July 12, 2006 - Top Stories
Nearly 4,000 people attended the 6th annual Valley Center July 4th Firework Extravaganza at Valley Center High School, with an estimated 3,000 additional spectators watching from afar, said organizers this week.
The Valley Center July 4th celebration is one of the few family-oriented events in San Diego County that provides an alcohol and tobacco free environment.
“It’s really geared towards kids,” Kelly Crews, Vice President of Michael Crews Development told The Roadrunner.
The show included a rock wall, inflatable slide, inflatable obstacle course, face painting, hoola hoops, a live band and vendors selling goodies that appealed to the kids and adults.
This was the sixth year Michael Crews Development sponsored the fireworks show in Valley Center. “We plan to get even more rides next year to accommodate our growing attendance,” Crews said.
The fireworks show would not be possible without the generosity of several groups including the Valley Center Rotary Club, the Valley Center Lions Club and the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District.
“There are not words that express how much these volunteers mean to this event,” Crews said. “They are incredibly giving of their time and services, and they do it simply for the enjoyment of the community.”
Last week was Doug Johnsen’s first on the job as general manager of the VC Parks & Rec district, and he was, “jumping in with all one hundred and seventy pounds!” He was hired recently to replace retiring general manager Joyce Johnson.
He administrates nine facilities (under a five member board of directors) that includes Adams Park, a six acre parcel leased from the school district, VC Community Center, Aerie Park and the athletic fields., among others.
Johnsen retired recently from 30 years with the San Dieguito Union High School District, where he has been Operations Supervisor since 1989. Before that he worked his way up through the organization as a grounds equipment operator and maintenance utility worker. He was in charge of maintaining the grounds of four high schools, about 300 acres. Whereas he dealt mainly with state funding at that job, in his new position his main source of funding will be county funds.
In 1982 he obtained a B.A. in Recreation Administration from San Diego State University. He had originally intended to get into the recreation field, “but Prop. 13 came along and that kind of dried up some of the recreation jobs,” he says. “So that’s why I went to work for the school district and branched off on a separate career.” Some branch!
Now that he’s retired, the parks job is a perfect fit for him, he says.
He and his wife, Jennene and three children, have lived in VC for 18 years. So the five minute commute, as opposed to two and a half hours a day on the road, is nice. He and his family have been very much involved in community recreation. One child, who graduated from VCHS in 2005, was on the CIF championship football team that year. A daughter is a junior in high school and a son attends middle school. He has been on the Little League Board. He was president of the Pop Warner program and still serves on the board. His daughter helped to develop the softball leagues here, he says.
He has spent a lot of the last month with outgoing general manager Joyce Johnson, going over the books and learning about working with the County. “She’s been great for the parks and rec district. She knew her job from the ground up,” Johnsen told The Roadrunner.
The district has a lot of responsibilities, but not a lot of money to carry them out. Man hours and money are both at a premium.
The general manager’s job is a hybrid of the kind of job that Johnsen is used to doing, hands on operations manager, along with executive functions, such as making recommendations on general policy, preparing the annual budget and assembling a strategic plan.
As Johnsen explains, “We have three sources of income: that which we generate with our programs and through rental of facilities, PLDO (parklands development ordinance) funds, garnered from building fees and County tax money.”
Right now Johnsen is doing a “facilities assessment.” “I’m going around seeing what we have and what improvements need to happen and tying off the loose ends on the new softball utility field located on VC Road & Cole Grade Road,” he says. He’ll eventually present a facilities report to the board. “I’ll be continuing the reports that Joyce started and I’ll be starting my own.”
One thing he is focusing particular attention on is Adams Park. “It’s an older facility, so I’m looking at ways to improve that,” he said. The Little League fields also need maintenance to bring them up to where they ought to be. He added, “Right now we are looking at going out to contract for a landscaping company to do all of the grounds maintenance at the park, the Little League and softball fields and front of the community center.” Currently they are maintained with separate contracts.
“The problem is that we don’t have a caretaker for Adams Park and we’re having to include it in the bidding process. It may be a little more expensive but I think that the product will be improved,” he says.
His personal goal is to improve all the facilities, and not only to improve them, but to expand recreational programs in the community.
Asked to describe himself to the community that is soon going to get to know him even better he says, “I’m a community person and I’m a fair person. I’m a hard-working person.”
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Office hours at VCPR are 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. five days a week.
Valley Center appears to be lagging in getting one of four clinics that Palomar Pomerado Health district voters endorsed in November of 2004 when they approved Prop. BB, a $496 million bond.
