Ten local young ladies will compete for the crown and substantial scholarships on Saturday, March 6, at VC Middle School when the theme will be 2004. “La Noche Bella.”
The pageant is sponsored by the Valley Center Pageant Assn. with support from the VC Chamber of Commerce.
Miss Valley Center serves as an ambassador of the community while attending numerous events throughout San Diego County.
Each of the ten contestants have been busy preparing for the March 6 Scholarship Pageant practicing the opening dance number, speeches, interview techniques and choosing their evening gowns.
Here is a preview of the contestants:
Contestant #1, Tanya Cottrell is 19 years old and the daughter of Samuel &Cristina Cottrell. She stands 5’6’’ and has brown hair and hazel eyes.
A freshman at Palomar College, she is on the speech team. She plans to transfer to SDSU to pursue a communications major and minors in business and Spanish.
Contestant #2, Clarissa Auxter is 17 years old and the daughter of Charles & Ejean Auxter. She stands 5’2’’ tall has brown hair and brown eyes. She is a junior at VCHS where she belongs to the Asian Club and is a member of the California Scholarship Federation. After high school she plans to attend a four-year college to pursue law.
Contestant #3, Elizabeth Nolan (or better know as Libby) is 17 years old and the daughter of Gerard & Dee Nolan. She stands 5’9’’ tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she competes in the shot-put and discus. She plans to attend Palomar College for nursing or the Fire-medic program, as she wants to work for the Valley Center Fire Protection District.
Contestant #4, Lyssa Mueller, 17 is the daughter of Randy & Dawn Mueller. She stands 5’61/2’’ tall, has brown hair and hazel eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she plays Varsity Girls Softball, is on the drill team and belongs to Awanas. Her immediate plans include attending Palomar College to work towards a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and a Spanish minor.
Contestant #5, Liana Hill, 17, is the daughter of Jonathan & Susan Hill. She stands 5’6’’ tall, has brown hair and hazel eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she is a Jaguar mascot for the cheer team. She also plays soccer and runs hurdles in track & field. She plans to study architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo but might go to Palomar College for her Associate degree first.
Contestant #6, Christine Rea, 21, is the daughter of Robert & Valerie Rea. She stands 5’9’’ tall, has brown hair and brown eyes. She is a junior at CSUSM where she plans to graduate in the spring of 2005 with a degree in Political Science. She plans to go to graduate school for a Master’s in American Government and wants to teach at the college level.
Contestant #7, Kaytee Hayes is 18 years old and the daughter of Dan & Diane Hayes and Kaycee & Marty Ports. She stands 5’5’’ tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes. Kaytee is a freshman at the Art Institute of San Diego.
Contestant #8, Cierra Graham, 17, stands 5’6’’ tall has brown hair and brown eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she plays the flute in the band, bass drum in the drum line and runs hurdles in track. Her immediate plans are to enroll at Palomar College in the fall of 2004 to complete her general education then she’ll transfer to a four year college. .
Contestant #9, Chelsea Wright is 17 years old and the daughter Sherrill &Darryl Estes. She stands 5’6’’ tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she plays field hockey and water polo. Her immediate plans are to attend Palomar College then to transfer to a UC or State University. She would like to pursue a career in physical therapy.
Contestant #10, Amy Weeda is 17 and the daughter of Brett & Lilly Weeda. She stands 5’2’’ tall has blonde hair and brown eyes. She is a senior at VCHS where she belongs to the Asian Club, California Scholarship Federation, Jazz Choir, Surf Club, YDA, People to People International and does stats for Varsity Boys Basketball. She plans to attend California State University San Luis Obispo and would like to pursue a career as a chiropractor. Her ambition is to work in the health care field.
Buy tickets for the pageant from the contestants or by calling the Pageant Director, Karen Greene at 749-1863 or Co-Director, Dianna Greene @740-1020. Tickets are $10 pre-sale and $15 at the door the night of the event.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for early seating. The curtains will open at 7 p.m. Any individuals or businesses interested in supporting the scholarship pageant program, call or email vcpagassoc@aol.com. Become a member of the Valley Center Pageant Assn., it is open to anyone who is interested.
‘Q’ of weekA new feature launched this week on page A3 is called, “On the Street.”
Van Quackenbush and an aide who can tell him how to work his new camera cell phone, will be making the rounds asking people around town what they think about the week’s question.
This week’s query is “Should marriage be legally restricted to a man & woman.” Six citizens bravely took it on.
Pertinent questions from the public are invited, for possible use in the column.
By DAVID ROSS
Prop. A, the Rural Lands Initiative, is, according to its author, a measure on the March 2 ballot aimed at saving farms.
