Thinking of Moving from WI to Medford Oregon Area (Roseburg: city hall, houses)

[aquagurl_74]

The Ashland Public Library is reopening now.

Originally Posted by John Cova

You might want to avoid the Rogue Valley area. All the Public Libraries in 2 counties including those in Grants Pass and Medford are closed.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by trailerguy

I was living in Grants Pass at the time and well remember the rhetoric over the librarian's salary. The antipathy towards the library was palpable, as evidenced by the fact that it was shut down with very little opposition. I didn't say no one there reads, but at the very least, the readers kept a low profile.
Unemployment figures change constantly. The last time I saw a list ranking metro areas in the US by unemployment, Medford was at the top. It may have changed, but I left primarily because the job situation was hopeless. Unless some new industries opened up, I would think it is still bad. Shutting down the county library is not a sign of prosperity.
Wisconsin has many small cities highly similar to Medford where unemployment ranges in the 2-4% range. I wouldn't want the original questioner to move the and be unpleasantly surprised.
BTW, a modern head librarian has to have at least a Master's degree and many sophisticated management and computer skills. $100,000/year is not at all unreasonable.

Trailerguy said;
"Basically, most people in Josephine County don't read and have no respect for those who do."

To those of us who do read, Most means a majority. Do you really think a majority of Grants Pass residents don't read?

100,000 + per yr. for a librarian in a county that the median income is less than 30,000k, is a bit extreme, regardless of having a Masters.
Seeing as the Sheriff that has much more responsibility, risk to life and limb and liability. Makes 30%-40% less than the librarian.

[trailerguy]

Assuming $100,000 is the total personnel cost to the county, and approximately 30-35% is employer-paid benefits and taxes, your librarian is pulling down $65-70,000 in gross wages. Again, this is not excessive for a highly educated professional. What the average local wage in the area for persons of all skill levels is irrelevant. I suspect your librarian moved on to another community with a more realistic viewpoint and got a big pay raise. The County Sheriff is a political position; their salary is calculated to a completely different criteria. The Josephine County librarian was getting $50,000 including benefits and employer taxes which made her grossly underpaid. The foolish argument was made that since the local population including self-employed, retirees and welfare recipients averaged $15,000, it was an outrage to pay the librarian any more than that. Obviously some people have no idea what a modern librarian needs to be able to know and do. Nobody goes to the expense and trouble of acquiring a master's degree to live at poverty level.
When I moved to Chicago, the city had just dedicated a brand new $100 million main library building. It's nice to live in a place that has its priorities straight.

[zilfondel]

Originally Posted by freedom

Josephine and Jackson (Medford) county was dependant upon timber receipts. The entire economy was based on Logging and Milling lumber and forest products. It is our harvestable natural resource.
"Radical" Enviromentalists hired attorneys to sue the BLM (federal forest beauracracy), and the Lumber companys and tied up the harvest schedules with litigation based on wildlife stresses. Mainly the spotted owl...

...blah blah blah blah blah...

To sum up, "Radical" Enviromentalists are why we presently don't have libraries.

hey Mr. Right-Wing, let's just cut the bias, alright? Nobody wanted a sermon.

The Feds cut the timber receipts (note: the Bush administration is not a bunch of lefty environmentalist freaks) and the people VOTED to call the fed's bluff. And lost.

But the feds relented a bit and are giving them like another year of funding, right? Then they'll close again.

Here's a recent article on the issue - hopefully the citizens will wise up a bit and figure out how to solve their problems.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

hey Mr. Right-Wing, let's just cut the bias, alright? Nobody wanted a sermon.

The Feds cut the timber receipts (note: the Bush administration is not a bunch of lefty environmentalist freaks) and the people VOTED to call the fed's bluff. And lost.

But the feds relented a bit and are giving them like another year of funding, right? Then they'll close again.

Here's a recent article on the issue - hopefully the citizens will wise up a bit and figure out how to solve their problems.

The truth is uncomfortable for you?
Why do you think there is only one lumber mill left in Josephine county, when there use to be dozens?
Why has the harvest of O&C timber dropped to 2% of what it was in the 80's?

The Bush Admin. has been pro timber harvesting, and maintaining the Gov't commitment to keeping its end of the deal. The feds control 63% of the land in So. Oregon. That is more than half of the land not on the tax rolls. Enviro's have destroyed the local economies in exchange for what?
Enviro's and their Lawyers have used freedom against us to stop an industry that was once thriving and providing thousands of people and communities with a decent living. In exchange for what?

freedom

[wannabecooler]

Originally Posted by Escape Wisconsin

Sooooo...I decided that $14/hr//$29K/yr is not enough reason for me to leave my home, family, dog and plants for a place I am so unsure of. I will put up with the harsh Wisconsin winter another year.

Thanks for your help, Skytripper.

You can live on under $29,000 yr? Hey, how do I get to Wisconsin?

[trailerguy]

You can live quite comfortably on $29K/Yr in most of Wisconsin. Milwaukee and Madison are big cities and cost more, but the small rural towns are lovely and quite affordable. Most of them have at least one major industry and jobs are plentiful. I was astonished by Escape's original post. Rural Wisconsin is one of America's great undiscovered treasures. Way superior to Oregon.

[Kathleenh54]

We moved to Ashland a year ago after having lived in SoCal, CT, and New York (where I'm from). It is lovely here and we're glad we landed in this place.

There's been some pretty harsh criticism of Medford on here. I don't have an axe to grind and can be objective about the place; it's really not that bad. East Medford is very pretty and has some nice parks. There's as much shopping as you need, with a brand new supermarket, some upscale restaurants and a nice winery or two. We didn't move there because it was too much like the suburbia we left behind; living within walking distance to the town was preferable to us at this stage of the game.

There are better places but also worse places.

[popswatch]

Originally Posted by freedom

Trailerguy said;
"Basically, most people in Josephine County don't read and have no respect for those who do."

To those of us who do read, Most means a majority. Do you really think a majority of Grants Pass residents don't read?

100,000 + per yr. for a librarian in a county that the median income is less than 30,000k, is a bit extreme, regardless of having a Masters.
Seeing as the Sheriff that has much more responsibility, risk to life and limb and liability. Makes 30%-40% less than the librarian.

i live in Josephine County,whats a book??

[Dangerous Dave]

Hey, Escape, you sound like my brother! He lives in WI too. Remember the "escape to Wisconsin" stickers back in the 80's? We used to cut the "to" out. I live in ALbany, about 200 miles north of Medford. yes, there are druggies here, but I love it. Plenty of fishing and hiking nearby. Nice people. and the cost of living isn't out of control.