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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Public radio conversation on rural Oregon economy a good start
By MICHELLE BINKER
IVN Staff Writer
In an effort to gather re-
sources and inspiration from
which to develop and direct
future financial success in
rural Oregon, the Rural Eco-
nomic Project paid a visit to
Illinois Valley.
On Wednesday, June 23,
a segment of Oregon Public
Broadcasting (OPB)’s Think
Out Loud radio program was
taped at Wild River Brewing
& Pizza Co. in Cave Junction
featuring local voices sharing
stories of success and struggle
in S.W. Oregon.
As described on its Web-
site, the Rural Economic Pro-
ject is a partnership between
Rural Development Initia-
tives, Sustainable Northwest,
the Oregon Consortium/
Workforce Alliance, Work-
Source Oregon and OBP. The
project “showcases the stories
of successful entrepreneurs,
people trying to make ends
meet, and communities work-
ing to build stable, vital
economies in Oregon’s rural
towns.”
The Cave Junction stop
was third in a series of live
programs produced by the
Corporation for Public Broad-
casting in support of the Ru-
ral Economy Project. Radio
co-hosts Emily Harris and
Dave Miller spoke with
members of the business
community, development
specialists and the audience.
During the first segment,
a distinction was drawn be-
tween the resource dependent
rural industries of the past
with a promising, high-tech
future -- a theme revisited
during the show. Among pan-
elists during this segment was
Jennifer Phillippi, co-owner
of Rough & Ready Lumber
Co. in Cave Junction. She
spoke of memories of grow-
ing up in a timber family.
While nostalgic, Phillippi
stressed that her company has
met changing market needs
head-on.
Rough & Ready, she said,
OPB’s Emily Harris speaks with Wild River Pizza & Brewing
Co.’s Jerry Miller. (Photos by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley
News )
6 p.m., Jubilee Park, Cave Junction
Thursday, July 1 -
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July 8
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July 15 Dale Hopper
July 22 Oregon Little Big Band
July 29 Dos Gardenias
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Illinois Valley Little League will sell refreshments.
Sponsored by: Bridgeview Vineyards Winery, Evergreen
Federal Bank, Eye Care Group, H&R Block, Harmony Gar-
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& Ready Lumber Co., SOFCU, Sterling Savings Bank, Wild
River Brewing & Pizza Co.
Rough & Ready Lumber Co.’s Jennifer Phillippi.
has focused on high-quality,
value-added products; has
invested in bio-mass co-
generation; and has achieved
FSC Green certification.
“We saw an opportunity
to change with the times.
That’s what the businesses
here do,” said Phillippi.
Even so, the future is
uncertain for the lumber in-
dustry, she said, because of
the restricted availability of
timber on land owned by the
federal government.
Phillippi’s counterpart on
the panel was Damon Crock-
ett, a Wilderville resident
whose firm manufactures
motor controls for electronic
vehicles. Crockett asserted
that his business is globally
competitive and that his prod-
ucts are in increasing de-
mand.
“You’re looking at elec-
tric vehicles being the pri-
mary form of transportation
in the future,” he said. Crock-
ett also credits his dedicated
crew of some 20 employees
and especially the service
provided by Federal Express
and United Parcel Service.
Miller read from a letter
from Cave Junction business-
man Greg Walter expressing
concern that, post- “timber
debate,” the community had
not come together to market
itself as a desirable place to
visit.
Why, Walter wondered,
didn’t the community simply
embrace expansion of Oregon
Caves National Monument,
20 miles east of Cave Junc-
tion, as a practical means of
capturing “the visiting public.”
Harris sought a voice in
opposition with a show of
hands. She settled on valley
resident Jim Nolan.
“The problem in dealing
with the environmental con-
cerns and meeting them half-
way is that usually means
meeting them somewhere
between their side of the pen-
dulum swing and middle and
the bottom,” he said.
This principle applied to
timber and other resources,
Nolan said. He noted, “Soon
there’s no access.”
“And in the meantime
we sit here in an economic
abyss in a sea of wealth, and
it sickens me.”
Phillippi stated that a
balance needs to be struck to
build a vibrant economy
“Some 95 percent of the
Siskiyou National Forest is
set aside and not accessible
for timber harvest,” she said.
(It’s) off limits. There has to
be a point of balance.
