April 27, 2005 - Top Stories
By DAVID ROSS
Perhaps the most important result from Thursday night’s reception for tribal leaders and representatives of local and state government to talk about common concerns, is that they agreed to meet again.
The reception, held at the meeting room at Valley View Casino, with refreshments by the San Pasqual Tribe, was really a get-acquainted session for people who rarely interact in a non-confrontational way.
They included Supervisor Bill Horn, members of various county agencies, such as Dept. of Public Works, local agencies such as the water district, Pauma and Valley Center planning groups, aides to Assemblyman Ray Haynes and Senator Dennis Hollingsworth as well as members from the Pala, San Pasqual, Rincon, La Jolla, Pauma and Mesa Grande reservations.
They all live in an area with more Indian reservations than any other county in the state, and probably more than any other county in the nation.
Seven of these tribes are within a few miles of Valley Center. Five of these have already built casinos in one form or another.
Perhaps, more than anything, the meeting represented a path for both Indian and non-Indian people to “walk a mile in each other’s moccasins” to coin an old Indian saying.
It was sponsored by the Tribal Liaison Subcommittee of the Valley Center Planning Group. It’s chairman, Larry Glavinic, acted as the host and facilitator.
“How do we deal with our neighbors. How can we be a little more ‘proactive’ about our common problems?” he asked rhetorically.
He noted that the advent of all of these casinos has injected a completely new element into the area’s life. Whether the end result will be positive or negative remains to be seen.
He said he thought the new dynamic was “kind of exciting.” However, he said he said that the purpose of the meeting was that the region needs “unified solutions” for common problems.”
He added, “We hope, at the end of the day,” to have something we are all proud of.”
He encouraged the tables of those attending to brainstorm about the possible “opportunities” and “challenges.”
That turned out to be the purpose of the evening’s exercise.
What emerged was a melange of observations, complaints and goals that will have to be refined over a period of time.
Some observations that emerged:
• Valley Center has limited roads in and out—Yet its traffic is increasing. The only way to deal with this is to cut down on the number of cars with buses, car-pooling, other forms of transportation.
• Communications are lacking between tribal leaders and non-tribal entities. Several tribal leaders expressed disappointment that the community at large is not aware of the large amounts of money that they have given to both the County and the State be used to mitigate traffic problems.
• Tribal members want to be part of the community, instead of being apart from it.
• Opportunities exist for tribal and community members to lobby the state legislature to get more money for roads.
Not all the comments were positive. One VC resident, Mike O’Connor, stated plainly that he felt that casinos have had a negative impact on Valley Center.
He said that they have contributed to excessive traffic, caused more hazardous conditions, and contributed to crime.
He asked that casinos close one day a week to “give the community a rest.”
He added, “I didn’t vote for the law that allowed the casinos. Valley Center is the most impacted county in the country. I’m a firefighter who has gone on many calls. . . . I’m concerned with the lives that are being lost.”
He criticized Valley View Casino for first stating that it would be a non-alcoholic casino because it was next to a middle school, and then later reversing its stance.
Janet Beronio, general manager of Harrah’s Rincon, said she was interested in ways to move more people safely within the community.
Joe Chisholm, chairman of the Pala Pauma Sponsor Group, said that he sees the casinos as an opportunity to preserve the agricultural and rural lifestyle of the areas. It’s in their interest to preserve the kind of region that brings in tourist, he said.
“Tourism is what San Diego is all about— We can be the area where the tourists come.
“What we have is something very unique. What we need is a vision. In history most visionary people get their heads cut off.”
Obviously, that is a result to be avoided.
The group agreed to meet again in about a month.
From left, VC Rodeo Queen contestants: Cara Ouelette, Sara Stridsberg, Christine Monreal, Alexis Boles, Mackenzie Cayford, Rodeo Queen 2004 and Kalyn Pierce. Saturday at Aerie Park they competed in the final countdown. They performed one riding pattern out of three drawn from a hat with a “queen’s run” as a finale. They wrapped up the competition with speeches expressing their views on Valley Center and the job of Rodeo Queen. The four judges had their work cut out for them. The winning Queen and her court will be announced and crowned at the official Awards Dinner and Dance May 13 at 6 p.m. at VC Community Hall. Tickets are available from each contestant or any committee members. Questions? Call 760-749-1112. Ask for Theresa.
