Inside:
JoCo budget passed
Water topics
CJ Council hears
multiple issues
Page 4
Bowing out
Bowers quits
commissioner race
Page 5
Come out n’ fly
Buddy Box day set
at JoCo Skypark
Page 5
SOREDI for what?
Smith talks
development
Page 6
Chateau chatter
Classical guitar,
dinner theater &
brunch among
weekend activities
Page 13
‘Blackie,’ a Bichon Frise owned by Eleanor Jones, received a reduced-cost rabies vaccination
on Saturday, May 8 from Dr. Dan Fiske (left) at Crossroads Animal Hospital. Assistant Kathy
Sawall said that some 30 pet owners took advantage of the clinic, held in response to inci-
dents of rabies in Illinois Valley. (Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News )
Social gaming question
posed to CJ electorate
In the Tuesday, May 18
vote-by-mail primary elec-
tion, Cave Junction voters
will decide whether or not
they want to allow social
gaming within city limits.
The city council passed
an ordinance Feb. 8 to refer
the matter to citizens. Andrea
Thomas, owner of Nacho
Mamas restaurant downtown,
approached the council with a
request to allow social gam-
ing in her establishment.
Thomas said that she
wanted to boost revenues
during the slow winter
months. She also has argued
that having more nighttime
activities in Cave Junction
businesses will deter crime
rather than increasing it.
Oregon Revised Statute
167.121 enables municipali-
ties to allow and regulate so-
cial gaming within their juris-
dictions. As such, the ques-
tion being posed to Cave
Junction voters on the ballot
is a simple one.
“Shall the City of Cave
Junction enable social gaming
under ORS 167.121?”
If the measure is ap-
proved by a majority of vot-
ers, the council will enact an
ordinance to enable social
gaming and establish regula-
tions and licensing require-
ments for businesses hoping
to allow it.
Under the ordinance,
social gaming could be con-
ducted in a private business,
private club or in a place or
public accommodation. So-
cial gaming is defined as a
game, other than a lottery,
between players in a private
home where no house
player, house bank or house
odds exist; and there is no
house income from the op-
eration.
The city anticipates that
allowing social gaming
would be “revenue neutral,”
because the costs to adminis-
ter the licensing and regula-
tion would be offset by reve-
nue gained from the receipt of
licensing fees.
Ore. Caves expansion bill
passes House committee
A bill to dramatically
expand Oregon Caves Na-
tional Monument near Cave
Junction has taken one more
step toward becoming law.
On Wednesday, May 5,
the House Natural Resources
Committee passed House
Resolution 2889. If passed,
the proposal would expand
the monument to 10 times its
current acreage. It also would
shift management of the acre-
age surrounding the current
monument from the U.S. For-
est Service to the National
Park Service.
Under HR 2889, the
River Styx in the Cave would
be protected under the federal
Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. It
would be the first time that a
subterranean Wild & Scenic
River would be created.
The bill also would al-
low persons who have graz-
ing permits for the area to
keep or retire them voluntar-
ily. Concerns have been
raised regarding longtime
livestock grazing adversely
affecting water quality in
the area.
The monument currently
comprises less than 500 acres,
and is the second-smallest
national park unit in the
United States. Its expansion
has been proposed several
times since the 1930s.
Phone bill help available
More low-income Ore-
gonians now are able to apply
for assistance to pay their
telephone bills.
The Lifeline telephone
assistance program provides a
$13.50 discount off monthly
phone bills, and has been
expanded to include cell
phones. Until recently, the
discount could be applied
only to residential landlines.
Residents receiving food
stamps, state-funded health
care oR other types of gov-
ernment aid are eligible to
participate in the Oregon
Telephone Assistance Pro-
gram. It is funded by a 12-
cent fee on monthly phone
bills. According to the Ore-
gon Public Utilities Commis-
sion, more than 48,000
households in the state al-
ready receive the discount.
For more information, or
to download an application,
visit puc.state.or.us.
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
A $107 million budget
for the 2010-11 fiscal year
was approved by the six-
member Josephine County
Budget Committee as part of
a 50-minute meeting on
Thursday evening, May 6 at
Anne G. Basker Auditorium
in Grants Pass.
The approved budget
compares to the $105 million
budget for the current fiscal
year. The estimated tax rate
for the new budget remains
unchanged at $0.59 per
$1,000 assessed valuation.
Two days prior to the
May 6 session, during another
meeting in the auditorium, the
committee heard a variety of
presentations from county
department managers.
Planning Director Mi-
chael Snider stated that a raise
in his department’s fees, ap-
proved in 2007 and 2008, did
not succeed in making the
department self-sufficient and
independent of the county
general fund.
