A giant grizzly bear, typical of the animal that gave Valley Center its original name of Bear Valley, will make its long-anticipated public debut this June at the opening of the new Valley Center History Museum.
Norman Syler, chairman of the museum’s board of directors, said the building will open to the public on Monday, June 23, following a dedication ceremony the previous day. “The bear is coming out of ‘hibernation’,” said Syler, referring to the hundreds of inquiries that have been received in recent months. The largest grizzly ever captured in California was taken in Valley Center in 1866.
The grizzly is expected to be the centerpiece attraction of the new museum which will be filled with hundreds of artifacts, memorabilia and exhibits tracing the history of Valley Center from 1795. The uniqueness of the bear exhibit, said Syler, lies in the fact that the California grizzly has been extinct since 1924.
Complementing the display will be educational materials, rare photos and documents pertaining to the grizzly. The grizzly exhibit is expected to become a major tourist attraction and a major educational experience for school children.
Visitors will also tour a recreation of a frontier settler’s cabin, typical of homestead cabins of around 1863, and examine an interpretive gold mining exhibit. The museum shares a four-acre site with the new county library branch at 29200 Cole Grade Road. It will be free to all, said Syler.
Major funding for the building was provided by a donation from Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz and Louis Wolfsheimer in memory of her parents, Col. Irving Salomon and Mrs. Cecile Salomon. The Salomons were the longtime owners of Rancho Lilac in Valley Center, a historic ranch that remains in family ownership. Contributions from other local residents have been utilized to complete interior installations.
The museum is being organized by an all-volunteer group of citizens which began 30 years ago as the local history committee of the Friends of the Valley Center Library. Local residents with an interest in history and a desire to serve on a museum committee or as a docent are invited to participate. The museum board meets at 3:00 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of each month in the library’s seminar room. Information can also be obtained at the library or from the museum secretary, Joyce Johnson, at 749-8852.
Work will begin the first week in June to replace a stretch of pipeline on VC Road, nearly a year after it burst, closing a beauty salon, Christian bookstore and the old VC library.
The old stretch of water main has plagued the VC Municipal Water District with breaks for several years. But the district had resisted doing the extensive replacement because it plans to replace much of the water main along Valley Center Road when the county Dept. of Public Works widens it.
But after the June 16, 2002 break which flooded three businesses in Old Town Center and took over two months to reopen, the district decided to replace that stretch of pipeline without waiting for the County.
However, as District Engineer Patric Jewell noted in his progress report Monday to the board, “It has been a long time for such an urgent project.”
One complication is the gasoline leak into the soil from Pala Vista gas station tanks, which has contaminated the land around it. The district will have to replace the pipeline without spreading the contamination further, said Jewell.
Another complication is that workers will have to replace two County storm drains along the route.
The district plans to do much of the replacement work over six weeks, with much of it at night. The only time when they anticipate tying up traffic in the daytime will be when they pave over the replacement, said Jewell.
Other traffic projects in town will be going on at the same time, including widening of Woods Valley Road and work on North Lake Wohlford Road (which is currently ongoing).
The board had previously approved a $400,000 expenditure for the pipeline replacement, but an engineering study suggests the price may be closer to $471,000, said Jewell.
Per Diem
Directors voted to keep their per meeting per diem payments to $100 as it has been for several years.
They had the option to raise their pay up to as much as $162. Currently they are among the lowest paid water directors in the county.
“I kind of like being on the low end personally,” commented Director Merle Aleshire.
“Is that a motion?” asked board Pres. Gary Broomell.
“Yes it is,” replied Aleshire.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Water Hearing
The board also approved holding a public hearings on June 2, at 2 p.m. to set water availability charges.
Staff is recommending keeping the same water availability charges as last year. The charges must be reapproved annually.
The VC-P school board voted Thursday to create a community facilities (Mello-Roos) district for Woods Valley Ranch development.
The school district is the lead agency for the Mello-Roos district, which also includes funding for $2.2 million for county roads and $3.2 million in sewer facilities through the VC Municipal Water District.
Normally the school district would get $7,500 in developers fees per house, multiplied by the 270 units of the development. That would have given the district a total of $2,025,000 over time.
However, in order to facilitate the community facilities district, the developer, Newland Communities Inc., agreed to pay $9,259 per house to the school district. Since 30 year bonds will be used to raise the money, the district will have the $2.5 million by this summer.
These bonds will not encumber the school district in any way. They will be repaid by the 270 lots and homes that will be built on Woods Valley. When someone buys one of the homes, they are given the special tax, which they must pay at that time. Several times later they will have to make special payments to secure interest on the bond.
In addition, the developer agreed to a special tax that will annually give the district $90,000-$100,000 for five years.
In return for the school district getting more money than it would normally, the developers wanted the district to be lead agency for the all inclusive funding district.
According to School Supt. Karen Jobe, Newland realized that a district formed by a water district or the County could take several years to happen.
School districts can move faster, she said because organizations exist like David Taussig and Associates, which is working with the school district to help put the district together. School districts more frequently put such funding packages together than other governmental agencies.
Safeguards for Bonds
David Taussig and Associates is providing the bonding services for the school district.
A representative of the company, Benjamin Dolincka, told the board Thursday that there are several safeguards in place to ensure that the school district gets its money.
As security for the bonds, the developer will provide a letter of credit. If the developer misses the first payment of the bond, the letter of credit is there to hit it. Using a letter of credit to pay tax obligations can hurt the credit rating of a developer, which makes it hard for them to build other project. So they have every incentive to pay the taxes on time.
