Document text
Loving the town, and worrying about it by Paul Fattig SHADY COVE -- Max Adams frowned at his pinochle cards for a moment before commenting. "It's good for the people who come up here to retire, but it makes it hard for those of us who have lived around here a long time," concluded the timber faller as he sat at a card table with three friends in the Shady Cove Community Center. He wasn't talking about his cards, but about the hand that growth is dealing out to this booming burg on the upper Rogue River. "A lot of people drive too fast -- some people are kind of stuck up," he continued. "The hunting and fishing has deteriorated. I'm not particularly happy to see this much growth." Yet Adams, 50, an Army veteran who returned to the area after serving in Vietnam, allowed that Shady Cove remains a good place to live. "I still live in the house my dad bought back in 1947," he said before returning to his game. "Yeah, I still like living in Shady Cove." His views reflect those of many residents when considering the future of this city that had its first post office in 1939 and wasn't incorporated until 1972. While they love the small town they call home, they are concerned about the impact of growth. "I think the growth is good if people work for improvement along the way," said Margaret Montana, a retiree who had just finished a card game at the center. She moved to Shady Cove 15 years ago. "Besides, you can't stop growth, no matter what you do," she added. Former mayor Jim Collier, 68, a retired teacher who was born along the upper Rogue River, agreed. "It's inevitable," he said from his home. "But it has been pretty well-handled. We've got some fairly decent (city) leaders here." Yet Collier, whose great-grandparents arrived in the area in 1891, has concerns about the future. "The thing about growth that disturbs me is that we -- and I probably shouldn't say this -- are becoming a geriatric community," he said. "So many people have chosen this as a place to retire. "And it's great to retire here," he added. "But our young people, for the most part, are leaving, forced out by lack of work or because they can't afford a home here." The high cost of homes makes it difficult for young people just entering the job market to stay in the area, said Collier, noting he sees himself as one of those retirees. The five children he and his wife, Alice, raised in Shady Cove have all moved away, he added. "We're going to end up having no one with any real roots in this community," he said, adding that a healthy community needs to retain its youth. "It has to be a dynamic situation," he said of growth. Shady Cove Police Chief Jim Johnson, 63, who has lived in Shady Cove only since taking the job 4 1/2 years ago, has witnessed the dynamics of growth. "It's hustle and bustle now," he said while taking a break from a mountain of paperwork in his office. "You can see the growth, the construction. Things are booming." In fact, the growing amount of paperwork is an indicator of growth: The department's caseload is up to nearly 1,200 this year, more than all of last year. "The last two years, I've noticed there isn't so much a lull during the winter months as there used to be," he said. "The activity still drops a little but those months of inactivity are getting shorter and shorter. It won't be long before it won't be a tourist town anymore." Like most local residents, Johnson chose to live in Shady Cove, nestled in these green mountains along the Rogue River, because of its scenic beauty. A police officer for 40 years, he previously held management positions in the Santa Clara (Calif.) Police Department and the Lane County (Oregon) Sheriff's Department. "I like the people here -- I like the rural flavor," he said. "It's a very livable community. We've got a good council, a good mayor." A police levy approved by voters during the general election this month, which will allow the department to hire two more officers, is an indicator that the majority of residents are adjusting to the growth, he said. Adding the two officers will put four full-time officers on the department, which also has a reserve cadre. Johnson, who expects to hire the new officers by next summer, isn't surprised that he has received 40 applications for the two jobs. "People want to live here," he said. "This is a good place to live." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA