January 3, 2007 - Top Stories
The new Valley Center Chamber of Commerce Pres. John Yeager, who will be installed at the Jan. 13 dinner, is enthusiastic about his new job and eager to help increase the value the organization has for its members.
Other board members to be installed are: Verle Yoder, vice president; Carol Mohrbacher, secretary; Bob Payne, treasurer; Tom Bumgardner, past-president; Directors: Carol Timm, Keith De Tellem, John Smylie, Bill Lewis, Roger Leydecker and Joe Johnson.
Yeager and his wife, Linda, moved to Valley Center three years ago. He operates a mortgage business that specializes in home loans called Yordy Capital Group.
He wanted to get involved with the community so he went to a Sundowner where he met Chamber president Tom Bumgardner.
“Next thing I knew I was on the board of directors,” Yeager recalls. He’s been on the board for two years now.
Sherry Bumgardner started a campaign to encourage Yeager to be Chamber president, a job that is notoriously hard to fill.
“I felt I had the experience,” recalls Yeager. “I’ve had experience in a similar job: president of the Mortgage Brokers Assn. in San Diego. I like the people on the board, so I was happy to be given the opportunity to be president.”
He adds, “I really want to continue the good work that Tom has been doing, increasing membership, serving our members better. Giving them the opportunities to promote their businesses. I want to create a better relationship with the service clubs and other organizations. Just to promote the community and be good citizens of our little community.”
Asked what the Chamber can do to promote business, Yeager answered, “The mission of the chamber is to promote the businesses in Valley Center. I think the best thing I can do as president is to be responsible to the businesses, to reach out and find out what we can do for them and to respond to those needs.”
The new president doesn’t want to start any new programs. “But the things that the Chamber does now, I’d like to see them be done better. For example, the Sundowners. I’d like to see us promote those better than we do, and promote the businesses better. Western Days is a big event, and that keeps getting better. We want to improve that.”
He notes that the Western Days Committee has started to meet. He has encouraged the formation of committees and will announce the names of the committee chairmen soon.
“The number one reason to join the Chamber is to promote the community,” says Yeager. “The question businesses always asks is ‘What do I get from joining the Chamber? There are things, like advertising your business, the Sundowners, the vendors at Western Days, but I think the number one reason for joining is to promote our community. And by extension you help your business.”
Western Days itself promotes Valley Center’s businesses, he says.
“It brings people here and advertises what we have to offer. For the people who live here it is a way for people to get together and feel they are part of something.”
He adds, “I look forward to working with our new Board of Directors and the Chamber Ambassadors under the direction of Brenda Kline.”
The Ambassadors, by the way, include: Brenda Kline, Lavonne Johnson, Tiffany Lopez, Keith Detellum, Jana Limon, Jeffifer Lavine, Nicky Lovejoy, Mary Burdick and Lisa Aacharais.
The Chamber president also has a lot of praise for the new office manager, Sue Richmond.
“Sue has been doing a great job! We’re very lucky to have her and in the new the year she’s going to be instrumental in growing and accomplishing some of the things that we want to accomplish.”
If it’s possible for a glass of wine to cause an epiphany, then that can be said to have happened to Jack Woods.
On a late afternoon a few years ago, after he had begun bottling bottles of wine for his private use, Woods relaxed on his veranda off Rincon Ranch Road with its magnificent view of Pauma Valley and uncorked a bottle of one of his red wines.
Woods, a retired radio personality from KFMB, who used to be part of the morning comedy team of Charlie & Harrigan, took a sip of his wine and said to himself: “Damn! This wine is as good, if not better, than any wine I’ve bought!”
That realization that he could craft wines that could compete with the best of them led Woods and his wife, Marilyn, down the path towards opening a commercial winery, called Orange Woods
Orange Woods Winery, Pauma Valley’s first commercial winery, began selling its first bottles just a few weeks ago.
Already their Black Dog Zinfandel (named after their black labrador) is a big hit at the local Major Market and at the Lazy H Restaurant. It’s also available at La Jolla Shores Market and Vin’s Wine Bar in Escondido.
The Woodses bought their property ten years ago and planted it in vines.
“We didn’t have any plan other than to retire to a beautiful place to live,” recalls Woods.
They bought 20 acres and turned over part of a hillside to experimenting with different kinds of grapes. They started with a San Giovese grape and cabernet grapes. They later pulled the San Giovese grapes but kept the cabernet grapes (heretofore referred to as “cabs”) and the zinfandels.
