Business must be good. Countryside Veterinary Hospital, which is currently named Countryside Veterinary Clinic, is rising up on land across the street from the new library. It’s three times the size of the current office.
Deborah Hofler, VMD, who has practiced veterinary medicine here for five years, says she is both excited and a little scared at the prospect. Mainly excited though, she confides with a grin.
When all is said and done she will have spent $1 million on the architectural plans, the building, the land and equipment for the new hospital, which will be located at 29209 Cole Grade Road on nearly three acres.
The veterinary hospital will offer a full range of veterinary care. It will also offer high end dog and cat boarding and grooming in a separate building occupied by The Groom Room, whose groomer is the popular Beverly Kilmer.
Countryside Veterinary Hospital will have a staff of about 20, including Dr. Craig Frobom, DVM. That’s double the staff that it has now. If growth continues they may add a third doctor, she says.
The hospital will be a “state of the art” facility, according to Dr. Hofler, with central oxygen, central anesthesia, an intensive care unit, ultra sound, and anaesthetic monitoring. It will be set up to be able to do critical medical cases and complicated surgeries.
Right now pet owners need to take their animal friends to Escondido for emergency care. Dr. Hofler eventually would like to offer that service up here.
“This will be a place that if you have a dog that’s critical you will be able to get attention here. That’s what I love to do and that’s the direction i want it to go,” she says.
“On the people side of it,” says Dr. Hofler, “we’re going to offer more services than we currently are. The waiting room will look like a living room and be very relaxed. We’re going to try to get more involved with the community.”
She someday wants to set up a pet adoption center and offer basic dog training and a doggie and kitty boutique.”We hope to become a full service animal facility where anything you want done for your pup or cat can be done.”
It took Dr. Hofler over a year to get building permits and approval for her vet’s office. She is still fighting to keep the commercial designation on the property.
* * *
A ribbon cutting and grand opening are expected in June, says Dr. Hofler.
Hours at the new facility will be Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m.-noon.
Vaccination clinics will continue to be offered for dogs and cats every third Saturday of the month, 8 a.m.-noon and every fourth Saturday, 1-3 p.m. at Bear Valley Feed.
The phone number will remain 749-3656.
By DAVID ROSS
The VC fire board Thursday voted to endorse forming a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) in Valley Center.
These teams will assist firefighting units at emergency scenes and disasters.
Mary Meade, a local educator and Red Cross volunteer, first brought the idea to the board in January. They have been studying it for that long to ensure that the program won’t strain the district’s already stretched staff.
On Thursday Meade and Mirra Smith, a trauma nurse of 25 years experience who is helping to form the CERT teams, talked about the program.
One question asked last time is whether the district is liable if volunteers are injured. The answer is that there is currently county liability protection for volunteer emergency workers. Whether it will survive current budget problems is unknown.
Originally Meade was optimistic about VC getting some of the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money that the federal government is disbursing to local authorities to double the number of volunteers from 200,000 to 400,000.
However, San Diego County as a whole is getting $72,000, of which $8000 has been allocated.
Rather than relying on that, Meade said that if they get some of it, fine. Since the group wouldn’t be funded by FEMA it wouldn’t be answerable to FEMA.
CERT teams have traditionally raised their own funds, she said.
“It wasn’t until the end of last year that a level of bureaucracy was added so there would be a way to funnel money from FEMA to the state, and then to the County,” she told the board.
“I’m thinking we can use the old model that has been in place since 1985. We can charge for course offerings to help fund the program and put a percentage into a fund to buy backpacks and helmets,” said Meade.
The “backpacks” are kits of equipment such as helmets, goggles, face masks, gloves, flashlights, storm candles, reflective jackets and survival kits.
She wants to talk to the VC Firefighters Assn. about being “adopted” so that donations could be made through the association.
People don’t have to wait for money from the State to organize CERT teams. The County has yet to create a Citizen Corps Council which will decide how to disburse the money, she said.
Mrs. Smith talked to the Coronado Fire Dept., which has had a functioning CERT team for seven years.
Almost 300 people in that town are CERT trained. The program is run entirely through the fire department.
Volunteers respond to the fire department, which decides how many units go where, drawing on various strengths and skills of individual volunteers.
The volunteers are given a hard hat and pack and are responsible for getting their own training.
“We have been looking at everything from soliciting donations to letting people fund their own packs,” said Mrs. Smith.
One of her goals is to have a CERT trained person at each of the school campuses and to supply training to young people.
Meade would like to call on retired people as volunteers.
Both want to hold training sessions at school auditoriums.
Anyone who wants to join must understand that they may need to pay for their own equipment unless they can get donations. Equipment could cost as much as $150 for a kit.
The plan is for Chief Kevin O’Leary to have one CERT contact number that he will dial. That contact will go down the list of volunteers to see who is available.
“We’re trying to keep it as minimal as possible for the fire chief,” said Meade.
Director Mel Schuler was concerned about yet another charity going to the local well for funding.
“This community is inundated with fund raisers for a multitude of different activities,” he said. We started out with the idea that there is funding available from the state, but I’m hearing that the money really isn’t available,” said Schuler.
“We may or may not get funding. I’m not opposed to the CERT program but I’m opposed to thinking that there’s going to be money there. I don’t know if the community can fund one more project or if they think it’s their responsibility. I would feel more comfortable if the money was in place and someone was prepared to say that VC would get a certain amount of it.”
