November 16, 2005 - Top Stories
Valley Center’s biggest arts event of the year, possibly of the decade, will happen this Saturday, 7 p.m. with the opening of the Maxine Theater at VC High School.
Tickets are now on sale for the grand opening. Call 749-7390 or buy them online at http://maxine.vcpusd.net. Tickets are $30 apiece. Refreshments are free.
Music on Saturday will be provided by the Crazy Rhythm Hot Society Orchestra, playing music of the 1920s and 30s.
The orchestra will perform first inside the theater and then, weather permitting, take the music outside for dancing.
Former Miss Valley Center and current news anchor Tamara Damante will MC the grand opening.
Program
The program for Saturday’s performance is as follows:
The Lord's Prayer. Composed by Albert Hay Mallotte in 1935. Performed by Rich Horne. Accompanied on the piano by John Martinoff.
God Bless America
There's No Business Like Show Business. Composed by Irving Berlin. Performed by Adult Valley Center Pauma USD Staff Chorus.
Solo performance by Laralee Beck, VC Choral Director. Conducted by Laralee Beck. Accompanied on the piano by Sydney Circle.
Recognitions
Mistress of Ceremonies Tamara Damante, Superintendent Karen Jobe.
Crazy Rhythm Hot Society Orchestra. Directed by Mike Henebry. Performing Big Band music of 1920s-1934s
Intermission
Mike Henebry Orchestra
Performing music from 1938-1948. Guest artists:
Sitting in: Jeff Beck, Valley Center Middle School Band Director. Trumpet.
Christopher Hollyday, Valley Center High School Band Director. Alto Sax.
About the artists
The Mike Henebry Orchestra is a Swing Era Big Band from the southern California area (Orange County). They play the music of, basically, the years 1935-1948. In their incredible library of over 1900 charts, they have authentic arrangements from all of the major bands of the period: Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Woody Herman, etc.
Many of the arrangements are the Real McCoy. For example, over 4300 of the Benny Goodman arrangements came from the actual Benny Goodman library.
The Crazy Hot Society Orchestra is an eleven piece 1920s dance orchestra. They play the Big Band music of 1920-1934, the "hot" jazz as well as the sweet music and the novelty numbers of the period. The band plays note-for-note transcriptions from the original 78 rpm recordings of the "Roaring Twenties." The instrumentation is authentic and so is the interpretation. They have a female vocalist as well as several male vocalists.
Jeff Beck earned his Masters degree in Jazz Performance at San Diego State University. While studying music in college, Jeff toured all over the world as a professional trumpet player. Currently Jeff is a member of the local 325 musicians union. He is one of the top call professional trumpet players in San Diego County. He is the lead trumpet player in the San Diego Chargers Band. Jeff has played with many world renown musicians such as Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Valley, George Sheering, Harry Connick, Frankie Lane, The Temptations, and The Four Tops, just to name a few.
Christopher Hollyday toured with Maynard Ferguson as a featured soloist. From 1989-93, Hollyday toured worldwide and during this period he made four recordings for RCA records. In 1993 Hollyday pursued his desire to study composition and larger ensemble arranging techniques at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. During this time he also became very interested in music education. In 1996, Hollyday relocated to San Diego where he has taught at Valley Center High school for six years. Hollyday recently began pursuing a master degree in jazz studies at San Diego State University.
About Tamara Damante
Miss Damante has been working in Palm Springs for KESQ Newschannel 3, since June 2004. She started out as the morning anchor and has since moved on, to anchor the prime time shows at 6 and 11pm.
Since moving to the desert, she has hit the red carpet to cover the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and interview such notables as Nicole Kidman, Liam Neeson, Kevin Spacey, and Michael Douglas. She also had a chance to land an exclusive interview with Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas.
Most recently she investigated the controversy over ticket sales for the upcoming Eagles concert at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, and did a special report on tracking sex offenders in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
Back in August, she anchored 3 hours of continuous, live coverage when a summertime wind storm wreaked havoc on the desert. She is excited to be a part of breaking hard news stories on a daily basis. Most importantly she's happy to be growing in the field she loves, while living so close to home.”
She still keeps her roots in VC and last April MC’d the Miss Valley Center Pageant.
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You can find information on future productions at the same web site. The Roadrunner will also provide a schedule of events each week in the Dining & Entertainment page.
One way you can donate to the Maxine and get permanent recognition for yourself or a loved one is through purchasing a plaque to be placed on the back of one of the 500 theater seats.
According to Supt. Karen Jobe, about 190 seats remain to be purchased. Each seat costs $500.
The VC Planning Group made three recommendations to the the water district on its draft sewer policy Monday night.
The planners recommended:
• That wastewater services should not be provided outside of the northern and southern Villages as set by the urban limit line adopted in June by the Board of Supervisors.
• That sewer service should not be based on economic viability, need or land value, but only because a property is within the urban limit line (i.e. within the two Villages).
Note: The first and second motions are basically the same points made in two different ways.
• That any wastewater facility built or operated by the water district be subject to review and comment by the planning group and design review board.
A fourth motion, that wastewater storage ponds should only be located within the Village areas that they will serve, was tabled until next month.
The group’s votes in this matter are purely advisory. The water district, which will adopt a policy in the next month or two, is at liberty to use or ignore any of them. However, the water district did ask for the input.
According to water district Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant the district also asked for comment from the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use.
Arant told The Roadrunner: “We’re going to wait until they [the planning group] finalize their recommendations and for comments from DPLU. Once we get all that we will take it and look at it and then take it to our board of directors, which will decide on the policy.”
