1. real estate

Grants Pass
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October 14, 2014
Tuesday
75 cents
Weather
Home prices see rural-urban divide
By Shaun Hall
of the Daily Courier
Dampened day
Rain lasting until midnight
will decrease to showers
Wednesday. See Page 2A.
Overnight low
48
Wednesday’s high
62
What’s inside
One a day
An apple a
day ... can
mean a lot
of recipes.
Start with
our three
to enjoy
one of fall’s
treasures.
FOOD / Page 5B
Home prices and the number
of homes sold are down in rural
Josephine County, but are rising
in Grants Pass, according to the
Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service.
The median price for homes
sold in rural Josephine County
fell 4 percent in the three months
ending Sept. 30, compared with
the same period a year ago,
according to the service.
That compares with a 2 percent price increase for homes
sold in the county’s urban areas,
primarily Grants Pass.
Rising prices in Grants Pass
might be due to fewer low-priced
homes on the market in the city,
according to local real estate broker Kurt Heater, a spokesman
for the Multiple Listing Service.
“The urban area is where we
saw the low-priced ones,”
Heater said. “As those disappear, there’s not available
inventory replacing it. It’s harder and harder to find something
under $100,000.
You can still
find some for
under $150,000.”
The
MLS
reported that
median prices
for a rural home
in
Josephine
County dropped
HEATER
from $240,000 to
$230,000, while prices rose in the
county’s urban areas from
$170,000 to $174,000. In Cave Junction, prices dropped 1 percent —
from $161,000 to $159,000.
In addition to the drop in
rural home prices, the number
of homes sold in rural areas of
the county dropped by 20 percent from last year — 95 rural
homes sold in the three-month
period ending Sept. 30, compared with 119 sold in the same
period last year.
In contrast, the number of
urban homes sold this year
increased 3 percent over last
year — 140 compared with 136 in
the same time period last year.
Heater would not blame the
caused by county budget cuts.
“I’m not hearing sellers that
are throwing up their hands and
saying, ‘I’m getting the heck out
of Dodge because I don’t like the
lawlessness,’” he said. “I really
haven’t had a wholesale bunch
of sellers saying they’re done
with Josephine County.”
In contrast, Heater said, he
often hears of buyers who want
to live in rural areas because
taxes are lower there.
“If there’s a buyer trend,” he
said, “a year ago it seemed there
was more anxiousness. Buyers
were making quicker decisions.
(Now) buyers are being patient.
They’re willing to watch the market a little bit more.
“We’re just about on course
where we were last year,” he
said. “A little behind.”
Meanwhile, in Jackson County, median prices on existing
homes rose a whopping $30,000
— from $288,000 to $318,000 in
rural areas, while urban prices
rose from $200,000 to $219,000.
Turn to EBOLA, Page 10A
Race to D.C.
Art Robinson is once again
challenging Peter DeFazio
for his seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Page 3A
Photo courtesy of BLM
This view is the reward for hikers who make it all the way up the new Bolt Mountain Trail southwest of Grants
Pass. Below, a crew works on the trail, which winds 3.2 miles up to the top.
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ballot that will
be served up
to voters who are registered
by midnight tonight.
WEDNESDAY
Where to find it
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Volume CV
No. 19 Issue 31501
2 Sections, 24 Pages
Bolt Mountain Trail open for use
funds to continue the work via assistance
agreements that paid workers from the Job
Council and Northwest Youth Corps.
Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the
trail, but it is open for hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders.
“I think once people know about it, it’s
going to get a lot of use,” said Calvert.
To get to the trailhead from Grants Pass,
take Williams Highway and turn right on
New Hope Road. Once on New Hope road,
continue for about 3.2 miles. Then, turn
right on Fish Hatchery Road and drive
about 2 miles. Turn right on Weatherbee
Drive, just before the Fish Hatchery Bridge,
and continue up the road for about a halfmile to the gravel parking lot at the
entrance to Fish Hatchery Park.
There is a $4 day-use fee at the parking
lot. Annual passes are available for $30
through the Josephine County Parks Department. Passes are available in exchange for
doing volunteer work at county parks. Call
the Parks Department at 541-474-5285.
Teen hurt in mailbox smashing improves
By Melissa McRobbie
of the Daily Courier
A 16-year-old Grants Pass boy who was
severely injured when a form of vandalism
known as “mailbox baseball” went horribly
wrong last week is making small steps
toward recovery at a Portland hospital, his
father said Monday.
Joseph Hermosillo, a junior at Grants
Pass High School and an avid skater and
BMX biker known affectionately as “Joe
Fish,” was airlifted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital after his friends brought
him to Three Rivers Medical Center shortly
after 4 a.m. on Oct. 5.
Authorities say an investigation determined that Joseph and another 16-year-old
boy had been watching from the back window of a moving motor home as a passenger in the front seat swung a metal baseball
bat out the window at mailboxes. Police
said the bat hit a telephone pole and flew
backward, hitting Joseph in the face.
Four of the friends were arrested — the
driver of the motor home, Breanna Allene
White, 21; the front-seat passenger, Vega
Shaw Russell, 22; another passenger, 18year-old Dennis Allen Mosier; and a 16-yearold boy whose name hasn’t been released.
Joseph’s father, Joe Hermosillo, said in a
telephone interview from Portland that his
son has made great strides in his recovery
in the past several days.
“Yesterday was huge,” he said Monday.
“They’re weaning him off the sedation med-
Joseph Hermosillo was injured
when an act of vandalism went
awry.
ication. He actually wanted to get out of bed.
The nurse asked him, ‘Do you want to walk?’
