January 17, 2007 - Top Stories
Four straight nights with temperatures well below freezing may have a devastating effect on local groves.
The freeze is the worst in over two decades, according to local residents.
News reports for the state as a whole were reporting that the $1 billion citrus industry might lose 75% of its fruit to the freezing.
Similar dire predictions have been heard for Valley Center, a major center for the avocado and citrus industry, as well as for neighboring Pauma Valley.
“I think the damages are going to be substantial,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego Farm Bureau.
“You can’t tell early. It takes a few days to assess damage. It may be between fifteen to twenty percent, maybe one hundred percent in some groves,” said Larson.
He said that he couldn’t put a dollar amount on the damages yet. Reports are still coming in from growers, and the worst of it probably won’t be known for several days.
The problem, according to the director, was not that it got cold, but that it stayed cold for several days.
“For the avocado growers it’s going to be really tough,” said Larson. “This year the crop was going to be small anyway, and with Mexican avocados showing up on the market next month, and the damage from windfall, they are getting hammered.”
What’s happening to avo growers is that the freeze has attacked the stems of their fruit. This causes the fruit to fall. Once that happens they will never ripen and the loss is irreparable. This is called “chill fall.”
“A further problem is that avocado trees have two years’ worth of crop on them at any time,” said Larson. “The maturing process is nine to ten months. So growers could lose two years of crops, this year’s pick plus next year’s harvest.”
Al Stehly, who operates a grove managing service for many local growers, said the most damage he has seen has been to avocados.
He saw damage to avos on the south side of Valley Center and in the Keys Creek area. “In any place that was low lying,” he said. “Quite a lot of guavas were toast. I’ve seen some flower fields that were devastated.” These were in low lying areas, he noted.
“The surprising one is on the south side of Pauma Valley. It looks like the cold just settled there on the slopes instead of draining into the valley,” he said.
Stehly agreed that it’s too early to tell how significant the damage is.
“I saw a lot more damage today than yesterday, and tomorrow I’ll probably see a tremendous amount. It takes a couple of days to show up. I’ve got two growers whose groves are pretty much wiped out, and possible some others in Pauma.”
So far he has not seen any dead trees. “That didn’t happen in significant numbers. Weak trees and sick trees may have been damaged to where they won’t come back,” said Stehly.
One lifelong citrus grower who may have been very hard hit is Gary Broomell, whose crop is grapefruit and valencia oranges.
“From all indications, it doesn’t look good,” he told The Roadrunner Tuesday morning.
“It looks like we probably lost most of our crop. The main thing we are trying to do is keep some of our younger trees alive so that we don’t lose them.”
He agrees with the estimate of 75% fruit loss. “It could even be a hundred percent. This is worse than the freeze of twenty years ago, at least it is for me.
* * *
Growers are not the only ones affected by the low temperatures.
Many residents reported frozen and broken pipes.
Gary Arant, general manager of the VC Municipal Water District, reported some damage to the water system.
“The biggest problem we had was the above-ground backflow devices freezing,” said Arant. “This would result in no water to the home, and in many cases a damaged backflow device. Damage ranged from blown gaskets to cracked devices which will need to be replaced in their entirety.”
Roughly speaking, there were 50 such incidents on Saturday, 400-500 on Sunday and 100 on Monday, for a total of 550-600. Some of those were repeats.
VCMWD crews were out all day Saturday (five staffers), Sunday (15 staffers) and Monday (ten staffers) doing spot repairs to get people back in service.
They will return to check repairs and test the devices. The district also brought Field Department Administration staff into the office Sunday and Monday to answer phones because their answering service was overwhelmed with calls.
The system itself lost six air and vacuum valves, one fire hydrant and had the pressure sensing lines at 5 pumping stations freeze. This caused them to shut down the pumps.
Arant added, “We lost water, but really don’t have a handle on the amount water loss yet, as we were flowing summer-time flows, with growers putting water on their trees in an attempt to protect the fruit from the freeze. Once we get ahead of the backflow situation, we will be able to put together some better numbers.”
According to Arant, there were so many frozen backflow devices because the fire department is now requiring sprinklers in new homes.
“People need to wrap and protect those devices, or buy artificial rocks to put over them,” said Arant. “People need to be proactive and to protect their exposed plumbing.”
Marcia Townsend was honored Saturday night as Valley Center Citizen of the Year at the Chamber of Commerce’s 2007 Installation Dinner at Harrah’s Casino’s Pavilion.
John Yeager, who was sworn in as president of the Chamber, along with his board of directors, called it the most successful installation ever.
