Murrietta resident Sgt. Ed Wells has joined the staff at VC Sheriff’s substation.
Sgt. Wells is one of two sergeants assigned to the substation. The other is Sgt. Darrell Carr, who is in charge of administration, the two detectives and the COPPS (Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving) program.
Sgt. Wells is responsible for all of the patrol functions and for the Senior Volunteer, Explorer and reserve programs.
The reserve program is already in place in VC, with two reserves. The soon-to-be created Explorer program is for teens and young adults, under the auspices of the Boy Scouts.
The program is for teens interested in law enforcement as a career, and there are actually a couple of deputies in VC who went through the program.
“We want to see that up here because the community is growing to that extent,” said Wells. There would be room for as many youngsters as want to participate.
Explorers give their time assisting deputies, assisting with minor reports and going on ride-alongs (although they are never placed in hazardous situations).
The Senior Volunteer program will recruit senior citizens to augment deputy functions, much like the Senior Volunteer CHP program does (Look for an article about this program in the Seniors in Action section of the paper Nov. 13).
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Wells has been with the department for 14 years. Originally from Virginia, he came to California as a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton.
He served as a Marine for ten years, went to graduate school and joined the Sheriff’s Dept.
Wells has been stationed at the El Cajon Jail, the Las Colinas men’s facility, the old central jail, the Vista patrol station and the San Marcos station when it opened in 1993. He was in the first COPPS unit in the County which originated in San Marcos.
He has also been a traffic officer in San Marcos (The department handles traffic enforcement for some cities on a contract basis) and was a traffic training officer, certified in reconstruction techniques for auto accidents.
Later he was a detective in San Marcos, primarily investigating sexual assaults. Later he was transferred to the central investigation division to handle fraud and elder abuse cases.
Promoted to sergeant, Wells served at the George Bailey jail and the East Mesa jail and was transferred back to Vista as patrol supervisor.
Asked if he wanted to work in VC, Wells jumped at the chance, having worked here before.
“It’s nice here and I enjoy the area. I’m very happy I was selected to come up here.”
Sgt. Wells’s goals are to get the senior volunteer and Explorers programs going locally and “to help make the station as viable as possible. To make it what it’s already been.”
His predecessor Sgt. Don Continelli set the standard for community relations, he says.
“He established a really good rapport with the community. They were practicing COPPS here before we ever introduced it. The community is growing and so are we, but we want to keep that sense of involvement. That’s a major undertaking where you have a large amount of growth.”
Sgt. Wells is working with the school district to increase availability. There may possibly be a deputy whose primary duties would be the schools.
“We are also discussing increasing the number of deputies that we have on patrol,” he said.
Currently there are ten deputies, with two to three on duty at any one time. “We’re trying to increase that to where we might have four deputies on duty.”
The reason for increasing service is the increase in calls for service and increased tourism, primarily due to the increase in casino traffic.
Two deputies have been added who are being assigned specifically to two reservations, Pala and Rincon.
Jim Bennetts is assigned to Pala and Cliff Cutrell is assigned to Rincon. Wells stresses that they are not being assigned to the casinos, but to the reservations.
After a minor incident caused the temporary evacuation of Harrah’s casino a couple of weeks ago, Wells suggested that he should meet with the area casino executives to discuss emergency procedures.
The first meeting is this week, with Harrah’s, to be followed by meetings with the managers of the Pala, Valley View, and La Jolla casinos and Casino Pauma.
“We just want to have an understanding of what they have going on and they understand what we can and can’t do. They are all really receptive and interested in talking to us. It looks like a good cooperative effort on everyone’s part,” said Wells.
“Because their businesses are private we won’t interfere with that, but we want to work with them to help take care of any situation that might come up, including man-made and natural disasters.
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Wells has three children. His oldest, Brandon, is 20 and going into the army. Andy, 18, is an apprentice electrician. Larkin, 14, attends high school.
Wells likes the outdoors, riding and hiking. “My schedule is restrictive but when I get the chance I like to go into the mountains.
Ballot includes six “running mates”
The most contentious and possibly most significant election in Valley Center in a decade enters its final week.