He said ‘Yes.’ They let him walk to the
wheelchair and they wheeled him around the
room and everyone was clapping for him.”
Joseph underwent surgery and had part
of his skull removed to alleviate pressure
from bleeding in his brain. His skull was
fractured in three places, his father said.
Associated Press
Turn to HURT, Page 12A
Turn to HOME, Page 12A
An entertaining weekend
is promised in the Illinois
Valley with Artoberfest and
one of the area’s largest
quilt shows.
ENTERTAINMENT
Page 6B
Easily accessible, open all year and
panoramic views — these are the characteristics of the new multi-use Bolt Mountain
Trail that the Bureau of Land Management
opened recently in a joint effort with
Josephine County.
Located just outside of Grants Pass, the
day-use trail starts at Fish Hatchery Park
and winds 3.2 miles (one way) to the top,
which is at an elevation of 2,200 feet.
The sparsely vegetated mountain provides many great views of the valley and
the Applegate River, said Todd Calvert, a
Rogue River park ranger for the BLM who
worked on establishing the trail.
“Gosh, you can just see an awful lot,”
Calvert said. “That’s the neat thing about it.”
The climb from the base averages about
a 10 or 12 percent grade, spiraling up the
mountain through diverse microclimates.
The sensitive serpentine soil provides habitat for unusual plant and animal species.
In addition to volunteers who began trail
construction several years ago, BLM secured
By Emily Schmall
and Nomaan Merchant
The teen now has eight plates and 36 screws
in his head, but the doctors managed to
place the incisions where the scars on his
scalp won’t be visible, the elder Hermosillo
said.
“Joseph is talking now,” his father said.
“One of his eyes is open.”
The bones on the right side of his face
were shattered, and his right eye was badly
damaged. Eye and ear surgery is scheduled
for next Tuesday.
Hermosillo said he was told that some
fellow Grants Pass High School students
had worn “rasta” colors — yellow, green
and red — to school after the accident in
honor of his son.
“He loves rasta colors, he loves Bob Marley and reggae,” Hermosillo said.
He said his son, who got the nickname
“Joe Fish” from a young cousin who couldn’t pronounce “Joseph,” has been doing well
in school and recently learned that he
enjoys running.
Joseph’s friend Selena Decontreras, a
sophomore at GPHS, said he likes riding
skateboards.
“He goes to the skate park with his best
friend and they skateboard,” she said.
White, the driver of the motor home, has
been charged with criminal mischief in the
incident. She is also facing a separate disorderly conduct charge stemming from a
brawl that occurred during the First Friday
Art Walk downtown on Sept. 5.
state of the housing market in
rural Josephine County on the
lack of rural law enforcement
IV weekend
The Grants Pass City
Council will consider selling
a portion of one of the city’s
parks.
Page 3A
Caregiver is
first to contract
disease in US
DALLAS — A Dallas
nurse infected with Ebola
while treating the first
patient diagnosed in the U.S.
has received a plasma transfusion from a doctor who
beat the virus.
Nurse Nina Pham was
among about 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for
Thomas
Eric
Duncan,
according to medical records.
The 26-year-old nurse was in
the Liberian
man’s room
often, from
the day he
was placed
in intensive
care until the
day before
he died last
week.
PHAM
Pham and
other health care workers
wore protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and
face shields — and sometimes full-body suits —- when
caring for Duncan, but she
became the first person to
contract the disease within
the United States. Duncan
died Wednesday.
Health care workers
including Pham were told to
monitor themselves by taking
their temperatures. She went
to the hospital Friday night
after finding she had a fever.
As Pham was being treated in isolation today, the
World Health Organization
projected that West Africa
could see up to 10,000 new
Ebola cases a week within
two months and confirmed
the death rate in the current
outbreak has risen to 70 percent.
The agency’s assistant
director-general, Dr. Bruce
Aylward, gave the figures
during a news conference in
Geneva. Previously, the WHO
had estimated the Ebola mortality rate at around 50 percent.
If the world’s response to
the crisis isn’t stepped up
within 60 days, “a lot more
people will die,” Aylward
said.
Meanwhile in Berlin, a
U.N. medical worker infected
with Ebola in Liberia died.
The 56-year-old man, whose
name has not been released,
died overnight of the infection, the St. Georg hospital in
Leipzig announced today.
Members of the Pham
family’s church held a special Mass for her in Fort
Worth on Monday night. Rev.
Jim Khoi, of the Our Lady of
Fatima Church, said Pham’s
mother told him the nurse
had received a transfusion
that could save her life.
“Her mom says that she
got the blood from the gentleman, a very good guy. I don’t
know his name but he’s very
devoted and a very good guy
from somewhere,” Khoi said.
Jeremy
Blume,
a
spokesman for the nonprofit
medical mission group
Samaritan’s Purse, confirmed that the plasma donation came from Kent Brantly,
the first American to return
to the U.S. from Liberia to be
treated for Ebola. Brantly
received an experimental
treatment and fought off the
virus, and has donated blood
to three others, including
Pham.
“He’s a doctor. That’s
what he’s there to do. That’s
his heart,” Blume said.
Brantly said in a recent
speech that he also offered
his blood for Duncan, but
that their blood types didn’t
match.
Khoi said Pham’s mother
assured him the nurse was
comfortable and “doing
well,” and that the two
women had been able to talk
via Skype. She was in isolation and in stable condition,
health officials said. Another unidentified person who
had close contact with her
has also been isolated as a
precaution.
NEW TRAIL OPENS ACCESS TO VISTA
GP park deal?
Nurse with
Ebola gets
survivor’s
plasma