August 10, 2005 - Top Stories
By DAVID ROSS
The Valley Center Fire Protection District’s budget, adopted at the board’s July meeting, “holds the line,” over last year, according to finance committee chairman Dan Thornton.
That doesn’t mean that everything is rosy financially. It just means that things haven’t gotten worse.
The operating budget is $852,950.
This includes $619,000 for personnel, $15,500 for training, $91,000 for services (such as audit and legal), $45,000 for vehicle maintenance, $44,700 for station and office, $31,500 for miscellaneous, such as medical supplies and safety equipment, and $5,750 for prevention programs.
“Overall, except for personnel, the budget holds the line pretty much over last year. What we have been doing over the years is trying to make up for the fact that in a small district like ours, it’s the peaks, the unexpected expenditures that kill us,” explained Thornton.
The district has established depreciation accounts for items it goes through consistently. Those accounts are paid into every year, so that when a hit comes, it doesn’t create such a ripple on a particular year’s budget.
If the money in an account is not used in a given year, it is rolled over to the next year.
“We’ve been doing that on equipment, on engines, on fire line—on anything that has a fixed life expectancy,” said Thornton.
The personnel expenditure that he was talking about was the creation of the new position of district administrator, which was filled a few weeks ago.
In a conversation with The Roadrunner this week he added, “If you compare it line item by line item, we’ve held the cost. The biggest increase was personnel costs, which was the result of added growth to the district and implementing internal changes as recommended by the auditor.”
At the July meeting he commented, “The actions we are taking today brings personnel up to a level that we need to keep up with the district.”
There had been a concern that hiring a new administrator would give the budget quite a hit. But other savings and additional fire benefit fees from additional growth made up the difference.
Nevertheless, projections out to 2007-2008 show that the district will begin dipping dangerously into reserves.
“It underlines the fact that we are still going to have to go back to the voters,” said Thornton.
“It wouldn’t take more than a couple of unplanned disasters to put us there,” commented director Mel Schuler.
New Administrator
The board welcomed the new administrator, Brynda Wierson.
“She will take over the administrative duties for Joy Justis [who has had those duties for many years]. It will be a slow transition,” said Board Pres. Stan Johnson.
The board talked about proposed changes to the administrative office to accommodate Wierson.
This includes moving desks and functions around and adding a conference table and a desk for the bookkeeper.
The object of the changes was to separate the fire marshal from the public and give her more storage for building plans.
When the renovation is complete there will be a reception area just inside the entrance. Visitors will be able to see a clerical person, or the administrator and have a place to sit.
For a long time Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary has wanted to separate the administrator from firefighting activities.
Renovations should be completed by the third week in August. Price tag will be about $15,000, to come from money that the district made when it sold the land for the Sheriff’s substation.
Then it was agreed that the money would be used for an office remodel.
Mold Update
So far the cost for dealing with the most recent infestation of mold at the Lilac fire station is $64,190. This includes replacing drywall. Everyone is back in their living quarters now.
Another $11,000 was spent to repair the roof.
The district is going to write a letter to Supervisor Bill Horn’s office asking for some help with this unexpected expense.
Mobile Kitchen
The board voted to sell a mobile kitchen bought in the 1990s which has been used for events such as the annual Fire Expo in October.
The portable grill no longer meets County health regulations. Since the County has made a practice of routinely shutting down service clubs and other charities this year for food preparation violations that in the past were not violations, the board decided it couldn’t afford the liability any more.
Someone jumped the gun recently and began taking down possibly illegal signs before they had authorization, Sheriff’s Sgt. Darrell Carr told The Roadrunner this week.
We have had reports of people being told that their signs were illegal and that they faced fines, including some signs that were removed from a chain link fence next to one of the ballfields.
According to Carr, “Some signs were taken down prematurely, by one of our Senior Volunteers.”
However, just because a sign was taken down prematurely doesn’t mean you should put it back up.
“They were in the area that we are going to be addressing,” said Carr. “It just started a little bit early.”
Carr said the department wants to have a procedure in place, and a logbook to record where signs are taken down, so that when people make inquiries they can answer whether the enforcement was done by the department.
These rules are being firmed up in meetings to be held this week.
Once that happens local residents can expect to see Senior Volunteers out taking down illegal signs again.
By the way: a sign is not illegal because of content, it is illegal because of location.
Recently San Diego Gas & Electric crews began moving power poles back from where the road widening of Valley Center Road will take place during the next two years.
This is a temporary move. Within three years all utility poles along VC Road will be put underground, according to Brendan McNabb, project manager for the the road widening.
The second phase of the road widening is due to begin this fall. It will take the road widening from approximately Woods Valley Road up to the intersection of Valley Center & Cole Grade Roads and a little beyond that.
Four members of the Pauma Valley 4-H Club took their animals to the Ramona Jr. Fair last week.
Lindsey Duckworth and Alexis Oswalt both received Blue Ribbons showing lambs on Wednesday.
Lindsey Duckworth, Chelsea Dyer, Alexis Oswalt, and Kate Richards showed pigs on Thursday. All received blue ribbons in their weight division.
Kate Richards’s pig received the Grand Champion Award.
On Friday Chelsea Dyer received a Blue Ribbon on the Market Steer and on her heifer. Her heifer went on to be awarded Grand Champion in the Breed Division.
The VC Library’s Teen Club, Cafe Beat, hosted their first community event at the library Thursday. They presented Pirates of the Caribbean, provided a snack bar and dressed like pirates. About 50 people attended. The club made enough to help begin plans for their next event. Meantime, they meet every other Thursday afternoon and receive art lessons from artist, Ricardo Favella. He is teaching them a variety of techniques that eventually will be applied to an art project - probably a mural.
Palomar Mountain Players Sept. 4, 2 p.m. will put on a musical revue at the fire station on top of the mountain. It will be a take-off on musicals such as Oklahoma and Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, with some local references. The show costs $5 to attend. Proceeds will benefit the soon-to-be built Palomar Mountain Community Center. Shown are players Gretchen Simpson, Debra Sasse, Bob Sasse, Colleen Ronchetti, Pete Weisel, Duncan Schute and Anna Wilcoxen. They are on fire chief George Lucia’s 1929 General fire pumper. A sunset ride on the pumper will be given away as a door prize. Questions? Call 723-6299 or 742-1599.
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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