“I’m not going to let the library get turned into a congregating place for gangs,” Supervisor Bill Horn told The Roadrunner this week.
So the library has been getting some moral as well as muscle support from the Sheriff’s Dept. and some security guards.
The library was the supervisor’s baby from the start. He watched over it and even made sure that it was built with a fireplace.
So it was probably no surprise that when the supervisor’s office started getting complaints from VC residents that gangbangers were hanging out outside the library, stealing and verbally threatening members of the staff— He started making some phone calls.
“I got several complaints. A member of my staff handled the complaints and a couple of Mondays ago she brought it up at a staff meeting,” said Horn.
The library has two nights a week, Wednesday and Thursday, when students are encouraged to go there to study until 9 p.m.
This has been happening without incident for several years. Then, last month, the library started to have problems with a small group.
“What it boils down to,” Lt. Sean Gerrity of the VC Sheriff’s Substation told The Roadrunner, “Is that Sandy Puccio the librarian asked for help.”
One night Lt.. Gerrity went to the library and “contacted” some of the troublemakers.
“There are two or three who dress the part of gang members but aren't the part. They aren’t gang members. At least, not yet,” said Gerrity.
The police ran some license plate checks and some “visitors” were from San Marcos, from an area known for gang activity. However, they weren’t necessarily gang members.
“Most of the kids being unruly weren’t associated with gangs,” he said.
Then, a week and a half ago they got reports of some thefts from student’s backpacks.
One result of this is that they’ve curtailed the bus stops at the library to students who have a note saying that they are supposed to be there studying.
Another result is that there are now security guards at the library on the study nights.
At the same time VC librarian Sandy Puccio is looking at putting together a program, like a teen club, to give youngsters something to do at night.
“At this point it looks like the problem is curtailed,” said Gerrity. “My deputies have been going by there rather routinely.”
“We don’t want to have any gang problems,” Horn told The Roadrunner. “I didn’t built that place as a congregation for gangs.”
The Sheriff’s Dept. recently upgraded what had been up until then considered a “gang wanabee” group into an official gang. That means that Valley Center officially has its own gang.
However they don’t seem to have developed the reading habit yet.
Complicating or adding spice to the task of land development (depending on your perspective) in San Diego County is the North County Multiple Species Conservation Program.
This program will affect 15% of the total land in Valley Center, and varying percentages in other parts of the County. It affects a total 172,000-acres, with 98,379 acres in the unincorporated area.
Its goal is to maintain biological diversity by creating wildlife corridors and to preserve endangered species.
At the same time it is supposed to provide a method for landowners to use their land without having to jump through as many environmental hoops as in past years.
The County is divided into three parts for the purposes of MSCP. The part containing VC is called the North County MSCP.
The County Planning Commission will get an update on this process this Friday, 9 a.m., 5201 Ruffin Road, Ste B, San Diego.
County staff will update commissioners on the planning status and issues regarding the North County MSCP.
The public will also be allowed to comment at this meeting.
In VC the land affected includes Hellhole Canyon, Paradise Mountain and lands to the south, lands to the north and south of Lake Wohlford, a corridor linking lands north of Lake Wohlford with Moosa Creek to the northwest, corridors along Keys Creek and Moosa Canyon connecting Valley Center to the I-15, and the I-15 north-south corridor.
Pauma Valley’s share includes non-tribal lands along the San Luis Rey River, the lower slopes of Palomar Mountain (the upper slopes are outside of the plan area), and lands north and west of Pala Indian Reservation. Lilac Ranch falls within a hard line area where certain lands are committed to preservation in the process of developing that Specific Plan.
The County is negotiating similar hard line conservation areas on Guejito Ranch. The MSCP includes all publicly owned open space areas (e.g., Hellhole Canyon Open Space Reserve).
One concept that applies only to the North County MSCP is “working landscapes.” These are agricultural areas in Pauma and VC that are considered to maintain conservation of endangered species. This include areas along the San Luis Rey River.
Farming will be encouraged in these areas, including offering farmers economic incentives to continue farming.
Although only 15% of VC’s land is in the MSCP, that doesn’t mean that Valley residents won’t have to pay a price for being in one of the most sensitive environmental areas in the country.
One expert put it this way: Half of the endangered species in the United States are west of the Mississippi. Half of those are in California. Half of those are in San Diego County.
