By DAVID ROSS
It was an emotional night for ten young VC women, one that led up to a crowning moment for Lindsey Cannon, a 17 year old senior at VCHS, and for the next 12 months, Miss Valley Center 2002.
Flanking the winner was Renee Bierle, first runner up and second runner-up Shalom McCullough.
The middle school auditorium was packed with over 500 residents, friends and families of the ten contestants. Ed Phillips returned for the umpteenth time as MC, despite rumors that he might be too sick to attend.
The theme of the evening was “Aloha Valley Center” and the hall was festooned with decorations and plants hanging from the ceiling that transported the audience to the emerald islands of Paradise, minus the jet lag.
The mother-daughter team of Karen Greene and Dianna Greene had spent the last few weeks scheming over, sweating over and, no doubt, crying over the myriad of details and watched it come together without a hitch Saturday night.
The evening was also the last time Valley Center was to see Amber Bauer wearing the crown.
The pageant had ten contestants, the largest turnout for the event in many years. They were Shawna Lane, a 17 year old senior at VCHS; Shalom McCullough, an 18 year old senior at VCHS; Veronica Gutierrez, an 18 year old senior; Heather Lyons, a 19 year old freshman at Palomar College; Jessica Grosvenor, an 18 year old senior at VCHS; Tiffany Quackenbush, an 18 year old senior at VCHS; Stephanie Rizzo, a 17 year old senior at VCHS; Cynthia Pinal, 1 17 year old senior at VCHS, Lindsey Cannon, a 17 year old senior at VCHS, and Renee Bierle, 23, a senior at California State University, San Marcos.
Judges were Rich Maialicho, Cindi Peterson, Carrie Sheffield and Claude Shires. Seated at the foot of the stage, they rated each contestant on sportswear, evening gown, poise and personality and the stage question. They had also interviewed each girl earlier in the day.
Audience members were invited to follow along, rate the girls, and see how their scores compared to the judges’.
Each contestant entered the stage in sportswear and told a little about themselves.
One touching moment in this part of the evening came when Jessica Grosvenor described the challenges of surviving heart surgery twice in her young life, and the lessons learned about not taking life for granted.
Then the contestants glided out in their evening gowns, posed at the four corners of the stage, and finally all returned. Their gowns had almost as many different shades as Baskin Robbins has flavors.
Contestants were given questions unique to them and asked to give an impromptu answer.
Shawna Lane was asked: What is the greatest challenge young people face today?
“I would have to say that the greatest challenge is peer pressure and the biggest mistake is for them to do what other people thing and not be themselves.”
Shalom McCullough was asked: “What has been the proudest moment in your life?”
She replied: “When my little niece was born. I was present when she was born and that was awesome! At eighteen to be an aunt! That was the proudest moment of my life.”
Veronica Gutierrez was asked: “What advice what you give to a friend entering a pageant?”
She answered: “To be true to herself, be herself, and not act some way that she’s not.”
Heather Lyons was asked: “If you win the title of Miss VC, how would you take advantage of your position?
Her answer: “By being true to Valley Center, never give up, and always smile!”
Jessica Grosvenor was asked, “Who are the most influential women in the world?”
Her answer: “The most influential women in the world are mothers because they have the opportunity to shape and mold the future of the world.”
Tiffany Quackenbush was asked, “If you could wake up tomorrow morning having one ability or one quality, what would it be and how would you use it?”
She answered: “I would have the ability of a veterinarian. I would use it to help other animals and livestock.”
Stephanie Rizzo was asked, “What is the most interesting fact about you?”
She answered, “I believe the most interesting fact about me is that I play the piano.”
Cynthia Pinal was asked: “If you could do anything, without the fear of failing, what would you do?”
She replied: “I would go in front of an audience and speak.”
Lindsey Cannon was asked, “What quality do you have that you think makes you able to represent Valley Center?”
She answered, “I think that I will be a good role model for Valley Center because I set my goals high and do whatever I can to achieve them.”
Renee Bierle was asked, “Do you think this country will ever elect a woman president. If so, what will be the determining factors?”
She replied, “I do believe this country will elect a woman as president. I feel the determining factor will be probably a strong leader, someone who is of the people.”
Several special prizes were also awarded to the young women.
The Cover Girl award recognized the girl who raised the most money for the program. It went to Veronica Gutierrez.
The Director’s Award went to the contestant who was most helpful, positive and patient during the six weeks of rehearsal. It went to Tiffany Quackenbush.
Miss Photogenic Award went to Shalom McCullough.
The Congeniality Award went to Jessica Grosvenor.
The Essay Award went to Renee Bierle, who read her essay “Bittersweet,’ which talked about the changes for the better that have resulted from the 9/11 attack.
When the moment came to crown the winner, Lindsey Cannon accepted it with grace and tears and walked out to the edge of the stage to begin her year as Valley Center’s symbolic queen.