After the letter of credit is used up a reserve fund that has already been funded will pay for another year of service.
In the event that the developer doesn’t pay the delinquent taxes the mortgage holder will foreclose.
By DAVID ROSS
The VC Municipal Water District board March 3 approved the purchase of a double-wide portable building that will be used for a new board room.
The old board room will have room dividers installed, be remodeled and be used for office space.
The new boardroom will be delivered this spring, probably in May and be installed by July. It will be parked in the existing parking lot, which will take up several existing parking spaces.
The 1900 sq. ft. board room will have the capacity to seat 80-85 people.
To make up for this the parking lot will be extended down the driveway.
“I would point out that we have no more room for this type of structure,” Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant told the board. “Next time we come to you for one of these projects it will be the real deal.”
The building will cost about $125,000.
New Accountant
Jim Pugh, the new accountant at VCMWD, was introduced to board. Pugh has lived in VC over 30 years and board Pres. Gary Broomell remarked, “I’ve known him since he was three feet high.”
Code of Ethics
The board voted to approve a staff recommended Code of Ethics covering roles and responsibilities between elected board members, staff and discussing issues of personal gain, incompatible interests and conflicts of interests outside of the workplace. The ethics code also covers the use of district time and resources, gifts and favors, and disclosure of confidential or closed session information.
The new code will be used in new employee orientations and will be displayed in the boardroom and district offices, said Arant.
In other business the board approved the design for the Champagne Lakes ipeline replacement project. The design by Powell/PPS& J was for a pipeline at Champagne Lakes Recreation Area near Nelson Way & Old Hwy. 395.
The project will replace an unwrapped steel pipeline that is suffering a lot of damage because it is exposed to the air. The pipeline was installed in the early 1960s.
The board has budgeted $610,000 for this project with $86,000 for engineering design.
Budget Adjustment
The board voted to adjust the budget for the Jesmond Dene Road pipeline replacement with the addition of $85,000.
District Engineer Patric Jewell discussed the fact that the district’s estimate for the project, $294,789 was considerably lower than the estimate by the engineer, Boyle Engineers, which estimated $508,994 for construction costs.
Several things have changed in the project, said Jewell, including an additional of 600 feet of water line and some increase in the project’s scope.
However, the district does disagree that the price difference should be this extreme.
Staff has suggested modifying the estimated cost to be a total of $405,268, but that’s still $100,000 less than Boyle’s estimate.
“What we are saying is that we don’t have confidence in Boyle’s estimate,” said Jewell, who said he wanted to go to a bidding process and see if the bidders also came up with the same cost estimate.
Boyle stood by their numbers, said Jewell, and didn’t want to explain how they arrived at them.
“If you’re right it really puts Boyle’s credibility on the line,” commented one of the directors.
“Boyle may be right and we may be wrong but we’re pretty confident that ours is the correct figure,” said Arant. “If we get eight or ten bids and they all say $500K then we’ll know.”
By DONNA JORGENSEN
Since Valley Center is ever-growing, some of our newest residents are asking: What is the Honorary Mayor’s Race? What does it mean?
The Honorary Mayors race was started many years ago, by our first Honorary Mayor and long-time resident Judy Haynes. She collected money for Western Days to support her campaign, $1 a vote. Haynes was the only person running, so she became the first Honorary Mayor, and remains Honorary Mayor Emeritus.
The title Honorary Mayor is decided purely by which non-profit organization raises the most money for their candidate, to put into their campaign.
The final showdown occurs on May 23, the date of the Honorary Mayor’s Shoot-out at VC Community Hall. On that night they will announce the new Honorary Mayor of Valley Center.
What are the duties of our Honorary Mayor? It could be to judge the Irish Stew Cookoff, help MC the Miss Valley Center Pageant and ride in the Western Days Parade. I guarantee you it will be nothing associated with politics, the growth issue, the sewer issue, or anything serious in Valley Center.
Following are rules for the Honorary Mayors Race 2003:
MAYORS RACE RULES
Candidates must be 18 years of age or older, a resident of Valley Center and be sponsored in writing, either through the newspaper or in a letter to the Valley Center Chamber of Commerce, by a Valley Center nonprofit service organization of which the candidate is a member.
No candidate shall be sponsored by more than one organization.
No organization shall sponsor more than one candidate.
The campaign of each candidate shall last no more than 60 days and not less than 30 days. The last day of the campaign shall be Friday prior to the Western Days Parade.
At a time designated by the Mayor’s Race committee the candidate and/or a representative from his/her sponsoring organization shall present to the Western Days Treasurer in room 5 at the Valley Center Community Hall, a check in the amount of campaign funds raised in the previous 60 days by the sponsoring organization, along with a full accounting of all campaign funds raised.
At no time after entering room 5 shall a candidate or his/her representative leave until all money is presented.
At the time of accounting, those present, in addition to the Western Days Treasurer, shall be the Western Days (Co)-Chairperson(s), Mayors Race Committee (Co)-Chairperson(s) and each candidate and his/her representative.
The candidate from whichever organization raised the most money will be named the new Honorary Mayor of Valley Center and shall serve for one year or until a successor is named.
All sponsoring organizations shall receive the amount of money they raised, less 5%, which will be donated by the Western Days Committee to Valley Center Parks and Recreation to help defray the cost of rental of facilities for the Western Days event.
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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