He added that he wanted to make sure that the district does not oversee the budgeting and accounting for CERT.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s divorced from the fire department. I don’t want us to be in the position of being an overseer.”
Meade assured him that would not happen.
Director Dan Thornton made the motion to approve the concept with the stipulation that the district won’t be financially responsible for it.
By DAVID ROSS
Woods Valley Golf Club is now open to the public.
People getting their hair cut at the barbershop or who have dropped in on the golf course in the last couple of weeks have known about the change. It wasn’t until this week that the official announcement came.
Woods Valley Golf Club LLC has bought the golf course and changed direction slightly. Instead of private golf memberships, the public is welcome to play. The cost is $40 to play the front nine holes twice. When the back nine opens, probably by July 4, prices will probably go up to $50 on weekdays and $65 on weekends.
For that price players get a free golf cart equipped with a GPS system that helps them to know how far their ball is from the cart and from the hole.
The clubhouse will also soon apply for a beer and alcohol license.
Woods Valley Golf Club LLC is owned by NewStar Inc., which is owned by Jim Delhamer. Delhamer is semi-retired from Newland Communities Inc., the developer of Woods Valley Ranch, the 271 unit development that will surround the golf course.
According to the new owner, “From my perspective it needed to be open to the public for open play. I was not interested in owning a private golf course.”
A few private memberships may be offered to homeowners in the Woods Valley Ranch development. Memberships that were sold when the course first opened in January, mainly junior and senior memberships, will be honored.
Delhamer added, “It’s also our intent to upgrade the course and to focus on getting the back nine opened.”
They also plan to “shape Hole No. 2 to make it more interesting,” he said. “We’re going to make it more playable. I would say that it was unforgiving before and pushed too much for minor mistakes.”
A lot of residents have noticed that the weeds had started to overrun large sections of the golf course, which had been advertised as being totally organic.
Golf course manager Glenn Stuart concedes that the broadleaf weeds “did get out of control.” This has forced them to switch from a totally organic approach, he said.
They’ve also had to switch from total reliance on electric lawn mowers to a mix of electric and gasoline powered mowers.
Overall Delhamer says he’s delighted to own the course. “It’s a very nice golf course and I believe that people will love to play on it and that the community will be proud of,” he said.
The course should be able to accommodate about 125 players a day.
People will begin to see major changes in the next 60 days.
A permanent clubhouse is a year or more away, but the temporary clubhouse will start to look more attractive and dressed up. The parking lot will be finished. It will start to look like a traditional golf club.
A practice area is also in the works. This will be visible from Valley Center Road.
Stuart told The Roadrunner, “Jim and my goal is to make this a nice facility.”
* * *
Call for tee times at 751-3007. The course is open from 8 a.m.-dark seven days a week. With longer days the number of hours will increase.
The California Dept. of Food & Agriculture is increasing the tempo of its Mexican fruit fly spraying.
According to Jay Van Rein, spokesman for the CDFA, the interval between spraying will go from every two weeks to from 10-11 days. “The schedule will probably remain there with the arrival of spring,” he said.
This change is a result of the warming weather, which speeds up the reproductive cycle of the Mexfly, which invaded Valley Center’s productive groves last November.
The next scheduled spraying will take place this Thursday, March 27 (instead of next Tuesday), weather permitting. The spraying always takes place at night, beginning about 8 p.m.
The next scheduled spraying after that, said Van Rein, is Monday, April 7, at 8 p.m.
The spraying takes place of the 28 square miles that have been designated as the “high risk” or core areas of the Mexfly quarantine.
He’s never lived in Valley Center, but he is one of us.
Few people in law enforcement have been as closely connected to Valley Center as Lt. Doug Clements, who retired last week after a 35 year career, making him the second most senior officer in the Sheriff’s Dept.
A party and roast was held for Clements at Pala Casino, with retired Deputy Sgt. Don Continelli as the MC and chief roaster.
Clements, who lives in Poway, was the commander of the VC substation from 1991-94 and for three years that ended in 2000. He also spent a few years when he was a young deputy working in Valley Center on and off. He has many times said that his favorite station was always Valley Center and he has maintained his ties with the community even when he was transferred to San Diego in 2000.
For example, he remained a member of the VC Rotary Club, serving as its president.
When he transferred from Valley Center Clements remarked, “What I like best about Valley Center is that it’s a very cohesive community. A lot of people know just about everybody in town. I transferred my membership in Rotary to the VC club when I came up, because I knew a lot of the members here. I really enjoy my association with the club.”
During his 35 years on the force, Clements has served in just about every division of the Sheriff’s Dept. At one time he was one of two lieutenants in charge of homicide. Before that he was in charge of the Sheriff’s Crime Analysis Unit, which earned the California Governor’s Public Safety Award in 1990. He has also commanded the Bomb Squad, the Arson-Explosives Detail, the Fraud-Forgery Detail. He was a watch commander in the Communications Center, one of the founding fathers of the Narcotics Task Force, commanded the first SWAT unit, and worked four different patrol stations.
The 61 year old Clements doesn’t plan to “retire” retire.
He has joined the law firm of Bobbitt & Pinckard as an investigator. As he once remarked, “I can’t imagine not working.”
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
Copyright © 2002, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.