By DAVID ROSS
This week Don Phelps, 32 year veteran of the Sheriff's Dept., will hang up his star.
Phelps comes very close to fulfilling the average movie goer's image of a Western sheriff: that of the tall, lean, Gary Cooper type, who doesn't say much, but keeps the peace.
His wife, Bonnie, says “I’m too young for Don to retire.” To which Don retorts, “She would always be too young for me to retire.”
Sheriff's Sgt. Don Continelli, who has worked with Phelps for quite a few of those 32 years, told The Roadrunner, “In my years in the department, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of good people, and I include Don in that close cadre. What I notice and appreciate about him is his commitment and his personal integrity in the way he did his job. I always try to take things from people that I admire. I ask myself ‘What is the good thing from guys that I can use?’ That’s what I've gotten from working around him.”
Originally from a little town in North Carolina, Phelps grew up on a farm and always felt at home in the rural environment of this area. When he graduated from high school, Vietnam was going hot and heavy.
“I didn't have plans for college. I figured if I was going to go into battle I would go in with the best, so I joined the Marines,” Phelps told The Roadrunner.
When he ended his tour with the Marines he decided to enter law enforcement. Having been stationed at Pendleton he learned that officers earn considerably more here than in North Carolina.
What prompted him to enter law enforcement?
“Initially I came into it with the idea I would save humanity from itself. It didn't take long to find out that wasn't going to happen. There is a sense of inner satisfaction that is obtained from helping someone in a situation where they truly need your help.”
What will Phelps do with all that “time on his hands?”
“I have enough to keep me busy. When I'm not in a saddle helping with the cattle on the mountain, I'll be putting up my wife’s real estate signs and doing what I can to avoid her growing ‘honey-do’ list,” he says. He'll also be volunteering with the Mountain Church and helping out at the Christian Conference Center.
During his career Phelps has worked in the jails, court services, on patrol, and was a resident deputy in Valley Center and Palomar Mountain in the mid and late 1970s. He worked in investigations for six years.
But his favorite patrol area has always been The Backcountry, and, a few years ago when he got the opportunity to complete his career in San Diego’s boonies, he took it.
“What I liked about it was the rural flavor. I don’t have any desire to live or work in a suburban or urban setting. I’m retiring at a good time, because a lot of the beat is still rural. That includes Pala, Pauma and Palomar Mountain. Valley Center is growing quickly and in the process losing some of it’s rural attraction.”
He likes the personal interaction of the beat.
“In the more rural areas of our beat, you can, if you take the time, get to know people. They are very receptive to you out there for the most part.
“It's more of a small town atmosphere. People don't call you unless they need you. They don't consider a problem with a neighbor as really needing you unless they've tried to handle the situation themselves with little or no success. They don’t consider a barking dog or a nuisance a reason to call the sheriff. Which is the way it used to be in Valley Center.
“I’m from the old school. You call the sheriff if someone has broken into your home or is breaking into your home. If your life is in danger, or your property is being taken, call the sheriff. Don't call the sheriff first and say ‘My neighbor is running his chainsaw at 6 a.m.’ at least try to talk with your neighbor first.”
How has the department changed in 32 years? “In almost all change there’s good and bad. The good: I believe the department is more attuned to the needs of its personnel than it was thirty years ago,” says Phelps.
“On the other hand, I think the department overly emphasizes the political correctness of today.
“It’s one thing to be concerned when a citizen has a complaint over a deputy's conduct or how he handled a situation. It’s something else to not look at the situation with common sense, realizing there's going to be differences of opinion among people, which often means dissatisfaction among some of the citizenry with deputies from time to time.
“That doesn't mean, where discretion is allowed, that there's a right or wrong way of doing something. It just means there can be different ways of accomplishing the same result.
Political correctness wants to put everyone in the shoebox and say ‘This is the way.’ ”
On an average day Phelps will get calls from citizens complaining about people riding a dirt bike on their property, or from burglar alarms.
“Folks,” says Phelps, “if you have an alarm, make sure you’re setting it properly before you leave and that your doors and windows are secure so a breeze won't activate the alarm. Burglar alarms, the vast majority of which are false, are a major source of wasted time for deputies.”
Domestic squabbles are also a fairly regular part of their routine. In the summer there are a fair number of fights caused in part by the heat and alcohol consumption.
* * *
The type of call he has always disliked most is what is called a “welfare check.” It usually involves a person calling from out of town and asking deputies to check up on someone they haven't heard from in a while.
“When you go out on such a call, you don't know what's going on or what you are exposing yourself to,” says Phelps. “Perhaps you get to the house and there's a vehicle there, but the house is dark. If you knock on the door and no one answers, do you force entry? The deputy is dealing with a situation where he has little or no background on the type of person being checked on and therefore, is very exposed.”
