Bill Bonney, a 28 year resident of San Diego County, a heavy equipment operator, and a director of the VC Fire Protection District whose computer expertise helped “bring the district into the 21st Century” died July 7 in Philadelphia of an apparent heart attack. He was 38.
Born Sept. 24, 1964 in San Bernardino, William R. Bonney was for eight years a heavy equipment operator for the California Dept. of Forestry.
In May/June of 1990 Mr. Bonney was hired by the Valley Center Fire Protection District as a Paid-Call Firefighter (PFC).
After 2 years characterized by hard work, dedication to the fire service, and an outstanding attitude Firefighter Bonney was promoted to a Paid-Call Fire Apparatus Engineer (PC FAE) in 1992.
Also in 1992 he became the Firefighters Assn. President, a post he held for two years. In this position he set up live demonstrations at the annual Firefighter Safety Expo.
In 1994 Mr. Bonney was elected as a director of the Valley Center Fire Protection District Board.
Mr. Bonney spent numerous hours with Captain Howard Maxcy and Director Patrick Garcia preconstructing the new KME fire engines that were soon to come to the District in 1997.
He also helped Chief Kevin O’Leary institute the use of Defibulator units in Valley Center.
Mr. Bonney helped bring the fire district into the 21st Century by installing and updating the computer systems at the District with helpful programs such as Firehouse.
With the community continuing to grow during Mr. Bonney’s employment with the district the need for a detailed and visual mapping system was needed.
Mr. Bonney again put in many hours installing and helping to maintain the Lynx Technology mapping program. He helped update the map books that the Engine companies used which, were at the time, nearly 20 years old.
Mr. Bonney left the fire board in 1998, but continued to be an asset to the district by helping maintain the Firehouse and mapping programs and maintaining a positive connection with district staff and all VC firefighters.
During his eight years with CDF Mr. Bonney was a dispatcher and fire dozer operator.
Friends, family, and associates attended a memorial service and reception in Mr. Bonney’s honor Saturday at the Fellowship in the Pass Church, in Beaumont, followed by a ceremony with a CDF honor guard honoring his life, family, and career with the CDF that included a large apparatus display and procession through Beaumont with the Transport-Dozer he was assigned to, two other RRU Transport-Dozers along with 20 chief’s vehicles and fire apparatus from Riverside County, USFS, and a Tillered Aerial (T-2) from Moreno Valley.
Mrs. Bonney was presented with Mr. Bonney’s fire helmet by CDF Unit Chief Tom Tisdale.
On Monday Mr. Bonney’s casket was carried on a 1956 Ford-Crown Hose Wagon leading a procession of emergency vehicles from the CDF, U.S. Forest Service, Sycuan, Pala, and San Pasqual Reservation Fire, Valley Center District Units, to the Valley Center Cemetery.
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Survivors include Diane, his wife of 16 years, of Valley Center; mother, Alta Bonney, of VC; sons, David Bonney of 29 Palms, Brian Bonney of Valley Center and William Bonney II of VC; brother, Jeff Bonney, of San Bernardino; sister, Cherny (and Tom) Newby of Olympia, Washington.
The family suggests donations to the American Heart Assn.
McLeod Mortuary was in charge of arrangements.
By DAVID ROSS
VC-P School District will hear July 23 whether it is eligible for $1.7 million in matching funds from the State for the VCHS performing arts theater.
The money, if approved, would come from the Joint Use Program, created by Assembly Bill 16 last year, and which is part of California’s School Facility Program.
Fifty million dollars is available to be apportioned this month for joint use projects. That means that the school district will be acting in partnership with another governmental agency, in this case, the VC Parks & Recreation District.
At Thursday night’s VC-P school board meeting Supt. Karen Jobe gave an update on the application, and noted that she has traveled to Sacramento twice within the last month.
The first meeting was with officials of the California Dept. of Education who were concerned that the performing arts center might not qualify as a true joint use, since it is a theater.
Mrs. Jobe told them that the theater would be used by many members of the community. In the end, however, because the entire project will cost more than what even matching funds would cover, the district’s application was changed to be for matching funds for the part of the theater that doesn’t include seating.
Meetings can be held on the stage and backstage areas, making that part eligible for matching joint use funds, Mrs. Jobe told the board.
The changes in the application qualifies the district for over $1.7 million in matching funds.
The fund-raising efforts so far have brought in $600,000.
Mrs. Jobe will speak to the parks board on July 24 (after hearing whether the grant is approved), and ask the board to set up a community committee to raise the remaining $900,000.
After that the district will have one year to have its construction plans approved. Construction could start as soon as next summer.
When Ralph Capuano, Customer Services Specialist for Michael Crews Development, saw a letter-writer’s suggestion in The Roadrunner that VC’s new library and museum complex needed a flagpole, he mentioned it to his boss, Michael Crews.
Michael and his wife Kelly, both active in the community, agreed that a flagpole would enhance the new civic complex.
They took on the project in its entirety, buying the flag pole and having it installed by their company, together with a spotlight.
Supervisor Bill Horn and representatives from the San Diego County Library will officially dedicate the flagpole on Wednesday, July 23 at 9:30 a.m.
The community is invited to the event. Coming a month after the June 22 dedication of the Valley Center History Museum and seven months after the Dec. 4 opening of the new library, the flagpole dedication marks a fitting end to the festivities which have surrounded this County project. Valley Center Boy Scout Troop #6732 will raise the flag.
