac-
tors, county officials elected
to move forward with the
Hwy. 99 project, and paid the
$130,000 difference out of a
public works fund.
While all this was tran-
spiring, the cities of Talent,
Phoenix and Ashland were
unable to spend all their fed-
eral ARRA allocations before
the required deadlines. So
ODOT officials stepped in to
help facilitate the exchange.
Art Anderson, ODOT’s
area manager for Josephine
and Jackson counties, said
that those three cities had
extra funds because the bids
for their priority projects
came in lower than expected.
“They didn’t not want to
spend it all,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that the
first round of ARRA money
was received by the state in
March 2009. The state then
had one year to obligate those
dollars, with an emphasis on
job creation, he said.
The shortened timelines
meant that officials couldn’t
consider more complex pro-
jects like major new road or
bridge construction that in-
volved substantial planning,
environmental impact state-
ments or right-of-way acqui-
sitions, Anderson said. As
such, he added, the focus was
on more “shovel-ready” pro-
jects, including chip seals,
culvert replacements and pav-
ing work.
Kelli Sparkman, ODOT
local agency liaison, was
charged with managing de-
tails of the revenue exchange.
Sparkman said that she is
unaware of any other local
municipalities involved in
similar exchanges with fed-
eral money. But she added
that ODOT frequently does
such maneuvering with State-
wide Transportation Improve-
ment Program (STIP) funds.
“It’s virtually the same
(Continued on page 10)