By DAVID ROSS
Thousands are expected to crowd the brand new $125 million Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort Thursday for the grand opening of the first Harrah’s in California.
The casino will be stocked with 1500 slot machines and 30 table games.
The arrival of the first Indian casino to bear the name of a major Las Vegas casino company changes the complexion of Indian gaming all over the state, particularly in light of the fact that a federal judge recently beat back an attempt by Bay Area card rooms to overturn Prop. 1A, with which California voters two years ago legalized casino gaming.
Sneak previews of the 45,000 square foot casino and four story hotel for invited guests were scheduled to occur on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
The “Flying Elvi” skydiving team will kick off the grand opening 1:15 p.m. on Thursday.
The ribbon cutting will follow at 2 p.m. when the general public will be allowed in to see the brand new gaming palace.
The ten member skydiving team was first featured in the movie Honeymoon in Vegas. They combine a spine tingling aerial skydiving performance of smoke trails, pyrotechnic fireworks, and precision maneuvers with an over-the-top entertaining stage show.
All day long entertainment will be non-stop, with show girls and Elvis impersonators mingling with the crowds while a Las Vegas style lounge act plays in the Oasis Lounge.
Each evening at 8:08 p.m. from Aug. 8-15 Harrah’s will give away a trip to Harrah’s Las Vegas.
Tom Dingman, who has spent the last two years as consultant to the Rincon Band of Mission Indians, but now takes up the task of running the newest Harrah’s told The Roadrunner this week, “I’m like an expectant father!”
Dingman reports that everything has been going smoothly leading up to Thursday’s opening.
“I think we’ve planned a day of Vegas-like experiences that we want people to have. It’ll be fun it’ll be little surprises like the Flying Elvi that that we think people will enjoy.”
Whether the opening of the first California casino bearing the imprimatur of a major Las Vegas gaming company will be a foretaste of the future, attracting other big players, “remains to be seen,” said Dingman.
“I know that Harrah’s views it as a very important market and our relationship with Indian gaming goes back a long way.” This will be Harrah’s fifth Indian casino in the U.S.
“What we bring in terms of the Harrah’s brand is unique, as the already twenty-six million Harrah’s customers with the Total Reward Card know and how the people in Southern California are discovering,” said Dingman, who has been with Harrah’s for two decades.
The new casino and 200 room hotel will also include six new restaurants. Of those 200 rooms, 17 are suites. All of the rooms are “Harrah’s Premiere Rooms” which means they are larger than normal hotel rooms and have full size tubs and walk-in showers.
“I think the [350 seat] buffet is going to set new standards for buffets,” predicted Dingman. “It’s in a beautiful room with live action food preparation, whether Mexican, Asian or Italian.” “Live action” means that the chefs prepare the food in front of you.
He also expects the Fiori steak and sea food restaurant to attract a lot of business. There will also be an oyster bar, Asian restaurant, 24 hour cafe and “Club Cappuccino.”
For the time being, a lack of business is not going to be a problem at Harrah’s. The hotel is booked through September.
“We’re excited,” said Dingman. “We’ve kept our promise and the [Rincon] band has kept its promise to bring a world class facility to Valley Center and to do it right.”
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Although called “Harrah’s” the casino and resort is fully owned by the Rincon San Luiseño Band of Mission Indians.
The facility employs an estimated 1,100 full time and part time workers with a total payroll of nearly $31 million a year including benefits.
Valley Center’s traffic accident statistics are among the worst in the state, and they have increased 500% over the last year.
This, according to a report presented by CHP officer George Salas at a recent meeting of the Valley Center Coordinating Council (VC3), which is a group attended by representatives of various governmental groups in town.
According to Salas:
• From January to June 2002 there were 283 accidents in the Valley Center Sector (which doesn’t include Pauma Valley or Hwy 76 but does include Rincon Reservation) This is a 500% increase over the previous year.
• For that same period there were 13 fatalities in the Valley Center Sector, compared to nine on I-15 and I-5 in the North County Sector.
• All of the 13 fatalities resulted from head-on, and four of these were alcohol-related.
• The high fatality rate is even more significant when the fact that Valley Center only has 2% of the North County Sector’s total traffic is taken into account.
