November 8, 2006 - Top Stories
Customers of the VC Municipal Water District will experience a shutdown right after Thanksgiving.
The shutdown will be from Nov. 26–Dec. 7.
This is the second such shutdown this year. The first was in February. The reason for it is that the district’s supplier, the Metropolitan Water District, will stop delivering water to perform work at the Skinner Treatment Plant in Riverside County and to do maintenance and inspection on the aqueducts.
Although the VC water district will top off all of its reservoirs before the shutdown begins, this means that water will only be available for domestic use and fire protection.
That means YOU CAN’T WATER YOUR LAWN during this period. You can, however, take showers and wash and perform other household water uses.
Just to make sure that you keep that in mind, water district employees in trucks with flashing lights will patrol the streets looking for water scofflaws.
Because of this situation the district will implement its Emergency Water Management Plan.
Grey Hoyle, operations manager at the district, told directors at Monday’s board meeting how the district will implement the plan.
He noted that we are “definitely in an El Niño year, so it may possibly rain during that time. However, no one can count on that happening.
Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant, getting in touch with his inner cynic, added, “We’re counting on the kind of weather we are getting now [hot and dry]. It’ll just happen! It’s a Murphy’s law thing, if it can be hot and dry, it will be. ”
In February the district had a good nine day “trial run” on its emergency procedures, said Doyle.
In preparation for the shutdown, the district will use automatic dialing to advise all of its customers. It will also make personal calls to the 200 largest customers, who are all ag users, and to golf courses and nurseries.
In addition, the district will rent some illuminated message boards and locate them alone the roads to advise residents of the situation.
All ag customers will get an email from the district, as well.
Notices will also be sent to the Welk development and condos. Notices will be hung from doorknobs of residences.
“It’s bad timing. It will be right after Thanksgiving. That’s kind of our challenge,” said Hoyle.
“Our focus this time is more on the residential users and not the ag. Where we missed the boat a little bit the last time was on verbiage,” he said.
Apparently a lot of people didn’t get the word that there is NO LAWN WATERING, during this period.
Of course, there is also no agricultural irrigation allowed during this period.
“We did have some struggle on domestic use the first few days [of the February shutdown], but after the third day everyone was on board,” said Hoyle.
In preparation for the shutdown, field crews will adjust and calibrate reservoir level valves, buy additional water, check various valves, ensure pump availability, and prepare GIS (geographical information system) maps for the patrolling area.
Construction crews working on Valley Center Road will be allowed to get construction water from Lake Turner during this period. Turner contains non-potable water.
The district will activate its Emergency Operations Center, and crews will patrol from 5 a.m. –7:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily to ensure compliance.
“Since this last happened in February, we are hoping that this will still be fresh in people’s minds,” said Hoyle.
The cost to the district for the February shutdown was $135,756 including $57,833 for overtime patrolling and $55,306 for electricity
If you’re a senior, you gotta eat!
Of course, that applies to everybody, but we as a society take special care that our seniors get every opportunity to eat well and nutritionally.
Ray Cardona, executive director of the Ramona Senior Center, is responsible for the “Meals on the Go” (popularly known as Meals on Wheels) program that serves the Valley Center, Pauma Valley, Pala, Rincon, and La Jolla Indian Reservation.
He’s worried that not enough seniors are taking advantage of the senior nutrition program.
“There’s been a drop in demand for the meals and I don’t know why,” he told The Roadrunner this week.
“Currently we are delivering 36 meals. We think we should easily have twice that many.”
The program is contracted to the Ramona Senior Center by the County.
Although the cost for a meal is $3.50, that’s a suggested donation. “If they can’t pay we don’t turn them away,” says Cardona. “If they only want to pay $1 that’s OK. We send no bills or reminders.”
He added, “We are here for you. You need to eat and have proper nutrition.”
The program serves what Cardona calls “good old American comfort food.” Entrees include such things as beef shepherd’s pie, teriyaki chicken, chicken fried steak, tamale pie and chicken ala king. There’s always potatoes or some other starch, vegetables and a dessert. They are designed to provide a third of the daily requirements of nutrition.
Seniors can also get frozen meals to get them through the weekend.
And if you live on one of the typical dirt roads that criss cross this area, don’t worry: “Our vehicles are four wheel drive,” said Cardona.
To start getting meals delivered to you, call 789-0440. The only requirement is that you must be 60 or older.
