San Diego’s newest tourist attraction--the Valley Center History Museum--opens its doors to the public on Monday (June 23) at noon.
The museum, free to all, is located next to the new County Library branch on Cole Grade Road, about one-half mile north of Valley Center Road.
Although the museum will feature many displays and exhibits, the central attraction is expected to be a 100-year-old mount of a giant California Grizzly Bear, an animal that has been extinct since 1866 when the largest grizzly in California history was captured in town. The original 2,200 pound animal remained in Valley Center until about 1900 when it was sold to a buyer in the south.
Norman Syler, chairman of the Museum Board of Directors, described the bear as very lifelike. “It stands 8 feet tall, weighs 1,200 pounds, and realistically conveys the sense of fear and trepidation that early settlers of our town must have felt when this animal came knocking on the cabin door,” he said. Before the grizzly became extinct, some 10,000 such bears had roamed the state over a 300-year period.
Following the Monday opening, regular museum hours will be Tuesday through Sunday from noon-4 p.m. Mornings will be reserved for school and tour groups by advance appointment . The complex will be closed on Independence Day, July 4, and Labor Day, Sept. 1.
For more information on the grizzly or the museum, visit the museum web site at www.valleycenterhistory.org or call 749-1305.
Col. Irving Salomon was a diplomat, an industrialist and a philanthropist, and when the Valley Center History Museum opens its doors, visitors will learn more about the late Valley Center resident who brought celebrities, United Nations dignitaries, and world leaders to his ranch on Lilac Road.
At an invitational ceremony that will precede the Monday opening of the museum, the building will be dedicated to the memory of Col. and Mrs. Salomon who acquired and operated the historic Rancho Lilac in 1945. He died in 1979; she passed away in 1999.
A boulder outside the museum building will be inscribed with their names and will be dedicated in their memory. Museum chairman Norman Syler said it was the wish of Board members to honor the Salomons after family members came forward to fund construction of the building. Louis M. Wolfsheimer and Abbe S. Wolfsheimer Stutz, daughter of the Salomons, provided $250,000 to build the museum. Stutz attended a one-room schoolhouse on Lilac Road.
Col. Salomon served the United Nations over many years in many roles. It was in this capacity that he and Mrs. Salomon greeted and hosted some of the world’s most illustrious luminaries in their rustic ranch house. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was among the world-class notables who accepted the Salomon’s invitation, then went on to write a newspaper column about her visit.
After purchasing Rancho Lilac, first set out in 1865, Col Salomon continued the ranching tradition when he began breeding Herefords, Hampshires and quarter horses. Until his death, he traveled worldwide as a U.N. representative.
Visitors to the museum will see a private collection of photos showing the Salomons with the likes of Pres. Eisenhower, Mahatma Ghandi, Golda Meir, Marian Anderson, Ali Kahn, Prince Albert, John Foster Dulles, Myrna Loy, Jack Haley and Ralph Bunche, who visited Valley Center after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
This week officials began releasing sterile Mexian fruit flies to combat the infestation first noted here least winter.
Efforts to eradicate a Mexican fruit fly infestation in Valley Center have progressed successfully to date, allowing officials to cease aerial treatments of the approved organic presticide Naturalyte and begin releasing sterile Mexican fruit flies.
The first round of sterile releases occurred Thursday, June 12, with subsequent releases planned every week. About 28 million sterile flies will be released each week over the 28 square-mile eradication zone (one million per square mile).
“With this transition to the sterile release program, we are taking an important step toward eradication of this infestation,” said CDFA Secretary William (Bill) J. Lyons, Jr. “I’d like to thank the community for their cooperation on a successful aerial treatment program. As a farmer, I understand the hardship that comes with a quarantine. We are pleased with our progress, and we remain committed to eradicating this infestation as quickly as possible.”
Pesticide applications and sterile fly releases have been used successfully in tandem to eradicate past fruit fly infestations in California. Once a series of pesticide treatments substantially reduces an infestation, sterile male flies are released to ensure that any fertile female flies still in the area will be unable to find a wild mate.