“Southern California is considered one of eighteen global biodiversity hot spots,” says Kris Preston, a member of the VC planning group. She has a doctorate in biology and is a research fellow with the University of California Riverside Center for Conservation Biology. She is also a member of Friends of Hellhole Canyon Preserve.
“In addition, Southern California is now considered to have the highest number of endangered plants of any region in the United States except for Hawaii, and the highest number of endangered birds along with Hawaii and Florida,” she says.
Because we are talking about groups of endangered species, rather than single species, conservation efforts have “switched from the traditional paradigm of preserving a single species to a more inclusive approach of conserving suites of sensitive species within the context of the natural community that they occur,” according to Preston.
This process was first initiated in 1991 as part of the California Dept. of Fish and Game’s Natural Community Conservation Planning Act . This was adopted after the the California Gnatcatcher was listed as a federally threatened species.
The proposed North County MSCP is at the point where a notice of preparation of an environmental impact report has been sent out.
This draft EIR will be prepared and then distributed for public comment. Then a final EIR will be prepared (in response to comments on the draft). Once all the jurisdictions and agencies sign onto it, will be go into effect.
Under its provisions the County will be given the power, formerly reserved to the state and federal governments, to issue endangered species take permits.
“MSCPs are intended to conserve species and habitats in perpetuity as well as to streamline the process and reduces the costs of future development,” says Preston. “By identifying areas important for conservation and focusing on these areas, other lands will be more easily developed. Mitigation for development projects will occur within the identified Pre-Approved Mitigation Areas (PAMA) and lands outside of these areas will not be targeted for conservation.”
Not everyone thinks that the MSCP is a good thing for land owners.
“It’s going to be ugly for those people who own land in the MSCP,” comments VC planning group member Larry Glavinic.
“I think we need to reevaluate MSCP in the broader context of livable communities,” he says. “It’s too easy for them to stop things. A quintessential example is Rancho Lilac where you have the Army Corps of Engineers, California Dept. of Fish and Game and the U.S. Wildlife Service, and they don’t all agree. When you get involved with one you get involved with all of them, and the County is probably the most reasonable of them at all.”
Implementing the MSCP “is going to be a challenge and some people are going to get really upset,” he says.
Preston believes that more good than bad will result from the process.
“It will enable our community to maintain beautiful vistas, to preserve natural open space with sensitive wildlife and plants, and to retain agriculture.
“It will allow developers to go into projects with an understanding of where best to develop and what the mitigation requirements will be; this is all clearly spelled out in the plan and ordinances. It is intended to streamline the process of applying for permits. Development will be allowed both within and outside the PAMA, although there will be stricter standards and higher mitigation ratios within the PAMA.”
This will include purchasing mitigation lands for development projects through land acquisition by private and public agencies.
“ As development proceeds in Valley Center, mitigation lands will be sought within nearby PAMA areas of Valley Center. This could provide a benefit to landowners with undeveloped lands in these areas,” says Preston.
One of the highlights of the Western Days Parade this year will be the appearance by the Middle School Jazz Band.
“I’m doing everything I can to make sure every jazz band student attends the parade,” band instructor Jeff Beck told The Roadrunner this week.
“This is an excellent opportunity for the students to perform for their community and in a small way show their appreciation for the outstanding support that the community gives to the music program.”
They will probably perform two tunes, the most well known of which is Carwash, a big hit from the 1970s.
Jim Quis Quis of the San Pasqual Tribe has taken on the task of building a float for the band to perform from.
“I want to personally think Jim for the help. We couldn’t do it without him,” said Beck. “I also want to thank Chamber President Tom Bumgardner for setting up the meeting.”
Anyone wanting to help with this should call him at 291-5570.
Microphones are “desperately” needed for the float. Twenty are needed for a cost of about $2,200.
If you can contribute, make checks out to the Valley Center Band Boosters and drop them off or send them to the middle school.
* * *
On April 9 the Jazz Band took first place at the Fullerton Jazz Festival.
The students will be performing for the San Diego County Board of Education banquet at the Town and Country hotel, San Diego, May 21.
“That’s a huge honor,” Beck told the paper. “Out of all the music groups in the county we were chosen for this.”
They were chosen after the band performed at the “Administrator Dessert,” an event where many music teachers and administrators from the county attend to hear the top groups perform and dessert is served.
“People who heard us perform were so impressed that they wanted to hear us at the banquet,” said Beck.
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 © 2005, 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.