Siege Schatza
IVN copy editor
Three topics were front and center during the Oct. 23 weekly business session of the Board of Josephine County Commissioners, held at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
Proceedings kicked off with the first of two public hearings concerning the formation of a rural fire protection district. As Chair John West reminded the audience, the board voted Sept. 18 to initiate the formation process. The second hearing will take place Nov. 20.
Unlike the county’s last attempt to form a fire district, this one will not have a permanent taxation rate attached, and therefore will not need voter approval to be formed. However, until a majority of voters in the district’s boundary weigh in (the earliest opportunity would be the May 2025 election) the district would be operationally inactive.
Chief Chris Wolfhard of the Applegate Fire District appeared during the hearing, testifying about a recent decision his board of directors made that could force an alteration of the proposed fire district boundary. The Applegate Fire District recently expanded coverage to an additional 776 properties in the Murphy area.
“I have a letter from the board,” Wolfhard said. “Essentially, it’s asking that you redraw your proposed boundaries to exclude those properties as we are now recognizing those as part of our service coverage area.”
Wolfhard said the 776 landowners are not being taxed yet, as state statute requires the fire district to notify them that the boundary is being expanded to include their properties and give them and opportunity to be annexed or opt out.
“At that point they do have a choice, but there are repercussions if they choose not to,” Wolfhard explained. “As the ORS is written, insurance companies are not allowed to offer them a discount. And there’s other triggering points that happen and which would automatically bring them into the district, such as transfer of the property, pulling a building permit, having a fire that impacts a building or simply building a structure that could be susceptible to fire or there might be some others I don’t have right in front of me right now.”
Other speakers during the public hearing included meeting frequenter Judy Ahrens, past commissioner candidate Mark Jones, current commissioner candidate Colleen Martin and individuals involved with fire district proceedings Bill Hunker and Steve Nelson.
Jones and Ahrens urged the board to put forth an orderly transition process so that the level of service does not decrease from where they are with Rural Metro, and thus raise insurance rates for citizens, while Martin wanted to “remind everyone to have respect for the businesses that we currently have here, the firefighters that we currently have. They are our taxpayers. They own homes, they are residents of this county.”
Hunker floated the idea of expanding the Williams and Applegate Fire districts rather than form a new district, while Nelson wanted to know how the board would go about appointing members of the proposed fire district to serve until the May election.
Before voting to advance the fire district to a second hearing, Commissioner Herman Baertschiger railed against the Oregon Legislature for imposing financial hardships on landowners who wish to opt out of paying taxes to various service districts.
“You know, as we do districts and pass levies, people fall through the cracks of the floor and we forget about them,” said Baertschiger. “The retired couple that has paid their house off and is on a limited income and they can’t afford this and they’re worried that they may have to sell their house that that they thought they would live in the rest of their life because they can no longer afford it after they work their entire life to buy that piece of property and that house and thought they were safe to live there the rest of their lives. I get those phone calls – ‘I don’t know how I’m going to afford it.’ This fire map that the state is proposing and this interaction with the insurance companies, those are the phone calls I’m getting.”
West added that the board did not endorse or support the Applegate Fire District’s decision to expand, and said he has gotten negative feedback from citizens who are happy with their Rural Metro service and do not want to become part of the fire district.
A trio of public hearings related to the county’s ongoing task of repealing redundant ordinances were also undertaken. These Josephine County Code chapters were: Chapter 9.20, 10.05 and 13.05.
Chapter 9.20, enacted in 1987, spelled out the process of seizing and disposing of properties used in the commission of a crime, and is now superseded by state law. Also superseded by state law, Chapter 10.05 allowed golf carts to be driven on Espey Rd. Finally, Chapter 13.05 set forth requirements for duly licensed septic tank pumpers to deposit septic tank sludge at Marlsan Sludge Lagoon, and was rendered moot by the closure of Marlsan.
During requests and comments from citizens, eight Williams residents expressed disappointment that despite their yearslong effort to protect the beloved forested recreation area of Pipe Fork Creek, which culminated in a letter of intent from the board to sell the land to The Conservation Fund, the board ultimately decided to put Pipe Fork up for auction along with other Williams properties.
Some of these speakers offered fierce criticism of the commissioners, casting doubt on their morality and intelligence. Among the testimony:
“The nine parcels of forested county land that you are auctioning in Williams most likely will be bid on by timber companies. Perplexing again to me since their timber management is clearcutting and that is why you refuse to sell to The Conservation Fund, stating BLM would log the land. In the interest of compassion I won’t say what your mental status describes.” ~ Cheryl Bruner
“Not even greed has moved you, since you could have had the money for the land. I’m left to wonder what it is that has moved you: Perversity? Meanness? Punishment for those who dare to oppose you? Are you cutting this forest just to prove you have the power to do so? No emotion involved except to rub it in the face of the good citizens whose emotions and reasonable actions have tried so passionately and for so long to prevent the destruction of this habitat.” ~ Diana Kugel
“Your efforts to stop the preservation of this land for our community astounds me as well as thousands of others… What happened to you guys? Did you lose your vision or lose your nerve?” ~ Chaz Rogers
Other speakers raised largely the same concerns, expressing worries for their property values, water quality and enjoyment of their land.
The commissioners proved to be as one Williams resident described as “unmovable,” reiterating their stance that the auction of 1,900 acres of timberland in Williams is in the best interest of Josephine County financially.
“Our forester has laid out a plan that it is in the best interest of the county financially to divest all the lands in the Williams area and purchase other forestlands that are contiguous, on better site ground and (offer) easier management for the future,” Baertschiger said. “It’s in our charter that we use our forestlands to supplement our budget here in Josephine County. And a lot of that money goes to our juvenile program. Without that money, there’s no juvenile program. So the money that is raised by the management of the forestlands that we retain is very important to us.”
The commission praised forester Dave Streeter for devising the plan, calling it a “wise decision” and saying, “Those properties are not all contiguous. They are complicated in the way to remove the timber off of there and there are other lands that are becoming available that would probably fit our program better and anybody can bid on those lands – anybody. It’s an open sale.”
West maintained that it is necessary to inconvenience some landowners in order to capitalize on timber harvesting to supplement the county budget. “If every neighbor wants their parcel protected and their parcel protected and their parcel protected, pretty soon we don’t do anything,” he said. “Pretty soon we end up being just like the federal government. We don’t manage it. We don’t do anything and it sits there until the next fire comes through and burns and then we get blamed for not doing anything. It’s a no-win situation.”