• Over the July 4 weekend, the “Allied Agency Enforcement Program” was conducted in VC for four hours and resulted in 70 vehicle stops and four cars being impounded.
• Valley Center needs more CHP coverage but budget constraints make that hard to achieve. Currently Julian has four resident CHP officers and Ramona has six assigned to it. Valley Center has no resident officers, although it is part of the area patrolled by Officer Salas.
According to Salas’s report, the high rate of traffic accidents and fatalities is likely associated with the 24-hour operation of the nearby tribal casinos.
By DAVID ROSS
The public is invited to a ground-breaking, Aug. 8, 11 a.m. for Lilac Elementary School. The ceremony will be held at the corner of Old Castle & Lilac roads, near the white cottage.
The cost of the K-5 elementary school is anticipated to be $7.3 million. If a state funding bond passes in November, the district will receive matching funds.
The VC-Pauma School District has had to jump through hoops over the last year to satisfy the Army Corps of Engineers, which was concerned lest the little creek that runs in front of the site be impacted by construction of the bridge connecting the campus to the road.
The Corps’s requirements caused a “significant redesign,” according to Supt. Jeff Mulford, who updated the school board at its July meeting.
However, Dr. Mulford feels that the Corps’ input resulted in a better design.
Theater Donations
Donations received to help build the VC High School performing arts center are now between $400,000-$450,000, Dr. Mulford told the board.
The Teachers and Friends concert to benefit the theater will be held on Oct. 6 at California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
Dr. Mulford noted that Jane Rattman will stage manage this. It’ll be a busy weekend for VC’s Teacher of the Year, who will be at the San Diego County Salute to Teachers awards the night before the show.
Summer School
Summer school principals Mary Gorsuch and Dennis Zabinsky reported on the month long program.
Zabinsky, in charge of the high school program, reported that attendance figures were similar to last year, a high of 795, or about half of the normal high school population.
“I don’t know of another high school in the area that has more than half the students attending summer school,” said Supt. Jeff Mulford.
Some of these classes (remedial classes mainly) are fully-funded by the state. But for most classes the district receives only 30% compensation.
It takes a significant financial hit on these classes and uses lottery money to help support it.
“I can’t think of a better use for lottery money,” said Dr. Mulford.
Summer school has a high academic emphasis rather than on electives. Because so many students take summer school, this allows them to take elective courses during the regular school year.
Mrs. Gorsuch reported that elementary summer school also has an academic focus, on math and language arts.
Enrollment started with 958 students and reached 779 the third day of classes.
Because class sizes are large and there are no instructional aides for summer school, teachers rely greatly on the 50 cross age tutors.
Half of the cross age tutors are in the classroom. The rest help run the computer lab and help on the playground during recess. One attraction of summer school for many students is all the fun stuff that happens during recess.
Mrs. Gorsuch started this program at Valley Center in 1995.
Summer Maintenance
School trustees gathered around a master aerial map of the district’s facilities for the annual report on maintenance from Gary Pay, director of maintenance and operations.
The total maintenance program cost the district about $160,000.
Pauma school’s carpets, the worst in the district, were replaced.
Janitorial staff is painting the kindergarten building.
Pay talked about the possibility of revamping a field next to the school and possibly adding an obstacle course.
“That part of the campus is currently underutilized,” he said.
At Palomar Mountain School custodial staff is installing a kiln and revamping of the school library. They may also do some striping and other sprucing up, said Pay.
At the primary school the custodial staff is repaving the parking lot at the loop where buses line up.
“It’s really beat down,” remarked Pay. “If we don’t do that we start to lose the curb.”
They are also carpeting four classrooms and building a kiln house near the dumpster. They are also removing some playground equipment that is prone to accidents.
At the lower elementary school they painted the upper trim, recarpeted one room and repaired the play fields grass.
They also replaced rain gutters on one of the roofs in front. It turns out that the kids had discovered they could climb the branch of an olive tree and get onto the roof. The branch has been cut.
At the upper elementary school maintenance work consisted of working on the gutters of the long walkway, tearing out the old gutters and setting up a new system. Pay also wants to upgrade the fire alarm system. They also installed new carpets in five classrooms and the lounge workroom and replaced an air conditioner in one room.
