Santa arrived in Valley Center on Saturday afternoon just in time for the community Christmas Party at the Valley Center Middle School.
With sirens wailing in the distance, children excitedly jumped up and down until he came into view riding atop the tiller fire truck accompanied by three other fire trucks.
The party was a true community effort reports Lilly Weeda and Diane Conaway, two of the party’s organizers.
VC high school students provided materials and instruction for the youngsters to make their own ornaments such as reindeer candy canes, glittery pine cones and colorful angels.
Kim Bezdeka provided face painting for many smiling faces. Brian Keaveny of Rainbow Tropicals donated live Christmas trees to each of the families that attended.
Free Polaroid photos with Santa were provided along with Christmas cookies, hot cocoa and hors doeuvres donated by Chilis in Escondido.
Hundreds of gifts were donated by individuals, businesses and local service clubs. Even the Rotary Club of Solvang helped out by delivering about 100 gifts gathered by their community.
Escondido Education COMPACT hosted a toy and food drive in Escondido that also was put to good use.
Santa Mike O'Connor of Paradise Mountain had a busy day by participating in the Escondido Christmas Parade in the morning and the Valley Center party in the afternoon. The crowd was estimated at about 500 people.
County Dept. of Public Works Deputy Director Doug Isbell called The Roadrunner Tuesday to say that the County has heard the community’s message loud and clear about wanting to keep the k-rail divider.
“We are working with the contractor to find a suitable method to install a k-rail between opposing traffic. That should be implemented in the next couple of weeks,” Isbell said, “probably after Christmas.”
After that the County will look at the possibility of keeping the divider as part of the permanent structure when it’s done in 18 months, he said.
Looking for something special to do during the holidays?
Bring your visitors to the Valley Center History Museum, located on Cole Grade Road next to the new library.
Even if you don’t have holiday guests, you may find some of the new displays appealing.
A late 19th century reed pump organ has been donated and is the newest exhibit.
The museum also has new local Indian baskets on display. They date from the late 1800s-early 1900s and were all made by local people.
If you are looking for last minute gifts, the History Museum has some unique items for those on your list
The museum will be open during the holidays on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, from 1-4 p.m. They will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
By THOMAS J. FRANCL
At the Dec. 2 meeting of the County Board of Supervisors, they discussed several important issues resulting from the Paradise and Cedar Fires.
In addition to directing immediate action on critical items, the Supervisors requested County staff to study and make recommendations for solving other major problems identified during the fires.
Knee-jerk decisions are being avoided and ground work for revolutionary changes to many county policies has begun.
There is a universal determination to drastically reduce the risk of wildfires and greatly improve the responsiveness of fire fighters, law enforcement, and county staff.
Following are the actions taken at the meeting plus other initiatives currently in process.
This list is evolving and many directives are already being acted on.
• Establishment of the San Diego Regional Fire Prevention and Emergency Preparedness Task Force in conjunction with the City of San Diego. Sheriff Bill Kolender will co-chair the task force.
• Immediately allow county fire marshals the authority to require brush clearing within County limits.
• Immediate increase of fire prevention efforts for County-owned or controlled property.
• Launch of an aggressive public education program.
• Develop options and funding for fuel management including prescribed burns, fire breaks, dead tree removal, and brush management on both private and public lands.
• Review County building and zoning codes to reduce the risk of structure loss.
• Pursue funding from Federal and State agencies for hazard mitigation, fuels reduction, and forest health protection.
• Research the possibility of creating a regional fire protection district including acquisition of a fire fighting helicopter.
• The California Dept. of Forestry will maintain a fire fighting helicopter at Gillespie Field through the winter months.
• Petition the state legislature to modify the “Fire Season” definition in San Diego so that it lasts throughout the year.
• Explore the feasibility of establishing a “Reverse 911” system that would utilize mapping software to identify what wired phone numbers to be called with an appropriate emergency message.
• Funding for cleanup of hazardous materials in the fire areas is under consideration.
• Review of inter-agency mutual aid agreements will be undertaken.
There has also been some unconfirmed effort to implement an old-fashioned siren notification system in each community as well as community-based radio stations.
Two note-worthy testimonies offered during the meeting. First, Chairman Greg Cox related that he didn’t have to ask for help from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s staff in the fire aftermath. They came to him to ask what they could do to help. This pro-activeness toward San Diego County was previously unheard of.
Second, it was related that local environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, are now in favor of “intelligent” brush clearing, including prescribed burns.
Wildfires are a natural occurrence and man’s presence has suppressed fires to the point that the amount of fuel available has grown beyond control. The federal government’s recently adopted smart forest management may be applied to public lands in our county.
By DAVID ROSS
(The following features the Valley Center Relief Fund. If your organization is doing something to help fire victims, we’d like to do a story about you!)
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Kelley Hedges estimates that one percent of the families in Valley Center were impacted by the Paradise fire.
His goal and the goal of the Valley Center Fire Relief Fund, of which he is president, is to help those for whom there is no other help available.
