Letters to the Editor
Guv’s hound-hunting an ‘outrageous slap in face’
From Lisa Rohde Siskiyou Project
Cave Junction
I was heartbroken to learn that Gov. Kulongoski signed into law HB 2971, a bill reinstating hound hunting of cougars in Oregon.
This is an outrageous slap in the face to Oregon voters, who approved Measure 18 in 1994 banning the cruel practice of chasing cougars with hounds. Unfortunately, we can now expect more cougars to be killed
in Oregon than ever before.
The magnificent Siskiyou Wild Rivers area of Southwestern Oregon boasts outstanding large tracts of wildland suitable for many predator species including cougars. The real problem is not too many cougars, but too many deer and other species that would ordinarily be kept in check by large predators.
By facilitating a natural balance between cougar and deer populations, we could reap many benefits, including fewer vehicle collisions with deer, fewer cases of Lyme disease, and lessened agricultural losses.
The state’s Cougar Management Plan needs greater emphasis on non-lethal steps such as
educating people about how to prevent conflicts with cougars. Humans can learn to co-exist with wildlife. Killing should be used only as a last resort.
The Oregon Dept. of
Fish & Wildlife should immediately halt its Cougar Management Plan until the plan undergoes rigorous peer review to ensure scientific credibility.
Why shouldn’t name be Deer Creek Valley?
From Fred Krauss
Selma
I have lived for 75 years in Selma that we call Deer Creek Valley.
There are a lot of nice people here and in the Illinois Valley too. I think that Illinois Valley should start at Sauer Flats and let you people retain the name, “Deer Creek Valley.”
Selma residents who read this can write a letter to the county commissioners if they are interested in making a change.
Selma Center appreciates support by ‘I.V. News’
From Reni Schaeffer
Illinois Valley
The volunteers at Selma Community Education Center are so grateful to you for keeping the Center in the news. Your support of the library, as well as all our other endeavors, is invaluable.
It is so rewarding to see the results of the publicity you have given us. We have added new members, as well as new volunteers for the office, all as a result of your most-recent story.
Use of the library also has risen.
She finds communities with gates ‘insulting’
From Linda S. Tedder Cave Junction
Here on Schumacher Street, new homes are being built. But who is buying them?
And why gated communities? Come on, this is Cave Junction. Who or what are builders gating in/out? What are they afraid of?
This is a very nice area. Why the gates? What Cave Junction does not need is the attitude of elitism from
people who don’t already live here. If they did live here they would know that the need for a gated community is not a need at all.
In fact, it almost has the feel of racism. Gives us a bad feeling all around. Builders should go to the larger cities where real crime is a real norm. Then they and their buyers could just feel so safe and warm behind a gate.
This is Cave Junction -- population under 2,000. Builders have insulted the residents of this town with this gated community.
County board wrong about airport advisers
From Roger Brandt
Cave Junction
The disbanding of the Josephine County Airports Advisory Board has generated a great deal of public misunderstanding due to incorrect information given by county commissioners.
I have attended almost all advisory board meetings, and I would like to provide the following insights.
The commissioners claimed that there were rampant arguments at meetings, but I can verify there was never an argument at any of the board meetings that I attended.
However, there were many complaints, almost all of them about the same person. I heard many business owners and private citizens describing this person as deceptive, evasive, inaccurate, inequitable, obstructing, and hostile to business owners and business development.
During the four years that I have been attending board meetings, I have personally experienced and observed behavior by this person that validates every word board members, business owners, and private citizens have used to describe him. The lack of business development at the airports appears to be largely caused by this person.
And despite the fact that the advisory board tried to deal with this person as part of its efforts to bring businesses to the airports, the county commissioners removed the Airports Board and put this person in charge of business development at the airports.
I have personally observed the most-recent Airports Board and the former Illinois Valley Airport Advisory Board attempts to bring in businesses. However, the county commissioners have given them no power to set these ideas in motion.
The Airports Board was given the authority to provide “advice” on business development opportunities, but the decision on what businesses were allowed to be developed is ultimately the decision of the county commissioners. They are well aware that the Airports Board acts only in an advisory capacity, and that it was very improper, if not deceptive, for them to publicly deflect the responsibility for business failure at airports away from themselves and onto a group of volunteers with the lowest level of authority.
Let’s be honest. The first chore given the combined airports board by the county commissioners was to create new bylaws for the board, not business development. The board produced draft bylaws, but it took months for the county commissioners to approve them.
This left the advisory board drifting aimlessly for the first months it was in operation and, as is perfectly understandable, it didn’t get much done during that time. The commissioners need to acknowledge their role in setting the foundation for poor productivity in citizen support groups such as the Airports Board.
The claim that the advisory board was disbanded to save money is comically ironic. It is a volunteer group. Members covered their own expenses and spent hours of their personal time driving to meetings, organizing committees, and providing written input, all of which was done at no cost to the county.
The county commissioners asked for their help, and the Airports Board members gave freely of time and money for the benefit of Josephine County. It is hauntingly tragic that the dedication of these people is being obscured under a cloud of contempt and blame, and stamping them publicly with a label of failure.
No one has said, “Thank you” to any of the board members. They include Bill Gettles (owner of an airplane repair business at I.V. Airport), Bob Bleadon (a Selma resident and retired professional airline pilot), Kurt Krauss (owner of Krauss Kraft), Luz Moore (Century 21 Harris & Taylor real estate agent), Mike Schmeltzer (building contractor), Andy Chen (Sterling Development), and, in respectful memory, Gerry Sterling (business developer).
The county commissioners were wrong when they publicly declared the work of these people to be a waste of time.
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