October 4, 2006 - Top Stories
The VC fire department continues to have a problem with the numbers of reserve firefighters which are down to 18.
VC Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary explained the situation at the September fire board meeting. “The critical level is 20,” he said.
To get more reservists they will hold a new eight day academy soon. It takes about a month of training before reservists are qualified.
The district just finished its last academy, and scheduled 12 enrollees at the beginning of August. Only three of those remain, said the chief.
The academy training program doesn’t seem to keep up with the numbers of reservists who quit within a few months to either join another fire department, or more frequently, to go to school.
“This year alone, we have lost to other departments and school thirteen working Reserve Firefighters, six of them in the last three weeks,” O’Leary reported.
Roadway Relief
The VC Fire Board voted to grant the request of local resident Daniel Smith for private roadway relief.
Smith is splitting a parcel on Mesa Verde. Towards the end of the process, conditions were put on the lot split that included widening the private road where he lives from 20 feet wide to 24 feet with 28 feet of grading.
He asked for a variance, saying it would cost him over $100,000 to widen the entire road. Not to mention the complications of asking neighbors for permission to encroach on their land.
“It’s unreasonable,” he said. O’Leary and directors agreed.
The chief explained, “You can build a second family dwelling and not require this, but if you do a lot split, you have to do the improvements from the end of the roadway, all the way through.”
He added, “I see a real difference between applying this to a single home and adding four or five or six homes. The problem is that there is narrow leeway to how I can mitigate his concerns.”
This kind of situation occurs when the County adopts regulations after most of a neighborhood has already gone in, putting the onus on the last person to do a lot split, said Board Pres. Mel Schuler.
“I agree with widening the road, but here they make the cost so prohibitive that you can’t split the lot,” he said.
“We agree that it’s unreasonable what is being required of Mr. Smith,” said O’Leary who added that in this case the road is adequate for the department.
Use of Engine
The County has offered to pay to base an interface fire engine at VC Fire Protection District.
An interface engine can be used for wildland and structural fires. It would be owned and paid for by the County, but staffed locally.
In his report, O’Leary told the board, “We believe that this fire engine would be a great reserve apparatus that we could utilize daily if needed. This would place us in a better position when our front line 1999 KME type I engines go down for maintenance.”
Station Repairs
District Gen. Mgr. Steve Mahady reported that repairs are continuing on Station 72 (the Lilac Road station).
The back building has been repaired. Water damage has also been fixed. Drywall damaged by the water has been removed and repaired.
Kitchen cabinets were removed, repaired and replaced with a new tile countertop.
The barracks has also been repaired and repainted.
Remaining to be finished is the bath. They are waiting on tiles.
State Grant
The district has received a grant from State Homeland Security for $5,481. This will be used to employ off-duty reservists to update district map books and maintain hydrants.
Contracts
The board voted to sign contracts with the County and CDF.
The two-year cooperative agreement between the County and district provides that the County will pay the district $721,972 annually. Of this $537,906 will pay for an extra paid California Dept. of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) firefighter per engine company. The remaining $184,066 will be used to pay CDF to staff its station in VC year-round, not just during fire season. This is referred to as an Amador Plan agreement.
The CDF contract provides for the state agency to administrate the fire department for the district.
Directors decided to forgo for the time being adding a full time fire chief to their CDF contract.
Director Weaver Simonsen commented, “This gives us the flexibility going forward. We can always go back and amend the agreement if we decide we need an administrative fire chief or to split it with Deer Springs Fire Protection District.
“We haven’t lost any options, we’re not locked in. Until we make that decision we are moving forward to get our staffing up on the engine right away. If we selected the other option it would put us into a position where CDF would be looking for people that we might not use,” he said.
Director Dan Thornton agreed and added, ““And if we stay the course we stay in the black, if we choose the half chief we run in the red. So for me it was black and red.”
Valley Center Municipal Water District Monday took the first steps towards the creation of an assessment district for the Live Oak Ranch Project.
The water board passed a resolution asking the County Board of Supervisors for jurisdiction to form the funding mechanism that will provide sewer, reclaimed water and water services for the 317 acre, 146 home development at the corner of Cobb Lane & Valley Center Road, adjacent to the middle school.
Joe Gallagher, president of MSK Development LLC, a VC firm told the board that the project has been around since 1999.
Gallagher’s company purchased the orange grove property in 2005 from the owner, Mr. Cobb.
Construction will be in six phases. The first phase will build 32 homes. The developer has obtained $15 million funding for the first phase, which includes $11 million for water and sewer services and building the water reclamation (sewer) plant that will process 40,000 gallons per day. The plant was designed by local engineer Don Bunts.
