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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, December 31, 2014
2014 Year in review ... Continued
and Technology Center.
• Library services will continue,
as will private fundraising efforts,
in the aftermath of voters rejecting
Measure 17-62 to form the Josephine
Community Library District.
The library district measure got
15,474 Yes votes (46.92 percent) to
17,509 No votes (53.08 percent).
Local voters also rejected a
measure banning pesticide use in
Josephine County and the labeling of
genetically engineered food. State-
wide, voters rejected recreational
marijuana, but locally, voters were
split on that issue.
The library measure would
have supported Josephine Communi-
ty Libraries, Inc. (JCLI), a nonprofit
organization, formed in 2009 after
the county system was shut down
in 2007 due to lack of funds. JCLI
currently operates the main library
in Grants Pass and three branch
libraries, including the Illinois Valley
branch.
Perhaps the hottest of the hot
button issues was statewide Measure
91, the legalization of recreational
marijuana. Preliminary results
showed it passed easily, by 55 per-
cent to 45 percent.
OCTOBER
• The Josephine County Jail
receives an unscheduled inspection
every year from a grand jury com-
prised of lay people appointed by the
District Attorney’s office.
The surprise inspection evalu-
ates the conditions and management
of the jail and Sheriff Gil Gilbertson
was pleased to announce that, once
again, the jail received top marks.
“The inspection went very
well,” he said. “We’re inspected
four to six times a year by various
agencies and we consistently come
out with 99 to 100 percent compli-
ance with both state and federal jail
standards. We’re very proud of this.”
• During its regularly scheduled
Oct. 13 meeting, the Cave Junc-
tion City Council approved John
Gardiner’s proposal that the city
send a letter to Senator Ron Wyden
requesting that the O&C Act of 2014
include language to protect the city’s
watershed in the Illinois River basin.
This type of protection, called a
Special Management Unit (SMU),
has already been included in the cur-
rent legislation for other potentially
impacted municipalities, including
Clackamas, Hillsboro, McKenzie
and Springfield. Other organiza-
tions which had already sent letters
in support of protecting the city’s
water resources include the I.V.
Soil and Water Conservation Dis-
trict (IVSWCD) and I.V. Watershed
Council (IVWC), the Kerby Water
District (KWD), I.V. Community
Development Organization (IVCDO)
and the Rogue Basin Coordinating
Council (RBCC).
to come forward,” said Deakins, a
helicopter pilot with Swanson Group
Aviation, who was not acquainted
with Hare before this incident.
Deakins and his wife, Stefani,
were sitting at a table with some
friends, including Jennifer Putnam,
who was the treasurer of Hare’s re-
cent re-election campaign, when the
incident occurred.
When Stefani Deakins left the
table, Hare picked up her cell phone.
Hare claims he thought the phone
belonged to Putnam and he sent the
messages to the last two contacts in
the text message feed as a prank.
The first message: “Dude,
you are so hot,” went to Deakin’s
18-year-old daughter. A second
message: “God, I gotta get in your
pants,” was sent to Deakin’s 23-year-
old niece.
Both girls were stunned by
these suggestive messages and texted
back to Deakin’s wife, who told the
girls that somebody had taken her
phone and had sent the messages.
Determining that Hare was
responsible, Deakins confronted him
at the bar.
“Simon admitted he sent the
messages, but became very defen-
sive,” said Deakins, adding that it
nearly became a fistfight. “Simon
said my wife shouldn’t leave her
phone lying on the table and that she
should have had it locked. I told him
he shouldn’t be picking up stuff that
wasn’t his and the argument contin-
ued... Simon also said that I would
‘lose every day of the week’ if I did
anything about this and then told my
wife he knows a lot of attorneys and
we don’t wanna ‘mess’ with him.”
• Cave Junction City Council
members took public comment on,
and then adopted by unanimous vote,
a new Transportation System Plan at
a Dec. 10 meeting. Updating the pre-
vious plan, last revised in 2001, was
a state requirement. The new plan
was developed by the consulting
firm David Evans and Associates,
under a transportation and growth
management grant. The process was
overseen by Principal Land Use
Planner Dick Converse of the Rogue
Valley Council of Governments.
• The Southern Oregon Out-
reach Foundation’s (SOOF) discount
grocery store was burglarized over-
night on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Thousands
of dollars and various merchandise
was stolen. The store was also badly
vandalized, creating a huge head-
ache for those dedicated to bringing
affordable food to Illinois Valley
residents.
Employees discovered the mess
the next morning, but rolled up their
sleeves and managed to open the
store that same day.
First Christmas
DECEMBER
• The Oregon Caves received a
grand Christmas present when Presi-
dent Obama signed a bill Dec. 19
to expand the monument from 480
acres to over 4,000 acres, creating
the Oregon Caves National Preserve.
The bill was one of 20 park service
improvement initiatives attached to
the National Defense Authorization
Act.
Supporters say the expansion
will facilitate better protection and
unified management of the entire
watershed that feeds the cave and
provides drinking water for visitors.
• Josephine County Commis-
sioner Simon Hare has found himself
in hot water for sending sexy text
messages to two young women.
The Dec. 5 incident, which
took place at the Cedarwood Saloon
in Grants Pass, came to the public’s
attention after Doug Deakins, the
father of one of the girls, spoke up at
the county’s Dec. 17 weekly busi-
ness session.
“The more I thought about it
and looked into the background on
Simon, the more I felt compelled
NOVEMBER
• Josephine County commis-
sioners approved a proposed long-
term lease with Manor Communities
Development Corporation (MCDC),
LLC, which has agreed to invest
over $20 million in Illinois Valley
Airport infrastructure over the next
30 years.
The agreement, signed by com-
missioners Nov. 12, provides for
yearly cash payments to the Airports
Department and direct investment
in a full-length parallel taxiway,
connectors, ramps, aprons, water
system, septic system, electrical sys-
tem and the hangars and buildings
needed to support a new Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Operations
(Photo by Laura Mancuso, Illinois Valley News)
Ilah Camp with Santa and Mrs. Claus Dec. 24 at the Josephine County Building in C.J.
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We would like to
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Happy New Year
this holiday season!
541-479-8000 • 870 Redwood Hwy, Grants Pass oR
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