However, it was always expected that VC’s 24-hour urgent care clinic would be the last built. And, unlike the two communities where progress is going forward on getting satellite hospitals, VC has yet to form a citizens committee to work with the hospital district in locating a site.
In addition to providing funding for a new Palomar Medical Center, the bond funded satellite facilities for Valley Center, Rancho Peñasquitos, San Marcos and Ramona. Ramona’s and Penasquitos’s clinics are in the pipeline, however, according to Andy Hoang, public information officer for PPH, “As of now there is no timeline for Valley Center.” In Rancho Peñasquitos 4.4 acres on Black Mountain Road are in the process of planning for the satellite hospital.
Last week PPH announced that the health system’s board of directors had authorized the purchase of 2.6 acres for $2.4 million in Ramona. PPH expects to close escrow on the land by the end of next month. It will build a satellite medical center offering health and wellness services such as, urgent care, physician offices, and outpatient diagnostic testing.
Two years ago PPH board Pres. Marcelo Rivera (who still has that job) told The Roadrunner “Ramona’s site is ready and Peñasquitos will come second. Valley Center we know will take time.” It is known that the size of the clinic will be between 4,000-8,000 sq. ft., depending on the needs of the community.
The district expects to work with local citizens to determine what services are needed. That will help in designing the size and configuration of the facility.
Rivera, who is a physician with an office in Ramona, was on the scene in Ramona for the announcement of the land purchase. “This is an ideal site for us, with great access and visibility on Main Street,” he commented about the purchase.
People in Ramona initiated the action of forming a committee to work with PPH. The health district’s administrative staff spent nearly two years working with this group. In Rancho Peñasquitos a town council made up of community leaders worked with the district. Such a committee would probably be helpful in Valley Center, although it may be a little bit early to form one.
Marcia Jackson, chief of planning for the district, said that she would be happy to begin talking to people who are interested in providing input. “What we’d like to do is work with a community group to pick a site, and more important, to determine what services are needed and what that facility should offer,” she said. “It would be great to know who is interested in Valley Center. There may be other ways to begin working with the community anyway.”
Explaining why such an effort hasn’t begun yet, she told The Roadrunner, “Our key efforts are on the hospitals. And then management had agreed to focus on two satellite centers initially and use those first two as learning labs for the next two.” She added, “If there is interest I would be happy to begin working with a group, although we’re not really ready to pull that trigger in Valley Center at this point,” she said.
If you are interested in working on such a committee, contact Jackson by email at marcia.jackson@pph.org or call her at 858-675-5150.
The VC planning group, weary of years of wrestling with General Plan 2020, Monday, in effect, gave up the fight on one aspect of the plan: roads. While accepting the County planning staff’s draft land use map that the Board of Supervisors will vote on this summer, the group said it did not approve of the sections of the VC Circulation Map that project failing roads.
The circulation map was used by the County staff to generate the circulation map. It shows a section of Valley Center Road between Lilac and Miller “failing,” with levels of service of “E” and “F” which are the lowest levels, i.e. gridlock most of the time. The group has accepted the commercial and residential densities in the town center, but not the resulting traffic problems.
The final resolution adopted by the group read, in part:
“The VCCPG supports the August 2006 Draft Land Use Map, subject to further refinement, and the current GP2020 Proposed Circulation Element Network for Valley Center with the exception of those sections of VC Circulation Element maps that project a level of service of ‘E’ or ‘F,’ and
“The VCCPG recommends DPLU [Dept. of Planning & Land Use] and DPW [Dept. of Public Works] continue to plan and develop additional circulation improvements within Valley Center, subject to PG acceptance, in order to achieve projected levels of service above levels ‘E’ or ‘F’ in all areas, and
“The VCCPG recommends and urges state and county officials develop alternate circulation systems and routes and improve Hwy 76 east of I-15 to enable all current and future through traffic to bypass the community of VC.”
The group had previously struggled with County staff to reduce densities in the Villages (previously called the Country Town). They supported densities of no more than 10.9 units per/acre, except for some affordable housing required by state law. They got their way on a lot of it, according to Planning Chairman Keith Simpson. “This was a very aggressive stance for us because the planning department was getting sat on by the State to put in higher densities,” he said.
“Principles that guided us were to retain the rural characteristics by reducing densities and intensive uses. We also wanted to support a rural road standard so that it is more like a rural road and not a country road,” he said. That leaves, “some problems in the total picture because we have failing levels of service right now in the model,” he said.
He credited Senior Planner Bob Citrano of DPLU with trying “different ways to slice it. But it’s just too many cars and it’s going to be a traffic jam all the time.”
