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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2016)
The Valley’s #1 News Source Since 1937 Illinois Valley News Wednesday, August 10, 2016, 1 Section, Volume 79 No. 21 CJ readies to tax gas and marijuana $1.00 Published Weekly Cave Junction, Oregon 97523 Wonderment! Caroline Griffith IVN Contributing Writer The Cave Junction City Council held the first of two required public hearings of proposed tax ordinances at its regular meeting, Monday, Aug. 8. According to Oregon law, the council must hold two public hearings of proposed tax ordinances before referring them to the voters of Cave Junction. The second public hearing will be held Monday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. The first ordinance on the agenda was the proposed fuel sales tax. This 1 cent per gallon sales tax, if approved by voters, would go to the city’s street maintenance fund. Currently the city of Cave Junction maintains over 19 miles of roads, many of which were constructed 40 years ago or more. Since the street system is beginning to age and deteriorate, significant new investment in preventative maintenance is needed to avoid more costly repairs in the future. This fuel tax, if approved, could provide a dedicated revenue source for much needed street repairs. The language of the proposed measure, which is available at City Hall for public viewing, states that the net revenue shall be used only for the reconstruction, improvement, repair, maintenance, operation and use of public highways, roads and streets within the city, including street lighting and storm drainage. Though it was mentioned by Mayor Carl Jacobson that the owners of the local Chevron station had “vocally opposed” the proposed ordinance, when the floor was opened up to public comment no one rose to speak either for or against the tax. Councilor Dan Bosch said that he was supportive of the proposed sales tax and stated, “Some of our streets are becoming more or less derelict and we need some tools to help fix them up.” Councilor Daniel Dalegowski pointed out that the financial impact on the consumer is “pretty insignificant.” At 1 cent per gallon, a customer purchasing 50 gallons of gas per month from a local station would be paying 50 cents a month toward street maintenance. The council will vote Monday whether or not to refer this issue to the voters of Cave Junction. Next, the council opened up the public hearing on a proposed cannabis sales tax, the language of which is also available at City Hall for public viewing. The discussion by the council was brief and centered on whether or not to take their lawyer’s advice and postpone voting on this issue until a current lawsuit concerning cannabis businesses within city limits is settled. The city currently has a moratorium on issuing business licenses to cannabis businesses pending the outcome of a declaratory judgment, which seeks to clarify the conflict between state and federal law. Approval of this sales tax could signal to the court that the city tacitly approves of marijuana sales and affect the outcome of the lawsuit. The council voted 4-1 to move ahead with a second public hearing Monday. Councilor Margaret Miller was the lone “no” vote and said, “I say we postpone; that we listen to our legal council.” The council may still decide, during the second public hearing, not to refer this matter to the voters. If passed, the ordinance would impose a 3 percent tax on all retail cannabis sales as well as a 3 percent excise tax on all sales to retail stores by cannabis growers, processors and wholesalers. Once again, when the floor was opened up to public comment, no one had anything to say. The second public hearing on these proposed ordinances will be held Monday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. at City Hall, located at 222 W. Lister Street. Public comment will be accepted before the council takes their final vote on whether or not to refer this issue to the voters this November. (Courtesy photo for the Illinois Valley News) Adanai Romero gets up close and personal with a cicada at Rusk Ranch. Rusk Ranch wrapped up a successful “S.U.N.” season. Twenty-three children gathered each Tuesday and Thursday for four weeks at the Rusk Ranch Nature Center. According to Executive Director Patty Downey, children explored the river, met monarch butterflies (and their caterpillars and chrysalides), built a T-Rex skeleton, drew and wrote in nature journals, read science-themed books on loan from the Josephine Community Library, learned about the web of life, played nature theatre games, played water games, played all sorts of games, made friends, asked questions, created a museum in the forest, created fish kites, and so much more. Forest Management Plan satisfies none Annette McGee Rasch