Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Page 6
Toler seeks second term on
JoCo Board of Commissioners
(Continued from page 1)
be and started a family.
Although he had invested
nearly a year in his graduate
school education, Toler aban-
doned those efforts and opted
to take his family on a six-
month road trip to Arizona and
Mexico. Those travels brought
him to Josephine County for
the first time, but it would still
be a couple of years until he
would take up residency.
In the meantime, he
worked as a forestry techni-
cian for the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice (USFS) in the Wallowa
Whitman National Forest,
based in La Grande. He trans-
ferred to the USFS Illinois
Valley Ranger District in fall
1988, and purchased property
on Rockydale Road the fol-
lowing year.
The work Toler did with
USFS was seasonal. But it
served his family well, as
Toler’s then-wife had a sea-
sonal winter job and the cou-
ple took turns home-
schooling their two children
until the eighth-grade.
Work with the USFS
kept Toler busy until he
started doing similar work
through private forestry con-
tracting. Duties included
chopping firewood and plant-
ing trees throughout the area.
“I was scratching out a
living working in the woods,”
Toler said.
But by the mid-1990s,
the passage of the Northwest
Forest Management Plan and
emerging environmental is-
sues surrounding the
“endangered” spotted owl
prompted Toler to reconsider
his future.
He was admitted to the
University of Oregon law
school, and a program for
dislocated timber workers
would have funded the first
year of that education. How-
ever, he said his family was
reluctant to move, so he be-
gan exploring other options.
He said that in 1996 he
made a “dramatic change” in
careers and decided to work
as an administrator for non-
profit organizations.
Oregon voters approved
Measure 11 in 1994, which
established mandatory mini-
mum sentences for many
crimes. Anticipating a rise in
the number of inmates in state
custody, the Legislature
passed a bill in 1995 to begin
a process of establishing loca-
tions for new prisons.
The list of potential loca-
tions was released in 1996,
and included the former Mar-
tin Dairy property off Rocky-
dale Road in Illinois Valley.
At first, the proposed
prison site was supported by
the city of Cave Junction and
the Josephine County Board
of Commissioners. But when
Toler examined the issue, he
found that the city would
have to nearly double its wa-
ter and sewer capacity
“literally overnight.”
There were other prob-
lems, including the fact that
the site is on a flood plain,
contrary to the state’s criteria.
Toler set about defeating
the plan, and began reaching
out to various organizations
and community members to
build an opposition coalition.
“We got organized,” he
said. “We got involved.”
State officials visited
Josephine County in October
1996 to tour the site. When
they showed up for a commu-
nity meeting on the matter,
Toler had helped rally 550
people to attend and make
their voices heard.
“I will never forget that
meeting,” Toler said. “It was
standing room only, and 90
percent of the people there
were against it.”
The county commission-
ers subsequently pulled their
support for the project, which
was scuttled.
“That was my first real
public role in the Illinois Val-
ley,” Toler said. “It was a
huge issue.”
Toler already had began
his involvement in various
community organizations by
then. He listed them as the
Illinois Valley Community
Response Team, Rockydale
Neighborhood Association
(RNA), Women’s Crisis Sup-
port Team, and Siskiyou
Community Health Center.
He also performed adminis-
trative tasks for Takilma
Dome School, and served as
development director for the
Siskiyou Field Institute from
2005 to 2007.
Through his involvement
with RNA, Toler authored a
timber plan in 1993 that he
said added a “third dimen-
sion” to the natural resources
debate.
That 150-year manage-
ment plan started with 1 mil-
lion board feet on 400 acres.
Toler said that it was opposed
by environmental groups and
timber interests.
“It had a lot of legiti-
macy, in terms of the science
behind it,” Toler said.
As a TRSD board mem-
Toler (right) with Rogue Truck Body owner Keith Hill, discusses the effects of a recent eco-
nomic development grant for the Kerby business with members of the press. ( IVN photo)
ber, he was faced with diffi-
cult decisions in 2000. Con-
tinued declining enrollment
was battering the district’s
bottom line, and led to the
closure of schools in Merlin
and Selma.
“That was really tough,”
Toler said. “It was my hardest
time on the board, for sure.”
Frustration with the
state’s education funding
prompted Toler to run for the
Legislature in 2000 as an in-
dependent. He was unsuc-
cessful, but the experience he
gained cutting budgets on the
TRSD board would prove
valuable in later years.
The November 2006
election that sent Toler to the
commissioner’s office was
the same one in which county
voters defeated a library levy.
Toler said that the resulting
closure of all the branches of
the county’s library system
was “excruciating” and
“terrible,” but that hindsight
has rewarded him with a
SOREDI’s Smith talks economic development
The most recent figures
available showed Josephine
County with a 15 percent un-
employment rate.
But that doesn’t scare
Michael Smith, of Southern
Oregon Regional Economic
Development Inc. (SOREDI).
He insists that he’s up to the
challenge of trying to turn that
around.
Smith is assigned to Jose-
phine County through a con-
tract it has with SOREDI to
handle various economic de-
velopment projects. SOREDI
is a 23-year-old private non-
profit organization based in
neighboring Jackson County.
One of his projects is to
form a long-term economic
strategy. Josephine County
never has had such a plan.
To achieve that aim,
Smith said that he plans to
approach the county commis-
sioners with a proposal to form
an economic development
steering committee. Smith said
that group would consist of
volunteer citizens and business
owners, and would spend at
least six months drafting a five
Elementary School Lunch
Menu Sponsored by
H OMETOWN E
INTERIORS
541-592-2413
THURSDAY, MAY 13
BBQ turkey sandwich, hot
diggity dog, pepperoni or
cheese pizza, crispy chicken
wrap, chef or garden salad
FRIDAY, MAY 14
Popcorn chicken, pizza burger,
cheesy nachos, totally turkey
sandwich, garden or cobb
salad
MONDAY, MAY 17
Chicken nuggets, cheese-
burger, cheesy bean burrito,
totally turkey sandwich, garden
salad
TUESDAY, MAY 18
Grilled cheese sandwich,
Rib-B-Q sandwich, pepperoni
or cheese pizza, super duper
sub, chef or garden salad
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19
Cheesy macaroni, big beef soft
taco, hamburger, turkey &
cheese wrap, popcorn chicken
or garden salad
to 10-year economic develop-
ment plan for the county.
Approximately 16 people
have been nominated or have
volunteered for the committee,
he said. He added that he
hopes to have it formed within
the next couple of months.
Once formed, that com-
mittee also could aid Smith in
another of his tasks, establish-
ing performance measures for
the county’s economic devel-
opment grants. Smith said that
process thus far has been at the
“will and whim” of the com-
missioners.
“Seldom has there been
any true evaluation by the en-
tire board or any expert outside
of that board,” he explained.
Because of that, some of
the economic development
grants previously approved by
the commissioners have be-
come the center of political
controversy. An $85,000 grant
to spur the growth of a biofuels
industry has become a conven-
ient point of attack for oppo-
nents of Commissioner Dave
Toler, who is running for a
second term.
The grant was awarded to
Josephine Soil and Water Con-
servation District (JSWCD),
which was charged with its
administration. JSWCD gave
some of the funds to a Eugene-
based firm that later filed for
bankruptcy.
Smith said that establish-
ing performance measures for
the grants and having them
reviewed by a committee
would “take some of the pres-
sure” off of the three commis-
sioners. The committee and the
performance measures, he
said, could provide an
“objective evaluation” and
“bigger picture view” of the
grant proposals.
Another of Smith’s main
missions has been to upgrade
the infrastructure at the North
Valley Industrial Park in Mer-
lin. Future development, ex-
pansion and investment in the
site is prevented by a lack of
adequate sewer capacity,
Smith said.
“There is no backup sys-
tem on the system that they’re
using out there,” he said.
“That’s the only thing holding
that back.”
A preliminary permit has
been issued for a sewer system
to service Merlin, Smith said,
but must be approved by the
state Dept. of Environmental
Quality.
Improving sewage capac-
ity to the North Valley Indus-
trial Park is especially crucial,
because that area is one of very
few in the county zoned for
industrial use.
Smith also is working on
an industrial land survey, and
said that commercial and in-
dustrial zoning comprises only
7.58 square miles in the
county. That includes parcels
of land already developed and
in use, Smith said, which
“takes us off the map for many
companies that want to come
here.”
An industrial park zoning
also is included on the Illinois
Valley Airport property. Smith
said investment there might be
spurred by offering to give the
land away to someone willing
to develop some parcels. He
said the former Kauffman mill
site, with around 66 acres lo-
cated on Illinois River, also
could be utilized to create em-
ployment opportunities for
Illinois Valley residents.
“There just are not enough
jobs out there,” Smith said. “I
think there’s some opportunity
in Illinois Valley that could be
realized.”