After many meetings with Citrano and other staffers the traffic problems for Valley Center Road between Miller and Lilac were left unresolved.
Last month the group passed a resolution asking DPLU not to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors unless this problem was resolved.
“Since we represent the community it’s hard for us to endorse this plan when we have these failing road networks,” said Simpson. He said they persuaded DPLU to back them on lowering the number of lanes for the proposed Mirar De Valle extension to I-15 from four to two.
“Part of that thinking” said Simpson, “was that we didn’t want an on-ramp from I-15 straight to the casinos.”
Residents along Nelson Way near I-15 had complained that a northern extension ran from the proposed Lilac Ranch development through their community. They worked with Citrano and the alignment was moved further north.
Planners spent much time trying to amend the final resolution.
Planner Larry Glavinic wanted wiggle room by endorsing both the staff’s map and the alternate map proposed by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year.
He didn’t get what he wanted but got the key phrase “subject to further refinement” inserted.
From the audience, Jim Quis Quis, a member of the San Pasqual tribe, asked that references to Indian gaming causing increased traffic be removed. He felt that other things besides Indian gaming also contribute to traffic.
Planner Kris Preston commented, “The only thing that is going to impact traffic in that area is Indian casinos. I agree that we should do it in a way that’s not insensitive, but it really is Indian casinos.”
Planner Terry Van Koughnett supported language that wouldn’t offend Native Americans.
Planner Leon Schwartz disagreed. “The newspapers write about the impacts of Indian gaming all the time. I see a large impact from Native American casinos, and I think it paints of true picture of what we are talking about.”
Simpson offered the language finally agreed upon, to enable “all current and future traffic to bypass the community of VC.”
Schwartz objected. “What I’m hearing is that we should give the Indians everything they want or it will shut off the funds to the community. I think we should put something in that the main impact will be people driving to the casinos,” he said. Simpson’s language was adopted.
At its June meeting the VC fire board heard an update on LAFCO’s process for creating a county fire department.
Losing local control and no clear source of funding are complications, directors say.
Fire board Pres. Mel Schuler and San Diego Unit Chief Chuck Maner, who heads all CDF units in the county, have been attending these meetings held by LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission). LAFCO is responsible for creating new districts or adjusting the boundaries of existing ones.
Specifically, Maner and Schuler have been attending a “mini-study” looking at a first step towards creating a county fire agency.
According to Schuler, the first phase would involve creating a department that has 24 areas, including districts such as Valley Center’s, and some volunteer departments. The idea is to create one district, with possibly seven to nine fire companies. Later the rest of the fire departments in the unincorporated areas would be folded into the larger agency.
The various fire agencies are not being asked whether they think such a county fire department would be a good idea, but rather how to accomplish it.
At the same time, no source of funds to pay for this agency or the extra expenses it would incur, have been identified.
“All the areas in the County’s mind are underfunded or underserved,” commented Schuler. “They indicated that whatever they ultimately do, the money will come as new money and not as tax dollars.” In other words, it won’t be funded from existing property taxes.
A major question is governance, said Schuler. “Who will be responsible for these areas and where does that leave us?
“They gave us the impression that it will be like the planning group with eleven members from the various areas,” he said. In other words, an advisory group.
Under this proposal, elections would be held in the various areas, rather than members being elected at-large.
“Of course,” remarked Schuler, “this is all proposed and not concrete yet. One assumes that we would not have anything less than we currently have. I expressed the view that it certainly shouldn’t be less or the same.”
“The big question,” said Chief Maner, “one that we ask all the time is ‘where will the money come from?’ ”
Director Weaver Simonsen agreed. “That has been the recurrent theme from day one. Where will the day-to-day funding come from? One time funding is unacceptable. Sustainable funding must be available before we can go down this road.” He noted that Supervisor Diane Jacob, whose pet project the county-wide department has been, has visited Sacramento several times to try to get legislators to move some funding from education to fund the new department.
“We may have a big appetite, but do we have the food to feed the appetite?” Simonsen asked rhetorically.
Schuler was also critical of the “mini-study.” “Do they think that by taking small chunks that they can fund an increment of it? Maybe it happens and maybe it doesn’t, but in the meantime we’ve lost control of our district.”
Maner said that the district created would most likely be a regional one, rather than a part of the County. “A lot of the county fire districts in California are special districts that follow the county boundaries and levy their own taxes,” he said.
Such an agency would probably make do with fewer firefighters overall than currently serve in all the combined fire districts, suggested Simonsen. “The current environment in the County is to reduce head count, to have fewer people but be more efficient,” he said.
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