At the middle school the installation of a lunch cover last year has cut wear and tear on the carpets in the multipurpose room.
The carpets used to be replaced annually, but now everyone eats under the lunch cover. Carpeting is being replaced in four classrooms, however.
Staff is working on tiling the bathroom in the multipurpose room.
Grass at the middle school is suffering because of low water pressure. Pressure stops after about 15 minutes. Either the water table is low or the pump is bad, said Pay.
At the high school the summer maintenance crew has moved the green houses to make room for the new continuation and independent study classrooms, which will be ready for occupation by September.
However, said Pay, they doubled the size of the greenhouse area.
An additional 65 parking spaces were also installed at the high school.
Air conditioning has been added in the gym since last year, said Pay, and many people have noticed the improvement.
Redoing the coating on the gym floor will be an annual event from now on, he said, because the water based floor cover doesn’t last very long.
Pay noted that the track at VCHS is going to need to be resealed because it’s losing its red coat in places. This will cost about $30,000.
Cutting Trees
The 40 acre Non-Road site near the corner of Sunset & Valley Center roads is having all its citrus trees cut down to make room for a school someday. The cost of cutting the trees is $40,000. The mulched trees will be used all over the district.
Added Annex
The district office has been expanded with the addition of an annex to house the business department. Extra room was created by taking out some parking spaces.
What’s in a Name?
The school board wants to know if the public likes the idea of renaming the Equal Opportunity Center (continuation school) as Oak Glen High School.
You can register your approval (or disapproval) at the Aug. 8 board meeting, when the board is due to make a decision.
Sentimental Times
There was a sentimental moment at the board meeting as superintendent and board reflected that Dr. Mulford’s time as superintendent is drawing to a close in a few weeks.
The board gave the super his last evaluation and board Pres. Patrick Simpson commented, “It’s been a joy of mine to be able to watch and learn from his leadership and modeling to the principals and staff. It’s a sad time for me, but it’s growth and I look forward to doing this with Karen Jobe.”
He added that he has enjoyed Mulford’s style of problem-solving. “He gets a stick problem and and he goes home and the next morning he has four ways to deal with it. You stick something in his way he finds a way around it.”
Trustee Wendy Zeugschmidt commented, “He has far exceeded any expectations we have had. Dr. Mulford is leaving the district in tremendous shape. He’s not leaving a set of expectations but a legacy.”
Dr. Mulford reflected that he started with the district a quarter century before and that his style was a continuation of the style inaugurated by his predecessor, Harry Weinberg.
“I don’t think we have seen a deviation from the leadership style. One little district in the midst of controversy just keeps going on.”
Friday is the deadline to file for most offices that serve the Valley Center, Pauma Valley area.
VC Planning Group
Candidates are starting to file in for the VC planning group and a true watershed election may be shaping up that will give voters a chance to choose between two distinct philosophies.
Seven seats are up for election, and so far the following have picked up papers, and or filed: Brian Bates, home school parent; Clyde Childress, owner of Pikake Gardens, incumbent Eric Laventure, an owner of Bear Valley Farm Supply; and also the husband and wife activist team of Jonathan Vick and Lael Montgomery. Also picking up papers were Larry Glavinic, current chairman of the group, Mary Meade, a university instructor and host of the VC Issues email forum; former planning group member Cal Townsend; Oliver Smith, an electrical engineer; and Terry A. Van Koughnett (no information available).
VC Water Board
On the VC Municipal Water District board, Div. 3, Gary Broomell, a citrus rancher who has been on the board for three decades and Robert Silverman have pulled papers. In Div. 5 incumbent Merle Aleshire, a retired aerospace executive, has pulled papers.
VC Parks & Rec
Incumbent board Pres. Eric Jockinsen has pulled papers for another term on the VC Parks & Rec board. Three seats are up for election.
VC-Pauma School Board
All three incumbents in the VC-Pauma Unified School District, Lori A. Johnson, Barbara P. Rohrer and Henry Vane Wyk, have pulled papers.
VC Fire Protection District
Board Pres. Mel Schuler and fellow incumbents Mike Pacheco and Dan Thornton are all running for reelection. So far they have no rivals.
