Page 6
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Illinois Valley Fire District board of directors adopts budget
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Illinois Valley Fire Dis-
trict (IVFD) directors voted
4-0 during their 45-minute
meeting on Thursday night,
June 10, to adopt a $1.39 mil-
lion budget for the 2010-11
fiscal year.
That budget has a tax rate
of $1.87 per $1,000 of as-
sessed property value, and
includes approximately
$180,561 in bonded indebted-
ness.
The rate is unchanged
from the current fiscal year
which expires June 30.
A series of other resolu-
tions was passed 4-0 by the
board during the meeting,
held at IVFD headquarters on
Caves Hwy. Director Larrick
Jones was absent.
No public comment was
given for a second reading of
an ordinance establishing a
fee schedule for fire preven-
tion inspections, fireworks
inspection and permit fees
and annexations.
Chief Harry Rich later
thanked the board for passing
the ordinance, and said that it
gives IVFD the authority to
enforce compliance of fire
code regulations.
Board Chairman Sam
Michel asked if area business
owners had sufficient input
regarding the ordinance. Rich
replied that business owners
were able to ask board mem-
bers about the ordinance for
the past two months, and that
the issue has been publicized.
“This was all done above
board,” Rich said.
Also approved by the
board were resolutions adopt-
ing the district’s financial
policies for 2010-11 and an-
nexation of a property at 686
Briar Lane in Selma.
Another resolution called
for changing budgeted per-
sonal services. IVFD received
unplanned money from Illi-
nois Valley Community De-
velopment Organization for
fuel-reduction (brush, trees
and the like) projects in
O’Brien. As such, the budget
amount in the personal ser-
ODOT begins Hwy. 199 work at Wonder
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
A $2.2 million project to
add a passing lane to Red-
wood Hwy. (state Hwy. 199)
near Wonder is well under
way, with crews diligently
working toward completion
around the end of October.
The construction is be-
tween Elliot Creek Road and
Round Prairie Road by high-
way mileposts 10 and 11.
The project is partly
funded through a state trans-
portation improvement pro-
gram, said Gary Leaming, of
the Oregon Dept. of Trans-
portation (ODOT). Approxi-
mately $1.6 million of its cost
comes from a congressional
earmark made possible by
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-
Springfield), Leaming said.
No property acquisitions
were needed for the project,
he added, as ODOT already
had a wide section of right-
of-way through the area.
The bid for the project
was awarded to Grants Pass-
based Copeland Sand &
Gravel, which also is using
subcontractors.
Leaming estimated that
between 30 and 40 jobs were
retained or created as a result
of the project, all of which
went to Josephine County
residents.
That stretch of highway
was selected for improvement
due to its “higher-than-
normal crash rate,” according
to Leaming.
“We were looking for an
additional passing lane oppor-
tunity between Wilderville
and Hayes Hill,” Leaming
said. “We were looking for an
opportunity for northbound
traffic to pass slower-moving
vehicles, which is really im-
portant during the summer
months.”
Drivers can expect shoul-
der closures in that stretch of
Redwood Hwy. as crews
work to construct roadway
foundation. They also can
anticipate slow-moving con-
struction traffic entering and
exiting the work zone.
As of Monday, June 21,
work is scheduled for installa-
tion of underground drainage
pipes, which will cause short
delays. Work will be con-
ducted Monday through
Thursday nights that week.
Leaming said that main
focus of work crews will be
to keep traffic moving
through the area.
“At some point, they will
be working really close to the
highway,” he said. At that
point, it will be night work.
Drivers may be flagged dur-
ing the night time with some
minor delays through there.
“The goal is to keep traf-
fic moving in the daytime and
on the weekends.”
BLM to host contractor
workshop in Medford
The Bureau of Land
Management Medford Dis-
trict will host speakers from
the Government Contract
Assistance Program (GCAP)
on Thursday, June 17.
The workshop, at the
Medford Interagency office,
3040 Biddle Road from 9
a.m. to noon, is designed to
provide the information tools
to navigate the federal gov-
ernment procurement system
for current and future contrac-
tors. Topics will include bid
preparation, electronic con-
tracting, interpreting solicita-
tions, and how to obtain con-
tract specifications.
GCAP — Oregon’s Pro-
curement Technical Assis-
tance Program — is spon-
sored and brought to the pub-
lic by the Organization for
Economic Initiatives, the De-
fense Logistics Agency, the
Oregon Economic & Com-
munity Development Dept.,
and the Oregon Dept. of
Transportation.
For more information
about the workshop, contact
Pat Hebb at 541-618-2212.
Additional information about
the Medford District can be
found at: http://www.blm.gov
/or/districts/medford/
index.php.
School district faces $2 million in cuts …
(Continued from page 1)
the shortfall include reducing
the number of employees,
reducing their compensation
or eliminating up to 20 school
days, Huber-Kantola said.
Further complicating
matters is the fact that the
district is in regular negotia-
tions with three of its four
union bargaining groups. The
next round of negotiations
will occur in August, he said.
TRSD reduced its num-
ber of teaching positions by
10 last year and four this year,
he said, adding that $2 mil-
lion is the equivalent of 26
teaching positions.
The timing of the budget-
ary complications also is trou-
bling to Huber-Kantola, he
said. TRSD received the final
forecast on revenue for next
year from the state on May
14, and based its budget on
those figures.
Local officials had “no
hint from anybody” what was
about to happen, he said. A
similar situation occurred in
May 2007, when the TRSD
Budget Committee had to
delay deliberations while the
Legislature continued debate
on education funding.