Phelps has drawn his gun frequently over the years, but he’s only shot at one person.
One nearly fatal occasion sticks in his mind.
Phelps had been with the department about a year, when he and his partner answered a call to a restaurant on the coast that had been burglarized repeatedly. It was so bad the owner's sons were staying there at night to catch the burglars.
Phelps didn't know about this when he arrived.
“I got a call about midnight about a burglary taking place at the restaurant. My partner and I showed up. He goes to the front while I stay at back, under a street light. I hear a commotion and noise and yelling up front where my partner had gone.”
The next thing he saw was three men running around the corner, coming at him.
“The lead guy was raising a bat and I'm standing in full light, I draw my weapon, cock it and yell ‘Freeze!’ I start to apply gentle pressure on the trigger. When you have a double action revolver cocked to single action, it doesn't take much. . .”
His partner came running around the corner and yelling “Don’t shoot him!”
It was one of the restaurant owner’s sons.
Phelps spent the next few minutes angrily chewing out the man.
“I was very upset with that young man, who was about my same age. I almost killed an innocent man.”
It’s all in a day's work for Phelps. He's retiring with mixed emotions, joy and happiness.
By DAVID ROSS
At the request of several residents Acting Chairman Jim Yerdon has put Woods Valley Ranch on Monday’s VC Planning Group agenda.
The group will vote on whether to set up an ad hoc committee to verify that adequate monitoring of the development is being done.
Yerdon, chairman in the absence of Larry Glavinic, who is on vacation, told The Roadrunner that there have been some accusations leveled against Newland Communities that it is not following the conditions of the permits. Yerdon has been unable to get an answer from the County on these allegations, he said.
That combined with requests of residents, such as Angela Radcliffe, who said they weren’t allowed to voice all the complaints they wanted to raise at the meeting last month when Glavinic cut off public comments after an hour, prompted Yerdon to give the item another hearing.
Radcliffe wrote Yerdon: “I attended the Feb. 11, 2002, Planning Group meeting. I asked the developer Jim Delhamer of Newland Communities a few questions about the new project. I feel I was not given the chance to have these questions answered. I believe also, there were others there who wanted to speak and were not given their time on the floor.”
Radcliffe, a neighbor of the development, said that Newland was not given time to respond to the question of whether it could guarantee construction of a golf course for the project by a certain date. “. . . the most important issue was not resolved to the satisfaction of the residents attending the meeting.”
She also asked that representatives from the County’s Dept. of Planning & Land Use, Department of Public Works, and California Regional Water Quality Control Board attend also.
Yerdon did request that a representative from the Dept. of Environmental Health attend, but on Monday he said, “I haven’t heard from anybody.”
Yerdon also asked if someone at DPLU is assigned to monitor compliance with environmental regulations.
He told The Roadrunner, “As far as DPLU is concerned it’s a done deal until they pull building permits.”
The meeting will be Monday, 7 p.m. at VC Community Hall. The public is welcome to attend.
* * *
In a related development, VC Municipal Water District Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant Monday reported to his board that the district had gotten a letter last month from the California Water Quality Control Board asking if Newland intends to build a golf course. It reminded Arant that the development’s permits for a waste water plant depend upon there being a golf course to dispose of effluent.
The water district will take over administration of the sewer plant once it is built.
Arant said that Newland had responded that it will build a golf course.
He added that staff is working with Newland to create a sewer standby charge for those who live within the project.
This charge will give the district the ability to levy charges against undeveloped lots and give the board the ability to bill for sewer service on the tax rolls.
The project will come back to the water board for review March 18.
Fifty years ago a group of Pauma Valley men started a new Lion’s Club.
Three of those men Al Barrett, Ken Chapman and John Hankey are still involved in the club activities.
Fellow Lions, friends and neighbors are invited to join the club in a celebration of their fiftieth anniversary at a luncheon to be held in the Entertainment Center at the Pala Casino on the Pala Reservation; Tuesday, March 19. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m,.
The event will be MC’d by KFMB radio personality Rick Roberts. A lunch buffet will be served. Cost at the door is $13.00 If attending RSVP to President George Stockton at 742-1462 or Secretary Don Continelli at 742-3691.
The four community citizens that were elected to serve on the Community Committee for the Valley Center Community Project are: Kerry Carr, Michael Cooper, Penny Gipson and Judith Silverman.
They will work with health officials and the Cancer Registry to further the Valley Center investigation of a possible cancer cluster in VC.
The committee was elected through a web election conducted all last week.
For more information, contact Ruby Trejo, Community Services Coordinator, Cancer Surveillance Program of Orange County/ San Diego Imperial Organization for Cancer Control Epidemiology Division, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine 224 Irvine Hall
Irvine, CA 92697-7555
(949) 824-6545
(949) 824-9429 FAX
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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