Much of the discussion Monday night centered around the issue of wastewater holding ponds and where they should be located.
The issue of keeping sewer connections within the two Villages, where the highest density has been placed by GP2020 was also important to most planners.
Larry Glavinic, chairman of the group’s GP2020 subcommittee explained, “Probably one of the most heated things with GP2020 was wrestling with the upzoning and downzoning, and the economic perks of the upzone. Designating where that line should be drawn was quite emotional. This was complicated by the fact that we were attempting to keep our community character. “Those boundaries are key to what we are doing with GP2020,” he said.
Planning Chairman Andy Washburn added that the urban limit lines were created to contain sewer service. Although there are two GP2020 maps under consideration by the Board of Supervisors, both have the same urban limit lines.
In making the motion that wastewater services should only be available to properties in the Villages the planners stressed that evaluations for sewer should only be based on GP2020 and that no exceptions should be made.
Often people who are concerned about sewers fear that they will create growth. However in the case of GP2020, the County’s DPLU has created more density than the water district can physically sewer.
Asked if the water district could sewer all of the density in the Villages, Arant answered, “No, “No, based on what we know. I have serious questions about that. We did raise that question with the County. Their response was that’s what we are going to plan and you can come up with the sewer.”
Arant said they don’t know exactly what their sewer capacity is.
“The capacity will depend on the area we can use for disposal of effluent. That’s the ultimate controlling factor. In our mind it’s a system of priorities. Ultimately the district has to look at what the County approves,” he said.
Arant added that he hopes there will eventually be one large storage pond, rather than several small ones scattered about.
Planner Keith Simpson asked if such a pond could have a public use, such as fishing pond.
Arant pointed out that he has unsuccessfully tried to get the parks district to use Lake Turner for public recreation.
He added, “Keep in mind that a seasonal storage pond is supposed to be dry most of the time. And we would have irrigation demand all year round. The storage pond is intended for years such as what we just had [last winter].”
Bill Lane, president of the VC Little League,asked how the water would affect kids on a Little League field.
“The water is very safe,” said Arant. “I would not recommend licking the grass right after you water it, but reclaimed water is used all over Southern California on school grounds and golf courses and I’m not aware of any major issues or problems with it. . . .There are many, many safeguards.”
In the end, an organization that was set up as a social club for seniors in Valley Center, didn’t have enough young people in it to function.
Enough in the 55-65 range anyway, or even in the youthful 70s.
The Senior Associates, one of Valley Center’s more venerable clubs, will have its last meeting in December.
Recently four of the officers of the club, including the president, the officer in charge of trips, the officer in charge of entertainment, and the secretary, all said that they wouldn’t be able to do the job anymore.
According to Marion Zombolas, the member who has faithfully recorded the club’s doings in the newspaper over the years, and who is herself in her 70s: “We had a lot of members who were in their 80s and 90s. A lot of members had moved away or passed on.”
There weren’t enough vigorous younger members to carry on running the club.
Another problem has been declining attendance. The meetings have gone from weekly, to bi-weekly, to monthly.
Although the club has over 100 members, normally only 20-25 attend the monthly meetings at Hideaway Lake Clubhouse.
Will another senior organization rise to take its place? Perhaps that will have to wait until the VC Parks & Rec. District builds a senior center, a project that is, so far, still just a dream on paper.
You have just a few weeks to take advantage of federal regulations that allow you to increase your deductible donations to charity—To benefit various VC causes such as the Maxine Theater.
That’s because in September Congress passed the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act (KETRA), which makes it possible to increase both your tax benefits and charitable giving for this one year only.
The contribution limit for gifts of cash has increased from 50% of adjusted gross income to 100% for contributions made by Dec. 31. Note: You don’t have to confine your gifts to disaster relief.
The rules that normally apply were passed to keep rich folks from completely eliminating their tax liability through charitable giving.
Part of the purpose of the legislation, according to its sponsor, Senator Charles Grassley, was to keep the contributions to hurricane relief from draining dry other charitable giving.
The same gifts of cash are also exempted from the 3% reduction in itemized deductions for people whose gross adjusted income is more than $145,950 (known as th Pease provision).
There aren’t a lot of people who can benefit from such deductions, however those who can benefit are the types of donors that charities rely upon year after year.
There are also ways to fund gifts to charities with assets from your IRA or other retirement plans.
Obviously, there are many charities in Valley Center that can benefit from such increased giving.
There is, as we mentioned, the Maxine Theater. But there is also St. Stephen’s Church’s St. Vincent de Paul pantry, Paradise Community Services, Interfaith Services, Tierra Miguel Farm, the VC High School Foundation, the Rotary Foundation, any of our local service clubs. Check with your tax advisor and with the organization that you intend to donate to to make sure it qualifies.
We don’t mean to exclude anyone, so if you know of a local charity that we should mention, let us know and we’ll include it in a list that we’ll publish next week and on our web site.
Help us bring some holiday cheer into the lives of those who need it most.
There are still 60 children that have not yet returned to permanent housing following the fires of October 2003.
Some of the children are still in housing so temporary that their families do their cooking on barbeque grills. In addition, the school has provided us with the ages of 40 more boys and girls that could really use some Holiday Cheer.
To help bring a gift that hopefully brightens the lives of these children, The Roadrunner Staff is again setting up a Giving Tree in our office.
Hometown residents are welcome to assist by stopping by to get information to purchase a holiday gift for one of the children.
We would need all gifts wrapped and returned before Dec. 9 so we can be sure they are delivered before Christmas.
Please call The Roadrunner staff at 749-1112 with any questions.
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.