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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2017)
YOUR HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1937 Illinois Valley News Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 1 Section, Volume LXXX No. 8 City bulks 2 up H O prices $1.00 Published weekly for the residents of the Illinois Valley Big top delight Caroline Griffith IVN Contributing Writer The Cave Junction City Council met May 8 for its regular monthly meeting. Among other agenda items, the council discussed a Rural Development Grant for broadband internet infrastructure, the upcoming departure of city recorder Ryan Nolan, and an increase in bulk water rates. The first item on the agenda was a marijuana business license application from Providing All Patients Access (PAPA). Before calling for a vote, Mayor Daniel Dalegowski cautioned councilors that though they should feel free to vote their conscience, when it comes to business licenses there are certain legal guidelines that need to be followed. “Personally,” said Dalegowski, “I want this council to be able to make whatever decisions it thinks are in the best interest of the community. I think that is a critical part of representational government that you take whatever opinions you have and you bring them to the council and you vote in line with those, but this is one of those situations when we need to look closely at the criteria, and if we see the criteria are met, then it is in our best interest to approve the application.” This appeared to be in response to a recent vote in which two councilors voted against approving a marijuana business license because of their general disapproval of recreational marijuana. The council then voted unanimously to approve PAPA’s business license. The council then discussed whether or not to partner with I.V. Data Center and the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization (IVCDO) in seeking a $30,000 Rural Development Grant for broadband internet development. The project would support engineering design, along with acquisition and purchasing of equipment, for approximately 1 mile of fiber-optic cable, which would run through downtown Cave Junction. In partnering with I.V. Data Center and IVCDO, the City of Cave Junction would act as applicant, recipient and administrator of the grant. All necessary matching funds would be provided by I.V. Data Center. The council voted to approve the partnership and submission of the grant. The council went on to pass a resolution to raise the bulk water rate from $0.01 per gallon to $0.03 per gallon. This matter has been under discussion for months. At previous meetings it was brought to the council’s attention that usage at the bulk water station had doubled every year for the last three years, putting stress on the station infrastructure and the road leading up to it, which was not engineered for heavy truck traffic. At the beginning of the discussion, Mayor Dalegowski stated that he was in support of raising the fee up to $0.10 per gallon to help pay for city services and, hopefully, discourage overuse of water. City recorder Ryan Nolan stated that it may take $700,000- $800,000 to update the bulk water station and Junction Ave., which has suffered from overuse from people buying bulk water. Over 10 years, the 3 cent fee could raise enough revenue to make that happen. Councilors discussed a variety of different fee options and rates before deciding on the $0.03 per gallon flat rate for all customers. SEE CITY ON A-10 (Courtesy photo for the Illinois Valley News) Culpepper and Merriweather’s Francis gets some downtime under the big top. The circus came to town Monday, May 15 as a fundraiser for Illinois Valley Family Coalition. Valley loses a gem By Dan Mancuso IVN Staff May 8, Harry Johnson suffered a massive heart attack that quickly took his life. A celebration of life was held May 13, at the Illinois Valley Senior Center, in Cave Junction. Johnson was very active in the community and will be sorely missed. One day a few weeks after I purchased the Illinois Valley News in 2010, Zina Booth came back to my desk and said, “Harry Johnson is here to see you,” “Who?” I grunted gruffly, “Harry,” she said, “the guy that does the weather.” Since I had purchased the paper I had people that were dropping their advertising and telling me what an all-around rotten guy I was. I braced myself as I looked around the corner and see this big guy, 6-foot-7 big. As I am walking up to the counter I am thinking, “Great, I guess he does not want to do the weather anymore.” Much to my surprise he puts out this huge hand and breaks into a big, Harry Johnson kind of smile. As it turned out, Harry didn’t want to stop doing the weather as he has since 2008, he wanted to pick back up a column about birds he started a few years back under Bob Rodriguez, the previous owner of the newspaper. That was my introduction to Harry Clark Johnson Jr. Many people in the