They started making wine for private consumption in 1998. It was about that time that Woods decided that they could compete in the world of wines.
He took a vintculture class at UC Davis, but, he says, “You learn by doing it. You play with it and try to do it different ways.
“It really does become a fascination. There are so many things that a winemaker can do to change the product. There are any number of things you can do to affect a wine.”
But one salient fact remains: you need good grapes. “You can make bad wine out of good grapes, but you can’t make good wine out of bad grapes.”
Woods is not shy about comparing California’s wines to those of France, which has always been the Mecca of connoisseurs.
“You hear about there being a good year or a bad year in France, but part of that is because French growers are handicapped by laws such as the one that makes it illegal to irrigate vines.
“In California you’re going to have a good year just about any year. While you are going to have some years that are better than others, we almost always have good years.”
Wine snobs, particularly those in France, refer with lifted noses to “New World” wines with something surpassing disdain.
“I’m a proponent of New World wines,” says Woods. “It has more alcohol and more flavor. In France wines are more subdued. I think that California wines are the best. I like the red zinfandels the best and they don’t make it in France.”
It is the red zinfandel that Orange Woods has chosen to be its first release.
To call winemaking a personal thing is an understatement when it comes to Jack & Marilyn Woods. They do everything, including harvesting the grapes, mixing the grapes with some purchased from elsewhere, and bottling the final product.
“Growing grapes is a very intensive work, particularly during the growing season, but it’s very rewarding. They are our children,” says Woods.
Woods is proud of his product, as most dads are of their “children.” It’s not a cheap wine. You won’t find it cheek by jowl with “Two Buck Chuck,” for instance.
“I wanted a home made wine that is exceptional.” It’s not pasteurized, so it will never been sold anywhere except locally. It is has a minimum amount of sulfides added, so someone who is allergic to sulfides can drink it.
There is no wine tasting room at Orange Woods Winery. But if you want to take a private tour, just give them a call at 742-2015.
Well, it’s in one year and out the other (or is it another year older and deeper in debt?).
We continue with our review of 2006, a year of precarious school budgets, growth, and never ending road widening.
APRIL
Leading with a large American flag, but also carrying flags of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, between 220 and 250 students from VC High School, VC Middle School and Oak Glen High School cut class and marched up and down Cole Grade Road protesting immigration reform being discussed in Washington.
* * *
The VC-P school board renewed the charter of the All-Tribes American Indian Charter School for another five years.
The school district has been studying this issue for over a year. Although there were some potholes in the road, the district’s objections to the charter renewal were met.
* * *
For the first time, Western Days and The Valley Center Stampede Rodeo will be separate entities, it was announced.
* * *
Despite his initial refusal, Supervisor Bill Horn amended his Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700) for the years 2004 and 2005 on Wednesday, April 5. At issue for Horn was his omission of the names for “single source(s) of income of $10,000 or more.”
* * *
Be cooperative, but not chummy with developers. That’s one way to read the newly adopted debt policy at the VC Municipal Water District.
“I think our role is not to support or encourage developers. It is to facilitate developments that are approved and not assist in planning future developments,” commented water board director Merle Aleshire in voting for a staff recommendation for a district debt policy at the April 17 meeting.
* * *
Joyce Johnson, who was general manager of the VC Parks & Rec. District since February of 1994 announced she would retire by the end of this June.
MAY
School Supt. Lou Obermeyer and residents of Palomar Mountain reached an accommodation whereby the one room schoolhouse will stay open as a traditional school for another year and residents will raise $25,000 to help defray expenses.
The residents also agreed to look for solutions for the problem of fluctuating enrollment.
* * *
After nearly a year of budgetary impasse, teachers Thursday night were demanding answers of the school board and administration.
Specifically: How did the district’s reserves go from nearly 20% three years ago, to 3%, the lowest allowable reserve, today?
* * *
Kohlby Rockenmacher, was crowned Valley Center Rodeo Queen 2006 on Saturday afternoon at Aerie Park.
* * *
Bill Horn was involved in a head-on collision Saturday at 10:20 a.m. as he was returning from an election fund-raiser in Borrego Springs the night before.
* * *
“I’m happy to be here today. I’m happy to be anywhere today!” joked Supervisor Bill Horn as he MC’d the groundbreaking ceremony for Phase 2 of the VC Road work.
