Letters to the Editor

(Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)
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Typed, double-spaced letters written solely to this newspaper and/or Website are considered for publication. Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and legible also can be considered.
Cards of thanks are not accepted as letters.
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Finding lost men a God happening
From Dave Tromler
Cave Junction

My son, Jon Tromler, came to me and said, “Dad! This morning as I was having breakfast I heard on the scanner that a fella’ and his friend had gone off the road somewhere near Bolan Lake.”

Jon said he tuned into the message and realized he had been listening to the scanner for about four hours, and he had become very anxious, as he felt he could find the missing men who were calling 911 from somewhere in the mountains off Happy Camp Hwy. The Jeep in which the men were riding took a sudden turn off the road to Bolan Lake.

My son put his small motorcycle in back of his pickup truck; grabbed his 7-year-old son and headed for Bolan Lake. Jon had made contact with 911 to let them know his intentions.

As he was driving up Happy Camp Road he passed a search-and-rescue truck a short time later. Jon made the turn from Happy Camp Road to Bolan Lake, and after the turn-off he realized that he was running out of fuel.

So he pulled his truck to the side of the road and got out. He said that he thought he heard a cow bawling, but realized there were no cows in the area. Then he realized that he found the men who were lost for nearly two days.

At this time, Josephine County Search And Rescue drove up, and Jon waved and hollered that he found the missing men. Those in the rescue truck rolled up the windows and locked the doors -- wonder what they were thinking?

Jon didn’t wait for them to get their bearings back, but jumped 30 feet down and slid another 60 feet to where a man was mentally lost sitting on a rock asking Jon to find his friend. Jon found him about 30 feet from the man in shock, but he was not functioning.

Jon hollered back to the rescue people to come and get the men. He then went back to his truck: the one he forgot was out of fuel. He managed to get it back to Happy Camp Road and coast down the mountain and into my driveway and told me this story.

Then he took my car and a can, and resupplied his truck with fuel.

What a guy! As his dad, I’m busting with pride.

Jon truly does have a sixth sense. Tune in to God.

 

Confidence lack seen toward sheriff’s office
From Richard Thomas
Cave Junction

Since its inception in May I have been attending the Cave Junction Security Council meetings. The turnouts for the first two were very small.

To these tiny audiences council founder Cpl. Sean Rarey, of the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO), spoke very candidly. He addressed what JCSO could and couldn’t do to address citizen safety concerns, mostly property issues and concerns over vagrants in Jubilee Park.

Any complaints about what the sheriff’s office couldn’t do were easily explained away because of its lack of resources and our valley’s size and rural nature. The purpose of the meetings was to prioritize what JCSO could do.

July’s meeting was a lot different; there weren’t even enough chairs for everyone. There were a lot of different people with many different concerns, and amid the chaos I think some important issues were lost in the frustration: one being the incident July 8 when Cory Bockstiegle sustained injuries that caused him to lose a piece of his brain and half his skull in a brutal beating.

I think a lot of people were there to let JCSO know that resolution of this matter should be a priority.

This was never really mentioned, as the night of the 8th brought too much controversy over our contract deputy’s alleged response at the scene, so the issue of Bockstiegle was overshadowed. Rarey said that the meeting was not the forum for a discussion about Deputy Cory Krauss and the issues surrounding the incident, so the topic was dropped.

I saw a great deal of relevance in the discussion. It raised questions about people’s confidence in JCSO. I think that the usual low turnout to these safety meetings has something to do with the people’s frustrations turning into apathy and a lack of trust that JCSO is here to help.

For example, when Rarey mentioned “work” and “Cory Krauss” in the same sentence the entire crowd got a laugh. To me this all seems indicative of some real problems in our valley. And without a cooperative community with confidence in its law enforcement the concerns over our valley’s safety and security will only grow more numerous.

 

IVHS not included in Rotary contest
From Craig Glynn
Cave Junction

The other day I was set to buy one of those floating duck toys in a contest sponsored by the Grants Pass Rotary Club Foundation, as I like to help our Illinois Valley schools. The ducks were for sale in a Cave Junction bank.

But lo and behold, upon carefully reading the promotional info for the fund-raiser, I noticed that -- guess what? -- Illinois Valley High School is not included. Proceeds are to help Hidden Valley, North Valley and Grants Pass High schools.

What’s up with that? It’s just another example of the way Grants Pass regards poor ol’ Illinois Valley. I wonder if the sponsors for the contest are aware that Illinois Valley is left out?

 

‘Cop, cop, where are you?’ perspective
From John E. Luerding
U.S. Army, Germany

When I arrived at work I had the time to read the letters to the editor in “Illinois Valley News” and saw a number of complaints that Cave Junction is suffering from a lackluster performance of police duties by the sheriff’s office. 

Now, I’m not the most educated person in the world but I do have some experience in police work. Actually 19 years and two
months experience as a police officer for the U.S. Army.

Having this experience, I know the troubles of logistical manpower meeting the needs of a community that’s depending on quality police work in order to be given a sense of safety and security.

Years back, when my father retired from the military and moved to Cave Junction, there was a presence of “Active” city police. That was in 1976.  A year or so after our settling in O’Brien, the city police force was disbanded, and the policing duties fell to the county sheriff. 

Now understand, this is a department that has a patrolling force of approximately 18 or so (could be more or less); has a topography range from 20 miles north of Grants Pass all the way down to the border of California.

This means that they respond to residential calls outside the limits of the city of Grants Pass and suburbs, as well as those living between Grants Pass and include Cave Junction down
to O’Brien and the border.  When you think about it, the sheriff’s office is very much limited by its human resource to offer any resemblance of the quality of community policing that is demanded of them.

Yet even being limited by their numbers they do the best they can with the numbers they have. If the citizens of Cave Junction want quality police work from a police department that provides peace of mind when they lay their head down to sleep, then bring back the city police and relieve the sheriff’s office of that burden so that it can put the manpower to use outside the limits of the city.

The citizens have the power to make this happen by going to the city council to demand that they create a working budget that would support approximately 12 police officers. This would support a day shift, swing shift, and night shift, of eight hours each with two officers working per
shift and the other six to relieve the officers after a five-day work schedule offering 40 hours of work, and a chief of police answerable to the city council. 

These officers would be responsible for patrolling Downtown Cave Junction and its suburbs.

City residents need to stop their rhetoric of complaints to an overtaxed sheriff’s office and call for a new city police for Cave Junction. If there is resistance from the council they should be reminded politely that, like their fellow politicians who work in Congress and the Senate, their jobs are dependent on citizen votes.

Get what you want or they don’t get your vote. Simple concept, but it’s been around since the day we became the United States.

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