Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Page A-3
Grayback Creek project to give a helping hand to coho
Anita R. Savio
IVN Contributing Writer
Endangered coho salmon
are now receiving a helping hand
through a habitat enhancement
project along Grayback Creek,
courtesy of the Illinois River
Watershed Council.
Why Grayback Creek? It’s a
matter of connections, according to
Watershed Council Director Kevin
O’Brien.
“Grayback is the largest
tributary of Sucker Creek, and
Sucker Creek is an extremely
important coho salmon producing
stream. It’s the largest tributary into
the Illinois River. And all of the wild
coho’s that are in the Rogue River
Basin, come out of our sub-basin,
the Illinois River Basin.”
In other words, concluded
O’Brien, Grayback Creek is an
extremely important tributary to
work on for producing coho salmon.
But through time, he added,
spawning and rearing habitat in
Grayback has been degraded.
“Historically, streams had
enough large trees along the edges
that trees would fall over into
the stream and provide channel
complexity. Gravels would pile up
and pools would form. When wood
comes into a stream it does a lot of
things. Think about the old water
beds. They did a lot of flopping
around when you sat or lay on them.
But then manufacturers started
putting in baffles, resulting in less
flopping. Large wood does the same
thing. It mellows the stream. There’s
less sloshing around.”
After the 1964 one-hundred-
year flood, O’Brien explained, a
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Continued from A-1
When Carol Dickson, former board
member, found out about the memorandum
via a phone call from Hoke she said, at the
next board meeting, that Humphfres did not
have the authority to enter into any agreements
as the board president without bringing it up
before the board.
During the board discussion, Dickson
said that it would set a precedent for other
employees to ask for the insurance in the
future. At that time, a board member made a
motion to give all employees with 10 years or
more of service to the district, and who left in
good standing, 6-months of medical coverage
so that the memorandum did not intentionally
single out the employee and was legal. Dickson
continued by pointing out that it could be a
large financial burden 10 years from now but
Humphfres allegedly said that he didn’t care
about 10 years from now and that the policy
could be rescinded at any time, thereby denying
any other employees from getting the benefit.
Dickson voted no on the motion but it
passed. Later, she asked Humphfres to step
down as president and when he didn’t do it
voluntarily she made a motion to remove him.
It failed to be seconded and therefore did not
go to a vote.
It was also reported that Humphfres
incurred a legal expense near the beginning
of the controversy, without first consulting
the board, but said it was unintentional.
Usually, the special district’s lawyer fees are
compensated at no cost to the district. When
Dickson asked why Humphfres spoke with this
outside lawyer he said that it was because he
felt like he was accused of wrongdoing in their
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lot of large wood got flushed down
the creek systems, and that created
problems, because the wood stacked
up at different points. So people
started doing stream clearing. People
didn’t realize that large wood stacks
were a natural part of the process.
So the next floods caused even more
damage.
“We spent millions of dollars
pulling wood out, and now we’re
spending millions putting wood
in. We’re mimicking the natural
processes of trees falling over.”
This particular project will
add eight different large wood
complexes, utilizing firs, at eight
different points of lower Grayback
Creek, over an area about a mile
before Grayback dumps into Sucker.
“We are basically putting in
large wood in the form of structures
as if there was a miniature slide, but
previous public board meeting. Dickson then
accused him of using district funds for legal
council on a personal matter.
Since the district had no specific rule
against such an action, they immediately made
a motion to bar incurring any expense to the
district unless the entire council is notified and
takes a vote. The motion passed unanimously
at five to zero.
After speaking with the lawyer’s
office regarding the bill and the confusion,
Humphfres secured a discount which brought
the expense down to $406.
Butler also said in his resignation speech
that if any disciplinary action was taken
against Hoke, for bringing this controversy,
and other issues, to the forefront, he vowed
that he would be the first person to sign a
recall petition against the entirety of the board.
