Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Page A-9
Josephine County buys bill counter to handle pot cash
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The final
straw was the day a marijuana grower came in
to get a permit and paid for it with $3,000 cash
in $5 and $10 bills.
So many permits and fees were being paid
for with marijuana money the Josephine County
Community and Economic Development
Department needed a bill counter.
It was a chore to count, staff said, and not
necessarily safe, right out there on the front
counter, with customers waiting.
“That started the whole thing,” department
office manager Melissa Older said while
demonstrating the machine’s use.
It arrived a few weeks ago and is called
a JetScan, made by Cummins Allison. Its price
tag is nearly $1,900. The county treasurer’s
office was consulted about what to buy.
Older said employees didn’t feel
comfortable counting out all that cash in public.
Also, there was the desire to make sure all those
bills were counted accurately.
The machine checks for counterfeit bills,
too.
To get an idea about how much business
the marijuana industry is doing with the county,
department director Julie Schmelzer provided
the following statistics:
. Building fees collected by the building
safety division jumped 61 percent, to $541,863
during the most recent fiscal year, which
concluded June 30, vs. $332,039 last year;
. Electrical fee collections jumped 80
percent over the same period, to $154,467 from
$85,916;
. Planning division fee collections jumped
64 percent: $496,923 vs. $302,149.
“That gives you some idea about money
changing hands,” Schmelzer said.
Not all of the increased revenue was due
to marijuana-related development. Schmelzer
said some is due to increased residential
construction, as the economy continues to
improve.
And business isn’t slowing: This fiscal
year, which began July 1, looks to be busier yet,
she said.
“It’s crazy.”
Healthy U News: by Nicole Rensenbrink
I used to go through my closet
at the end of each season and either
toss or take to a thrift store everything
that I hadn’t worn in ages. Then, I’d
look at the new found space I had
and, if I had the money, go shop for
some clothes I hoped to like more.
It was automatic: a leftover from
being a growing child who didn’t fit
in the old stuff from one year to the
next and excitedly awaited “Back
to School Shopping” in late August
or scoping out cute new bikinis as a
young teen with spring fever.
I grew up and stayed largely the
same size as an adult, but kept right
on shopping. I got hooked on “fast
fashion,” the clothes I could easily
afford because somewhere in China,
CANNABIS ...
someone was getting paid 12-18 cents
per hour to keep me in style. Not that
I ever thought about that.
But, since I started picking up
trash with the local Rotary Club,
my thoughts about waste started
to change. A lot of stuff becomes
garbage and garbage has to go
somewhere. Though most of it
doesn’t end up along the roadsides,
stabbing dirty diapers along 199
made me think about how hideous it
must be in giant landfills too.
So, I got motivated to cut down
the trash I generate. I got better at
recycling, composting, and avoiding
extensive packaging. Then, I read
about clothes. An article in The
Altantic from 2014 reported that
night sky.
Lastly, with regards to
erosion and runoff, if fill is
brought onto, or stockpiled,
on a property in excess of 10
cubic yards, then its runoff
must be maintained on-site
through “best management
practices.” Although it was
addressed as a concern,
further definition regarding
“best management practices”
was declined. In addition,
filling or grading on slopes in
excess of 15 percent without
a Stormwater Management
Plan will not be permitted
and berms have to meet the
same setback as a structure
and need to be stabilized with
ground cover.
Hare, speaking toward
the recent round of cannabis
regulation, said that the
county is doing their best with
thinly stretched resources
and personnel to make the
cannabis market a good thing
for everyone. Although he
appreciates the community’s
Continued from A-1
If a vegetative screen is
required then the screen must
be maintained and capable
of shielding a cannabis plant
in three years. The ordinance
further adds that shade cloth
can no longer be used for
more than three consecutive
months and must be removed
at the end of the season.
Finally, and although front
and road setbacks are still
required, sight obscuring
fences will no longer need
side and rear yard setbacks.
All exterior lighting, as
of Oct. 30, must be shielded
through the use of a hood or
lens to cast light downward
and ensure that no light is cast
onto neighboring properties
or into the night sky. On the
same beat, no indoor lighting
from a cannabis production
or processing facility can be
visible to neighbors or in the
Americans generate about 10.5
million tons of clothes trash each
year, of which just 15 percent is
recycled.
The National Center for
Biotechnology Information reports
that the demand for man-made
fibers, especially polyester, has
nearly doubled in the last 15 years,
according to figures from the
Technical Textile Markets. The
manufacture of synthetic fabrics
is an energy-intensive process
requiring large amounts of crude
oil and releases toxic emissions
which can cause or aggravate
respiratory disease. Various by-
products of polyester production go
into the wastewater from polyester
manufacturing plants. The EPA,
under the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act, considers many
textile manufacturing facilities to be
hazardous waste generators.
Even a natural fiber like cotton
isn’t problem free. The U.S. cotton
crop accounts for a quarter of all the
pesticides used in our country and we
are the largest exporter of cotton in
the world, according to the USDA.
Subsidized by our government, cotton
prices are kept artificially low, which
enables fast fashion to clog up our
closets.
All this has made me re-
evaluate my relationship with clothes.
First, most of my clothes are fine
and will last for many years to come.
Next, if I do get some clothing article,
or get gifted such, I could prize that
possession more, mean it to last
30 years, rather than seeing it as
just another sweater because I like
sweaters and don’t have one yet in
purple. Finally, taking a lesson from
Marie Kondo (The Life-Changing
Magic of Tidying Up), by being more
selective, I will take better care of
my things more and have less clutter
(trash of sorts) in my own home too.
A clean environment is healthy.
It relaxes the mind and generates
comfort. Fast fashion may be fun,
but is the chaos it creates at home
and toxic trash it creates in the world
really worth it?
fervent engagement and
patience on the topic he added
that very few growers, both
medical and recreational,
had come to him seeking
his advice and opinion as to
where he thought land use
code was going in the future.
As such, and although he does
feel empathy for growers,
he does not feel entirely
responsible for their potential
loss of investment.
H&R Block
210 W. Lister St.
Cave Junction
592-3667
Ted Crocker, LTC
Bob Litak, LTC
Licensed Tax Consultants B14914
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