The Valley Center infestation was detected on November 21, 2002. The Mexican fruit fly is native to southern and central Mexico. The fly attacks over 40 different kinds of fruits, including citrus and avocado. Damage occurs when the female fly lays eggs in the fruit. The eggs hatch into maggots which make the fruit unfit for human consumption.
In a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing, the County Dept. of Public Works has sent a letter to the spokesman for Open Cougar Pass Coalition saying the County has no responsibility to open or maintain Cougar Pass, closed since March.
DPW apparently didn’t know that the Board of Supervisors planned to allocate funds for the road’s improvement, which it did Tuesday.
“With no record of enabling easements or offers to dedicate easements for public right-of-way, the County has no existing right or responsibility to provide for public travel on this road,” DPW Director John L. Snyder wrote in May.
The letter was sent to Brandon Cesmat, spokesman for the Coalition, and also to the VC planning group, which last month passed a resolution calling on the County to do something to open the road.
Butthis week the Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $211,479 from Supervisor Bill Horn’s Community Projects budget for improvements to Cougar Pass road.
According to the board letter: “Cougar Pass Road in Hidden Meadows/ Valley Center. Residents in the area hope to have the road improved in the near future and then dedicated to the County. No improvement plans have yet been prepared, nor has construction been approved. The funds allocated here will be earmarked for potential use by the Dept. of Public Works to improve this road in the future. Before approval of construction, the appropriate environmental review will be prepared and the appropriate CEQA findings will be made.”
Supervisor Horn’s office told The Roadrunner this week: The supervisor recognizes the need to pursue a permanent solution to Cougar Pass Road in terms of making it a public road and he has taken steps to begin the process of determining the best way to do it.”
One question concerning the road connection between Hidden Meadows and Valley Center has been settled: The federal law known as Revised Statue 2477, which the Coalition had hoped would be used to declare the pass to be a public right of way, does not apply in this case.
According to Snyder, director of DPW, “. . . research shows that this statute applies primarily to roads on federally-owned lands and is not applicable to Cougar Pass Road.”
By DAVID ROSS
The County’s Dept. of Public Works June 9 outlined plans to study doing a two-lane road with passing turnouts and turn lanes on Valley Center Road, from Cole Grade to the San Luis Rey River, to members of the VC planning group.
The County team included Brendan McNabb, project manager, Doug Isbell, DPW’s deputy director for engineering services, and VC resident Erica Ryan and Bruce Schmith of Berryman & Henigar, the company hired to do the engineering study. The road improvement is in the preliminary stages of development.
The County does not actually have the money to improve the road. But one reason to do the study is to go after funding, such as Transnet gasoline sales tax money.
“This is the absolute jumping off point,” said Isbell. “We have no funds to build this road. This is just a study. We do have funds to build the intersection at North Lake Wohlford road. This is one project that might be funded by Transnet if it is refunded.”
There actually isn’t any of that money available either, but the state is going to be asking voters to reauthorize the tax. If that happens, the County would put the E. Valley Center Road project in line to get that funding.
The six mile stretch of road, which is now only two lanes, would, after the work, have two 14 foot lanes, and six foot bike lanes, giving it a 72 ft. wide footprint.
McNabb told the audience that DPW wanted to get some input early on before any of the plans are set in concrete.
At the same time that DPW is looking at the improvements to the eastern section of VC Road, it will also look at improving the intersection of Valley Center Road & North Lake Wohlford Road (near the middle school).
The engineering work will include:
• flow aerial topography
• preliminary engineer analysis
• roundabout and signal study at North Lake Wohlford
• preliminary right of way analysis
• preliminary utilities analysis
• preliminary geotechnical analysis
• preliminary construction cost estimate
• preliminary environmental study
Draft environmental review is scheduled for August of ‘03 with a final environmental review scheduled by October of ‘03.
Final design work for North Lake Wohlford is scheduled to be completed by spring of ‘04 with the North Lake Wohlford project going to bid in the summer of ‘04. Construction is expected to take place between August-December of ‘04.
The goal of the road improvement, Schmith told the board, is to improve the safety and increase traffic operations to accommodate future traffic; to improve the efficiency at the N. Lake Wohlford intersection and to provide for bike, pedestrian and equestrian use.
According to Schmith, the study will also look at “fixing” the Vesper & Valley Center Road intersection.
