Local News

With the entire perimeter lined, work on the Salt Creek Fire is now focused on mop-up for the remainder of the incident. The Oregon Department of Forestry reports updates to mapping put the wildfire burning between Eagle Point and Butte Falls at 4,081 acres, with an infrared flight across the area scheduled for this evening to determine a final acreage. ODF said containment of the fire remains at 32%. Last night, firefighters used multiple types of infrared devices to search for hot spots or smoldering patches of vegetation, roots and coals that could later reignite in hot, windy conditions. With these specific locations identified and marked on maps, today's resources will be better able to find and extinguish these areas. Resources will pick up today where the night shift left off and build on the progress that has been made around the perimeter. Mop-up totals range from 50 to 200 feet deep into the interior of the blaze. The line is wide and secure. More than 750 personnel are assigned to the fire today including 27 20-person hand crews backed by 22 engines, 13 tree-fallers, 12 water tenders, seven bulldozers and various types of logging equipment. Aircraft including helicopters and air tankers are available upon request. Level 1 "Be Ready" evacuation notices issued by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office and Emergency Management remain in effect, but no homes or structures are threatened at this time. The Medford District BLM has temporarily closed its lands in the area for the safety of firefighters and the public. The Salt Creek Fire was first reported last Sunday just after 4 p.m.. The estimated cost to fight the fire so far is $6.5 million. The cause remains under investigation.

 

Smoke from a fire that was highly visible most of Friday in the Riverbanks Road area has dissipated as numerous firefighters gained the upper hand on containment and full extinguishment. On Friday at 7:58 a.m., Rural Metro Fire Department and the Oregon Department of Forestry responded to reports of smoke in the Marcy Loop, Limpy Creek and Shan Creek areas. Firefighters searched the area and found access to the fire, which was perched near the top of the ridge between the Limpy Creek and Shan Creek drainages. Scouting a ridgetop skid road and cutting out a number of blown-down trees blocking their path, Rural Metro and ODF crews reached the closest landing where trucks could stage and begin constructing a trail for laying in hose several hundred feet down to the fire. An aggressive initial attack from both ground and air units limited the fire's size to approximately 1.5 acres. The fire was not a threat to any homes. Firefighters from the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest along with several contract crews took over incident management on what is being called the Slate Fire. Rural Metro personnel were released from the scene. Officials said the fire was the second one in the Shan Creek area within 12 hours. They said there was no indication the fires are related, but Forest Service and ODF were investigating. An abandoned vehicle was found by firefighters near the scene, resulting in the location of a person requiring medical attention.

 

The Josephine County Sheriff's Office jailed a man this week for beating up his wife at a home between Grants Pass and Murphy. The Sheriff's Office reports deputies arrested the 48-year-old male subject at a residence in the 4500-block of Williams Highway late Thursday night. Deputies said a man called 9-1-1 to report that he was calling for his sister who had been injured by her husband. The caller said the female victim was hit in the head with a bowl while they were arguing. When the woman went to call for help, the husband took away her phone and hit her with it. According to the report, the victim had a cut on the left side of her head and was bleeding badly when deputies arrived on scene. She and two juveniles who saw the incident were transported by ambulance to Three Rivers Medical Center. The kids were not injured, but accompanied their mother on the ride to the hospital. Upon arrival, deputies interviewed both parties and then placed the husband into custody. He was lodged at the Josephine County Jail for Felony Domestic Assault in the 4th Degree. He was being held without bail.

 

The Grants Pass 9-1-1 Communications Center fielded well over 1,400 emergency calls this past week. According to the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center's weekly post on Facebook, a total of 1,437 emergency calls were received between July 4th and July 10th. The Grants Pass Police Department received the vast majority of the calls with 896. GPPD was followed by American Medical Response with 327 and Grants Pass Fire & Rescue with 128. Rural Metro Fire Department received 77 calls over the seven-day period while the Oregon Department of Forestry received 41, the Illinois Valley Fire District got 25 and the Williams Rural Fire Protection District got 8. There were no calls for the Wolf Creek Rural Fire Protection District. Dispatchers also reported receiving a total of 504 internal calls and making 610 outbound calls.

