“This coming year, our expenses will outpace our revenue by $109,000,” Dan Thornton, chairman of the VC Fire Protection District’s Finance Committee, told fellow directors Thursday night.
The district last successfully asked voters for more money in 2000. Voters barely approved an increase in benefit fees.
“What the trend is showing is that for the foreseeable future we will be spending on average $80,000 to $100,000 more than we are taking in. We are living on our savings. I’m going to recommend to the board going for another increase and doing so on the upcoming election,” said Thornton.
Thornton blames the rising costs of contracting with California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) for the necessity of dipping into the district’s reserves. This year reserves are about $500,000. Another $500,000 is appropriated for a possible new fire station on Cole Grade Road.
“Our situation is not because we are blindly spending,” said Thornton. “The cost is CDF and that’s a cost we have no control over. This district runs extremely tight. We are very conscientious about our spending.”
This is a new trend. The budgetary year that ended on June 30 ran $100,000 in the black.
Director Mel Schuler commented that all of the new construction and building taking place in VC doesn’t seem to help the district financially.
“There’s not a lot of revenue increase when you see the amount of building that’s going on. We get a whole $175 because you build your house here.”
Thornton commented that the district has a problem similar to what has plagued the VC Parks & Rec. District for years. “We can actually afford to build a new fire station, but we can’t afford to staff it,” he said.
“My main point is that our revenues are not keeping pace with our expenses. We’re real tight to the belt. We’ve talked about building a new station and hiring a full time chief, and quite frankly that money is not there. I’m recommending that we approach the 2004 year with the expectation of going to the voters. Education needs to be going on about exactly what we have and what we provide.”
Based on projections of revenues vs. expenditures for the next few years, Thornton said the district will have to tap reserves an average of $120,000 a year unless revenues increase.
“That’s an achievable number to get by a tax increase and a Mello Roos district,” he said.
Thornton and District Administrator Joy Justis are looking at the possibility of forming a Mello-Roos District for the shopping center being proposed for land adjacent to the post office.
The shopping center presents a particular problem in funding because developer’s fees are based on how many buildings are built, rather than on how large the buildings are. According to Justis, this means that the shopping center will pay much less in developer’s fees than the square footage would suggest it should pay.
Schuler commented, “We need to educate the public about how we can only get a certain amount from the existing business, and the limited amount that we get from a house. Because the public is gong to ask, ‘Where do you get your operational funds?’ I don’t think that the average community member understands. They need to understand the cost of doing business. We don’t want to go through all of our reserves. That would be a major mistake.”
Thornton added that at the same time the district is looking at a hemorrhaging budget, it also needs to add personnel.
“We are trying, within our budget, to provide for some extra personnel,” he said.
The budget committee has recommended creating two positions: administrative assistant and fire prevention specialist.
If the district looks at a March election, it will barely have enough time to put together a good campaign, said Thornton.
Schuler said it will be hard to convince people to vote to give more funds to the fire district while expanding the staff.
“It’s kind of hard to say we need more money to operate and then add two personnel,” he said.”I’m saying you are going to have to do a job here. It’s going to be our job to make sure that the general public understands that we have waited and gone as long as we can go before we approached them. When you talk about these two subjects they don’t go hand in hand.”
Thornton concluded, “The district has grown to the point where the public sees us as more than we are. I want to see the change for two specific reasons. We have grown beyond the volunteer level so that when people move on that it’s not an individual system that they have to deal with but an administrative system that is accounted for in the budget.
“So that if down the road Alison [Nolan, district secretary] gets married we can hire someone to fill her space, or when Joy decides to retire. We need to take the time now to factor that in and plan for that changing of the guard. A lot of it is on Joy now—and we haven’t planned for the transition.”
Capt. Kathy Holgate, who was standing in for Chief Kevin O’Leary at Thursday’s meeting, told the board, “For years Joy has had three hats on and you guys pay for one of those hats. But now she can’t meet the requirements for all those hats she wears.”
Longtime civic leader and rancher William Hutchings has been elected chairman of the Valley Center History Museum with School Asst. Supt. Sarah Clayton chosen as vice-chairman.
Hutchings, who had been serving as vice- chairman, succeeds Norman Syler who chaired the museum board of directors for the past two years. Syler, who remains on the board, headed the museum steering committee as it developed plans to build a 1400 square foot building. That complex opened last month on Cole Grade Road.
Hutchings is well known in the Valley Center community as part of a family that has engaged in ranching, landscaping, and public service for more than half a century. In addition to his tenure on the history museum, Hutchings is a member of the Upper San Luis Rey Soil Conservation District, and served 28 years on the Board of the Palomar-Pomerado Hospital District and eight years on the Valley Center School Board.