Yuima Water Board
On the Yuima Municipal Water District board, in Pauma, incumbent Christine Brearton pulled papers for Div. 1 and W.D. “Bill” Knutson pulled papers for Div. 4.
Pauma Municipal Water District
Div. 2 and 3 no candidates have pulled papers. Yoneo Kariya, a rancher, has pulled papers for Div. 4.
Pauma Valley Community Services Board
Three seats are available but so far no one has pulled papers.
County Counsel this week provided The Roadrunner with names of residents who have, to date, applied to be appointed to the Valley Center Cemetery District board.
The newspaper’s request to the County for the names was initially denied, and was immediately followed up by a Public Records Act request to County Counsel. The names were provided ten days after the request was filed.
Five seats are open for the board, which oversees administration of VC’s tiny one acre cemetery on Miller Road.
The County recently concluded that the current board had, through an oversight, not been reappointed as required. It sent a letter to the board advising them of the situation. The current occupants are allowed to apply for reappointment.
The names seeking appointment are:
• Stan Johnson, current president of the board and manager of Skyline Ranch.
• Ken Botts, incumbent, a retired city manager and current president of the Senior Associates.
• Dean Garcia, incumbent, a retired property manager and sales manager.
• Bill Dawson, general manager of Valley Center Packing Co., editor of The Compassionate Friends, San Diego chapter.
• Patricia Schrader, former president and manager of VC Community Services District and longtime VC school district assistant librarian.
• Joyce Rooney, current board member, retired VC branch librarian.
• Susan Armstrong, a wife and mother, active with VC 4-H Club, Boy Scouts of America and LDS Church.
• Mary Louise Cully Kelly, retired VC school bus driver and previously Rancho Beauty Salon, who is also a VC 4-H leader.
The appointment will be made at the discretion of Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn, and the County Board of Supervisors.
The County has not indicated when the appointments will be made.
Valley Center residents have been watching with apprehension as the fire that started in Julian a week ago has spread into the Backcountry.
But they may not realize that some Valleyites have been personally caught up in the fire.
Local business owners Randy & Kerry Morgan, owners of the Trailer Center in VC and Lynn & Joe Carstensen of VC Mowing & Weedabate have property in Ranchita that was in the path of the advancing inferno.
The Morgans and Carstensens live on Old Mine Road in Ranchita, where about 25 homes were threatened by the fire.
Over the weekend, along with their neighbors they moved 17 horses, 18 dogs, five cats, four goats, one pig, 30 rabbits, 209 guinea pigs, one mink, a cockatoo and a macaw.
On Monday they received the order to evacuate.
During the late afternoon the ten acres surrounding the Carstensen’s home burned. They lost a three car garage, out buildings, and all the trees.
Carstensen, who is also a firefighter with the Ranchita Volunteer Fire Dept., was able to save his house.
Six of his neighbors on Old Mine Road were not so lucky. They lost their homes.
The fire is now reportedly moving towards Borrego Springs.
A refuge for animals and their owners was set up at nearby Warner Springs Ranch.
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Stephanie Brown reports that 17 boys of Valley Center Troop 619 and 16 boys from Valley Center Troop 673 were at Mataguay Scout Reservation Thursday when they were evacuated due to the Julian Fire.
The boys were there at a week long camp that began Sunday and was supposed to go to Saturday morning. There were about 500 boys in camp all together.
The boys had been prepared for a possible evacuation since the fire began on Monday. They were told to keep all of their gear collected in their tents in case they had to evacuate.
Sure enough, about 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning the bell started ringing and the siren of the old fire truck “Dying Moose began to wail.”
The boys were all away from their base camp at their scheduled activities when the alarm blew. They were not allowed to go back to their campsite to retrieve their gear. They had to leave their backpacks, sleeping bags, personal items, and bicycles behind.
Within minutes the 500 boys were all assembled as planned at the main flagpole for roll call.
Once all were accounted for the boys were marched off single file by troop down to a large open meadow where the adult leaders met them with their vehicles for evacuation to Warner High School.
The boys were calm and attentive which made for a flawless evacuation. Some troops did not have enough seating in their own leaders’ vehicles to accommodate all of the boys in their troop.
The extra boys were transported by other troops adult leaders and staff members. Once assembled at Warner High School the parents were contacted and the boys were safely returned home.
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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