Prop. GG, a taxing authorization that will raise $14/year/parcel, has no active opposition, but still faces an uphill battle since it requires 66.67% of those voting to approve it.
The measure would provide the wherewithal for the VC Parks & Recreation District to pay maintenance on its parks and have the capital to buy large undeveloped swaths of open space.
Planning Group
Nobody can claim this year that they don’t have a real choice in the planning election.
Four “official” slates and two independent candidates are now running for the VC Planning Group. There are 20 active candidates (Cal Townsend, although on the ballot, has removed himself from the election and won’t serve if elected).
The most recent “slate” which declared itself this week, calling itself Citizens for Property Rights and Conservative Values, has endorsed: Craig Adams, J.R. Clasen, Mel Schuler, Vicky Sheedy, Robert Hancock, Larry Glavinic, Mirra Smith and Ron Andes.
Some of those candidates are also in another “slate,” consisting of incumbents Robert Hancock, Larry Glavinic, Mel Schuler and Eric Laventure, former planning chairman Craig Adams, and former school board trustee Ron Adair, who are all running together.
This is not deliberate confusion on anyone’s part, but just a reflection of the fact that anyone can take out an ad endorsing anyone they choose, without necessarily checking with the candidate they are endorsing.
Two other slates are running (they might be referred to as “the running mates”:
The married team of Jon Vick and Lael Montgomery.
The married teams of Mary Meade and Brian Bates, Noel and Kaela Laue and Ron Perry (no running mate).
Terry Van Koughnett, who is also running for the parks and rec board, and Clyde Childress, are the “slateless” candidates on the planning ballot.
The candidates can be roughly categorized by their positions on the current General Plan 2020 map, which will determine land use densities for Valley Center.
Supporting: Montgomery, Vick, Meade, Bates, the Laues and Ron Perry
Neutral: Laventure and Van Koughnett,
Against: Schuler, Glavinic, Hancock, Adair, Adams, Smith, Sheedy, Andes, Clasen, Childress,
School Board
Four candidates, all veteran school board trustees, are vying for three seats on the VC-Pauma Unified School District board.
Incumbents Henry Van Wyk, Lori Johnson and Barbara Rohrer, who are part of the first unified board elected four years ago, are defending their seat against Mike Morasco, who served on the Escondido High School District board for two terms.
Parks & Rec.
Seven candidates are running for three seats on the VC Parks & Recreation District board. Incumbents Eric Jockinsen (current president of the board) and Fran DeWilde, and challengers Milo McGarrigle, Tirso Ruiz, Tom Bumgardner, Tom Litchfield, Terry Van Koughnett (also running for the planning group).
Water Board
Incumbent Gary Broomell, who has represented Div. 3 for three decades, is being challenged by longtime grower and resident Robert Silverman.
Recently appointed incumbent Randy Haskell, also a longtime grower, is being challenged for the Div. 2 seat by Michael Finton, an associate college professor at Palomar College.
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For anyone who cares to read them, exhaustive interviews with most of the candidates have been published in the last few issues of The Roadrunner. Back issues are available.
The paper’s endorsements have been published beginning a couple of weeks ago and concluding this week.
By DAVID ROSS
A winding, bumpy, dusty dirt four-wheel drive easement that is the closest link between Valley Center and Hidden Meadows may be gated up.
Some folks, who revile the drag racing and trash dumping along the dirt road are ecstatic about the potential closing of Cougar Pass.
People who drive their children to school in Valley Center every day are not so happy. They claim that the road has been used so long by the public that it can no longer be called a private easement.
Although residents on both side of Cougar Pass have used the “road” for two decades, it is legally an easement for Valley Center Municipal Water District trucks.
Sunday afternoon a “spontaneous” demonstration against the closing turned into a streetside debate between the pros and the cons of the matter.
People who support the closing heard about the outdoor meeting on the grapevine. They showed up too. So did the owner of the property the road traverses, John Braman.
Braman, a San Diego resident is putting up gates this week, he told The Roadrunner. For now he won’t lock them.
To date, the water district has not issued an encroachment permit to Braman that would allow him to install a gate, although VC Municipal Water District Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant met with him and another property owner, Rick Seideman, on Sept. 19.
