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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2017)
Page A-10 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, January 11, 2017 Weather Watch Frontier shows improvement for some, others not so much Jason McMillen IVN Contributing Writer Cave Junction Thursday, Jan 12 Mostly Sunny High --41 Low -- 21 Friday, Jan 13 Clear High -- 43 Low -- 29 T ry r osie ’ s PIZZA B Y - Saturday, Jan 14 Partly Cloudy High -- 47 Low -- 32 Sunday, Jan 15 Cloudy High -- 47 Low -- 40 Monday, Jan 16 T HE -S LICE Mostly Cloudy High -- 49 Low -- 42 Tuesday, Jan 17 Today Showers High -- 50 Low -- 46 Wednesday, Jan 18 Showers High -- 49 Low -- 42 415-0517 M & TH 11-6 FRIDAY 11-7 aT C hevron in CJ Dec High Low Rain 30 31 39.7 31.9 41.1 36.2 34.2 33.2 33.4 35. 26.1 25.6 30.6 31.0 32.4 18.2 0.1 0.0 0.12 0.0 0.1 0.0 .10 1 2 3 4 5 SATURDAY 9-1 aT G ranTs P ass G rowers ’ markeT FIND US ON FACEBOOK! Snow total 31.5”” B ingo for A ll A ges WednesdAys eArly Bird 6 - 6:30PM 17 gAMes 6:30 - 9:30PM Hamburgers for sale 520 e. river street, CJ iv senior Center open to tHe public R ♥ G R E A T F O O D C ♥ SI F U B A and can sometimes be, in her experience, “Out for weeks at a time or in and out each day.” However, data collected recently and compared to previous months by using network speed testing software has provided some limited evidence that Frontier may have done something to improve the reliability and speed of their services as of around Dec. 12. It was at this time, and up to the present day, at least one user of Frontier’s internet service reported that their download speed more than doubled from its average in the several months prior. Whether this holds true for everyone in the Valley remains unknown. All attempts to contact a representative from Frontier, for comment as to what or has been done about the service problem in the Illinois Valley, have failed. Following are the high & low temperatures, and rainfall recorded at The End of the Road in O’Brien by Cheryl & Harry Johnson: OPEN: LL Lindy Davis, a Cave Junction resident, is one of no doubt many currently living in the area without access to the internet at their home. Davis and her spouse were using Frontier’s internet service for about five years but got rid of it in the hopes of getting better service from I.V. Data. However, after being told reception was available on their property by a surveyor and that they would receive service within three months the couple ended up waiting five only to have a second surveyor come out, investigate, then redact their eligibility due to lack of signal. “We could go back to Frontier but really it’s a waste of money because there’s so many times that you’re trying to watch Netflix or play games online … For Netflix it would be buffering half the time so watching say a 30 minute TV episode would take more like an hour.” Despite the possibility of getting back on with Frontier’s internet service Davis added that she has heard of people being denied or simply being stuck on a waiting list for months and months at a time. “We would like to be connected to the world but it’s just not even worth it … It’s just not worth the money,” Davis said, lamenting over their predicament. “I would say the one thing that makes it difficult is that sometimes I end up going over my cellphone data,” Davis stated, explaining that she often has to use her cellphone data at work to run credit cards among other functions as well as at her home for basic internet access. Further explaining the situation Davis reported that her data is consumed rapidly because the Wi-Fi at her place of work is powered by Frontier’s service ♥ L IV E M U STORM . . . Continued from A-1 Hoke was dismayed though, by the number of nonemergency calls IVFD received. “Maybe 20 calls were real emergencies. People called because a tree fell over their driveway, and while frustrating, that’s just not an emergency unless someone is critically ill, freezing or starving. People also called 911, demanding ambulances when they really didn’t need one. People with bad colds. And if we transport them, then we have no resources when we really need them. A medical emergency means you’re having a heart attack, or you’re bleeding out.” Adding to Hoke’s frustration was that more than half the IVFD personnel were sicker than some of the people they were called out to rescue! Hoke, sick with pneumonia, sought treatment at an urgi-med clinic and “was in and out in 30 minutes.” During this storm “the Emergency Room at Three Rivers Hospital was clogged with people with non- life threatening conditions. People were sitting in the lobby up to six hours, when they could have gone to an urgi-med clinic and been treated by a provider right away,” he added. “This puts a huge stress on the hospital and emergency services. There’s a ripple effect.” Hoke noted that even with all the warnings about this storm, many were not prepared. “People need to remember where they live; we need to be prepared for large scales disasters, like a Cascadia earthquake event that could disrupt services for weeks on end. Right now, we have people that couldn’t last for hours because the power was out.” He also said people driving on dangerous roads when they didn’t need to created problems as well and wants people to stay home unless absolutely necessary during major storms. “IVFD has to get out there to deal with the car wrecks, or those blocking traffic, so let’s use some common sense.” Finally, he said, “We are critically short of volunteers right now. There’s just not enough emergency help out there, so let’s give these folks a break. And please, consider joining the ranks of the IVFD volunteers! There’s only about 15 firefighters and about 22 support services volunteers - yet the Valley has a population of around 15,000 people.” Deciding to err on the side of caution, Three River School District Superintendant Dave Valenzuela closed the district’s schools down all of last week and into this week as well. “In a situation like this, obviously, we’re going to look at student safety first and then staff safety. We have a lot of teen drivers out there, so that’s a huge factor. We’ll be closely examining our school calendar to determine if we’ll have to add on school days or if we can modify our schedules to make up some lost time. I have no doubt that we made the right decision.” City and county government were also impacted. While CJ’s City Hall was closed due to computer, power and phone outages, city employees worked around the clock plowing city streets and keeping water and sewer systems operating while dealing with power failures. “The public works crew has been doing a great job, they’re really skilled and hardworking guys,”’ said city recorder Ryan Nolan. Deputy Sheriff Cory Krauss, coordinator for Josephine County Search & Rescue stayed busy throughout the emergency and the Red Cross opened a warming shelter in the Cave Junction City Hall building - and will again, if flooding creates a need. A lot more rain is forecasted for the next few weeks. Gauntt said 17 crews from Pacific Power “worked around the clock” until power was restored to all Valley customers by Jan. 9.