 

US Senator Ron Wyden will finish a swing through Oregon next week with a town hall meeting in Jackson County. The Jackson County Town Hall is scheduled for Wednesday, July 17th, at Rogue X on Rossanley Drive in Medford. Prior to that, he will be holding town halls in Linn, Yamhill and Columbia counties. Heading into these four town halls, Wyden will have held 1,089 town halls in Oregon -- including 24 this year -- in fulfillment of his pledge to hold at least one each year in each of the state's 36 counties. Wyden said he's very much looking forward to hearing directly from Oregonians during this upcoming round of town halls because their ideas, questions and concerns all help him represent the entire state. The Democratic lawmaker said Oregonians should always have these opportunities for conversations with elected officials about the challenges in their communities and the solutions that make all parts of the state even better places to live.

 

A federal jury this week sided with the city of Grants Pass in finding that police haven't used Oregon's disorderly conduct statute to quash the free speech rights of street preachers protesting abortion. The Oregonian reports Abolish Abortion Oregon in 2020 sued Grants Pass, alleging the city had harassed its members for years with threats of arrest to chill their freedom of speech and religion. The Christian evangelists and anti-abortion activists travel the state "to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to call for the abolition and criminalization of abortion throughout the United States," according to the organization's lawyers. The group's open-air street preachers attend various events in Grants Pass, including the First Friday monthly celebration of the arts and the Saturday Growers Market, and they regularly preach outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on NW Franklin Boulevard, sometimes using bullhorns and electronic amplifiers. Three of its members filed complaints with the city for threatening to arrest them on second-degree disorderly conduct allegations. Other received citations alleging they were obstructing traffic. The attorney for the city testified that its police officers appropriately enforced the law against the preachers for creating "unreasonable noise," even if their speech was otherwise protected by the First Amendment. City Attorney Robert E. Franz testified the officers often were responding to complaints from businesses. The verdict came at the end of a four-day trial in US District Court in Medford before US District Judge Karin J. Immergut.

 

US Coast Guard rescuers lifted a blind man and his service dog up from the Rogue River National Recreation Trail and onto a helicopter this week after he was overcome by heat and spent at least one night waiting for help, officials said. The Oregonian reports the 55-year-old man, whose name hasn't been released, was hiking with a friend in Josephine County last Saturday when he started showing signs of heat exhaustion. The man couldn't walk anymore and there was no cell service in the area, so the friend left him at a campsite with a tent and some food and water and went to get help, reaching authorities by phone Sunday. Coast Guard Commander Jay Kircher received a call around 5 p.m. Sunday from the state's search-and-rescue coordinator asking for a helicopter to pluck a stranded man off of the trail. As they discussed options and tried to make a plan they learned that the friend wasn't completely sure about the man's location. Instead of flying out right away, they coordinated with the Josephine County Sheriff's Office and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management to have a deputy and a Bureau of Land Management ranger walk the trail the following morning, find the man and then relay his precise location to the Coast Guard via a satellite phone. The deputy and the ranger found the man around 9 a.m. Monday, and they sent the Coast Guard their coordinates. A four-man unit departed from North Bend around 10 a.m. and got there less than half-an-hour later.

 

Oregon Heritage -- a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department -- has awarded 18 grants totaling nearly $300,000 for historic properties and archaeology projects. Six of the grants were awarded in the "Diamonds in the Rough" category, which funds façade improvements that restore the historic character of a property. The other 12 grants were in the "Preserving Oregon" category for properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places and for archaeology projects. One of the archaeology projects being funded is a Southern Oregon University lab for study of the Maxville site in Wallowa County. Local historic properties receiving grants include the Elks Lodge building in Medford, the Butler Perozzi Fountain in Ashland and Hanley Farm near Central Point. These grants were approved by the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation, a nine-member group that reviews nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. For more information about the grants program, visit "oregonheritage.org."

 

A Grants Pass man was jailed on a total of 12 charges early yesterday when he fled from police on a motorcycle and was caught after he swam across the Rogue River. The Police Department reports officers eventually arrested 42-year-old Daniel Edward Wisener near the Grants Pass Wastewater Treatment Plant on Thursday at 10:20 a.m.. Police said they initiated a traffic stop on a dirt bike Wisener was riding near the Royal Trailer Park on Lewis Avenue when he accelerated and attempted to elude. They said he eventually stopped, fled on foot and swam across the river where he was placed into custody at Taser point by another officer. During questioning, Wisener reportedly admitted to committing crimes in three other cases that were under investigation by GPPD. He also admitted to stealing the dirt bike, which was impounded. Wisener was lodged at the Josephine County Jail for three counts each of 2nd-Degree Burglary, 1st-Degree Theft and 2nd-Degree Criminal Mischief plus single counts of Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, Felony Attempt to Elude Police and Misdemeanor Attempt to Elude Police. He was being held without bail.