October 25, 2006 - Top Stories
This last Saturday held an eerie reminder of the start of the Paradise Fire three years ago.
The fire started on the night of Homecoming as fierce Santa Ana winds whipped up blazes into a killer inferno that left two VC residents dead and burned over 200 homes.
Saturday’s Homecoming event happened with very similar winds outside.
But, fortunately no inferno resulted.
Combined with the Cedar Fire that had started in Ramona the night before, the wildfires became The Perfect Firestorm in terms of adverse conditions combined with maximum fuel.
At this time three years ago the fire, which had started in the early morning of Oct. 26 on the Rincon Reservation and, fanned by heavy winds, had burned up the slopes into the Yellow Brick Road area, raced along Cole Grade Road and then jumped Valley Center Road to sweep along N. Lake Wohlford Road into the Paradise Mountain area.
Later on Sunday the fire entered the Ridge Ranch development, burning several homes, jumped Valley Center Road and began spreading near Lake Dixon.
Two women died in the blaze.
Ashleigh Roach, a 16 year-old VCHS student, died while attempting to escape the blaze on Station Road. Her older sister, Alison, suffered burns over much of her body.
Their loss is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit by the Roach family against the Rincon Tribe and Harrah’s Entertainment.
Another death occurred when Nancy Morphew, who lived on Yellow Brick Road, died as she was trying to save her horse, which she was pulling in a trailer.
Both women are memorialized in a simple memorial garden at the fire station where Ashleigh had visited many times to give the firefighters cookies that she baked.
That memorial will be formally dedicated this Thursday, 8:30 a.m.
Don’t panic! They’re not going to flood Moosa Canyon!
Well, they might, but probably not.
If that’s confusing for you to read, you ain’t got nothin’ on what’s it’s like to write!
Six hundred letters were sent out to residents of and near Moosa Canyon last week advising them that their area is being considered for a reservoir.
Here’s the scoop: The San Diego County Water Authority, of which Valley Center Municipal Water District is a member, wants to expand its existing San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside by about 100,000 acre feet.
It hopes to do this by raising the dam 117 feet.
However, it is required by CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) to seriously study alternative sites. And not just to pretend to study them, but to really study them, even though it has already made up its mind that it wants to use one of those alternatives, i.e., raise the San Vicente dam by 117 feet. That’s the preferred alternative.
One of the other three alternatives being studied is to flood Moosa Canyon, which, includes, among other things, Turner Lake and Betsworth. The dam would be built off Old Castle near the actual old castle.
Another alternative is to add 50 AF to San Vicente and 50 AF to Moosa. That’s called the half and half alternative.
The third alternative is to do nothing.
We asked Kelley Gage, Senior Water Resources Specialist for SDCWA just how likely it is that Moosa Canyon would be chosen, even though it is included in two of the alternatives.
“The likelihood is not very high,” she said. “We’ve already filed with the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit for the San Vicente dam expansion.”
Still, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being metaphysical certainty on the order of the sun rising tomorrow, the staffers at SDCWA don’t want to say that not building a dam at Moosa is a “10.”
The alternative inundation site being considered is the same one that was under consideration in 1996 for emergency water storage. There is no map available yet showing this flood zone.
Moosa was not chosen then, obviously, because Moosa Canyon is not under water today.
However, because all of the environmental work was done back then it was attractive to use the site as an alternative ten years later.
The SDCWA is perfectly aware that no matter how much it says that it probably won’t flood Moosa, that everyone living there, of which about 300 homes might be affected, will assume that it WILL actually flood Moosa.
Jeff Shoaf, of the SDCWA made a presentation on the Moosa Canyon alternative to the VC planning group Oct. 16.
“Our preferred alternative is raising San Vicente dam in lakeside, but we are required by law to look at alternatives,” he said.
The water authority hopes to begin building as early as 2009 with completion in 2012. During that time the level of the reservoir will be lowered to about 40,000 AF.
When the dam, which will be roller compacted concrete, is completed it will take several years to refill.
The water authority will have an open house and scoping meeting Nov. 1, 6:30 p.m. at its offices in Kearny Mesa, 4677 Overland Ave. At that time public comments on the project will be accepted.