Mrs. Clayton is Assistant Superintendent of the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District, a position she has held since 1991. Earlier, she was principal of Valley Center Elementary School.
Other officers of the History Museum are Nicky Lovejoy, treasurer, and Joyce Johnson, secretary. Petei McHenry is executive director.
The museum, open free to all, is at 29200 Cole Grade Road. Information on the museum is available at www.valleycenterhistory.org or at (760) 749-2993.
Now the VC History Museum will know where all the bodies are buried in Valley Center.
For over a century the VC Cemetery has kept a book that chronicles who is buried where.
The book, which had entries dating from the 1860s (those pages are missing), is getting old and brown and, if not preserved, will soon fall apart.
Friday morning the cemetery board voted to donate the book to the new VC History Museum to be preserved for future generations.
Museum Executive Director Petei McHenry called the cemetery volume, “a very valuable book.” She promised that it will be kept in a hermetically sealed glass case. “It certainly shouldn’t be stored in plastic.”
Plastic releases fumes that can destroy sensitive paper, she said.
The cemetery staff still refers to the book from time to time, but from now on it will consult copies made from the original.
Over a hundred years ago the organization of the cemetery was considerably more casual than it is today.
In those days, when a family wanted to bury someone, they would leave a note saying which part of the cemetery they had put the loved one.
“We will display this proudly,” Mrs. McHenry told the cemetery board. “This will be a great addition to our collection.”
By DAVID ROSS
The San Diego Humane Society is investigating charges of animal cruelty that allegedly occurred in May during the Valley Center Rodeo.
Specifically, the Humane Society’s law enforcement division is looking into charges stemming from a videotape that apparently shows a bull being shocked by a man with an electric prod while it was in the chute waiting to be ridden.
The videotape was allegedly filmed by a woman named Pat Vinet, who is a member of an animal rights activists group known as Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK). She turned the videotape over to the Humane Society and to Channel 10 News, which carried a story on Thursday night.
Vinet claims to have videotaped six other similar incidents at area rodeos.
Humane Society spokesman Gigi Bacon Theberge told The Roadrunner, “It is illegal to use an electric prod once the animal is in a pen. If it’s not being used to protect people then that’s illegal.”
She wouldn’t comment on the particulars of the investigation, except to confirm that it originated from the videotape.
Gina Mitchell, chairman of the Rodeo, was asked to comment by The Roadrunner. She said, “We didn’t know anything that was happening until we saw the video of the alleged incident and we aren’t at liberty to say anything at this time because it’s under investigation.”
Nicky Lovejoy, president of the VC Chamber of Commerce, told The Roadrunner that she had spoken by phone to an investigator from the Humane Society.
“They said they won’t hold the Chamber responsible. Whoever was running the rodeo would be responsible. They said they are not going to charge us with responsibility,” said Mrs. Lovejoy.
Although the Humane Society is a private nonprofit organization, the state has given it powers to investigate allegations of animal cruelty and then turn them over to the District Attorney if they warrant further action.
SHARK is an organization that has since its founding in 1993 has campaigned against rodeos all over the country, and documented its charges with videotapes.
It is an organization that holds that animals have “rights,” distinguishing it from organizations such as the SPCA, that are concerned with the welfare of animals.
The stock company that was hired by the Chamber, through its rodeo committee, to run this year’s rodeo is Misner and Sons, out of Riverside County.
They were in charge of running the rodeo and handling the animals.
“The law does provide that management could be responsible for anything that happens,” said Theberge.
Whether “management” in this case includes the Chamber would be determined during the course of the investigation, said Theberge.
However the law itself is pretty specific: Sect. 596.7.(3)(e) of the California penal code, (enacted in 2000), says
(e) The rodeo management shall ensure that no electric prod or similar device is used on any animal once the animal is in the holding chute, unless necessary to protect the participants and spectators of the rodeo.
(f) A violation of this section is an infraction and shall be punishable as follows:
(1) A fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) and not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000) for a first violation.
(2) A fine of not less than one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) and not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) for a second or subsequent violation.
Beau Beauregard, former captain of investigations for the Humane Society and SPCA, told The Roadrunner that such investigations are rare. “There are not that many complaints against rodeos. There were less than five in the three years I was there. This is the only one I have heard of having to do with a hot shot.
“This type of piece of equipment is used within livestock rodeos. But there’s strict guidelines when people put on rodeos. Unless it’s to prevent injury of a human they can’t use it. We have to look at the whole scope of things. There are acceptable ways of doing things and unacceptable ways of doing things.”
The PRCA Professional Rodeo Cowboy Assn., which did not sanction the VC Rodeo, also has rules against using the “hot shot.”