But you won’t find many farmers supporting it, and the San Diego County Farm Bureau is fighting the county initiative as if it were a dagger aimed at the heart of agriculture.
Prop. A has been described by some as a city vs. county political battle, as was demonstrated this week when the San Diego City Council voted to endorse the proposition.
Al Stehly, whose family has been in ag in Valley Center for decades, co-chairs the effort to defeat the initiative, RURAL (Rural Urban Ranches and Agricultural League).
He points out that Duncan McFetridge, chairman of SOFAR (Save Our Forests & Ranchlands), which is pushing Prop. A, is not a farmer and doesn’t live in the Backcountry.
Why is Prop. A opposed by farmers? “It’s bad for farmers because it destroys the equity that they built up in their property and provides for no way to divide their property to pass onto their children,” says Stehly.
Although farms of ten acres are the average size in the county, Prop. A aims to keep farms at sizes that are financially untenable for many growers.
In VC many parcels that are currently zoned ten acre minimum or eight acre minimum would become 40 acre minimum.
“It has a major impact on Pauma Valley,” says Pala Pauma Sponsor Group Chairman Joe Chisholm. “In the long run I think it’s another death knell for farming because it takes away the value of the farm that farmers need to be able to borrow against to plant their next crop.”
Chisholm holds that McFetridge and Prop. A supporters have in their minds that true farming in San Diego is dry grasslands composed of many acres.
“When they talk about the difference between ag that is grazing as opposed to intensive ag, such as planted row crops, or dry grassland, Duncan seems to relate only to dry grasslands which needs the larger parcel,” says Chisholm.
“The nurseries, which are probably the highest ag economic value, are probably not seen by Duncan as ag, because they are an almost industrial kind of agriculture. The reality is that that is the future of farming.”
Chisholm adds, “Another thing they miss is that farming in San Diego county is more driven by climate than by soil.”
In San Pasqual Mike Hillebrect has an avocado grove. If Prop. A passes, his family farm would be prohibited from building another house on their 200 acres.
Says Hillebrect, “My family has been farming in San Diego County for three generations. We have held onto our land in good times and bad, with no desire to develop it. But how are we supposed to keep the next generation on the farm if all the value we have worked for for decades is taken away?”
“A lot of properties would lose substantial value and there would be no way for them to sell,” says Stehly.
A good example, he says, is what happened to farmers last year during the Mexfly quarantine.
If that quarantine had not been lifted, farmers would have needed to sell off small parcels of their farms to avoid financial ruin.
“This says you can only sell large parcels,” he says.
“Compare that go General Plan 2020 where they are talking about equity transfers to compensate those whose properties would be downzoned.”
According to Stehly, SOFAR, in its zeal to discredit the S.D. Farm Bureau, has deliberately confused it with another farm bureau in another state.
“In their ballot argument SOFAR says that the Farm Bureau is not composed of farmers, that it is a bunch of corporations, according to a report in 60 Minutes.” The only problem, says Stehly, is that the Farm Bureau mentioned in 60 Minutes was the Iowa Farm Bureau, not San Diego’s.
Stehly, who has been the Farm Bureau’s representative on the County’s Interest Group, which is working with planning staff and various local communities to develop General Plan 2020, says that Prop. A, “doesn’t give the environmental groups the preservation that they have negotiated so far in GP 2020. A good example close to us is the San Luis Rev River. The initiative doesn’t address it.
“It doesn’t create clean air, it doesn’t solve traffic, it doesn’t allow for small lot, low impact development. A 160 acre ranch would stay 160 with one house.”
“The initiative,” says Stehly, “says where development may not occur, but doesn’t say where it can occur. That means the GP 2020 would have to start over.”
Under GP 2020, says Stehly, allowances are made for clustered housing with the rest of a large parcel being restricted to open space.
“The disturbing thing about Prop. A is that it kills the GP 2020 plan. I know a lot of people don’t like that plan but we can negotiate. We can’t do that with this initiative, which was written by a San Francisco attorney, behind closed doors, with no public input. On the other hand, GP 2020 is still ongoing. People have put thousands of hours of work into it. It still has to undergo an environmental impact report and several public hearings. Prop. A doesn’t have to go through any of that.”
At the same time, says Stehly, it would take local planning groups out of the loop for decision making for the 694,000 acres it would affect. It is a direct attack at all of the 26 planning groups in the county, and is a huge attack on the elected Board of Supervisors.”
NEXT WEEK: We interview some supporters of Prop. A.
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If you are interested in donating to RURAL, call the Farm Bureau at 745-3023, call Stehly at 749-4552 or visit their website at rurallands.net.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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