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Wednesday, April. 9, 2014, 1 Section, 12 Pages, Volume 77 No. 5 Published Weekly Cave Junction, Oregon 97523
Library wins
statewide
Governor’s
Volunteer
Award
The volunteers from Jo-
sephine Community Libraries
who reopened and operate all
four branch libraries, and who
are currently working to form
a library district, won the Gov-
ernor’s Volunteer Award for
the State of Oregon for their
dedication and ongoing ser-
vice to Josephine County over
the past five years.
“Our libraries are busy
with so many people coming
in to use them every day,” said
Nancy Hitchcock, volunteer,
founding member, and donor.
“This state recognition means
so much to us, especially as we
are working hard to establish
stable funding.”
In 2013, over 400 volun-
teers provided 29,133 hours of
service to operate the libraries
in the Illinois Valley, Grants
Pass, Williams and Wolf Creek.
This equates to approximately
$563,000 based on Oregon’s
volunteer rate. Volunteers do
everything from cataloging
and shelving books and pro-
viding information to library
users, to hosting children’s
story times and checking
books in and out. Volunteers
also provide behind-the-scenes
expertise, including marketing
communications, fund-raising,
outreach, inter-branch courier
service, facilities maintenance,
and more.
“Our amazing, dedicated
library volunteers are the heart
of our library, and the hope
of our community,” said JCL
Volunteer Coordinator Norma
Singer.
The volunteer awards
are organized by the Oregon
Volunteers Commission for
Voluntary Action and Service,
which promotes and supports
volunteerism to strengthen Or-
egon communities. With the
award comes a cash prize of
$600 donated by Wells Fargo.
First candidate forum held
By
Judy Hoyle
IVN Contributing Writer
More than 50 people attended the first candidate
forum in the Illinois Valley for the May 20 primary
election. The event at the Josephine County Building
was sponsored by Community Media and Education
Center and organized by Guenter Ambron.
The evening began with short neighborhood
watch reports followed by a presentation by Sheriff
Gil Gilbertson on a variety of issues including the
idea of training citizens to provide evidence collec-
tion for burglaries and other crime investigations.
In response to a question by county commis-
sioner candidate Mark Seligman, Gilbertson stated
that the budget for the sheriff’s office has been re-
duced by $500,000 by the current county commis-
sioners.
The candidate forum was limited to the chal-
lengers for Gilbertson’s position and that of Simon
Hare, current county commissioner, Position 1.
Sheriff candidate Dave R. Daniel (no rela-
tion to former Sheriff Dave Daniels) said, “I’m not
a politician, I’m a police officer.” He cited his ex-
perience in law enforcement beginning as a reserve
deputy through becoming an Oregon State Trooper
based in Fossil, Ore. More recently, as a police of-
ficer in Grants Pass, he received a Medal of Honor
from Grants Pass Public Safety for his work as an
arbiter in 2013. He earned a bachelor of science from
Oregon State University and later a master’s degree
in management at Southern Oregon University.
Sheriff candidate Ed Vincent cited his 15 years
of experience as a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office
Deputy, during which he’s received an award for life-
saving among others. He criticized the current pro-
posed levy for the county.
“One million dollars is not going to cut it, it’s
just a patch,” Vincent said. “Even if the levy passes,
we won’t have personnel to come out and put people
in jail.”
See Candidate on A-3
Play Ball!
See Library on A-5
(Photo by Birdy Finch, Illinois Valley News)
Greyson Arnold helped kick off the Illinois Valley Little League’s opening day ceremonies Saturday, April 5, at Jubilee Park.
Illinois Valley Industrial
Airpark efforts ramp up
By
Annette McGee Rasch
IVN Contributing Writer
The effort to build infrastructure to ac-
commodate development of a light-industrial
commercial business park at the Illinois Val-
ley Airport, first initiated more than ten years
ago, has been revitalized, thanks to the efforts
of the IV Airport Advisory Board, the Illinois
Valley Community Development Organization,
the Smokejumpers and support from Josephine
County Commissioners.