Cliff Bernard, a VC resident who was involved in 250 rodeos over a ten year period as a calf roper, and former NPRA champion, told The Roadrunner: “Using a cattle prod is a common occurrence in the cattle industry. However, using a prod during a rodeo competition to enhance an animals performance is not only illegal but highly unethical.
“The top organization is the PRCA and they have very strict rules regarding this type of behavior,” he said. “Amateur rodeos such as the NRPA attempt to follow and adopt the PRCA standards and policies but they have nobody to police what is going on. It’s an honor system for most of these lower rodeos. Unfortunately, it takes a videotape and picture before some stock contractors do a better job of policing the people that work for them. Most stock contractors do not even know it is happening until they are confronted with this type of evidence.”
An old water main that has burst at least three times in the past, did so again Sunday evening.
Ironically, the VC Municipal Water District has already begun a project to replace the badly corroded water main. The nighttime construction project began July 8 and is expected to be finished next month.
The most recent break, in June of 2002, shut down three businesses in the Old Town Center.
“That’s the reason we’re replacing the pipes, because they’re old and need to be replaced” the water’s district’s Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant told The Roadrunner Monday. “This break underscores why we wanted to do this project.”
This week’s break was not as devastating as last year’s, mainly because crews were already in place when it occurred. Part of Valley Center Road did cave in and there was some mud and loss of service to the businesses, but no damage to property.
“Fortunately our inspector and contractor was out there when the break happened. They were able to control it quickly,” said Arant.
The district had wanted to do the project in the spring, but the County’s permission was required because the work involved an interruption of traffic.
According to Arant, the County took two months to review and finally approve the project, and this delayed it until July.
“Hopefully this is the last line break we’ll have on this section,” Arant added.
By DAVID ROSS
A little over a year after paramedics began serving Valley Center and the Backcountry, the fire district has received word that the paramedic service, Sycuan Ambulance, is withdrawing from its contract.
Sycuan Ambulance has given the fire district 90 days to find another provider.
The actual ambulance service area includes not only Valley Center, but Deer Springs Fire Protection District as well as much of the Backcountry, as far east as Lake Henshaw. Ambulances are stationed, at Lake Henshaw, Deer Springs and Valley Center.
The fire department has contracted to the County to provide this service, and it contracts to the Sycuan Ambulance.
It is the far-ranging nature of the contract that has prompted Sycuan Ambulance to give notice of termination.
Before the fire district was sent the notice of termination Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary had heard rumors that the reservation fire department was no longer interested in providing paramedic services.
He confirmed these rumors when he contacted Chief Hank Murphy of Sycuan Ambulance Service who told O’Leary the following:
• Sycuan wants to discontinue providing a paramedic ambulance at Lake Henshaw due to the cost.
• Sycuan would like to continue providing paramedic service to both Deer Springs and Valley Center.
• Sycuan has asked the County to provide additional funding in addition to the $60,000 that it currently provides.
Director Mike Pacheco, who attended a meeting at Supervisor Bill Horn’s office along with Director Stan Johnson, told the board Thursday night that the County would not consider removing Henshaw from the service area.
“Looking at the numbers I can understand why Sycuan wants to get out of the contract,” Director Dan Thornton commented. “I was never comfortable providing ambulance service for the entire area.”
Thornton said he was interested in providing service just for VC. “Couldn’t we just do an RFP (Request for Proposal) for Valley Center?”
He added, “They’ve given us notice that they are terminating, we haven’t even begun to find a new contractor. I think we need to give the county notice that we are terminating, particularly since we don’t know if we can get a successful bidder.”
It would be possible for the district itself to bid to provide the ambulance service, Thornton said, quoting Chief O’Leary, who was absent from Thursday’s meeting.
Thornton said that when the district first looked into being the lead agency for providing paramedic services that they worried about “whether someone might bail on us. Putting this together is a very time consuming job.”
Valley Center is under no obligation to provide paramedic service, Thornton noted.
“Nothing is to prevent us from walking away from it.”
Director Mel Schuler said he would like to invite representatives from Sycuan to come talk to the board. He noted that Sycuan and VC have always had a good relationship in the past. For several years Sycuan provided a free ambulance service to VC, before bidding to provide paramedic service. Paramedic services is a higher level of medical service than the basic life support provided by an EMT ambulance.
Board Pres. Patrick Garcia suggested having special meeting that would include Chief O’Leary and representatives from Sycuan.
Pacheco said he has been contacted by two ambulance companies who are interested in taking over the contract.
In the meantime, Sycuan has offered to do a month by month contract until VCFPD can make other arrangements.
A special meeting will be held Thursday, July 24, at the N. Lake Wohlford fire station.
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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