“Will Rogers said to never pass on an opportunity to just shut up. I’m going to take his advice,” quipped Dan Thornton, who was honored as Valley Center Citizen of the Year Saturday night at a gala Chamber of Commerce installation dinner at Escondido Country Club.
Steve Harris was master of ceremonies, moving things along at a rapid clip and keeping everyone entertained.
Outgoing Chamber President Ann Godwin handed the gavel to new Chamber Pres. Nicky Lovejoy. She invited people to give freely of their ideas for improving the Chamber, but warned that if you make a suggestion, you may end up as chairman of the committee to get it done.
Officers installed included, executive board, President Nicky Lovejoy, Vice-President Tom Bumgardner, Sec. Kim Laventure, Treasurer Kymberli Peters and Past President Ann Godwin.
Also installed were the “worker bees” of the Chamber, the Ambassadors: Chairman Susi Durant, Vice Chairman Eric Jensen, Scribe Ann Godwin and members Nicky Lovejoy, Donna Jorgensen, Pamela Price, Jana Limon, Paula Haskell, Tiffany Lopez, Maria Gutierrez, Connie Vlasis and Eric Laventure.
More than a hundred of VC business and civic leaders attended the annual gala. All during the evening drawings were held for prizes that ranged from spa treatments to gift baskets to boxes of candy to birdseed blocks.
Past Citizens of the Year were invited to stand. They included Donna Jorgensen, Bill Hutchings, Fran DeWilde, Nicky Lovejoy, Richard Godwin and Ann Godwin.
Representatives from Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Dennis Hollingsworth’s offices presented plaques and certificates to Thornton, to outgoing Chamber President Ann Godwin and to this year’s Honorary Mayor, Tom Bumgardner.
Also handing out tons of certificates and cracking jokes along the way was Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn, representing himself.
Horn, in handing out a certificate from the County, noted that it was bordered in red, “in honor of the state budget crisis.”
Summer school has for more than a decade in Valley Center been an enrichment program for all school ages, in addition to being the time when remedial students could get back on track.
Probably not this summer.
Say goodbye to enrichment, hello to remediation, courtesy of the Sacramento budget crisis.
The Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District Board Thursday night heard how changing the structure of summer school could probably save from one third to one half of the $1 million that the district is losing to cuts from the state education department.
Assistant Supt. Sarah Clayton Thursday presented a modified summer school plan that is likely to be adopted by the school board at its March meeting.
“We can no longer afford, with the other cuts to offer enrichment programs,” she said.
VC-P school district stands to spend $400,000 out of the general fund if it holds the same kind of summer school that it has been holding. This money is unreimbursed from the state.
“Since we’re talking about four hundred thousand dollars in an era when we are taking a million dollar hit I thought it only prudent to look at it,” Dr. Clayton told the board.
She noted that 80% of summer school costs are controllable costs that could be reduced significantly by adopting an invitation only remedial summer school.
This would cut the teaching staff and busing costs in half. “I truly believe that we could pay for it one hundred percent with intervention funds,” she said.
Another option would be to go from a five week program of high school summer school to four weeks at four hours a day.
Currently the the district offers two sessions of four hours each. The number of sessions would be cut to one, but the remaining session would be more intense.
This would actually increase the intensity of instruction while cutting costs,” said Dr. Clayton.
“We will make sure that the students who are deficient in credits have the first opportunity to attend the summer school program,” Dr. Clayton told The Roadrunner on Tuesday.
Thursday night, trustee Lori Johnson commented, “I wonder what kind of feedback we’re going to get from our community if we cut the program to invitation only.”
Trustee Wendy Zeugschmidt said “If we have to cut this is a really good place to cut.”
There is general support for this plan among teachers at the high school, less among elementary school teachers, said Supt. Karen Jobe.
The board directed Dr. Clayton to move forward on her plan. The next step will be to assemble a list of students who will be “invited” to go to summer school.
She will bring this back to the next board meeting.
By DAVID ROSS
Tests conducted at 18 sites in Valley Center last month came up negative for 23 pesticides that are considered carcinogens.
The tests were conducted at the request of “Concerned Citizens of Valley Center,” a group that is investigating the possibility that there is a cancer cluster in the area and San Diego/Imperial Organization for Cancer Control (SANDIOCC) based at the University of California, Irvine.
Gary Arant, general manager of the VC Municipal Water District, commented “The test results for the 23 pesticides confirm what we have said all along, and that is that our water system and water supply are not impacted by the use of agricultural pesticides, or any other external environmental factors.”
The VC school district is also doing a series of tests of water used to spray school playgrounds and ballfields. The first results are expected in a few weeks.
Judy Silverman, a member of the group that has pressed the water district to do the tests, and also serves on the SANDIOCC’s Community Committee for the Valley Center Community Project, told The Roadrunner: “I’m glad that they haven’t found anything. But I would have been more comfortable if they had done a Title 22 Test, which tests MTBEs and benzine, the type of chemicals which you can find underground on Valley Center & Cole Grade Roads [near the gas station].
“I would have been more comfortable if they had tested there since that’s where their pipes were bursting. But it was either go with the sites that they picked and the chemicals they picked out or get no tests at all. We’re just happy they found nothing at this point.”