Horn was referring to the car accident several days previously in which he was slightly injured, but came close to losing his life.
* * *
About 5,000 people attended this year’s Valley Center Western Days festival.
The cool, yet ultimately sunny Saturday brought out lots of folks, not just from Valley Center, but from all over, who pitched their tents along the parade route to get the best seating.
JUNE
The dirtiest local election since Bill Horn first won his seat on the Board of Supervisors ended with campaign workers from both the Horn and Bruce Thompson campaigns figuratively covered with mud up to their elbows, awaiting the verdict of the voters in the Fifth District Supervisor’s race.
* * *
The Catholic church and Corner Skillet were top honorees in the Dos Valles Garden Club’s Civic Beautification Awards.
First Place winner in the Spring Residential Improvement Project contest, was the home of Mitch & Linda Gluckman.
* * *
John M. Fuller, Valley Center’s new postmaster, arrived at his post.
* * *
Valley Center Parks & Rec. District welcomed new general manager Doug Johnson, who took over from retiring GM Joyce Johnson.
* * *
The water district sent letters to gauge the interest of “South Node” commercial and residential landowners in connecting to an expansion of the Woods Valley Ranch Water Reclamation Facility (sewer plant).
* * *
Rincon Tribal Fire Dept. opened its brand new fire station, the largest in the area, with a ceremony and luncheon attended by about a hundred fire professionals, VIPs and tribal members.
* * *
A year-long budgetary impasse ended Wednesday night when the VC School Board and the teachers’ and classified unions reached an agreement on salaries.
* * *
Every Valley Center and Deer Springs fire station will have an extra paid firefighter per engine under a three-year contract with CDF approved by the County Board of Supervisors .
The Supervisors voted more than $3.5 million to fund improved fire service in unincorporated areas. Other fire companies that will benefit are San Pasqual (near Escondido), Intermountain and Warner Springs.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
It’s a rarely used process—However there is a way to challenge a book that you don’t want to see on the shelves of your local library.
As you walk into the Valley Center Library, it might not occur to you that it is one of the few places where unpopular viewpoints are not only tolerated, but treasured. Where the stacks of books are, figuratively speaking, are bulwarks against censorship and the banning of literature.
Libraries may well be the last bulwark of intellectual freedom in America, one of the few places where books are not censored.
Many universities, with restrictive policies of political correctness, where a student may be punished or expelled for expressing an unpopular opinion, have lost this distinction.
The courts have upheld the legality of legislation (the McCain–Fiengold campaign financing law) that restricts freedom of speech before an election.
It’s often difficult to find radically different points of view in newspapers, or on television.
But in public libraries, those in charge fiercely protect the right of the public to have access to any and all kinds of books.
It’s actually part of the college course that many of them take to get a masters in library science.
“Intellectual freedom is one of the things stressed in the university course,” says Sandy Puccio, Valley Center’s head librarian.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once wrote, “Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
However, the public is not 100% supportive of this philosophy or that statement. Actually the percentage is probably a whole lot less than 100%.
All over the country efforts are made from time to time to “ban” certain books. Among them are some of the most celebrated masterpieces of American literature, such as Huckleberry Finn. Several other titles you might recognize: To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty Four, have all been challenged and in some cases banned—recently.
One of the most popular current children’s books, Harry Potter and its sequels, is controversial because its main character is a wizard.
Once a year in September America’s libraries celebrate Banned Book Week, when examples of books that have been banned at one time or another are displayed.
At the Valley Center Library, there are occasionally private, unofficial efforts to ban books.
Puccio doesn’t know of any books that have been banned during her tenure, but every few weeks when the staff goes through the stacks they will find examples of books that someone doesn’t want on the shelves.
Usually they are about sex education. Sometimes they are about or by Bill Clinton (the reader may draw his or her own conclusions here).
“Anything that’s a little sexual, like a graphic novel, might be found hidden behind some other books. We find them in the oddest places,” she says.
When you have a collection of 47,000 books, it isn’t hard to hide a book from plain sight!
That doesn’t mean books are not removed from the shelves, because they are outdated, or because their bindings are old. This is a natural process of winnowing, however its motivation is not censorship.
