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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Illinois Valley Airport gets a big helping hand from FAA
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
Larry Graves, manager of Josephine
County’s Airports Department, recently
secured a handful of federal grants from the
Federal Aviation Administration though their
Airport Improvement Program which, in
total, is worth upwards of $6 million dollars.
Between the two grants acquired specifically
for the Illinois Valley, simply labeled grant
seven and eight, more than $2 million dollars
will be spent improving the aging runway
lighting system and eventually replacing the
part of the tarmac where aircraft are parked.
“It’s about a three inch thick document,”
Graves said, highlighting the difficulty of
acquiring these federal grants. Graves assumed
the position as manager about six years ago
and has reportedly been working towards
acquiring these grants since 2012. He was both
the grant writer and administrator and also had
to travel around the state defending his grant
applications and make numerous presentations
to regional transportation commissions.
Since Josephine County could not
produce the hundreds of thousands of dollars
necessary to match the grant’s mandatory
10 percent, Graves also had to pursue state
grants. Luckily for cash strapped counties
across Oregon, the state government recently
created the Critical Oregon Airport Resource
grant program which is specifically designed
to supply money to those who’ve acquired
federal grants but don’t have the funds to
match it.
Although the current runway lighting
system at the Illinois Valley Airport still
functions properly, Graves said that it’s barely
adequate for pilots to land at night.According
to his estimates, the low-voltage edge lighting
system is now around 50 years old and it’s
also been decades since any paving work was
done.The parking tarmac, now essentially
disintegrating, is considered a safety hazard
because rocks and gravel can be picked up
by propellers, potentially causing damage to
aircraft.
Since the Smokejumper Base was
declared a historic district, the Airports
Department must follow the rules set by the
State Historic Preservation Office. These rules
will unfortunately prolong the parking tarmac’s
reconstruction for a few years.However, the
lighting improvements at the Illinois Valley
Airport are estimated to be completed by the
end of the year.
Copeland Paving won the contract
and as such will be the primary contractor
responsible for the organization and execution
of work. However, they will undoubtedly be
using subcontractors and materials from local
suppliers so some of the money will, according
to Graves, trickle down to the community.
When Graves first assumed his
managerial position six years ago, he said that
the Illinois Valley Airport looked more or less
abandoned and that he was only assisted by
a single part-time worker. Since the Airports
Department is forced to run similarly to a
private enterprise, meaning they have to
raise their own funding and cannot rely on
county money, Graves had to make serious
changes in the way the department operates.
The department now has a full staff of three
full-time workers and can adequately perform
all the duties that it’s supposed to perform
like clearing debris and providing regular and
timely maintenance where possible.
“My staff is awesome,” Graves said, “I
can’t do this alone. Having them on board has
improved the airports exponentially.”
Governor Brown, state police chief stand up for marijuana
Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s governor and
the head of the state police defended the state’s
legal marijuana industry in letters to U.S. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions, who has been hinting at
a crackdown on states such as Oregon that have
legalized pot in defiance of federal law.
Gov. Kate Brown noted Tuesday in her letter
that Sessions’ earlier letter to her referenced a
draft report from the Oregon State Police that
concluded a lot of Oregon’s marijuana was being
diverted to other states.
Brown and Oregon State Police
Superintendent Travis Hampton said that draft
report was invalid and had incorrect data and
conclusions.
Brown said new laws in Oregon, including
tracking all pot grown for legal sale from seed
to store, will help cut down on diversion into the
black market. Brown noted that she also recently
signed into law legislation that makes it easier
to prosecute the unlawful import and export of
marijuana products.
Governors of Alaska
and Washington state
also recently pushed
back against the Trump
administration and
defended their efforts to
Governor Kate Brown
regulate the marijuana industry. Alaska Gov. Bill
Walker wrote to Sessions earlier this month asking
the Department of Justice to maintain the Obama
administration’s more hands-off enforcement
approach to states that have legalized marijuana.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the attorney
general made claims about the situation in his
state that are “outdated, incorrect, or based on
incomplete information.”
The governors of Oregon, Colorado,
Washington and Alaska wrote to Sessions and
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in April,
warning that altering the Cole memorandum,
which restricts federal marijuana law enforcement
in states where pot is legal, “would divert existing
marijuana product into the black market and
increase dangerous activity in both our states and
our neighboring states.”
Sessions, however, then wrote to
congressional leaders, opposing an amendment
that prevents the Justice Department from using
appropriated funds to interfere with states’ medical
marijuana.
Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer,
who co-wrote the amendment with California
Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, told The
Associated Press recently that Congress is
becoming more pro-marijuana, and that more
legalization will tamp down the black market.
“The more that we go down the path of
legalization, regulation and taxation, diversion
becomes less and
less of a problem,”
Blumenauer said.
Brown told
Sessions in her letter
that Oregon’s medical
and recreational
marijuana industry
has raised over $60.2
million in revenue and
created over 16,000
jobs.
She said her staff
looks forward to
continuing its work
with Session’s office
and his representative
in Oregon “to end
black market marijuana
operations, and
to provide mutual
education and support
of our legal and
regulated marketplace.”
___
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andrewselsky.