Others installed were, Verle Yoder, vice-president; Carol Mohrbacher, secretary; Bob Payne, treasurer; and directors Carol Timm, Keith De Tellem, John Smylie,Tom Bumgardner, Bill Lewis, Roger Leydecker and Joe Johnson.
See more photos inside and at www.valleycenter.com
This is the first in a series that will follow the progress of Carol Mohrbacher, who began treatment for breast cancer early Tuesday morning.
Not many cancer patients describe their upcoming treatment as an “adventure,” or express the sentiment that “I’m excited—What’s next?”
Carol Mohrbacher takes precisely that attitude.
She suggested that I entitle the series I’m going to do about her treatment, however it turns out: “The Other Side of Tuesday.”
She hopes that the many women who might get breast cancer will learn some valuable lessons from her experience.
“My prayer is that this helps others who are facing difficult situations. It doesn’t have to be cancer, life just has hard spots at times. The bottom line for me is attitude. If you can keep a positive attitude, everything is much easier to deal with.”
It was only a few weeks ago that Mrs. Mohrbacher was told, “There appears to be something in your left breast and something in your left armpit.”
Some people would be terrified by such news, but Mrs. Mohrbacher took it calmly.
“I’m not scared,” she said Monday evening as she prepared to show up at the hospital at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.
“That’s where my faith comes in,” she said. “I’m a Christian. I’ve had an extraordinary life. I see it as a potential adventure that I can use to help other people who may be in my situation.”
That’s a lot of people. Studies show one in eight women will get breast cancer.
She discovered her own condition, ironically, because she went on a health, diet and exercise regimen at the behest of nextdoor neighbor and friend Linda Yeager, a fitness coach.
She began training in July and by Thanksgiving lost 35 pounds and felt better than she had in years. Her program included lifting weights. During one of those sessions she noticed that her left arm was stiff.
She didn’t think much of it, but when she was on her back doing a weight exercise called “a barbell fly” she felt pain in her left armpit. Later when she was taking a shower she probed and felt a bump way deep in her armpit.
This prompted her to call her doctor at Kaiser Permanente and almost miraculously, get an appointment in two days.
Her doctor felt the lump and immediately scheduled her for minor surgery on Dec. 2.
Before the surgery, Dr. Tom Lynch, felt around the area and couldn’t find the lump. She did a self examination and couldn’t find it either.
“I’m not going to do surgery until I can find it,” he said and told her to get a mammogram.
That mammogram, was the fifth Carol Mohrbacher has gotten during her adult life.
Although doctors generally advise women to get mammograms once a year, she resisted.
She worked for years around nuclear submarines and nuclear power plants and has a healthy respect for the cancer-causing powers of radiation, including X-rays.
Her mother died of breast cancer in 1991, so she knew it might run in her family. She didn’t want to do anything to bring it on.
However, today she concedes that she did things that probably made it more likely.
She resisted getting a mammogram, and continued on hormone replacement drugs even after her doctor warned that studies showed it increases the chances of getting breast cancer.
“I continued to take it because it felt good. I threw caution to the winds, even though I was warned,” she said.
She doesn’t blame herself for getting cancer, but takes responsibility for doing things that might have made it more likely.
When the mammogram came back, the technician looked at it and said those fateful words: “There appears to be something in your left breast and something in your left armpit.”
Called an invasive ductal carcinoma, it appeared to have started in her breast near the nipple and spread to a lymph node, called a “sentinel node” because it’s the body’s first line of defense. Possibly five lymph nodes were affected.
It was 2 centimeters in size and appears rather like a starburst.
She saw a breast cancer specialist on Dec. 22, a physician’s assistant, similar to an RN , who became her “advocate.” Her name is Edit Zelkind.
“Edit became my advocate. She makes sure that not much times elapses between various stages of the process.”
Doctors scheduled a biopsy and ultrasound on Dec. 26.
“The biopsy is not a bad experience,” she said. “I have a high threshold for pain but nothing that happened was fearful.” A needle was inserted into the breast under local anesthesia to take tissue samples.
He advocate made arrangements for her to go to the Kaiser facility in San Diego, where she met her coordinator, a nurse named Judy Vandever and her surgeon, Dr. Jennifer Khoe.
“The doctor and I hit it off very well,” she said.
Volunteers told her what to expect. “That’s all very helpful.”
Mrs. Mohrbacher, who is very familiar with senior citizens who have alzheimer's through her organization Patrons of Special Care for Special Seniors Foundation, says families of alzheimer’s patients don’t talk about it, which creates unneccesary fear. The same is true of cancer patients and their families.
“That’s why it was so helpful to get this information. It would be nice if people were more open about it, then fear would be minimized. I want to help people. I am NOT a private person.”
Jan. 2 she went for a preop meeting with the doctor who had all of her results.
