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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 2015)
Page A-2 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, January 7, 2015 Life in the Valley of Riches By DAN MANCUSO, Publisher This week’s edition we picked 10 community leaders who may have an impact on our lives in 2015. I had planned on using my space this week to eat some crow and look forward to the upcoming year. Instead I am running an editoral by John Edgecombe Jr. which I feel is a little more important than anything I had to say. Thank you for picking up this week’s paper, enjoy! ~ djm Rural mail will suffer with more mail plant closures By John Edgecombe Jr. Publisher, The Nebraska Signal, Geneva, NE And President, National Newspaper Association A friend of mine from South Dakota noted that the U.S. Postal Service delivered a lump of coal to many small towns last Christmas when it proceeded to eliminate overnight mail in most of the nation in 2015. That was a good description. USPS will slow delivery officially by one day for First-Class and Periodicals mail. Many members of Congress have asked it to hold off. But USPS is plowing ahead. It is time for lawmakers to consider how rural and small town mail is suffering. The USPS plans to close more than 80 mail processing plants in 2015. Smaller plants will be consolidated into urban plants. It has already closed nearly 150 plants in the past three years and says service was not affected. That is hard to believe, at least in small towns. Longer road trips for most mail, traffic delays in urban areas to get sorted mail back to the local post offices, post office closings and shorter business hours have made claims of good service hard to trust. There is also the upheaval while workers lose their jobs or have to be retrained. Now, according to the nation’s mail agency, cost-cutting means admitting service will be even slower, even in urban areas, by at least a day. What the public announcements do not say is that when America’s mail sneezes, rural mail gets pneumonia. Cutting a service day is a big sneeze even in the metro areas. But rural and small town mail had already contracted the illness. Many subscribers who receive newspapers by mail have been disappointed by late deliveries. The scattered reports we may hear of delayed credit card payments and business invoices Letters to the Editor Illinois Valley News welcomes Letters to the Editor. Please e-mail them to dan@illinois-valley-news.com POLICY ON LETTERS: ‘Illinois Valley News’ encour- ages letters to the editor provided they are legible and not libelous or scurrilous. All letters must be signed, including name, address and telephone number. The latter need not be published, but will be used to verify authenticity. The “News” reserves the right to edit letters. Letters are used at the discretion of the publisher. *** (Editor’s Note: Views and com- mentary, including statements made as fact are strictly those of the letter writers.) Reader found it to be not funny Mr. Mancuso, I’m laughing almost too hard to compose this comment on the BBFC feature column by Annette McGee Rasch. Little did I know how funny Ms. Rasch is. Just imagine her new world order without the things she would ban: chemi- cals (no birth control pills, no cancer treatments); or lawyers (no issues debated in court over, say, marijuana use, spot- ted owl protection), or activi- ties that alledgedly increase pollution (no CO2 production from activities like . . . breath- ing, or flatulent cows); or poli- ticians (no Obama, Kitzhaber, DeFazio). And her desire for a “biore- gional board’ to rule on wheth- er or not one can hurt other life forms is hysterical. Can you imagine a board filled with children, animals, plants and storytellers (some of the sub- groups she would still permit to exist)? (“Hey, Azalea, speak up . . .!! And, Trigger, please stop eating Mr. Grass Man and if you poop one more time in this conference room, you’re outta here!” ) Ms. Rasch could do a whole comedy series on these scenarios. Well, I’m off to have din- ner: a shrimp appetizer, steak with mushrooms, and mince meat pie. Thank you, Dan and Annette! What a truly funny and enlightening feature col- umn. Happy New (World Or- der) Year. Sue Williams Cave Junction would be much louder if consumers felt there was any point in complaining. Unfortunately for many—seniors without Internet capabilities, lower income residents, rural folks without good Internet service and people who just don’t trust the Internet— the mail is a necessity. The USPS inspector general last October chastised the agency for not fully analyzing the impact from its proposed plant closings and the Postal Service said it would do so—but only after its slower service standards go into effect. In other words, it will consider whether it can reach its goals after it has lowered them. Even before the change, it has been hard to find out how well rural mail is delivered. The Postal Service provides a public report to its regulator, the Postal Regulatory Commission, on how well it performs against its service standards. See Periodic Reports at www.prc.gov. USPS gathers information on speed of delivery from several sources, including its own digital scanning. The greatest volume of mail is in urban areas, so national statistics may look ok. But the law doesn’t require USPS to report on how the rural mail is doing. That is something Congress should consider. For a list of cities where changes in mail processing are scheduled in 2015 go to https://ribbs.usps.gov/index.cfm. Then open “2015 Network Consolidations.” Barb Padgett wins Southern Oregon Guild’s 2014 Raffle Grand Prize Winner of Sheila Mason’s uniquely charming sculpture, “Bird’s Nest,” is Illinois Val- ley resident, Barbara Padgett. “I told Sheila I was going to win it,” says Barb, but she was both shocked and thrilled when she did. The sculpture portrays a woman who has a very