The planning department
required $62,715 in general
fund support for the 2008-09
fiscal year, Snider said, and
$75,668 in 2009-10.
He said that projected fee
revenue for 2010-11 is ap-
proximately $401,200, with
projected expenditures of
$509,000, leaving a shortfall
of $107,800 to be made up
through the general fund.
However, Snider noted
that fee revenue to the depart-
ment has risen during the first
few months of 2010, com-
pared to original projections.
County Commissioner
Sandi Cassanelli stated that
because of the economic
downturn and fewer develop-
ment projects occurring in the
county, the planning depart-
ment should be cut. Snider
countered that many of the
projects the department is
working on are long-term.
(Continued on page 5 )
Selma Center facility recruiting new users
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Hallway walls of the former Selma
Elementary School are lined with class
photos from years past, as a reminder of
the role the facility once served in the
community.
Budget woes and a need for upgrades
forced the school’s closure in 2000, at
which point it became the Selma Commu-
nity Center (SCC). But like many busi-
nesses and organizations, SCC is at a
crossroads of sorts, struggling to stay
afloat amid a national recession.
To prompt more usage of the facility,
containing 10,000-square-feet of space,
Jim Tehan, SCC Board of Directors presi-
dent, said that he is talking to representa-
tives of other nonprofit groups in the area.
“We have to find a method to reach
out to the community,” Tehan said. “The
center really is open to everybody in the
valley. It’s not limited to the people in
Selma.”
Income from renting some of the
rooms used to pay for two-thirds of oper-
ating expenses, like utility bills and insur-
ance, Tehan said. But rental income has
dropped, and that is straining SCC’s bot-
Director Jim Tehan shows the free lending library at Selma Community Center.
(Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News )
tom line.
“That’s a big hurt,” Tehan said.
SCC currently charges $10.50 per
hour to rent one room. That cost does not
cover utility usage.
Tehan said that he also would like to
see more usage of the center gymnasium,
which seats 500 people and has a stage.
Part of the problem, he noted, is that
Cave Junction residents don’t want to
drive to Selma, and neither do Grants Pass
(Continued on page 5)
Toler seeks second term on county board
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Although many candi-
dates have stepped up to chal-
lenge Josephine County
Commissioner Dave Toler for
his position, the 50-year-old
Illinois Valley resident main-
tains that he is the most quali-
fied for the job.
Toler first was elected
commissioner in the Novem-
ber 2006 election, replacing
then-incumbent Jim Riddle.
Toler already had spent
nearly a decade on the Three
Rivers School District
(TRSD) Board of Education.
He ran against Riddle to win
his first term, and was re-
elected to that seat twice.
In his first race, Toler
began his commissioner can-
didacy in earnest, and detrac-
tors set about directing a bar-
rage of negativity. Even
though Toler was no stranger
to the politics of elected of-
fice, he said that the personal
attacks took a personal toll.
“You expect it, but it still
hurts,” he said. “You don’t
know how mean it’s going to
be until it hits you.”
Dave Daniel, who was
the county sheriff at the time,
took first place in the May
2006 primary election. Toler
came within one percentage
point of Daniel, despite the
fact that none of his informa-
tion was included in the Vot-
ers’ Pamphlet, and a run-off
election was scheduled
between the two for the
general election in No-
vember.
But
Daniel
dropped out due to
health reasons. A cou-
ple of candidates at-
tempted write-in bids,
but Toler won.
He took office in
2007, and said that he
deliberately tried to
keep a low profile
while learning the
ropes. His main focus,
Toler said, was to see
how county operations
compared to those of
TRSD.
“I stayed pretty
quiet for the first five
months,” he explained.
“I did a lot of active
listening.”
Although it can
sometimes be awkward
adjusting to a new
situation, Toler’s up-
bringing had made him
adept at doing so.
His father was a
career officer in the U.S.
Army. As such, Toler grew
up on military bases for the
first 12 years of his life.
Born in Alabama, Toler
shuffled around with his fam-
ily to 15 communities in 18
years. When he was a teen-
ager, his family had settled in
Atlanta, Ga. But that stability
was uprooted, and they
Incumbent Josephine County Commissioner Dave Toler.
(Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News )
moved to Norway.
Toler’s family stayed in
Norway, and he headed to
London Central High, a Dept.
of Defense school. He gradu-
ated and then went to George
Mason University in Wash-
ington, D.C. to begin his col-
lege education.
After a couple of years,
he transferred to Western
Washington University, and
graduated in 1981 with a ma-
jor in environmental science
and a minor in economics.
Toler spent some time in
Portland before being admit-
ted to the University of Ore-
gon graduate school of eco-
nomics. It was during that
time that he met his wife-to-
(Continued on page 6)