Now renamed the Illinois Valley Indus-
trial Airpark, development first began in earnest
back in 1999. The county paved the driveway,
the area is divided into lots that feature under-
ground electricity, and water wells are drilled.
Now, the entire airport has been fenced in and
even has a fuel truck, which enables aircraft to
fly in and refuel. The biggest stumbling block
at this point is an adequate fire suppression sys-
tem.
“The airport’s three wells don’t produce
enough water,” said local businessman Cam-
eron Camp, who serves on the Airport Advisory
Board and the subcommittee for the develop-
ment of the industrial park. “We’ll need a large
capacity storage tank to sustain a high flow of
water for a specific amount of time to meet per-
formance standards to fight potential fires.”
“The idea is to create a turn-key business
park,” Camp said. “But nailing down an ade-
quate water supply will be a key insurance re-
quirement for anyone doing new construction.
The system must be in place to make the Air-
park shovel-ready for new development.”
According to Camp, once these issues are
resolved, businesses located nearby that are in-
terested in shipping their products could ben-
efit.
“We’ve had positive reports from Fed
Ex,” Camp said. “They would potentially fly a
plane in to pick up products — if there’s enough
volume.”
“We’ve been discussing the merits of
installing a bladder system that would hold
210,000 gallons of water, versus digging out
and rebuilding an existing pond on the site,”
said Josephine County Airports manager Larry
Graves. “We also need to address the septic sys-
tem, but we need an anchor-tenant to get that
ball rolling.”
“I initiated a meeting with the USDA’s
Community Development Group in Roseberg
and they sent Jennifer Bacigalupo, who pre-
qualified us to apply for a grant that would pro-
vide seed money for the completion of the fire
suppression water system and the start-up of the
park,” Graves said.
See Airpark on A-9
Farmer markets
set opening dates
By
Judy Hoyle
IVN Contributing Writer
The Cave Junction
Farmers Market (CJFM) is
set to open next Friday, April
18, and will run for 29 weeks.
This will be the second season
for the market, located behind
Caves Chevron at the corner
of Redwood and Caves High-
ways in Cave Junction.
“The CJ Farmers Mar-
ket provides a great opportu-
nity for community members
living in the Illinois Valley to
regularly access fresh, locally
grown produce,” said market
manager Christopher Hall.
“The site is large and easy to
access for farmers and cus-
tomers alike. The market will
be open 4 to 7 p.m. every Fri-
day through October 31 this
year.”
As consumers nation-
wide have become more
aware of the importance of
fresh, locally grown meat,
eggs and produce, a corre-
sponding interest and support
for local producers has devel-
oped in the Illinois Valley.
A separate organiza-
tion, the “Friday Farmer’s
Market,” known for rotating
locations between the Selma
Community and Education
Center (SCEC) and Cave
Junction, is celebrating their
10th anniversary this year.
SCEC
spokesper-
son Marilyn Mooshie said,
“We’re very pleased to an-
nounce we’ve been invited
by the Western Star Club of
the Order of the Eastern Star
to locate our market at the
Kerby Belt Building (KBB)
this year. We’re limiting our
season to just two months and
will be located at SCEC for
our opening market on July
4 and the closing market on
August 29, with all the inter-
vening Fridays at the KBB.
We appreciate the community
support we’ve received over
the years and will have a very
special ten-year anniversary
celebration at the August 29
market in Selma.”
Another hallmark of the
increased awareness of sup-
porting local food produc-
ers, the IV Farm and Garden
Festival, has taken place each
September for the past five
years.
Event organizer Deb
Lukas said, “The IV Food
Coalition is a collaboration
of farming and community
members working together to
promote food self-sufficien-
cy, safety and sharing. The
IVFoodCo is fostered by the
Spiral Living Center (SLC),
a non-profit group promot-
ing sustainable living skills in
the Illinois Valley. We ask the
community to join us — busi-
nesses, churches, non-profits,
farmers and gardeners — to
enhance and broaden access
and availability to safe, local
food and food products.”
See Farmers on A-9