During the first half hour of the meeting SDCWA staffers will answer questions on the project. This will be followed by public comments.
An environmental impact document on the project will be issued next January.
You can find out more by visiting the SDCWA’s Web site at sdcwa.org/
“My opponent appears to think that she’s running against Ray Haynes instead of me,” Kevin Jeffries, the GOP nominee for the 66th Assembly District commented when he dropped by The Roadrunner office Saturday.
Democrat (and Hidden Meadows resident) Laurel Nicholson has thrown many barbs at Haynes, almost as many as against the man running to replace him.
While Jeffries shares most, if not all, of the retiring assemblyman’s political views, he stresses that he has his own style.
“I bring 17 years of local government experience. I share a lot of the same philosophies of limited government and no new taxes that Ray Haynes has. We have similar views on private property rights and not providing taxpayer benefits for illegals,” he says.
Haynes was accused by many of being so enamored of the sound of his own voice and the battles going on in Sacramento that he forgot his constituents.
Jeffries says that’s not his style. “Our approach to problems are going to be a little different. Our personalities are different. Our experiences are different. If my opponent wants to keep running against Ray Haynes, bless her heart. But I’m not Ray Haynes.
“I have a very strong reco rd of demonstrating that I’m very accessible, having been elected and reelected to several local district boards,” he says.
“Should I have the honor of winning, my chief of staff will be in the district and not in Sacramento. Our focus will be on constituent communications and resolving problems that need to be fixed. People will see a very strong presence.”
Regarding another criticism by his opponent, Jeffries says, “I was amused that my opponent indicated that it might be inappropriate to plan where I sleep at night in Sacramento if I win. I guess that’s one of the differences between her and I. I want to sleep indoors and I guess she wants to sleep in her car.”
One of the main issues that Jeffries stresses is transportation.
“I’ve been meeting with a lot of transportation folks, trying to get my arms around transportation solutions. I’ve found a significant disconnect between San Diego and Riverside county traffic authorities.” Note: the 66th Assembly District includes parts of both counties.
“Riverside is planning for significant widening to the county line. San Diego authorities are bringing significant improvements up to Hwy 78, leaving the I-15 between 78 and Riverside with no improvements.” No improvements are planned for Hwy 76 east of I-15, he says.
“My first term is going to be convincing both counties that they have to do some immediate planning for the I-15 corridor and some significant improvements on the 76 east of the I-15.”
We asked Jeffries’s position on Props. 83 (Jessica’s Law) and 90 (Save Our Homes).
“I like Jessica’s Law because it does what we couldn’t do through the state legislature because the Democrats fought it every step. It will hold sexual predators accountable. We will know where they are at every step and we will force state and local governments to keep track of them.”
He’s a strong supporter of Prop. 90: “ What can you say? Our founding fathers would be turning in their graves if they saw how government could take private property and give it to other private landowners.
“Prop. 90 does what the Supreme Court should have done: make it difficult to devalue someone’s property. With its bumps and flaws it’s still better than what we have today.”
Jeffries would like to see the state adopt a two year budget: “Our budget is so massive, so complex, that I believe there’s some value in adopting a two year budget and using every other year to audit and evaluate the effectiveness of state programs. Right now there’s very little oversight, little accountability. The taxpayers, frankly, deserve better.”
Jeffries sees himself as a champion of privacy. “That’s where you see a little streak of my libertarianism,” he says. “I’m gong to err on the side of protecting people’s privacy over business and big government interests. In this day of electronic record-keeping and corporate America knowing everything you buy at the grocery store and every movie you rent, it seems we are losing some of the privacy we enjoy in this country.”
A volunteer firefighter for 28 years, Jeffries wants to reorganize and streamline the state’s emergency and fire responder services.
“The major fires that swept through San Diego showed some significant weaknesses in our cooperative approach to large scale disasters,” he says.
“I’ve responded to over four thousand emergency incidents, some very large disasters. I want to take my knowledge and experience and see if we can’t come up with a better organization to deal with large scale disaster.”