According to Isbell, the road will be designed for 55 mph. for 10,000 trips per day.
When questioned about this by the board, Isbell said, “It will be designed to the current standards but we will also look at the appropriateness of these standards for Valley Center.”
Planning Chairman Larry Glavinic asked how the County plans to handle the funnel of VC Road going from a four lane to a two lane road at Cole Grade.
“We’ll carry the transition as far as is necessary so that it won’t come down to two lanes right at Cole Grade,” said Isbell.
Glavinic followed up by asking, “You’ve got three miles as straight as an arrow. Is there any traffic calming to be anticipated?”
Planner Andy Washburn asked if there was any chance that a “k-rail would be installed to separate the two directions, as it does on “the luge” going to Escondido.
To both questions, Isbell replied, “We’ll have to look at it.”
Planner Sandy Smith advised: “It seems like a long stretch of road and there’s a lot happening. There’s still a lot of concern near the school about safety and speed. Is there’s a way to look at this road in different chunks because I think it does change along the way.”
Resident Mary Meade was concerned about the school traffic coming onto Valley Center Road.
“A couple of periods during the day it’s so bad that the buses block the roads for long periods, as well as blocking the Sheriff’s station and fire station,” she said and asked if the engineers might come up with a way for the buses to egress onto VC Road without creating this logjam.
Isbell promised to look into that.
Resident Jon Vick wanted the County to explore putting in landscaped median to break up the road from N. Lake Wohlford down to the casino.
Resident Brian Bates asked if the County would consider a signal at VC Road & Mac Tan.
“Somewhere in the future, sure, if the development justifies it,” said Isbell.
One resident asked what actual difference there would be between the existing road and the new road, except for the turn lane.
Isbell said that by putting in a center turn lane, the capacity of the road is “significantly increased.”
He noted that DPW is contemplating running a third lane on the grade leading down to Rincon Reservation.
Isbell and the team will return with an update on the road, probably this fall.
Not all car pursuits of a gunman end well, as anyone who knows of the policeman shot dead last week in Oceanside can attest.
Fortunately one involving Valley Center deputies Thursday and a man armed with an assault rifle did end happily and without injury, even for the shootist.
Two VC deputies, John Kwiatkowski and J.D. Van Middlesworth, emerged as genuine heroes, with one of their squad cars sustaining damage that probably came from rounds fired at them by the fleeing suspect.
On June 12, about 9 a.m., Escondido police notified Sheriff’s Department Commun-ications Center that a vehicle stolen from Escondido was possibly enroute to the Rincon Indian Reservation.
The stolen car, a beige Buick Regal, was spotted on County Road S-6 in Pauma Valley with two occupants.
When the deputy and California Highway Patrol officer tried to stop the car, the driver screeched away. The suspect led the officers north on County Road S-6 to Hwy 76, then east on Hwy 76.
During the pursuit the driver pointed a M-99 semi-automatic weapon, an AK-47 lookalike, and fired several rounds.
This caused the CHP officer to spin off the road and hit a fence. The pursuit continued with two VC deputies, Kwiatkowski and Van Middlesworth and a second CHP officer.
The suspect then turned back eastbound on Hwy 76 and fired several rounds at the pursuing deputies.
He led them back across the Rincon Reservation to VC Road. The pursuers, who were approaching the intersection of VC Road and North Lake Wohlford Road were joined at this point by Pala Deputy Jim Bennetts.
Officers then began trying to cause the Buick to spin out by ramming it from behind and from the side.
This was the last day of classes at the middle school, and officers were concerned about the children’s safety.
As they passed the middle school, Van Middlesworth’s car was in front of the suspect, while Kwiatkowski was behind.
Just in front of Valley View Casino Kwiatkowski was able to cause the suspect to spin off the road and into a private driveway, where the Buick hit an engine block, became airborne, and ended up in the bushes.
Deputies arrested Frank Rodriguez, a 30-year-old Hispanic male and Autumn Reed, a 27-year-old Indian Female for attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
Both surrendered without further incident and without any shots being fired by deputies.
Two rounds may have hit Kwiatkowski’s vehicle, one on the brush guard and one below the bumper. Further investigation will determine if the holes were made by rounds or caused by something else
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.