Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:15:30 -0700 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/ en-us http://www.crescentlakeor.com/images/logo.gif http://www.crescentlakeor.com/ gjj59@yahoo.com http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article36.html Certainly everyone here in the Northwest knows the destructiveness & dangers of forest fires in our woods. This past Summer we had such a horrific event. Right on the fringe of the Crescent Lake Junction business area. Those who were there or saw the pictures will never forget the sight of the "huge" flames nearly a 100' high directly behind Manley's, KJ's and the General store on the North side of highway 58. The fire even jumped the highway and headed past the airport runway towards our warming hut and grooming shed. Good fortunes and absolutely fantastic actions by fire crews clearly saved the buildings in the Junction...and...our snow park warming hut and probably our groomer shed. Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:15:30 -0700 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article34.html Several of you in the Cr.Lk.Jct. area were aware of a need to "close" the area of the fire that occurred near the Jct.. Simply stated, a review of the continuing review of the aftermath of the fire and reports being provided to the Forest Service prompted the closure which then limited access to (only) FS fire personnel. Barricades have been installed and closure notices posted. (generally) all from the North side of the airport runway to the West, East and Northern borders of the fire area were closed. Cr.Dist. FS personnel noted that our over-the-snow season was soon to begin. They expended considerable effort to find an alternative to the closure of specifically the groomed trails thru that area. A crew of several "Hotshot" fire personnel went to the area yesterday and proceeded to reduce the risks of blow-downs adjacent to the trail which will then enable us to groom and to use the trails thru there. We will assist by posting the area with "stay-on-the-trail" signs and letting folks know that these restrictions must be complied with. PLEASE pass the word...AND.... PLEASE DO comply...and...PLEASE thank our forest personnel for a quick response to help us continue to access/use this area.... QUESTIONS/PROBLEMS....let me know. Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:34:31 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article33.html COLVRT, community members, agencies and volunteer organizations all worked together to support first responders and community members displaced from their homes during the recent fire. The community wishes to express appreciation to them all. The following is a list of those that supported the effort. I you helped and are not on the list I apologize. Red Cross, who set up a shelter Crescent Community Center Mark Bolton Jim & Kathie Mullen Oregon Dept. of Transportation ( Lapine & Chemult) Brenda Dickie Rich & Judy Long Walker Range George & Sue Keller Oregon State Police Olivia & husband (RV park managers) Darrell & Kerry Ellington Linda & Mari Barron DeeDee & Mark Keith US Forest Service Tom & Sandy Troxell Klamath Co. Sheriff Sally Murray Terry Hepner Cliff & Diane Davidson Jean Varnon Lloyd & Shiela Goff Bob Gunderson (Master BBQ’er) And a Special THANK-You to John Balentine (Master Chief) Bill & Gloria Gibbs Our firefighters & Ems personal Chief Tim Holly & Gene Henderson Oregon State Fire Marshal Baptist Church in Crescent Approximately 450 meals were served consisting of: BBQ Chicken, Hot Dogs, Polish Dogs, Hamburgers, Cheese Burgers, Salads: macaroni, potato & tuna. Meat loaf, & mashed potatoes, Clam Chowder, Chili, Spaghetti, cheese platter ,French bread, bagels, English muffins, fruit, nuts, cakes, brownies, cookies, sandwiches, juice, punch, coffee, water Please note that the next COLVRT meeting is Sunday October 5, 2008 Thanks, Holly Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:07:47 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article32.html We recently had a near disaster at the Junction. Follow this link to see what the folks in Texas are going throughhttp://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:22:08 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article31.html The Incident Commander for the Royce Butte Fire and District Ranger will be holding a town meeting September 20, 2008 at 5:00 pm at the Central Cascades Fire and EMS building. This is an informational meeting in order to provide the community with current fire information as well as who will take the fire over when Central Oregon Fire Type 2 Team leaves. Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:57:11 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article30.html With the fire still underway. Homes and the resort still in jepardy COLVRT volunteers are doing what they do best, supporting their oommunity. They are cooking meals and doing what ever they can to support responders and residents in need. This is what they do. The hours may be long and hard but the rewards will be great. Keep up the good work. I am in Texas working with the evacuees of hurricane Ike and cannot be there to help. However, my thoughts are with those back home. Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:39:17 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article29.html In land towns of Texas, including San Antonio are filling up with self evacuees. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued in all costal communities North and South of Galvestion Island. People are still refusing to leave. One bar, is holding a "Hurricane Pary" and the paticipants are determined to drink their way through it. CNN estimates that 35,000 will need to be rescued. This after being warned that to stay is to die. Will they never learn? Those who elect to stay will be the first to complain that help didn't come fast enough. They will put others, the first responders, lives in danger bccause of their stupidity. Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:31:21 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article28.html You may have noticed that this site hasn't been updated as frequently as usual. That is because I am currently in Texas, with FEMA, working on past and future hurricanes. My current location is the State of Texas Alamo Regional Command Center. This facility is the nerve center of Texas in the event of a pending disaster. It is not unlike a penigon operation center. There are three screens, tuned to the weather channel, CNN and Google earth. eight additional screens are tuned to other channels. A large screen, about 20 foot by 25 foot displays Significant events directly off of a computer screen records movement of busses, abulances and other support vehicles. The operation is a "Unified Command" It is staffed by police, fire, volunteer and Federal Agency personnel all working under a single Incident Commander. The cooperation and coordination is impressive. My role is to act as a liasion with the State. I constantly forward updates on shelter populations,opening, closings, etc. our State Joint Field Office in Austin. In the four year that I have been working with FEMA this is the closest that I have been involved with the top decision makers. It is exciting and a priledge. Deenie is in Texas also. She has been working in McAllen. Her location is being evacuated today so she will be back on the mountain sometime tomorrow. It is our hope that she will join me when Ike passes and air service is back up and running. I will attempt to write updates as this event progresses. Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:12:35 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article27.html I just received notice that the (newly appointed) Acting Ranger Rolando Mendez for the Crescent Ranger District has scheduled (2) meetings for collaboration and brainstorming. Specifically referenced are (3) proposed OHV riding areas. They are called "linked" areas with proposed staging areas that would include the Junction Snow Park near Crescent Lake Junction, the Mushroom Camp and the Boundary Springs Campground which is East of hwy. 97 up on or near Walker Rim. There is also a need for users of the area to provide information about trails used, what the design of trails should be to accommodate different kinds of off-hiway vehicles, and whether or not there are issues that need be resolved. Everyone interested is encouraged to attend at least one of the sessions. Indicated is that both meetings will have the same framework so attendance at one or the other would be ok. The first meeting is set for Wednesday Sept.10th at 6:00 p.m. at the Gilchrist High School and the other is set for Wednesday Sept. 17th at 1:00 p.m. at the Crescent Ranger's District Office in Crescent. Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:43:42 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article25.html I am not going to go "political". However, with ratings for our House, Senate and President at all time lows. The following might explain why we are in such sad shape.A Washington, DC, Airport Ticket Agent offers some examples of why the US is in trouble! 1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!) 2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then she interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts .' Without trying to make HER look stupid, I calmly explained, ' Cape COD is in Massachusetts. Cape TOWN is in Africa ...' Her response . . click. 3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, 'Don't lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!' 4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, 'Is it possible to see England from Canada ?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'But they look so close on the map,' (OMG, again!) 5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, 'I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.' (Aghhhh) 6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She wanted to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 am and got to Chicago at 8:33 am. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that. 7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, 'Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' She replied, 'Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!' After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing), I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is FAT (Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage. 8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, 'Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii ?' 9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who was calling from the airport and asked, 'How do I know which plane to get on?' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, 'I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.' 10. A lady Senator called and said, 'I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, Fl. on a commuter plane. She said, 'Yeah, whatever, smarty!' 11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.' I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, 'Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!' 12. A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, 'I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .' I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, 'Are you sure that's the name of the town?' 'Yes. What flights do you have?' replied the lady. After some searching, I came back with, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.' The lady retorted, 'Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!' So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, 'You don't mean Buffalo, do you?' The reply? 'Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.' Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it's in! Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:26:19 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article24.html DUTCHMAN SNOW PARK IS SLATED TO BE CONVERTED TO NON MOTORIZED USE THIS YEAR. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP THIS. As a we speak a proposal for a new snow park (Kapka Butte) is in the works. OSSA and Moon Country Snowmobile Club Presidents have been working on this since 2004. The only draw back to this project is that it includes the Loss of Dutchman Snow Park for all motorized use. This will stop all early and late season riding in the Mount Bachelor area. Also consider the impact to Elk Lake Resort and all the other businesses that support Off Highway Motorized Vehicles. (Gas, Parts, Restaurants, Motels) just to name a few. The environmental people (Wild Wilderness and the Sierra Club just to name two) are working very hard to close down the entire forest to motorized vehicles. They are after 100% of Tumalo Mountain as we speak. If they get Dutchman Snow Park then Tumalo Mountain is just a simple set away. We have given them half of Tumalo Mountain, the Sledding area at Wanoga Snow Park, and divided up Dutchman Flats into little roads to avoid as many conflicts as possible. According to the wilderness people: Definition: (Conflict) A conflict is any sound, site or even just seeing the tracks of someone or