There are some spots of
optimism, however. Federal
legislation has been proposed
in the form of S.3206, the
Keep Our Educators Working
Act of 2010, to help states
prevent cuts in their school
programs. That bill has faced
some legislative setbacks, so
Huber-Kantola said that its
likelihood of passage is a
“real unknown.”
A new revenue forecast
is to be released by the state
in November. Huber-Kantola
said that the revenue figures
could change as a result, but
that TRSD still will plan for
the worst.
“We’re planning as if
that $2 million is going to be
gone,” he said.
In the long-term, the dis-
trict’s enrollment is projected
to level off around 2012, re-
versing the decline of the past
few years.
“At that point, it be-
comes more stable. But that
doesn’t help the problem,”
Huber-Kantola said. “We will
still have a couple more years
of declining enrollment.”
He added that attending
the three recent graduation
ceremonies for TRSD high
school students helped him
cope with the negativity sur-
rounding a grim financial
picture.
“It was a good reminder
of why we fight and strug-
gle to do the best we can
with what money they give
us,” noted Huber-Kantola.
“It doesn’t get any better
than that.”
HB 2229 prompts land-use zoning review
(Continued from page 1)
designation to 200,000 acres.
“Their local input was
not recognized at all,” Hunni-
cutt said.
He estimated that there
are approximately one mil-
lion acres of resource land
that have been miszoned
throughout the state.
“We hear that every-
where we go,” he said.
Gov. Kulongoski and
legislative leaders agreed in
2005 to formation of the Big
Look Task Force. That 10-
member panel was charged
with traveling around the
state to solicit input from citi-
zens regarding the land-use
system, and reporting its find-
ings to the Legislature.
The report produced by
the task force lead to intro-
duction of HB 2229 during
the 2009 legislative session.
Hunnicutt said that bill
was “worthless” in its original
form, and was widely op-
posed by cities, counties, real-
tor groups, builders and
groups on both sides of the
land-use debate.
“It would not have done
anything,” he said.
“Everybody hated it.”
However, Hunnicutt
said, Rep. Mary Nolan (D-
Portland) chaired the House
Land-Use Committee and
wanted to pass a bill reflect-
ing the task force’s findings.
That required buy-in from all
the different groups that op-
posed the bill, Hunnicutt said.
HB 2229 passed the
House and Senate nearly
unanimously. By then, Hunni-
cutt said, it had been amended
in committee and was a
“radically different bill.”
Hunnicutt said that HB
2229 is the most significant
land-use bill passed by the
Legislature since the 1973
passage of SB 100, which
created the statewide sys-
tem.
“This has the potential of
being a big change,” he said.
Prior to passage of HB
2229, Hunnicutt said, coun-
ties largely had given up on
changing the zoning of rural
properties. He added that
once that bill was signed into
law, OIA hoped that some
counties outside the Wil-
lamette Valley would be will-
ing to be “guinea pigs” and
take the first steps towards
rezoning parcels of land.
illinois-valley-news.com
Around six months ago,
Hunnicutt said, the Deschutes
County Board of Commis-
sioners voted unanimously to
be the first county to initiate
the process under HB 2229.
Jackson County made a simi-
lar decision about three
months ago, and Josephine
County also is doing the
same. Grant and Coos coun-
ties are moving in the same
direction, Hunnicutt said.
Deschutes and Jackson
are the “ideal counties” to try
the process, he said, as both
have experienced much
change, growth and urbaniza-
tion since the 1980s.
He said that for HB 2229
to work, LCDC must change
its definitions of farm and
forest land to a more region-
alized concept. He opined
that the agency likely would
be willing to do so, as it does
not want HB 2229 to fail.
“LCDC wants to make it
work,” Hunnicutt said. “They
want to have a success story.”
Jackson and Deschutes
counties will adopt their rule-
making under HB 2229 next
March, Hunnicutt said, and
their task forces will begin
drafting those rules this Sep-
tember.
“This time next year,
we’ll have a good idea where
this is heading,” he said.
vices budget line item in-
creased by $8,200.
Approximately $40,000
was shifted from the materi-
als and services line item to
personal services to meet
unexpected medical and per-
sonnel costs for the 2009-10
fiscal year. That adjustment
was made possible by pas-
sage of another resolution.
IVFD received $4,956
in grant money from the
Oregon Dept. of Transporta-
tion for car seats and vehicle
booster seats for the dis-
trict’s car seat clinic. The
board passed a resolution 4-
0 changing a budgetary line
item to reflect that grant
being received.
In his report to the board,
Deputy Chief Jeff Gavlik
reported that IVFD is down
two volunteer firefighters.
One moved to Phoenix, Gav-
lik said, and another was let
go due to personnel issues.
Gavlik said that he also is
planning a fund-raising event
for next year. The event will
involve a friendly competi-
tion with other agencies
throughout the state.
The next IVFD board
meeting is set for July 8.
Academic Achiever
Jacob Lukas
Jacob Lukas, son of Takilma resident Deb Lukas,
graduated with honors (Cum Laude) on Friday, June 11,
2010.
He received a bachelor of science degree in computer
science from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Lukas began his education with six years at Dome
School in Takilma. He attended Illinois Valley High School
for two and a half years, earned his GED and spent two years
at Rogue Community College.
He received an annual Drexel University endowed
scholarship of $15,800 to offset tuition, totaling $63,200.
He plans to begin full-time employment on the West
Coast this fall.
Heritage Moments will be
closing July 23rd
50% off
all inventory
continuing price reductions
until everything is sold
most merchandisers and
racks will be sold
Thank you all for allowing us to be
part of your life and memories.
May God continue to bless you as you have blessed us.
Jeff & JoAnna Gavlik