“There have been some
nice opportunities to come
together on projects of forest
health. I think as the different
factions start working to-
gether we can start working
on bringing out logs that will
pay for forest health.
“We’re still a bit distrust-
ful of one another,” said Phil-
lippi, “and its hard to talk
about bringing a log out to
help pay for forest health pro-
jects … Once the federal
stimulus funding is gone, we
will have to pay for it.”
In the next segment, Ron
Fox, executive director of
Southern Oregon Regional
Economic Development Inc.
(SOREDI) underscored the
FedEx and UPS factor in the
success of rural economies.
“FedEx and UPS,” Fox
said, “have leveled the world
of commerce by picking up
and being able to deliver
those products.” He con-
ceded, though, that it is
unlikely that either shipping
firm would be delivering
lumber soon.
Fox spoke to the neces-
sity of supporting healthy
traded-sector industries that
create wealth and bring it
back to the community.
The role of seniors and
retirees play in shaping the
rural economy is pretty sig-
nificant, said Pat Jenkins, a
registered nurse, who offers
many nursing-care services
and advocacy for seniors.
A significant segment of
the population in S.W. Ore-
gon is older than 65, Jenkins
said. The “aged population”
creates a demand for medical
services, making nursing one
of the most in-demand pro-
fessions in the region.
“I can’t do any more than
I’m doing, I physically can’t.”
she declared.
Limited property for ex-
pansion and a lack of edu-
cated workforce were factors
leading to the flight of Fire
Mountain Gems from Illinois
Valley.
“The thing that is limit-
ing ecommerce in Southern
Oregon is the inability to hire
people with the necessary
skills,” said co-owner Stewart
Freedman.
“We can get plenty of
workers and they’re wonder-
ful people,” he explained,
“but we cannot get the skills
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ACROSS
1. The final statement
7. Launch area
10. Shade tree
11. Baseball stat
12. Wife of your uncle
14. Widely separated
15. Filling
16. Haze
17. Attach to
19. Affirmative re-
sponse
21. Snakelike fish
22. Valley
25. Sweet-talk
27. Pigeon sound
29. Cut or eliminate
30. Carpet
31. Disturbance
(2 words)
32. Lower and raise the
head
Copyright© 33. Precious
PuzPuz Puzzles 2009 34. Exposed
35. Imp
36. Rodent
38. Light downy mate-
rial
40. Cervus canadensis
43. Impromptu
45. Supervise
47. Tell an untruth
48. Ventilate
49. Liveliness and
energy
50. Female sheep
we need ... technical and
managerial skills. (Some) 60
percent of these people we
hire we have to bring in from
outside Josephine County.”
Harris asked audience
members to remark on what
they would preserve about
rural areas.
“One of the positive
things about this place is that
it’s rural,” said Simon Hare, a
county commission candi-
date. “It’s not on the beaten
path, but at the same time it
has to be sustainable to keep
jobs here and enable people
to develop in the future.”
Said Phillippi, “There is
a kind of person in rural Ore-
gon, that is so valuable, that
kind of honest, genuine per-
son, is so valuable that we
have to protect it, and the
whole state of Oregon is bet-
ter off with that example.
“I don’t want that to
change,” she stated.
An appreciation of
“rural” skills was expressed,
but Freedman emphasized the
need for technical profi-
ciency.
“Life is not just work and
plunking away on the com-
puter,” Freedman said. “I
fully appreciate (rural) skills.
“But you need modern
skills as well you need a bal-
ance ... things will be on the
Internet. More and more of
commerce is going that way.
“You should be ready ...
and understand this new form
of marketing, and then, if you
want to go home and can
your own pears, God bless
you,” Freedman proclaimed.
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CCB 174891
51. Purple gem
DOWN
1. Foliage
2. In addition
3. Self-satisfied
4. Golf tool
5. Mineral
6. Uncommon
7. Venire
8. "___ lang syne"
9. Deoxyribonucleic
acid
13. Tropical cyclone
15. Wild goat
18. Scrimpy
19. All the same
20. Nape
22. Adaxial
23. Bustle
24. A movable top or
cover
26. Excluded from use
27. Term for a police-
man
28. Lyric poem
31. A young child
33. Nightspot
35. Omit something
37. Be alive
38. Aviated
39. Froth
40. Catch sight of
41. Bruce and Robert E.
42. Retained
44. Dice
46. Compete
Find puzzle solutions on page 8