Library officials, museum volunteers, and the Friends of the Library told The Roadrunner they appreciate the Crews’ donation, as well as the special efforts of Capuano, landscape supervisor Luis Feria and his crews, and Don Upson from Valley Center Equipment Rental for seeing to it that the project was successfully completed.
For more information, contact the library at 749-1305.
The flag at the Valley Center post office flew at half mast on Wednesday to mourn the death of Warren Farrell, a VC mail carrier who died the afternoon of July 8 while delivering the mail.
Deaths involving mail carriers are extremely rare and one hasn’t happened in San Diego County in two decades.
He overturned his mail car on the 14000 block of Pauma Vista Drive, and was apparently thrown from the vehicle. The accident remained undiscovered for the better part of an hour until the driver of another vehicle reported it about 4 p.m.
Farrell, 33, a rural carrier leave replacement, was on his first day of replacing the regular driver on the route, according to Mike Cannoni, public affairs officer for the U.S. Postal Service.
The VC post office has 15 drivers, of which four are substitutes like Farrell.
He had worked for the VC post office in a substitute capacity for 18 months.
Accident investigators determined that Mr. Farrell wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Postal drivers are required to wear seat belts unless they are making deliveries to boxes that are 13 to 15 feet away from the road.
On Wednesday postal inspectors were sent to the site of the accident and recovered all of the mail. It has been delivered. Any damaged mail was put in a plastic bag and marked as damaged before being delivered.
That same day the USPS sent grief counselors to the VC office to help the people there talk about the incident if they were emotionally distraught, said Cannoni. This is standard procedure when a traumatic event like this occurs.
However, postal deaths are highly uncommon. “It’s rare everywhere. Most injuries are related to lifting, tripping or dog bites,” said Cannoni.
Mr. Farrell, 33, was an Escondido resident. He was unmarried. He was the son of Diane & Ted Farrell of Escondido.
A memorial service was held Tuesday evening at the site where his car overturned.. A jacaranda tree was planted in his honor.
By DAVID ROSS
On Palomar Mountain, where several years of drought has created a potential catastrophic tinderbox, the volunteer fire department is taking a high tech approach in trying to keep nearly 300 homes safe.
For the next couple of weeks residents of the mountain will see firefighters out and about mapping the community.
The unpaid firefighters are using GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping technology to plot every house in the community.
Many are hidden by trees. Many are unoccupied most of the time. But no longer will the fire department be ignorant of where the houses are physically located.
This is one of the first ever uses of GPS technology by firefighters in Southern California, possibly in the nation. GPS technology uses the same type of hand held equipment which guided U.S. armored forces in the desert of both Persian Gulf wars.
According to Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Chief Carl Bauer, the Mountain has a unique situation.
“Any existing maps are grossly inadequate,” says the chief. “We’ve basically had to start from scratch.”
They are using GPS technology that is being donated to the fire department.
The GPS location of existing homes will be checked against aerial photographs of the area as well as parcel maps. Then volunteers will physically go to the homes in question to see if they are occupied. They will also check on conditions of the roads to see if fire trucks can get in and out.
As volunteers transition in and out of the Mountain department, new people will be able to quickly acquaint themselves with the layout of the community, using the maps created by this process.
The mapping of the Mountain won’t just help local firefighters locate homes in the forest. It will be even more vital when fire crews from other counties and states arrive to fight the ultimate enemy, the “campaign fire.”
“We want to have a packet of information that’s simple to read that we can hand out to strike teams and incident commanders,” says Bauer.
The last time such a fire happened on Palomar Mountain (the La Jolla Reservation fire of October of 1999), about 8,000 acres burned, hundreds of firefighters were deployed, and one of them, Gregory Pacheco of New Mexico, died.
Firefighters deployed from other areas are very much in need of any information that can help them become familiar with the area and find homes.
Chief Bauer stresses that the volunteers are NOT looking for code violations, something that the independent-minded Palomar residents are always on the watch for (not the violations, but the inspectors).
“That’s not what we do,” says Bauer.
If residents have questions, they are invited to call the department at 742-3701 or e-mail the chief at palomarmtnfire@att.net.
VICE PRINCIPAL Bryan Farmer, who comes to VC from Carlsbad, has been named the assistant principal at the middle school.
The appointment was made at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
From Pennsylvania originally, Farmer taught three years in Valencia and Carlsbad before being tagged for the job at the middle school.
“He has a passion for middle school and that’s what we were looking for,” Supt. Karen Jobe commented at Thursday’s meeting. “We’re excited to have Bryan here.”
In an interview with The Roadrunner on Monday she added, “We are extremely pleased to have Bryan’s enthusiasm for middle school students, his experiences with sports and coaching, and his knowledge of curriculum as a part of our VC middle school staff credentials.”
At Farmer’s current assignment, Aviara Oaks Middle School, in Carlsbad, he is the eighth grade English and P.E. teacher and conducts various administrative actions, serving as acting administrator in the absence of the principal and vice principal. He also coaches, creates advanced English curriculum and manages the after-school English tutorial program.
Previously he taught eighth grade English at Arroyo Seco Junior High School in Valencia from 1999-2000, and was eighth grade English teacher at Shawnee Intermediate School, in Easton, Pennsylvania.
The Valley Roadrunner
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