The official library policy says this: “All Library staff and volunteers will be trained in intellectual freedom principles. The Library recognizes that staff and volunteers are not only Library employees but are also individuals who may have firmly held political, religious, or other beliefs. However, staff and volunteers may not practice "silent censorship" which leaves otherwise appropriate items unordered, uncataloged, unshelved, weeded prematurely, hidden, or stolen, because of personal views or fear of controversy. To do so will result in disciplinary action.”
A few years ago, the library was adopted by a book club that sent it a bunch of books on gay issues.
The books were put on display for awhile, as many new books are. There were some complaints. Eventually the books found themselves somewhat more discreetly put on the shelves.
However, that doesn’t qualify as censorship. Or does it?
Once, due to the popularity of the Harry Potter books, Puccio scheduled a magic show billed as being performed by “a Wizard.”
This drew a complaint from a parent who felt that wizardry was connected with the Devil.
“I saw her point and not wanting to offend anyone over a minor point like that I called the magician and asked him to come dressed as a standard magician.”
No one complained.
Given all that, it may surprise you that is a process for removing a book from the shelves.
It was recently exercised in connection with six books at the Valley Center Library.
A patron complained to Puccio about six books whose subject matter was Wicca. This is a religion, often referred to s paganism, that is growing in popularity. It is involved in a high profile lawsuit with the military to gain acceptance so that Wiccan symbols can be used on military graves along with Stars of David, Islamic crescents and crosses.
Two of the books in contention are: Spellcraft for Teens and Where to Park Your Broomstick.
The patron filled out a form protesting the books and the case was forwarded to the County library’s Intellectual Freedom Committee.
The committee is made up of seven professional librarians.
The County library system has more than a million and a half books. It gets an average of four challenges a year.
Yet, the challenges are taken seriously. Those complaining are asked to fill out a form explaining why they feel the book is objectionable.
The process for reviewing a book may take a month to several months. It becomes a matter of logistics. Each member of the committee must read the challenged work in its entirety. So one probably unforeseen result of a complaint about a book is that it actually leads to more people reading the book.
There might not be enough copies to get a copy for each member, so they might have to get in line.
Each committee member then reads reviews of the book and researches how it came to be in the collection.
So far, according to Ellen Zyroff, public relations and principal librarian at the County, “there is no corporate memory of any volume being removed from the shelves as a result of a challenge.”
This year’s Valley Roadrunner Newsmaker of the Year is Lou Obermeyer, who took over a year ago as superintendent of the Valley Center Unified School District.
The Newsmaker of the Year award is not an award for merit, so much as it is an award, like Time’s Person of the Year used to be, that recognizes the most newsworthy person.
That person, we felt, was Lou Obermeyer, who has already begun to give the school district her special imprint after just a few months at the job.
It’s always a traumatic event when an organization as large as the school district gets a new boss. It’s even more of an impact if that person comes from outside, as Dr. Obermeyer did. This was the first time in three decades that a superintendent had been appointed from outside the organization.
At the same time Dr. Obermeyer was immediately hit with a fiscal crises that arose from a combination of negative enrollment and the fact that federal impact funding was dramatically cut.
The district was already in the midst of its first negotiating impasse with the teachers union. Many members of the union felt that the district was unfairly balancing the budget on their backs. They also felt distrustful about the way that the fiscal crises had come about.
Obermeyer addressed their concerns head on. She brought in an outside person to look over the district’s finances and report back on what had happened to cause them to go out of balance.
Once the report was issued, much of the air leaked out of the controversy, which was shortly thereafter resolves.
Dr. Obermeyer has addressed all of the issues facing her with a mixture of charm, tact and openessnes.
There were other possible nominees for the title of Newsmaker.
Among them were Larry Glavinic and Bill Horn.
We invited nominations for the title, and one letter that we received about Glavinic said that he had done a lot of effective, good work over the years.
We agree with that sentiment. Glavinic has been one of the most effective public personalities in Valley Center.
However, the purpose of the award is not to reward someone for good works, but to take notice of someone who has been in the news a lot during the last twelve months.
Certainly in the running for that distinction was another Valley Center resident who was nominated, Bill Horn, who was elected to a fourth term on the Board of Supervisors, and surprised a particularly acrimonious challenge from ex-assemblyman Bruce Thompson.
But from a standpoint of how much she appeared in the newspaper, and how much affect she is having on the lives of students, teachers and parents, we choose Dr. Lou Obermeyer.
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 © 2006, 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.