Kaiser has a process whereby all physicians who are involved in a treatment of a cancer (in this case about nine doctors) “meet” in a conference call to see if they all are on the same page as far as treatment is concerned.
They all agreed on the treatment, and to make sure there were no other complications scheduled her for a liver function, chest X-ray, bone scan and a CAT scan. All were normal. No other cancer cells were found.
On Tuesday Carol Mohrbacher was to have a lumpectomy at the Kaiser facility on Mission gorge Road. Such treatment is now the favored method, as opposed to years ago when the extremely invasive mastectomy, that often removed the whole breast, was preferred.
Before surgery her breast will be injected with dye, which will go to the “sentinel node” so they know which nodes to remove.
A few weeks after surgery the doctors will hit her hard with chemo therapy followed by radiation treatment. Her cancer is a very aggressive type. It needs to be hit with everything they can throw at it.
At the hospital when she awakens will be her “support group,” husband, Don, stepson, Nick, daughters Carolynn and Cindy “honorary” daughter, Kymberlee and B.J. and Victor Camp, who are on her foundation board.
“I am so blessed, I am so blessed,” she said Monday night. “Tonight I am at peace and looking forward to knowing what the next steps are.
“Today if I was to offer any advice it would be to tell other women to get a mammogram every year.”
Keith Simpson’s leadership skills got the unanimous endorsement of his planning group colleagues at their Jan. 8 organizational meeting.
In addition to Simpson’s reelection for another term as chairman, other officers elected were: Oliver Smith, vice-chairman; Deborah Hofler, secretary.
There was a contest for the vice-chairman’s spot. In the first round, Smith polled six votes, to Van Koughnett’s five. Eight votes are required, so there was a second round. This time Smith was approved, 9-2. Smith was absent at the time.
Chairman Simpson welcomed new members to the board. This year there was no election since seven candidates signed up for seven seats.
Cindy Wallace, one of the newbies, explained, “I decided to run for a seat when I went to a Rancho Lilac sub-committee meeting. I see so much change happening and I wanted to be part of it.”
Eric Laventure, returning to the board after a year’s absence, commented: “I kind of took a year off and I realized I’m one of those freaky people who likes to know what’s going on and to provide what input that I can.”
David Montross, who has lived in Valley Center for eight years, said that he wanted to “give back” and to be involved and be part of what is happening in his neighborhood.
Outlook for VC
Chairman Simpson then gave something like a “State of Valley Center” report (which he called “2007 Outlook for Valley Center” from the vantage point of the planning group.
“Last month we took a look back, and now I’d like to look at the coming year. There are things that are big and kind of fuzzy,” he said by way of introduction.
He offered a list of ten important things that will happen:
1. The VCPG will work closely with the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use to develop an updated community plan that incorporates planning with greater detail on the existing plans.
“That’s a huge challenge and it’s hard to overstate that,” commented Simpson.
This process will convert the Valley Center design guidelines into design standards.
“The County has a process but it’s kind of vague, and they are not sure how it will happen,” he said, noting that most of this work will probably be done by the planning group’s General Plan 2020 subcommittee.
2. The Southern Village subcommittee will work hard to address large-scale commercial projects. Terry Van Koughnett is chairman.
3. Northern Village. At some point in time they will both [Southern and Northern Village subcommittees] be very active. Lael Montgomery is chairman of this subcommittee.
4. After completion of the community planning phase of GP2020 the Planning Group will develop an updated zoning plan, which will further determine the look and feel of our town.
5. In 2007, the Planning Group will continue exploring options regarding how Valley Center can become more pro-active with regard to community planning. “We are trying not to be as reactive. We’d like to be there from the start,” said Simpson.
6. In coming years VC will need a community center, pool, senior center, trails and park facilities and funding mechanism to build and maintain those facilities.
“We’re not just dealing with aesthetics; we are dealing with safety and functionality. Unfortunately we have been told in no uncertain terms that there is no money to pay for it,” said Simpson.
7. At the present time, there are only limited funding mechanisms available for community needs and one-time grants and other uncertain funding opportunities will be inadequate to meet long-term fiscal requirements.
8. In the present context, Simpson said, VC needs to establish an organization and a plan to bring community districts and organizations together to identify community needs, and secure permanent funding source for community needs.
“Right now there is no way to do this,” said Simpson.
9. The county departments and Board of Supervisors cannot fund immediate needs for road medians and other projects. “I have been informed point blank that there is no foreseeable funding available for other community needs. There is no money for any of these needs,” said Simpson.
10. “If Valley Center doesn’t become more proactive with regard to taking responsibility for our own future, we may end up living in a second rate community,” Simpson concluded.