community knew Johnson from “Bird Watching with Harry” that ran weekly in the Illinois Valley News. In the late 2000s he approached Bob Rodriguez, then owner of the Illinois Valley News about writing a weekly column about the local birds. “Hey, aren’t you the bird guy?” was a common question. Every so often, his wife of more than 20-years Cheryl Johnson said they would get calls from people who would ask, “Are you the Harry Johnson that writes about the birds?” Also, he would meet people at the O’Brien store to identify a bird they had trapped, and once was called upon to drive a nest of abandoned chicks to Wildlife Images. In addition to his love of birds and nature, he was a confirmed weather bug. The Johnsons have been providing the weekly “O’Brien” weather statistics to the Illinois Valley News for over 10 years, as well as coordinating weather spotter training classes. “This last winter was a joy for him ... he loved talking about our ‘snowmageddon’ and record rainfall this year,” said Cheryl. SEE BIRDMAN ON A-12 Moon Tree Run to honor 555 Smokejumpers Jason McMillen IVN Contributing Writer The Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum is planning on hosting a free event about the 555th “triple nickel colored test platoon.” This segregated smokejumper unit served during World War II in Oregon, Washington and California and were stationed in Pendleton, Oregon. Surprisingly, the men were sent to the Pacific Northwest to defend against a Japanese surprise attack involving unmanned air balloons laden with explosives. The 555th was tasked with researching the effectiveness of the attack, extinguishing any forest fires caused by it plus searching for and defusing undetonated ordinance. The event will be June 3, 2017 and start at 8 a.m. with the Firefighters’ Breakfast, a fundraiser for the local Volunteer Firefighters Association, then moves on to program speakers and museum tours. The speakers include a professor of Washington University, who wrote a book on the 555th, the president of the Oregon Black Veteran’s Association, the secretary of the Oregon Black Pioneers and possibly the last surviving member of the team, Clarence Beavers. “The Japanese knew about the jet stream and we didn’t,” Roger Brandt, chairman of the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization, said. “They basically launched their balloons to go up into the jet stream and then it would take like three or four days for the balloons to arrive here.” Each of the balloons were equipped with five bombs, one larger antipersonnel bomb and four incendiary charges. The four incendiary charges were dropped with the intent of starting forest fires that would cripple the United States. The Japanese, with their military tied up in the American offensive reaching ever closer to their homeland, decided to launch this last ditch unmanned counter offensive. According to highway199.org, the Japanese sent around 9,000 balloons, each of which were 30 feet in diameter and had a mechanism which dropped the payload intermittently once it had reached the United States. The American government kept the bombings a secret because they didn’t want the Japanese to know whether their attack had been successful or not. The primary concern at the time was that the Japanese could just as easily send biological and chemical weapons which would cause a great deal more havoc and mayhem than conventional explosives. The attack was generally regarded as unsuccessful because the balloons were hastily planned and crafted and as such often failed to achieve their mission. However, one bomb ended up killing a pregnant school teacher along with several of her students after they discovered, surrounded then manipulated the bomb—which then detonated. Malvin L. Brown, of the 555th, died in action and is regarded as the first smokejumper death in United States history. Brown died near Roseburg and his body was sent back to his wife in Pennsylvania where he was buried. After Brown’s wife’s death a group of historians began searching for his grave because they wanted to make it a historic site. However, this ended up being easier said than done. According to Brandt, the historians searched for around 10 years but were finally successful. When they found the gravestone it made mention of the 555th which further confirmed that the location was indeed Brown’s final resting place. Although the 555th didn’t find any bombs in Josephine County they found the site of an explosion near Medford. A week later they found an undetonated bomb further south of the city. According to Brandt, one of the fins of a Japanese bomb was found by hikers, hiking off trail, in Washington. When asked whether or not there is still undetonated ordinance out in the wilderness Brandt said that, “I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I keep thinking one of these days I’m going to be out there, because I get off trail a lot, and I just would not be surprised if I came across one.”