“We advised them that that would be a very unpopular thing to do, and that if they did it, we would give them full credit,” Arant told The Roadrunner.
If they want to gate the road and give the district a key, there’s nothing the water district can do about it, says Arant.
As the crowd of perhaps 60 residents milled around Sunday near where the gate will go, they vented their views.
Dave Hawkins lives on the Valley Center side of Cougar Pass, near where the actual paved part of Betsworth branches off to the right, while the unpaved easement goes straight ahead, up a steep grade and eventually ends up in Hidden Meadows (or on North Broadway, depending on which branch you take).
“It’s not a road, it’s an easement,” insists Hawkins, who has lived in the little community for nearly 20 years.
Nevertheless traffic estimates for the pass are 1,200 trips a day, mainly from people taking their children to school.
How does Hawkins feel about those people driving an extra dozen miles on Old Castle to get to school?
“That’s too bad. I’m sorry for them, but that’s private property and they don’t have a right to drive on it.”
Hawkins and some neighbors want the pass closed because of traffic and dumping, he says.
“They are driving too fast. I can’t pull out of my driveway. I’ve had three of my cats run over in the last few years.”
Hawkins not only supports closing off Cougar Pass, he wants to close off all access to the dirt road right at Betsworth to anyone but residents.
His wife, Susan Hawkins adds, “The other reason to close the road is that it’s dangerous.” Five or six people have already been hurt in recent years, she says.
Gary Beasley, a resident for two and half years, complains, “Our traffic has increased ten times over what it used to be. We’re getting casino traffic all night long.”
Those who want to continue to use the easement, claim that the fact that it has been used continuously by the public for many years has taken away the owner’s right to close it.
This legal concept is known as a “prescriptive easement.”
“This is not a prescriptive easement,” Hawkins denies emphatically.
Larry Bisso,owner of a house and grove on a hill overlooking the little valley, says, “You know, they’ve dumped a couple of bodies here seven or eight years ago— One murder was drug-related.”
The biggest reason Bisso wants the road closed, “is the loss of quality of life,” he says.
As a vehicle goes by and up the grade, he points to the plume of dust rising from the tires.
“Like that! That’s air pollution!” He adds, “My wife [Diane] has been run off the road twice.This easement is an attractive nuisance. Because it’s dirt people feel they should drive fast and cut corners.”
Not all those on the Betsworth side of Cougar Pass agree.
Mary Polito, wife of Bob Polito, a director of the water district, comments, “We’re for the road staying open although we understand our neighbors’ concerns. It would make things safer, but many of us have been using this road for twenty years coming and going, summer, winter, all times of year.
“Right now we car pool to school. That’s going to take a lot of time if people have to go around.”
Mary Pancner, a Hidden Meadows resident, has used Cougar Pass since 1985. “I think people do need to drive slower, but it does need to remain open,” she says.
Brandon Cesmat, another Hidden Meadows resident, recalls taking Cougar Pass back and forth in 1977 when he was dating his wife, Andie.
“A lot of people who don’t use this road should be interested in the outcome of this. Because if the road is closed, then the traffic will spill onto the traffic calmed area on Old Castle. It will affect them,” Cesmat says.
As the discussion heats up, things take a potentially ugly turn when a man leaning against a truck growls, “You people are all trespassing on my land. I want you to leave.”
They take the movable demonstration to the bottom of the pass, near where Braman has erected the posts where he intends to sink a gate.
Margaret Hyatt, a Hidden Meadows land use attorney, has been passing a petition for supporters of keeping the road open to sign.
She tells the group that they should hire a land use attorney (not her, since she has a personal interest in the case) and file for an injunction to keep the road open.
While she talks, Braman, lingers at the edge of the crowd and listen.
“The road is not closed,” he tells The Roadrunner. “But people who drive on the road are trespassing.”
On Monday, Braman called the paper.
“The main concern I have for this road is that it be a safe road. Right now it’s not safe. As a property owner I can’t accept that. I have to do something about that.”
There will be a “public comment” period, during which he will accept letters, including letters from people asking for permission to use the easement.