One project that has been
completed is consolidation of
two separate Enterprise Zones
in the city of Grants Pass and
rural areas of the county. The
county zone consisted of only
1.58 square miles, Smith said,
which was added to the exist-
ing Grants Pass zone and in-
cluded in an electric commerce
overlay.
Smith said that the enter-
prise zone provides property
tax breaks on capital invest-
ments for three to five years to
companies that do business
outside of the area. Under the
e-commerce overlay, he
added, a firm that does at least
51 percent of its business
through the Internet can re-
ceive a 25 percent tax break on
investments totaling more than
$1,000.
There are only 50 Enter-
prise Zones and 10 e-
commerce zones in the state,
Smith said.
Although the national
economy has faltered for the
past few years because of the
recession, Smith said that he is
optimistic that companies
could start expanding their
operations soon.
“We’re seeing them take a
few steps towards some addi-
tional hiring, some invest-
ments,” he said. “We’re seeing
that there are some opportuni-
ties here that have not been
embraced in the last couple of
years.”
By Scott Jorgensen
broader perspective.
“As I look back, it was
the right decision,” he said.
In spring 2007, the
county received a full pay-
ment from the federal govern-
ment. But instead of rushing
to spend the money, Toler
said that the commissioners
opted to reduce staffing levels
and save for a rainy day.
“We put over half of the
money in the bank for re-
serves,” Toler said. “It wasn’t
easy to do.”
The county’s record re-
serves ultimately lead to an
A-plus credit rating from
Standard & Poor’s last year,
which enabled it to refinance
its bonds at a lower interest
rate and save nearly $1 mil-
lion. Operating the libraries
had cost the county around
$900,000 per year before the
levy’s failure, Toler said.
But a nonprofit organiza-
tion, Josephine Community
Libraries Inc. (JCLI), formed
to reopen libraries. Toler and
Commissioner Dwight Ellis
voted to approve a $300,000
grant request from JCLI, and
all branches now are open.
For the past three and a
half years, Toler has seen the
county face any number of
critical challenges. He’s also
faced nearly endless criticism
during weekly business ses-
sions Wednesdays at Anne G.
Basker Auditorium in Grants
Pass from citizens who never
wanted to see him as a com-
missioner in the first place.
“You just have to know
who you work for,” Toler
observed.
Water Wells
Pump Sales
Installation
Service
592-6777
1470 Caves Highway
Licensed • Bonded • Insured
Locally owned and
operated in the valley
for over 25 years.
5 4 1 -5 9 2 -6 0 5 8
3 1 9 Ca ve s H w y.
Ca ve J unc t ion
www.PregnancyCenterIV.org
WWC #1504 • CCB #152266 • CPl #7-113
Member Oregon Ground Water Assoc.
AND RENTAL CENTER
Save $$$ Rent From Us: lawn tools, paint
sprayers, carpet shampooer, plumbing
tools, construction equipment, power tools
and more!
434 Caves Highway, Cave Junction, OR 97523
Phone (541) 592-3540 Fax (541) 592-6841
Mon-Fri 7:00-5:30, Sat 8:00-5:00, Closed Sunday
M om s & Da ds
Progra m
Pa re nt ing
Cla sse s
He related that he views
his main task as ensuring that
Josephine County residents
receive reliable service deliv-
ered as efficiently as possible.
“That’s how I see my job
and what I put my energy
into,” he said.
The role of partisan poli-
tics often has been overstated
in the commissioner position,
Toler said, adding that he has
never been a Republican or a
Democrat. He said that citi-
zens ultimately pay the price
when the commissioners are
distracted by political issues.
For the future, he said
that he remains optimistic that
the county will receive more
federal funding, even if it’s a
portion of what has tradition-
ally been allocated. Toler said
he also expects to see more
harvesting on federal forests
and more timber receipts gen-
erated as a result, and the
increased use of woody bio-
mass material to produce re-
newable energy.
But to carry out his vi-
sion for the county, Toler
must get past the nine chal-
lengers currently seeking his
seat. Approximately 11 can-
didates had filed for the posi-
tion, including Toler, but
Grants Pass resident Ed Bow-
ers dropped out last week due
to health issues.
The primary election is
scheduled for Tuesday, May
18. If no candidate receives
more than 50 percent of the
vote, a runoff will be held
during the November general
election between the top two
vote-getters.
Cave Junction 145 N. Redwood Highway
541-592-2233
CALL FOR STORE HOURS.
Restrictions apply. See store for details. ©2010 U.S. Cellular.