spe- cial relationship with nature. A small bird sits trustingly on her hand while its nest full of eggs rests securely on the woman’s head. The woman appears to be talking with the bird. “Bird’s Nest” was the grand prize in Southern Oregon Guild’s 2014 raffle series. Tickets were avail- able at the Guild and through Guild members throughout the year, and those who at- tended the Guild’s quarterly show opening events receive a raffle ticket as part of their admission. The 2015 grand raffle prize will be announced early in 2015. Guild’s Raf e Grand ri e winner, Barbara Padgett and good friend Patrick Pennell, express delight at Barb’s new piece of art, Sheila Mason’s sculpture, “Bird’s Nest”. I LLINOIS V ALLEY F UNERAL D IRECTORS WWW.SINCE1928HULL.COM 541-592-4110 Obituaries Thomas Joseph Paulsen; age 65, passed away peacefully in his sleep Dec. 29, 2014 in Grants Pass, Ore. A memorial graveside service is set for January 9th at 10:00 a.m. at Eagle Point National Cemetery. Stephens Family Chapel is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be sent to the family at stephensfc. com. He was born June 23, 1949 in Hawley, Minn. to Dorothy Moore and George Paulsen. He enlisted in the Army in 1967 and served during the Vietnam War, ranked E4 Corporal. He was awarded multiple medals and badges. He was the front man for our troops in Vietnam. After two tours in Vietnam, he traveled to Sierra Leone in the early 1980’s as a diamond miner. He then resided in Southern Oregon. He graduated from Rogue Community College with a degree in welding and worked as a truck driver for Erickson Trucking until Nov., 2012 when he retired. He was a member of “The Old Guard Riders” riding for Vets, and enjoyed to ride his Harley. He enjoyed many activities with this club and attended biker rallies. He loved to fish, be outdoors and build things in his shop. Most of all, he loved and enjoyed spending time with his friends and family. Survivors include two sisters, Claudia Pratt of Williams, Ore. and Berdette McDonald of Medford, Ore.; two brothers David Paulsen of Kirby, Ore. and Lyle Paulsen of Rimrock, Ari . Four nephews, five nieces and two great nieces. Brant Andrew Schnitzer, age 60 , died Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 at his home in Kerby, Ore. A viewing will be from noon to 3:00 p.m., Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 at Hull & Hull Funeral Directors. A Celebration of Life will begin at 3 p.m., Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 at Hull & Hull Chapel James Edward Blair, age 86, of Cave Junction, died Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 at his home. No services are planned. Southern Oregon Cremation Services are in charge of arrangements. Please sign the family guest book at www.since1928hull.com. James was born Aug. 29, 1928 in Pullman, Wash. to James & Lucille (Parks) Blair. On Oct. 2, 1947 in Cloquet, Minn. he married Mary Tamillo. From 1945 to 1947 he served in the Merchant Marines. He later owned and operated Blair Drywall in Santa Ynez, Calif. After moving to Cave Junction he worked as a night guard at Rough & Ready Lumber for six years. James especially loved fishing and hunting with his sons. Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Mary L. Blair; two sons, James Michael Blair and Dean Edward Blair all of Cave Junction, Ore.; four grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; many great- grandchildren; and one great-great- granddaughter. Save The Date For more listings go to www.ivcalendar.org Jan. 7 All are welcome at Cave Junction’s Seventh Day Adventist Church’s Open House. Wednesday, Jan. 7, 6 p.m. (each day except Wednesdays at 5 p.m. until Fri- day the 16th) Matthew 18:19: “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as about anything that they shall ask Illinois Valley News Published weekly by W.H. Alltheway, LLC Daniel J. Mancuso, Publisher be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” May God Bless. Jan. 9 Learn about library resources and tools to make your life easier at a free Wel- come Workshop, 11 a.m. to noon, Jan. 9 at POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction, OR 97523 Illinois Valley News is published at 221 S. Redwood Hwy., Cave Junction, OR 97523 Telephone (541) 592-2541 FAX (541) 592-4330 Since 1937 periodicals postage paid at Cave Junction, OR 97523 P.O. Box 1370 USPS 258-820 SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year in Josephine County - $30.50 One year in Jackson and Douglas counties - $32.50 One year in all other Oregon counties and out-of-state - $39.00 Illinois Valley News does not refund subscriptions. Remainder of subscription will be donated to the charity of your choice. the Illinois Valley branch, 209 W. Palmer St. Learn how to search the library catalog and manage your account, research online databases, work with student support por- tals, and download eBooks, all for free. There will be time for questions and a brief tour of the library. For more information, contact JCLI Outreach Education Librarian Kate Dwyer, 541-476-0571 x111. Jan. 10 Little League sign ups will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m, at the Il- linois Valley Golf Course. News - Dan Mancuso dan@illinois-valley-news.com Circulation - Kimberly Potter office@illinois-valley-news.com Advertising / Composition Dan Mancuso dan@illinois-valley-news.com Mailroom - Millie Watkins Office Manager-Laura Mancuso laura@illinois-valley-news.com DEADLINES: News, Classified and Display Ads, Announce- ments and Letters 4 P.M. FRIDAYS POLICY ON LETTERS: ‘Illinois Valley News’ encour- ages letters to the editor pro- vided they are legible and not libelous or scurrilous. All let- ters must be signed, including name, address and telephone number. The latter need not be published, but will be used to verify authenticity. The ‘News’ reserves the right to edit letters. Letters are used at the discre- tion of the publisher.