Subcommittee Chairmen
The following were named chairmen to the various planning group subcommittees:
Brook Forest, Eric Laventure; Circulation, Debra Hofler; General Plan 2020, Andy Washburn; Nominations, Leon Schwartz; Northern Village; Orchard Run, Terry Van Koughnett; Paradise Mountain, Nancy Armstrong; Rancho Lilac, Frank Shoemaker; Rules Revision, Keith Simpson; Southern Village, Van Koughnett; Strategic Planning, Keith Simpson; Tribal Liaison, Van Koughnett; Valley Center Community Church, Van Koughnett; Web site, Van Koughnett.
Somebody tried to burn down Valley Center Foods early Wednesday morning by setting the roof on fire.
Someone driving to work at 3:35 a.m. called in the report and fire engines were at the scene of the market within four minutes.
None to soon as the wood shake awning at the market was burning.
Apparently someone attempted to set the entire roof on fire, according to VC Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary, who kept actual details on the arson under wraps.
If the arsonist’s plan had succeeded it would have created “a huge fire,” according to the chief.
As it was, a 10 foot by 10 foot spot on the awning burned, he said.
The fire was extinguished quickly and the market was open for business that same day.
“Certainly someone was trying to burn down Valley Center Foods and almost succeeded,” said O’Leary.
Sheriff’s arson investigators are at work trying to track down the arsonist.
Last year about this time the only other market in town, Town Center Market, was partially burned. It has not yet reopened.
* * *
The extended period of cold weather is prompting some people to put fireplaces into service that haven’t been used in a while. That can cause flue fires.
Two such fires occurred this week.
On Wednesday, 3:22 p.m. firefighters answered a call for a chimney flue fire on the 14000 block of Kelowna Lane.
According to Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary, the house was up to code, “but on the very top where they boxed in the chimney the wood was too close to the flue. Over the years the wood discomposed and so they had a fire and yesterday was the day that it decided to take off.”
Flames got into the attic but the owners of the house had it under control by the time the firefighters arrived.
The chief said that damages were estimated at between $5,000–$10,000. Some trusses were burned through and will need to be replaced.
* * *
Another flue fire occurred early Monday morning at 12:26 a.m. at the 27,000 block of Kiavo Lane.
This fire spread onto the roof and took out the wall where the fireplace was located, according to O’Leary.
Four residents were at home when the fire happened, but none were hurt.
“That was a good save,” said the chief. He estimated that damages to the house were $70,000.
A TV crew that will be filming a story about an infamous Valley Center murder wants VC people who know about the crime or the people involved, to give them a call or contact them by email.
During February for about a week a TV film crew will be in Valley Center and Vista to do a special on the murder of Bob Dorotik, for which former Valley Center resident Jane Dorotik is serving a life sentence at the California Institution for Women at Corona.
The murder occurred Feb. 14, 2000. To this day Jane Dorotik maintains her innocence.
The TV show, according to producer Kevin Barry, is for the TV series Snapped, a true crime series that focuses on women who kill their spouses or mates. The show is produced by Jupiter Entertainment, out of Knoxville, Tenn.
It is broadcast on the Oxygen TV network, which is owned by Oprah Winfrey.
Snapped is in its fourth season, and the show that will film in February will be the show’s premiere in its new one-hour format. It will air later in the spring.
According to Barry, they will interview many of the key players, including the prosecutors and the defense attorney. They will also come to Valley Center and film, possibly at the house where the Dorotiks lived, and perhaps at the crime scene itself, which was near the corner of North Lake Wohlford & Paradise Mountain Road.
They are also attempting to do an in-prison interview with Mrs. Dorotik.
“Anyone who might have some special memories of this event, or who knew Bob or Jane Dorotik, we would like to talk to them,” Barry told The Roadrunner.
You can contact him at oxygensnapped@hotmail.com or call him at 865-661-2012, 9-5 a.m. M-F.
Dorotik, a habitual jogger who once ran in a marathon, was found beaten and strangled to death on a jogging trail near Woods Valley & North Lake Wohlford Roads Feb. 14, 2000.
Police began questioning Mrs. Dorotik almost as soon as the body was found after a search by authorities. Mrs. Dorotik had reported her husband missing that afternoon. His body was found early the next day.
Police found blood in the couple’s home during an initial search and prosecutors argued that the murder took place there and that the body was later dumped on the trail that Dorotik frequently took to jog.
Searchers were helped by the daughter, Claire Dorotik, whom Mrs. Dorotik’s attorney, Kerry Steigerwalt, during the trial attempted unsuccessfully to show had as much of a motive as the mother to kill the victim.
The Valley Roadrunner
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