The water reclaimed by the small scale $5 million plant will be used on the development. Note: because the plant was designed and built specifically for this site, it is actually not a “package plant.” The plant, located on the other end of town from Woods Valley Ranch, is not connected in any way with that facility.
“It is our intent to build the project out,” said Gallagher. “We are near to pulling a grading permit for the first phase.”
He noted that Cobb Lane will be renamed Live Oak Ranch Road.
They expect to sell three to five houses a month, said Gallagher. Prices for homes will range from $775,000-$875,000 per unit. They expect to sell the first units in 2008.
In addition to requesting jurisdiction from the County to form the assessment district, the board also approved a district facilities agreement, water reclamation agreement and reclaimed water agreement between the district and MSK.
Once the County gives jurisdiction over the matter to the district, it will hold a public hearing on the assessment district.
It requires a majority vote of the property owners in such an assessment district to create it. In this case, there is only one property owner, MSK, and one vote.
During the discussion director Merle Aleshire asked Gallagher if the “soft real estate market” could affect the project.
Gallagher answered that he bought the Cobb land for $7.5 million, which he said he believes “gives us sufficient room to weather the market issues we may encounter. . . The market would have to virtually collapse for the project not to be feasible.”
MSK Development is being asked to make a deposit of $135,000 to allow this procedure to go forward.
High prices on copper and brass are sparking a local crime spree as would-be metal merchants rip off water meters and backflow devices.
Over the weekend Valley Center Municipal Water District customers at several locations were the victims of meter and backflow device theft.
On Saturday VC Community Hall was hit. A 3/4 inch meter and a 3/4 inch backflow device were stolen.
Parks and Rec. District Gen. Mgr. Doug Johnsen Monday confirmed the theft.
“It was stolen probably late Friday or early Saturday,” said Johnsen. “Someone at the fire department heard cars riding around in a big puddle next to the community hall.”
Firefighters came over and shut the water off and then called Johnsen, who arrived shortly, inspected the damage and called the water district.
Several thousand gallons of water were lost before the valve was shut off.
The devices weren’t very deep in the ground. “They took the valve box off and just yanked it out of the ground. It looked like they grabbed on with a chain,” Johnsen said.
In recent days five backflow devices, five meters, one double check and one construction meter have been taken from properties within the district. At this writing the stolen metal was valued at $4,619.72.
Some speculate that these thefts are tied to U.S. metal shortages, particularly in copper and copper alloys such as brass. This, in turn, is being exacerbated by rising metal consumption in China. As the shortage continues, the price of metal rises.
Water district Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant told The Roadrunner, “We will be alerting the local salvage yards to look for meters and backflow devices and not take them unless they check with us. Each unit has a serial number which can be checked. Hopefully this will stem the US activity, but there is always the possibility that these things could be taken [out of the the country.]”
Operations Manager Greg Hoyle explained that the price of copper and brass has gone up and that thieves have been known to show up at local recyclers to try to sell the metal.
Last year fire hydrant caps were also popular for thieves.
According to the district, brass water meters, and other parts associated with public water supply are routinely stolen.
Gen. Mgr. Gary Broomell said, “This is not just an issue of receiving stolen property as it deals with tampering with the public water supply. All cases will be forwarded to the District Attorney for prosecution.
Meters and backflow devices are not cheap to replace, each costing several hundred dollars. The district will replace the meters, but the customers will have to replace the backflow devices.
The Life of a Pumpkin demonstration is given at Bates Nut Farm as part of their fall activities. Fall, pumpkins and scarecrows are all going on this month at the famous ag facility.
Last week, since we first floated the idea of a Roadrunner Kids Page, we’ve been flooded with possible names for the page.
If you recall, we want to start a regular monthly kids page that will be written for and by the kids about things that interest them. It will not be a school-related page, since we already carry school news in the paper.
But first, of course, we need a name. We asked our smaller citizens to send us their suggestions. The one that we pick will bring the winner $25.
First out of the gate was Kelly Stickler, 12 years old, who suggested that we call it “VC Kids’ Corner” or “Kids’ Mini-Roadrunner.”
Other suggestions: Nichole Barnes in 11th grade offers: “Minor News,” “In Short Notice,” “Minor Update” and “Mini Hut.”
Fifth grader Matt Barnes suggests “Kids ComMents,” “Kids Corner,” “Valley Blah-blah” and “Valley Express.”
Seventh grader Mike Barnes suggests “Valley Center Kids,” “Kids Thoughts,” “Sprout-n-Shout,” and “Valley Tallyho.”
Keep those suggestions for a name for the page coming in.
The purpose of this page is to get local kids, ages 5 up to high school age, to write about the things that interest them. Whatever that may be.
The page will appear once a month.
Send your ideas to editor@valleycenter.com or call the editor at 749-1112.
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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