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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
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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
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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
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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.