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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2016)
The Valley’s #1 News Source Since 1937 Happy Birthday Orah aka Mo-Mo! Illinois Valley News Wednesday, August 24, 2016, 1 Section, Volume 79 No. 23 Time running out for city seats $1.00 Published Weekly Cave Junction, Oregon 97523 ‘Hey, hay!’ Caroline Griffith IVN Contributing Writer The deadline is fast approaching to file to run for Cave Junction City Council. Prospective candidates have until 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, to file the necessary paperwork at City Hall. Positions up for election this year are council position #1, council position #2 and mayor. City councilors serve for 4-year terms; the mayor’s term is two years. All are volunteer positions. To be a qualified candidate for any of these positions, one must be a registered voter who has lived within city limits for the 12-month period immediately preceding the election. Residency is determined using voter registration and driver’s license registration. The first step in filing is to visit City Hall and fill out the packet of forms that are available at the front desk, including a certification of residency and forms related to gathering petition signatures. These forms can generally be processed and approved as they are turned in. Next, prospective candidates must gather a minimum of 20 valid signatures from registered voters who reside within the city of Cave Junction. According to city recorder Ryan Nolan, this can be the part where people have trouble because, frequently, not all of the signatures gathered are valid. This can be because the signer has not re-registered to vote since moving or changing her name, or because the name or the address on the signature line does not exactly match that on the voter’s registration. “Also,” said Nolan, “I think that a lot of people don’t realize that they aren’t registered.” Nolan suggested that anyone interested in filing at this late date collect extra signatures in case some are disqualified. “They don’t have a lot of time,” he said, “but it’s doable.” Currently, there are two candidates running for each of the three positions up for election. According to Nolan, it has been a long time since every race has been contested, which will make for an exciting election. The role of the mayor of Cave Junction is to act as the executive and administrative head of city government. According to the Cave Junction City Charter, this includes “general supervision and control over appointive city officers and employees and their work.” She or he must also work with the budget committee, “see that all ordinances are enforced,” and “supervise the operation of public utilities owned and operated by the city and have general supervision overall city property.” The mayor also presides over city council meetings. According to the Council Member Code of Ethics, the primary responsibility of city councilors is the formulation and evaluation of policy. Councilors work together to develop city policies, as well as short and long-term planning goals for the city. They are then responsible for monitoring the city’s progress in attaining these goals. The council meets a minimum of once per month, with additional meetings being held as needed. No prior experience is needed to run for any of the positions on the city council and information about procedures and rules are available to all prospective candidates when they file their paperwork. Interested parties are encouraged to visit city hall as soon as possible to ensure that they meet the Aug. 26 deadline. (Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley News) Two crazy kids demand attention during the 2016 Josephine County Fair Friday, Aug. 19. Dwyer takes the reins in strategic plan Judy Hoyle IVN Contributing Writer Following a six-month process involving three surveys, four forums and 13 focus groups, the Illinois Valley 20/20 Community Vision Strategic Plan has been completed. The entire document is available for viewing at www.ivcdo. org, the website for the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization (IVCDO). “The Strategic Plan is a living document,” IVCDO Executive Director Menno Kraai stated at an unveiling session Aug. 22. “It has a 5-year focus with the expectation that it will be continually updated.” The meeting was attended by I.V. community leaders along with State Representative Carl Wilson, Josephine County Commissioner Keith Heck and Ford Family Foundation Director Roque Barros. The 18 strategies listed in the document are divided into action items. Leadership collaborative groups for some of these strategies are already in Meet Grand Marshal Strayer Judy Hoyle IVN Contributing Writer Dennis Strayer is the Grand Marshal for the 2016 Illinois Valley Lions’ Labor Day Parade. In response to being selected for the prestigious position, Strayer stated, “I’m very honored and grateful for this recognition. The Labor Day parade will take place one month before my 70th birthday and I can’t think of a better present. I’ve spent nearly half my life here. The Illinois Valley is a great place to live, Dennis Strayer because of all the wonderful people who live here.” Strayer is well-known in the Illinois Valley as the longtime curator of the Kerbyville Museum and History Center. He is the last of the original board members of the museum. The board was formed in 1998 after the county returned ownership of the facility