something that is not using the same mode of transportation as you are. When reviewing documents you will see hundreds of complaints filed using the term 'Conflict' These people do not have a problem writing false reports or producing adjusted photos or what ever it takes to accomplish their goals. They are greedy people who never learned how to share. As Winter Users of the forest we have given in every year to some concession to try to satisfy these extremist groups. There is no satisfying these people. They want it all their way and believe they are the only ones who should be allowed into the forest until one of them gets hurt or lost. If you look at the Snow Parks, all the Snowmobile parks are Mixed Use parks. We welcome cross country skiers, snow shoers, dogs and dog sleds, hikers, sleders, and even environmental extremists. Now if you look at the other snow parks they are NON MOTORIZED very specific use parks. We Share they don't. We all have to write emails to Marv Lang with the Forest Service and to Senator Wyden's Office and let the know we will not stand for the loss of Dutchman Snow Park. Please contact anyone you know who uses the forest (Public Lands) and get them involved. If you have never gotten involved before now is the time to start. Once Dutchman is gone Bend will become just another second rate riding and recreation area for the people who put the least money back into the community. Please Get Involved today and be part of the solution. Forest Service Contact (approved by Marv Lang) Marv Lang melang@fs.fed.us Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:37:18 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article23.html July 8, 2008I stopped at Crescent today to pay our now annual fee for a post office box: $38.00. I was curious as to why we have to pay for a post office box when it was free before our local post office burned down. Well, it is because we now have the option of delivery to our own mail box. Now, don't get too excited. It isn't what you would expect. We now have the option of putting up our own mail boxes at one of three places along Highway 58. One of those places is at Royce Mountain Road on the West side. Now it isn't exactly automatic. The Post Office person in Crescent has to approve you mail box. Then, once approved you can put it up at your own risk. The Post Office Official in Crescent is fast too point out that your mail and identity would be at extreme risk just sitting next to Highway 58 totally exposed to who ever.I do agree $38.00 is not much to pay to have some security. Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:18:52 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article22.html Sunday July 6th.The Fourth Annual COLVRT Breakfast was the biggest ever. Sally Carlson, COLVRT Vice President and Breakfast Chairperson reported that this was our most successful yet. COLVRT thanks the community and week end visitors for their support. We hope to see you all next year.Proceeds of this event will go toward purchasing Neonatal supplies for our Medical Emergency Response vehicle. Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:03:20 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article20.html In the 1970's many small communities organized food coops. Its members volunteered their time and shopped for their neighbors. With the cost of gas I believe our small community should consider organizing in a similar manner. We could put together a shopping list of items carried at Costco or other stores known to have favorable pricing. Then a team of at least two would drive to Bend to make the purchases. The group could share the cost of gas at an agreed upon rate per mile driven. Merchandise could be picked up at the Community Center.Additionally, individuals could split bulk purchases. Not all of us can use Costco sizes.If If you are interested please make a comment to this article. If we have enough interest the next step would be to arrange a meeting of interested parties to work out details. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:26:45 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article18.html June 12As some of you may be aware; I have been working with State and County Officials for 5 years to get our snow load requirements reduced to a realistic and reasonable level.The wheels of government turn slowly, but they do turn. I was just informed that the Organization of Structural Engineers within the State of Oregon has now given the County approval to use more site specific data when calculating snow loads. In our area, that is now 120 # sf., in most instances. If you are in the process of applying for building permits or in the process of preparing plans be sure to have your architect or trust company engineer accordingly. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:28:15 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article16.html May 29, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: R.D. Buell, District Manager 541-433-2451 Echo Murray, Dispatch / Fire Prevention Coordinator 541-433-24512008 Fire Season Goes Into Effect in Klamath and Lake Counties Fire officials in Klamath and Lake Counties will officially declare fire season beginning Sunday June 1, 2008 at 12:01 a.m. This affects all private, county, and state forestlands in Klamath and Lake Counties. The fire season in effect declaration puts into place regulations restricting debris burning, burn barrels and forest operations. Wildland and structural fire protection agencies in Klamath and Lake Counties have agreed to prohibit all outdoor debris burning and burn barrels. Forest operations that require a Permit to Operate Power Driven Machinery will be required to have Fire Tools, on-site water supply and watchman service on privately owned forest lands as of June 1, 2008. Echo Murray Dispatch Education Coordinator Walker Range FPA P.O. Box 665 Gilchrist, Oregon 97737 Phone 541-433-2451 Fax 541-433-2215 emurray@odf.state.or.us Thu, 29 May 2008 17:48:38 -0600 http://www.crescentlakeor.com/Article13.html Meetings are taking place that will affect the use of trails in the Deschutes National Forest by Snowmobbiles, ATVs, etc. The meetings don't seem to be well publicized. That makes me wary. The Forest Service is very protective of "Their" trails so we must all get involved or we will find that our vehicles will have no place to go. Check your local newspapers for announcements. If you find any post a comment and I will update this article. There's a meeting in Klamath Falls on June 2nd re: the Fremond/Winema Nat'l. Forest plan (re: Chemult area too).... Thu, 22 May 2008 11:30:25 -0600