That’s many of the fire victims. “One of the big deals of this fire,” says Hedges, “is that, unlike the Cedar fire, it followed the poverty line. While 90 percent of the Cedar fire was outside of the poverty line, 90 percent of our people were not insured or fully insured.”
No other community in the County was hurt as badly as Valley Center, he says.
“My understanding from California Dept. of Forestry is that we had two deaths and 223 houses and 125 outbuildings burn. No other numbers of any community were that high compared to the population,” says Hedges.
When money is unavailable from FEMA or other organizations, when non-tribal members who homes burned on the reservation are unable to get assistance, Hedges and his group is ready to step in.
“Our goal is to help anybody, as long as they’ve got a pulse, whether or not they have paperwork,” says Hedges.
Valley Center Fire Relief Fund is a 501 (C) 3 charitable organization, which means that your donations to it are tax-free.
It was able to get tax free status so quickly because it started as another organization entirely before the fires.
“Originally it was started to help underprivileged kids,” says Hedges.
But once the fires started, the organizers quickly decided to get a DBA for Valley Center Fire Relief and to begin raising funds.
They started with three goals: 1) “To get the top people in town and those with the biggest hearts on board.” 2) To empower a board of local pastors, who would act as screeners for the funds to be disbursed and 3) To help anybody who needs help.
The pastors who do the screening are Bill Trok of Ridgeview Church, John Sale of Valley Center Community Church, Father Bill Kernan of St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, Tom Linley of Calvary Miller, Dwayne Carter of Horizon Christian Fellowship and David Craig of Light of the Valley Lutheran Church.
“Our thought was that pastors have a talent for reading people and many of the people affected go to their churches,” says Hedges.
The pastors do a four page screening of each family. They then ask the family to register with FEMA first.
They have processed over 180 applications. The majority of these have received $3,000, although some have gotten less if they needed less.
In the process they have uncovered three frauds. In one instance Pastor Sale went to FEMA and reported that a woman who said her house had burned down hadn’t. She had gotten $7,000 from FEMA when they were discovered. Police set up a sting operation and nabbed the woman when she came to pick up her check.
The fund is operated by a board of directors, Kelly Hedges, Abe Boulos, Nancy Layne, Diane Conaway, Larry McKenzie, and 13 volunteers.
A subcommittee consisting of : Norma Shoemaker, Carrie Hedges, Tom McAndrews, Donna Taylor, Mimi Van Koughnett and Terry Van Koughnett, keeps the accounts, maintains the data base, and writes the checks. They are the ones who caught the frauds.
So far the relief fund has raised $200,000. Their goal is to raise $300,000, and to help 100 families.
Another problem is finding housing for those who lost their homes.
“That’s why we gave $9000 to get the grant for Interfaith Community Services.”
Many people who had lived on area Indian reservations won’t be going back because in some cases rentals are no longer being allowed.
“There’s literally hundreds of these people who can’t go back,” says Hedges.
His group is looking at three phases. “First phase will be to get people back on their feet with enough money to make a difference as far as a down payment on a trailer or a car goes.”
Phase II is erosion control and cleanup. “An example of someone who is doing something about that is Ridgeview, which has $70,000 in their account. We’re going to help them,”
Phase III is permanent rebuilding.
Hedges is somewhat proud of the fact that the group grew their $200,000 out of relatively small donations.
“We haven’t gotten help from any of the big boys,” he says. “Our largest donation was $10,000.”
Other donors have included (but are not limited to): Valley Center Vaqueros, $500; Park West Landscape, $1000; Pacific Orchid, Inc; Todd Banks $400; Jack & Caroline Bose, $1000; Gary & Linda Gaydia, $500.
“We have been doing this full time since the fire, which is pretty remarkable because people said we wouldn’t make $50,000.”
Hedges and his wife, Carrie, own a home construction company, an Internet company and a real estate company.
“This was really the last thing that my wife and I needed because we needed to run our companies, but somebody had to do it.”
But he has faith in their hopes of reaching their ultimate fund-raising goals.
“If everybody just talks to their sphere of influence, everybody knows ten people, then we would reach or surpass our goal.”
Valley Center has had a rough year, says Hedges. “When you put in the Newcastle Disease and the Fruit fly epidemic, there has been devastation on a lot of these same people.”
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Hedges gives credit to several people who helped get the fund off the ground. That includes Carolyn Zajada of California Bank & Trust, David & Graciela Burk, who donated $25,000 of pottery that members of the fund have been selling all over town, VC Community Church, Sherrie Ness at Bates Nut Farm, who allowed the group to sell holiday crafts at their location, and Daybreak Church of Carlsbad for Adopting Valley Center.
Any young women between the ages of 17 and 24 who are interested in serving their community as Miss Valley Center are welcome to apply. Applications are available at the high school or by calling Karen Greene at 749-1863.
The 2004 pageant will be Saturday, March 6 and the contestants will be in the running for scholarships and other prizes.
The pageant is promoted and produced by the not-for-profit Valley Center Pageant Association.
Questions? Call Dianna Greene, president, at 740-1020.
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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