After Butler concluded his speech and was
leaving the building, Bouchard said that it
sounded like they were threatened. Humphfres
replied by asking Bouchard if he would like to
change Hoke’s upcoming meeting, which was
scheduled to clear up non-performance related
issues, into a full review.
“Do you want to change it? To get the
truth out once and for all?” Humphfres asked.
“I don’t know,” Bouchard replied,
closing his binder.
Bouchard later assured everyone, after
Butlers’ resignation speech and a threat from
Hoke stating that he has the means to sue
the district should they discipline him, that
disciplining Hoke had been brought up, but the
council was not, at that time, collectively going
to bring action against him.
Although some board members want
the controversy sorted out by legal mediation,
Hoke holds that the district simply doesn’t have
the money to do that until funds from the levy
start coming in. However, he prefers to just
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without all the dirt that comes with a
slide,” said O’Brien.
The large wood structures slow
the water down, and as that happens,
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SEE COHO ON A-10
(Courtesy photo for the Illinois Valley News)
Dunn Creek
leave it all in the past.
“We can sit here and hash over history
all day long,” Hoke said, “I’ve said it in the
newsletter; I’ve said it publically. I think we’ve
all lost focus of what the right thing is for
the taxpayer. Do we have a communication
problem? Absolutely. I can tell you right now
mediation—we’re talking over a $1,000…
Let’s move on. We’ve got to do the right thing
for the district.”
Jerry Lamb, affirming his opinion that this
controversy should be left in the past, added
that if they continue to dig up this issue it will
affect their ability to run the fire department.
Hoke added that he and Humphfres can just
“agree to disagree” on the entire issue and let
it go.
Hoke, implying further alleged
indiscretions, asked the board a second time
to bring personnel issues to his attention so
that he could appropriately manage them. The
issue was that Humphfres turned in a letter
regarding a volunteer’s resignation and did not
speak to Hoke about it even though the two met
and greeted one another in the hallway. The
volunteer was Humphfres’ wife and the matter
required attention from five staff members in
total to resolve.
Hoke, as the liaison between board and
staff, feels that this behavior is what got them
in this controversy in the first place and wants
it to stop. “How can I effectively manage the
staff if board members are circumventing
the process,” Hoke asked, concluding his
argument.
Humphfres, defending his position, said
that he did not attempt to go around him and
that the letter was written as a husband and
not as a board member. He gave the letter to
Division Chief Kamron Ismaili because that’s
who his wife told him to take it to. In turn,
Ismaili, knowing that it would take several
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some of the stuff suspended in the
water starts dropping out,” he added.
personnel to sort out, passed it along to Hoke.
“All you had to do was pick up the
phone and ask why I brought it to him and you
would have gotten the answer,” Humphfres
said, regarding their interaction in the hallway.
Hoke, in response to Humphfres’ claim that he
was turning in the letter as a husband, held that
his position as a board member and president
follows him with every action he takes within
the district regardless of the situation.
“I have done nothing wrong in this
district,” Humphfres said, summarizing his
view of the controversy, “I have had the best
interests for this district ever since I joined
back in ‘91 and to have this done to me
publically is shameful. For anybody to do that
to any official up here who volunteers their
time—to come in here and shame them in
front of the public loses all my respect.” When
asked who he was referring to by a woman in
the audience he replied, “Anybody that was
involved. Basically the chief.”
At meetings end, the board discussed
proceedings for filling Butlers’ place on the
council and were told that the position must
be advertised for a reasonable amount of time
before the board can vote a candidate into the
position. The person elected will serve out the
remainder of Butlers’ term, and then can run in
the regular election.
Humphfres implied that Robert Schmidt,
a man who frequently attends Illinois Valley
Fire District board meetings, would be a good
candidate. Hoke added that Dickson, who
ran a last minute write-in campaign when she
discovered the controversy at the very end of
her term, would likely be willing to volunteer
again.
The comment was met with
approximately nine seconds of silence before
Bouchard spoke, “So that’s what we’ll do,
we’ll put an ad in the paper.”
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