IVN Senior Contributing Writer After a four year effort to “use new science, policies, and technology to protect natural resources and support local communities,” the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a Record of Decision for its new Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Western Oregon forest lands Aug. 5. And similar to when the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was signed into law in 1994, stakeholders on all sides of the forest management debate are dissatisfied. BLM spokeswoman Sarah Levy said, “The RMP maintains strong protections for the northern spotted owl, listed fish species, and water resources, and offers predictable and sustainable outcomes for local communities by increasing job opportunities, tourism and recreation, and timber harvest.” The plan is supposed to yield 278 million board-feet (MMBF) in total annual timber harvest from 2.5 million acres in the statewide planning area - and 81 percent of these lands are O&C lands. While nearly three-quarters of that acreage will be protected in reserves for fish, water, wildlife, and other resource values, “restoration” logging will still occur on those lands. In Southern Oregon, the Medford District includes all of Josephine and Jackson counties, as well as the southern part of Douglas County and a bit of Klamath County. “We’re going to get creamed under this new plan,” said David Schott, with Southern Oregon Timber Industries. “Under the NWFP, the Medford District was the hardest hit - the Medford District was only allotted 57 MMBF. This represented a 75 percent reduction on the timber industry’s allowable annual timber harvest before 1994. And now, with this new plan, we’ll be lucky to get 20 MMBF per year. The problem with the NWFP was that we never even got close to 57 MMBF and the new RMP plan just makes it worse. As far as most logging goes, most will come out of Douglas County and north into Lane County, in the upper part of Willamette Valley. We can’t even keep our mills open in this district. SEE BLM ON A-8 Customers quiet as thieves rip-off thrift store Annette McGee Rasch IVN Senior Contributing Writer (Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley News) A view of the thrift store’s backdoor from the neighboring drive-through. As Dairy Queen customers watched next-door, criminals broke into the Illinois Valley Senior Thrift Store Sunday, July 24, around 10 p.m. and loaded stolen loot into a car and drove away - and according to thrift store manager Amelia Benson, no one reported anything. “This is a really sad thing. People are watching this stuff happen and not doing anything about it,” Benson said. “One girl told me she thought they [the thieves] worked there.” “Nobody said anything and the supervisors on shift that night didn’t know anything about it,” said Dairy Queen assistant manager Nancy Clark. “It’s not unusual for people to go into the thrift store after hours. The story I heard was that people in the drive- through saw people going in and out. We’re sorry that we couldn’t be more help. There’s always people over there digging in the dumpsters.” Benson still isn’t sure how the thieves broke in, but once inside, they destroyed two cash registers, ripped the safe off the wall that contained $800 and took merchandise. A security camera picked up images of “a woman, kind of bulky, wearing a dress, with long hair. She pulled up in a small four-door car,” Benson said, “then a man put a big suit case in the back seat, in full view of DQ.” “A few days later a lady called and said her friend was swimming by the first bridge, over Highway 199 just south of town, and her friend hit his foot on the safe,” Benson said. “He found our safe and our money bags.” Jewelry, a Hewlett Packard laptop, two digital cameras, a Samsung tablet and two electronic readers used to process credit cards were stolen, along with a large amount of men’s clothing, an entire collection of prom dresses, heavy leather winter coats, knives, and play station and Wii games. Benson estimates the total damages to be about $7,000. After the initial break-in the thieves left the doors open, and in another bizarre twist, it seems people hung out and watched movies in the parking lot between the store and the Dairy Queen. “Someone had donated an old TV, but we don’t take those anymore. We left the TV sitting on that wooden bench outside our side door so that someone could take it,” Benson explained. “That night though, someone grabbed a VRC from the store and hooked it up to the TV. It was probably a free-for-all. I bet there was a parade of people coming in and out all night long. I’m surprised they didn’t take more than they did. I can’t believe that no one with the local patrol saw anything. And with no police, this is crazy, I’m floored by this.” SEE THIEVES ON A-8