Answering speculation that breaks in the district’s pipes could allow chemicals, such as pesticides and gasoline to leak into the water system, Arant commented, “Our water is under pressure as high as 230 psi [pounds per square inch]. Nothing in the soil or in the groundwater leaks into a a water main under pressure. When a water main does let go, again, nothing leaks in. Water under that kind of pressure escapes with tremendous force and at a very rapid rate. After a pipe is repaired, it is flushed and disinfected prior to being put back into service. Anything that did enter the pipe during the repair is flushed out.”
The tests were conducted by an independent laboratory that sent its own people out to collect the samples, under the watchful eye of district employees and observers from the Concerned Citizens of Valley Center.
The tests cost $30,000 and were in addition to more than $650,000 spent annually by VCMWD to test and monitor water quality.
In the water district’s statement about the tests, Arant pointed out that last April SANDIOCC determined that there wasn’t enough statistical evidence to conclude that there is a cancer cluster in VC.
“Even though it was determined that there was no cancer cluster, agencies were asked by UCI to develop data to assist n the continuing assessment of the community. In response to a request from UCI, the Valley Center MWD Board of Directors authorized the special sampling and testing program,” he wrote.
Supervisor Bill Horn has rejected the nominations of biologist Kris Preston and architect Will Rogers to vacancies on the VC Planning Group.
After waiting many months for Horn to act on the nominations (since April for one of them), VC Planning Group Chairman Larry Glavinic received official notification Jan. 13 of the Fifth District supervisor’s decision.
The decision was announced at the Jan. 13 planning group meeting.
Horn wrote: “It is my goal to have members on the Valley Center Community Planning Group who represent the attitudes and wishes of the people who elect them. Given the fact that an election has occurred and has changed the makeup of the group I believe it is important to reconsider the issue of appointments to fill the two vacant seats.
“Representation is critical to the democratic process. To accept nominations from a previous board would disenfranchise the recent vote by the public. It is critical that the vote of the people be respected. It is for this reason that I will not be accepting the nominations of Kris Preston and Will Rogers.”
The planning group is an advisory group to the Board of Supervisors. Members are elected by the public, and Horn has no say on that process. But when replacements for vacancies are needed, the Board of Supervisors must consent to their appointment.
Horn has blocked the appointments of planners on other community boards in other towns in the past. Closer to home he refused to accept the nomination of Don Seitz to the I-15 Corridor Design Review Board several years ago. This is the first time he has declined to accept a nominee to the VC Planning Group.
The planning group will begin the process of nominating new appointees at its next meeting. But if you are a potential candidate and want to get a head start on the process, call Nominations Committee Chairman Eric Laventure at 760-535-4523.
By DAVID ROSS
Part two of a series on Valley Center artists at the Artisan’s Gallery in Escondido.
* * *
Brenda Griffin likes horses. She likes to paint horses.
An amateur painter all her life, she has a degree in art from San Diego State University, with an emphasis in interior design.
Despite her credentials, Mrs. Griffin had really only dabbled in water colors and sold some abstract water colors in the early 1990s.
Before that she had worked for her husband’s CPA firm, always wishing she had the time to paint.
A couple of years ago she retired to do what she had always wanted to to.
“I could be dead tomorrow. I decided I’m going to paint. I’m living my mid-life crisis,” she recalls.
She began taking lessons from Dorene Terryberry, a renowned North County artist (and also now a member of the Artisan’s Gallery, who, she says, “taught me the uses of color.”
Using that knowledge Mrs. Griffin was able to turn her newly honed talents to painting what she loves best, horses. She also switched to oil painting.
Did I mention that she likes to paint horses? She has three, a Missouri Fox Trotter, a Tennessee Walker and an Arab Pinto.
She’s been painting them intensely for about two and a half years. She didn’t intend to go into commercial art, “because it was for myself and the heart, but people told me I should put my stuff on the market.”
“Miraculously” she discovered the Artisan’s Gallery and told as many of her artistic friends as she could about it.
“My focus is I paint from the heart, things that tell a message. I’m totally in love with horses and I hope my paintings show them as ‘human,’ ” she said.
“I want my paintings to show the sweetness of each of them in the world they live. I want to send a message to the world that if you look hard enough you can find beauty everywhere and all around us. That’s what painting has also taught me.”
She is also inspired by her surroundings.
“I absolutely love this town. I think the town has a magic quality all its own that’s conducive to the artist.”
Her technique is to do an under study of the dark and light values of her subject first. Then she goes over this with her colors. She takes lots of photos for reference guides. Sometimes she pieces several together to make fantasy scenes.
She finds herself constantly on the lookout for scenes and subjects, everywhere she goes.
“I find myself studying reflections, looking everywhere for subjects. I’m always on the watch for something,” she says.
Although people are looking at her work in a well-traveled gallery, Mrs. Griffin refuses to dwell on the business aspect of selling paintings. “As a artist I can’t plan the future, I’m letting the future take care of itself. I’m at the beginning of my art. I’m still learning, I’m still exploring and hope to be learning all of my life.”
Three of her original paintings can be seen at the gallery. Normally, she falls in love with her works and has a hard time parting with them. But she does produce giclees, which are copies of paintings on canvas that are every bit as vibrant as the originals.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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