to the I.V. Women’s Club, the group responsible for its creation. He describes his work at the museum as a labor of love, combining his talents for art and design. He especially enjoys creating new displays, as well as restoration and preservation work. Strayer was born in Illinois and his family moved to Oregon City when he was in grade school. Oregon City was the original capitol of the state, and Strayer’s interest in history was first sparked by that city’s many historic sites. “Folks either like history or they don’t,” Strayer said. “I’ve always liked history because it’s the story of people’s lives.” Following his service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, he joined the U.S. Forest Service. SEE PARADE ON A-10 place. Others, like the “Illinois Valley – Naturally” booster group will be developing over time. Since the December 2015 kick- off of the strategic planning process, the community has identified multiple priorities, with public safety the foremost concern, followed by affordable housing, community development and beautification, lodging and visitor accommodation, community pride and excellence and healthy people rounding out the top six areas of interest. Rack cards announcing publication of the strategic plan have been distributed throughout Cave Junction and surrounding areas. The reverse side of the card offers information about IVCDO’s revolving loan fund which provides low interest loans and business mentorships for local startups and expansions. To date, the fund has circulated over $1 million, creating over 90 local jobs. The IVCDO has hired well-known community leader Kate Dwyer for a six-month implementation period during which she will work with various stakeholders to identify activities that offer quick successes along with long term action items. Dwyer has served as the Zone 1 board member for the Three Rivers School District for the past three years while also working for Josephine Community Libraries, first as the I.V. branch manager and then as outreach coordinator for the entire system. Dwyer teamed with I.V. Chamber of Commerce President Sonny Moore to convene the first planning session of the I.V. community safety task force Aug. 9. In the Aug. 22 roll-out session, Dwyer announced the safety task force will pursue funding strategies as well as enlisting professional expertise around contributing issues of mental health problems and drug and alcohol addiction. She also pointed out that regional agencies with offices in Medford have long needed a single contact resource in the I.V. in order to identify and access the individuals and families they are tasked to serve. SEE PLAN ON A-10 Vineyard preps for harvest Jason McMillen IVN Contributing Writer The yearly harvest is imminent at Deer Creek Vineyards and John Bryan, owner for nearly seven years, says that around 3,000 cases of wine will soon be put into production. Bryan believes his crop to be of outstanding quality and is eager to see what the final product will yield. Weibka Rooney, a German immigrant and one of very few female field managers in the business, said that the year has gone surprisingly well except that the early heat of the summer season made it hard to keep up with nature, or, more specifically that the vines were growing at an incredible rate early on. The first harvest, under Bryan’s leadership, happened in October but this year it was stated that they were set to harvest the first week of September and that it tends to get earlier with each passing year. As a man dedicated to his work Bryan said that he walks his fields every day to, “...do a little tasting and just kind of see what the progress is. At first it’s science—near harvest it’s sensory.” He also added that Deer Creek Vineyards most likely spends more on lab testing and labor than other vineyards of their size. Rooney joined in by explaining that every little thing they do in the field changes the flavor and quality of the end product and that as a craft vineyard quality is their imperative. When the two were asked about what is more important in making good wine— between the fruit quality and the winemaker, Bryan declared that in his experience, “You can take a good grape and make a bad wine but you can’t make a good wine from a bad grape.” After harvest, the grapes will be handed over to their winemakers Herb Quady and Brian Gruberfor production and in their 2-year partnership they have already won several prestigious awards. Deer Creek Vineyards has won two gold medals so far in 2016 for their 2014 pinot noir at the San Francisco Chronicle and Cascadia Wine Competition. In addition, their 2015 pinot grigio scored a 92 percent along with editor’s choice from Wine Enthusiast magazine. It is also the highest rated pinot grigio in the entire state of Oregon and Deer Creek is the smallest wine brand that Costco stores have ever stocked on their shelves. So far, there are 31 locations in the Pacific Northwest that sell their wine and they are resoundingly proud to represent the Illinois Valley with the quality of their product. Despite this, and according to the team, the Illinois Valley is something of an underdog in the wine business which fails to get the publicity it deserves even though it proves itself time and time again that it creates fantastic wine. Bryan also added that vineyards from the Willamette Valley buy up Southern Oregon grapes then stamp their name on the final product without giving credit to the growers. SEE WINE ON A-10