The San Diego Press Club’s 33rd Annual "Excellence in Journalism" competition presented four awards to Roadrunner staff Oct. 26 at its annual dinner and board election in San Diego.
Editor David Ross won a First Place Award in the Breaking News category for his report, “Three Die in Plane Crash,” on the fatal accident in Valley Center on New Year’s Eve. A plane took off from Blackinton Airport and crashed a few hundred feet away in a man’s front yard. The article took an in-depth look at what followed.
Cartoonist Mark Brock won First Place in the Political Cartoon category for “Zargawi's Destiny.” Brock is a frequent award-winner at the annual event but last copped the First Place award in 1999. “Zargawi's Destiny” is printed elsewhere in the paper.
Columnist Patsy Fritz won Third Prize for “Public Documents, Private Secrets” in the Column category, unveiling the residency of County Supervisor Bill Horn’s Chief of Staff, Joan Wonsley, in a Carlsbad house purchased by Horn.
Mrs. Fritz also won Second Place for Investigative Reporting with “Horn Hires Attorney; Horn Files Amended Reports” on the Supervisor's forced compliance with Fair Political Practices Commission regulations that required Horn and Wonsley to divulge their real estate collaboration and the sources of Horn's real estate rental and grove income.
As a weekly, The Roadrunner competes in the Non-Daily Newspaper category.
Over 1,200 entries from newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, Web sites and student activity were received this year for items published or broadcast from July 2005 through June 2006.
The community of Palomar Mountain has raised the $15,000 that it pledged last year to give to the VC-Pauma School District.
The money was used to buy four Mac computers, which have already been installed at the school.
The donation of the money will be acknowledged at Wednesday’s school board meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the high school library.
Various educational packages were also purchased, such as keyboarding software, iChat and iSight.
The System was designed and approved by the teacher, Jaime Shuford and John Perdue, the district’s computer guru (his actual title is director of learning and information services).
The money came from residents of Palomar Mountain and supporters of the school.
“It is state of the art equipment that provides teleconferencing which will let the school be connected to the district and to anybody who can teleconference,” Tom Cunningham, who led the fund-raising effort, told The Roadrunner.
Using Apple Computer’s iChat and iSight, students will be able to bring experts into the classroom that might not otherwise be able to make the drive up the mountain. Professional development with this equipment is also planned.
They are working on a demonstration between the paleontological lab at Borrego Springs and the school.
Once the connection is made, the kids will be able to learn first hand about fossils and extinct animals in that desert region.
An instructor in Borrego will talk about what the students are seeing on their screens.
“We’ve met with the teachers at Borrego and got it set up with John Perdue, so it’s all a question of coordinating the whole thing,” said Cunningham.
They are hoping to get State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth to come up to the school for the demonstration.
Cunningham and other supporters of the mountain school feel that the senator’s support is key since he is needed to carry legislation that would restore “Necessary Small School” money that was taken away from the one-room school when Pauma and Valley Center school districts merged.
The state used to pay Pauma school district extra money to make up for the added expense of schooling on the mountain.
This has been an issue on the Mountain school for several years. This year there are 11 students, but last year that number fell to a half dozen.
The VC-P school board has warned the community that if it can’t maintain at least 12 students that the school program faces curtailment.
Supporters of the school are concerned that they have heard nothing back from the senator’s office about this issue, said Cunningham.
It’s necessary to get the bill introduced as soon as the legislature meets in January, he said.
The $15,000 helped buy three MacBook laptops that can be used anywhere by the students, plus a server.
The classroom already has T1 Internet connections. So they will be able to set up a WiFi “hot spot” inside the classroom.
Damon Brown, the district’s network analyst, installed all of the hardware.
Mrs. Shuford took digital medal training courses in the summer on using the iSight camera, video software and storyboarding so that the students can make their own videos.
Presentation hardware, such as an LCD projector and video monitor will help to share lessons, students’ work, and remote video sessions and conferences.
“That’s proved to be a very exciting thing,” Perdue told The Roadrunner.
“Jaime Shuford is the one who will have to make this work and she is very excited about it,” he said.
Mrs. Shuford commented, “I am looking forward to implementing the new technology in our classroom. It is amazing how many different standards can be tied into one classroom project. Palomar Mountain School has so many special qualities already; this technology donation can add to the list and will enhance the learning tremendously. ”
The Valley Roadrunner
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Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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