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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2017)
Page A-8 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, September 6, 2017 BAN ... Continued from A-1 New cannabis operations on RR land, technically not outright prohibited with the changes, can be allowed to start production provided they can meet a setback of 300 feet from all property lines on RR5 land, 250 feet on RR2.5 land and 150 feet on RR1.There are no changes to minimum lot sizes or width. The crowd met the announcement with sardonic laughter followed by booing. They were then reprimanded by the board of directors for exhibiting political emotion out of turn. Schmelzer’s presentation continued on to code changes which first and foremost will require all RR properties to have a residence on them. This change is supposed to prevent people from growing on RR land when it isn’t truly residential. Further adding a definition to county code, Schmelzersaid that a “legal marijuana production site” is now defined as a lot or parcel with an OLCC regulated marijuana LETTERS ... crop on site that meets the standards within the code. It also said that a lot or parcel must be owned by the party holding the OLCC license.The goal of this change is to reduce the alleged problem of strangers not vested in the community coming in and destroying the area or otherwise being poor neighbors. Should the changes be accepted by the Rural Planning Commission, it will then be passed back to the county commissioners who will give it a first and second reading no less than two weeks apart. If it is then approved by the commissioners, the changes will become effective after 90 days. After nearly three hours of heated public commentary, with the majority of the presentations arguing against the change, the commission voted to end the meeting. The next meeting was set for 6 p.m. Aug 31 at the Anne Basker Auditorium and was to be for deliberations only. Citizens were allowed to attend but were not given a chance to make further comment. when I say “Goodbye to the Family Farm,” I’m talking about long-time cannabis farmers being put out of business by the prejudiced and conspiring County Board of Commissioners and their sycophants who work for them. Prejudiced? Yes, the commissioners have gone on the record publicly making arbitrary and hateful Continued from A-2 Say Goodbye to the Family Farm Different regions are renown for specific crops, such as the midwest growing corn, the Napa Valley grapes, and the Illinois Valley cannabis. So 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 comments about cannabis, and they are proudly on the 1950’s side of the cultural war. Space does not allow me to list the countless examples in this letter, and why would I bother when they demonstrate their disdain every chance they get? The commissioners have been working together with their staff to ban cannabis off Rural Residential lands where it has always been grown in small but lucrative patches. The vast majority of cannabis patches are located where people live, and if you wanted to rid the county of cannabis, banning it off RR lands would be the most effective way to do that. You’d think that the future potential income that these patches afford families would be reason enough to give the three county commissioners pause, but no, they don’t care about you, H&R Block 210 W. Lister St. Cave Junction 592-3667 Ted Crocker, LTC Bob Litak, LTC Licensed Tax Consultants B14914 (Photo by Laura Mancuso, Illinois Valley News) Lily, 6, (left) and Liylah, 8, were excited to get their second place talent show trophy Saturday, Sept. 2 at the annual I.V. Lions Club Labor Day Festival. indeed, they relish the chance to put you and “your drug” out of business. Conspiring? While many people including myself have lobbied the commissioners on the matter, unsurprisingly, no lobby has been more effective than the big ag groups swooping in and buying up all the large-acreage EFU lands that have water rights. They don’t even notice much less care that the prices they are paying for these lands are priced into the stratosphere because the real money they’re concerned with is the wholesale price of the vast supply of cannabis they intend to grow. And their message to the commissioners was “limit cannabis farming to these lands so our businesses don’t collapse due to oversupply by the masses on RR lands -- our investors won’t like it.” So this whole “complaint driven” effort to say cannabis can’t be grown on RR lands anymore the way it has for generations is a gross misrepresentation. Indeed, the majority of the so-called complaints are lodged against scofflaws on resource lands, not OLCC recreational farms on RR lands. According to Julie Schmelzer, head of the planning department, not one complaint has been lodged against an OLCC regulated farm located on RR lands. This entire effort is based on lies, subterfuge and prejudice. Because this charade has been pointed out to the county officials repeatedly by many people, including lawyers, the county has backtracked and said they will “grandfather” existing farms S PORTSMAN TAVER N K araoKe e very Friday Serving CoCKtailS C an ’ t wait to see and hear all of you that have acquired or applied for Land Use Compatibility Statements (LUCS). But they have conditioned retaining the LUCS on the most oppressive regime of code enforcement the county has ever seen in all its history. Every year code enforcers will demand entry to your properties and seek out any and all code violations that will act like a trip wire and immediately cancel the grandfather status of the LUCS. No other farm or residence has this type of jack- booted thuggery to suffer, and no one wants their precious tax dollars spent policing LUCS when public safety and our schools are in such dire need of support. If they can’t legally steal your LUCS, then they’ll make it impossible to retain. We need to stop this attack on our economic development potential from which we all stand to benefit -- family farms have been slayed by big ag for the past 70 years, and we will just be one more hamlet run over the the pillaging lords who come riding into town, take up our EFU lands and capture the political interests of our elected representatives. Christopher Hall Cave Junction Dear Forest Service “Overhead”, Shame on you for letting all those fires get away again. Big fires always start as little ones, mostly lightning strikes, and your failed “let it burn” policies and incompetent, slow response times have led to 100,000 acre monsters that destroy homes, threaten wildlife and leave everyone immersed in sickening air quality. As a former Forest Service employee (when Fire Management Officers had some honor and Smoke Jumpers were deployed immediately) I saw what could be done with a few guys within the first few hours of a strike. A terrible mistake was made in the early 1980s to close the Jumper Base in a stupid decision to “save money”. Right away small lightning strikes turned into huge campaign fires such as Longwood, Silver, Biscuit, now Chetco Bar and scores of others. It is high time to reopen the Smoke Jumper Base and prioritize rapid response while fires are still small. The State and local fire departments have proven the value immediate mobilization, but the Forest Service takes days to get with it. With wild fires a lot happens in a short time. Many thanks to the fire fighters but no thanks to the honcho policy bean counters. Robert Hirning Takilma