He would study putting all state emergency services under one roof, the Office of Emergency Services. “We deserve to have our local agencies working more closer with our state agencies during disasters. There should be no excuses for communication or planning failures. We know how to do this.”
Specifically he would put the fire suppression side of California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) under OES and the forest management side under another agency.
“I’ve talked to chief officers within CDF and spoken with rank and file guys and they all want to look at it,” he says.
To find out more about the Jeffries campaign visit www.kevinjeffries.com or call 951-678-4730.
At 2 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, Daylight Savings Time will end, and clocks will “fall back” just as each year they “spring forward.”
In 2007 a new schedule, adopted by Congress, will take effect, but not this year.
In 2007, Daylight Savings Time will begin earlier, on the second Sunday in March, and end on the first Sunday in November.
Just as there is no good or demonstrable reason for Daylight Savings Time to occur at all, there is no actual reason for extending Daylight Savings Time, except that it will, according to some, “make people feel sunnier.”
The change is part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Some claims were made a year ago that extending DST would save energy, but the U.S. Dept. of Energy has since then backed away from this notion.
Some people attribute the original idea for Daylight Savings Time to Benjamin Franklin, but what he actually said was, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
The current schedule has been in effect since 1986, and other schedules were used before that, way back to the days of the First World War.
Arizona, Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa do not observe Daylight Savings Time at all.
If an earthquake, or fire, or other emergency required that Valley Center be evacuated, could that be done?
That’s a question that has arisen after a gas leak Sept. 18 on Valley Center Road graphically demonstrated how vulnerable this community is to an emergency that shuts down vital roadways.
The leak, which occurred at the corner of Mirar de Valle & Valley Center Roads not only shut down Valley Center Road, it also created traffic snarls on Lake Wohlford and Woods Valley Roads.
Traffic was at a standstill for several hours on a Monday afternoon as people returned home from work.
During this shutdown a fire engine was unable to get onto Woods Valley Road to answer an emergency.
“These are the roads that we would need to use for an escape in a major emergency,” Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary pointed out at Thursday’s fire board meeting.
“The impacts of closing the road creates a domino effect,” said the chief.
“It’s easy for me to shut down the road but we now need to think about where we are going to allow traffic to control through. We had no traffic control at the intersections. So it was at an absolute standstill.”
The chief has been told by many community leaders that they should put up roadblocks in such situations and only allow residents through.
“California Highway Patrol has the responsibility for traffic control,” he noted, but added that it has limited resources to control traffic in a situation such as this.
“The Sheriff’s Department responded immediately,” O’Leary said. “But if we had asked them to do traffic control we would have had no law enforcement.”
In fact, CHP did call for its volunteer traffic controllers, but they got stuck in traffic!
O’Leary suggested bringing together a group of citizens, CHP, Sheriff’s deputies and fire as well as the City of Escondido, to develop plans for how and where to send resources to try to keep traffic moving.
“We need a comprehensive plan put together,” said O’Leary, who added that he had also talked to director Dan Thornton (who was absent at Thursday’s meeting) who felt that the fire district should take the lead in such planning.
Director Weaver Simonsen said that the county Office of Emergency Services should be involved.
“They get Homeland Security money and I think this is something that should be coordinated through OES,” said Simonsen. “I think we should be approaching them and see if they have any funding. They spend a lot of big bucks on these drills that don’t do any good if you don’t have a plan.”
Simonsen added his own concerns: “If you close two roadways and you have to evacuate people out for whatever reason, how do you get them out, shuttle everyone out to Gopher Canyon Road?”
Fire board Pres. Mel Schuler said that he didn’t necessarily think the fire district should take the lead in developing such a plan.
“Access in and out and shutting roads is an issue for the highway patrol. We don’t control the roads, they do. We should get all the agencies together and see if we should take the lead.”
Simonsen said that the CHP probably wouldn’t take that responsibility.
“In the Paradise Fire (of 2003) it was the Sheriff who called in the reserves. If we hadn’t had the Sheriff’s reserve in that fire we would have been in deep trouble up here,” said Simonsen.
Homecoming King Eli Rubio and Queen Madeline Lopez were crowned Friday night during halftime at the game.
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