“People who write should explain how long they’ve been using the easement and who gave them permission, or, if they have never gotten permission, why they think they should be given permission,” he said.
There will be a public comment period for people to.
“A set of gates will be installed this week. For now, they will be left open. It is a private road and I’m not giving permission for people to cross on that road at this time. They do so at their own risk. But the gate won’t be locked at the current time.”
Braman added, “I hope that if people want to have an influence on this process that they don’t vandalize the gate, that they work through due process. Contact a lawyer, contact me, but when people destroy private property they put themselves at risk.”
He doesn’t oppose someone like the County taking over the easement and turning it into a county-maintained road.
“I’m not opposed to a safe road. If the County is smart enough to move in the right direction, I’m not opposed. I am opposed to unsafe conditions and currently they are unsafe.
“What I’m trying to do is limit the traffic that goes through there. I don’t allow people to go on there. On the gates there will be a means to contact me.”
Would he oppose those who want to keep the road open uniting to pave it?
“The key issues are pubic safety and private property protection,” says Braman. “Certainly paving would improve that protection. But, on the other hand, paving it increases speed, people might go faster.”
At some point, (he doesn’t know when), the gates will be locked.
“Only those who have the right to use the road will be able to use it. Let’s see what happens. If people refrain from using the road, that’s good.”
People can write to Braman at POB 261604, San Diego, CA 92196.
Margaret Hyatt, meantime, has set up a website where those who want to keep the road open can get information: opencougarpass@aol.com
The Soroptimist Club of North County became the latest in a long list of donors to the Valley Center High School Performing Arts Center by donating $500.
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Some of the other recent donations to the theater follow:
Patsy & Peter Fritz, $1000.
Shari A. Baker, $25.
Walter Holt, $200.
Don & Lorraine Freeberg, $100.
Robert & Georgia Hegardt, $200.
Kathy & Fred Wollman, $250.
Jane Rattmann, $250.34.
The VCHS Advanced Dance Class, $249.66.
Jim & Edie Jordan, $300.
Geraldine Geis, $20.
F. Ray & Marjorie Dubois, Jr., $50.
Bernard & Elizabeth Jensen, $1000.
Helen S. Simmons, $200.
Marion Holtz, $500.
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The Soroptimist Club of North County, made up of three clubs which are Valley Center, Escondido and San Marcos is part of Soroptimist International of the Americas, which is part of Soroptimist International— The world’s largest classified service organization for executive and professional women.
The Soroptimist club of North County Inland focuses on services projects, which make a difference for women, children and youth.
For information on how to join the club, call Sandra Farmer/Rockefeller at 749-6606.
Many people celebrate Veteran’s Day without realizing its significance.
On Friday, students at the VC Lower Elementary School will learn about Veteran’s Day and what it means from several distinguished local veterans.
Many of the veterans are relatives of the teachers who have invited them to speak.
Speakers will include:
Linda Neal, Air Force nurse, Lt. Colonel (ret). She served in Vietnam and numerous friendship missions, including missions to Ukraine and Honduras.
Jennifer Porter, Air Force Senior Airman, 4th Class. A Gulf War veteran and Airman of the Year for 1998.
Doug Wright, Navy Petty Officer, 3rd Class. Vietnam War veteran.
Dave Jennings, former Navy pilot.
Darrell Hatcher, Marine Corps Sgt. Major (ret). Served from 1976-1998, including Somalia.
Scott Langhoff, Navy Chief (ret). Served from 1975-2001. He will speak about life at sea and the cultures of many foreign countries. He is employed by the Veteran’s Administration.
Bill Horn, former Marine Corps pilot in Vietnam.
Virgil Griffin, Marine Corps (ret). Served in Vietnam and is current district commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Harvey Bennit, a member of the VFW, will recite “Old Tattered Flag.”
Pat Murphy, Navy aviator, a member of the Blue Angels. Served in Korea and Vietnam and aboard the USS Princeton.
Bill Johnston, WWII veteran, Army Air Corps.
R.C. Allen, Navy underwater ordinances, currently in the reserves.
Pat Jewel, former Marine, 1963-66.
Cal-Diego Paralyzed Vets will also send two of its members. Their names were not available at press time.
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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