January 24, 2007 - Top Stories
State and County officials, led by Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura met with growers Saturday morning and promised to do all they can to provide relief after last week’s killing freeze.
That isn’t much, although officials didn’t really point that out.
Practically speaking, with the exception of the availability of low interest loans and some aid for ag workers who will be out of a job, most growers will have to rely on insurance to cover their losses.
Secretary Kawamura met with farmers at the San Diego County Farm Bureau office in Escondido. He then took a tour of a stricken grove off Keys Creek in Valley Center where the avocado crop was wiped out.
Whether your crop was destroyed was largely a matter of luck. Local grower Ray Lodge, who attended the meeting told The Roadrunner that his avocado crop was spared.
The higher your land, the more likely it was to have avoided killing cold, which tends to collect in valleys.
Widespread freeze
During his news conference Secretary Kawamura compared this freeze to that of 1998-99. “This is a more widespread freeze,” he said.
Low temperatures hit the state from the Mexican border to Sacramento County, according to Kawamura.
“Governor Schwarzenegger visited most of the state and saw the damages,” he said. “This freeze will exceed the $700 million losses of 1998-99. One of the things that is difficult is to find the extent of the damages.”
With a natural disaster such as a hurricane or an earthquake, you can count the houses that were destroyed. It’s a bit harder with an agricultural disaster because different crops are affected in different ways.
Cold weather actually helps some crops, such as kiwis, apples and other stone fruit that need a cold snap.
Unlike stone fruit, citrus are “stored on the tree” and picked as they are needed throughout the year.
Half of the citrus crop
“Some areas lost one hundred percent of their crop, so clearly that is going to impact the supply,” Kawamura said.
Some estimates are that half of the state’s citrus crop has been lost.
Some growers in Southern California had already harvested some of their crop before the freeze. Those fruit are salable.
Another problem, said Kawamura, is that it is still January. Other freezes could be on the way.
State of Emergency
State Deputy Director of Emergency Services Paul Jacks noted that the governor proclaimed a state of emergency for several counties on Jan. 12, which was before the big freeze hit this county.
The County Agricultural Commissioner, Robert Atkins has requested that San Diego County be added to counties included in the governor’s proclamation. This would pave the way for local farmers to be eligible for low interest loans from the federal government.
However, that kind of relief is seen as a “last resort” available only if other sources are not, the ag commissioner told reporters.
He noted that it would take a couple of weeks to fully assess the damage locally.
Strawberries, vegetables and flowers show damage right away. Avocados and citrus take longer.
Jacks said he hoped San Diego County’s request would be processed by next week and that the federal Small Business Administration would move forward with low interest loans.
Secretary Kawamura added that they are hearing reports that some trees will be affected into next year’s harvest.
“It [the freeze] is a significant weather event that is catastrophic for certain individuals. It is not the same as watching buildings collapse, but to individuals who have seen their businesses collapse it is significant,” he said.
Nurseries & Flowers
Spokesmen for the areas nurseries and cut flower industries also spoke about damaged crops.
Now is the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, the most profitable time of the year for flower growers. They are hoping to have something to sell.
“We may have lost the crop we have in the ground,” said a nursery representative, Janet Kister, of Sunlet Nursery in Fallbrook.
This is also the biggest season for outdoor ornamental nurseries, according to Kister. Many of those plants may have been lost, which will create a double whammy because residences who have lost ornamentals to the freeze will now have a harder time replacing them.
Some ornamental plants are grown in greenhouses. They weren’t affected by the freeze.
A spokesman for the cut flower industry, Michael A. Mellano, of Mellano & Co. in Oceanside said “We came through it pretty well. One of the biggest concerns we have is that the plants we have in the ground will come out in a timely manner.”
About two thirds of the cut flower industry’s sales will be between now and Mother’s Day, with most of that being during the Valentine’s Day holiday.
Fifty percent of those flowers will be sold out of state, according to Mellano.
He said that the cut flower growers most affected by the freeze were in Pauma Valley and Valley Center. Many of those flowers are filler flowers, which are used to fill out bouquets of roses and lilies and other flowers.
Tour of a Devastated Farm
Grove manager Al Stehly cut an avocado from a devastated tree and showed it to the assembled reporters and the ag secretary.
“It won’t make good guacamole although it’s going to make the coyotes happy,” he said. He indicated the damaged fruit. “This is brown. It’s not supposed to be brown. It’s supposed to be green.”
He had brought the reporters to a seven acre grove owned by Pete Schatz.
Before the freeze, this seven acre grove off Keys Creek in Valley Center was “loaded” with avocados, unlike many groves in the area which were producing a smaller crop than in previous years.
Now it will produce zero fruit.
“I would say one hundred percent of these fruit are gone. These trees are pretty dead,” said Stehly.
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Farming is the county’s fifth largest industry with over 5,000 farmers raising crops valued at an estimated $1.5 billion.
Valley Center accounts for almost 8% of the total crops planted in the county.
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According to the California Avocado Commission (CAC), industry experts say it will be several weeks before accurate figures are available for both fruit and trees damaged by the frigid temperatures, but early reports suggest that losses could reach 20-30% of 2007’s projected 400 million pound crop.
Use of wind machines and irrigation water may have kept some avocado groves from freezing in warmer locations, but reports of extensive damage are coming into the Commission from California’s Central Coast south to San Diego County.
Second in a series that will follow the progress of Carol Mohrbacher, who began treatment for breast cancer early Tuesday morning, Jan. 16.
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Surgery went well.
Ultimately, that’s the only important thing that happened that Tuesday morning.
Carol Mohrbacher made it to the other side of Tuesday.
In an e-mail note to friends she wrote: “Step 1 today. Recovery from surgery. Everything is going fine, no painkiller needed, which I attribute to the prayer that holds me up. Incredible.”
Surgery, which lasted three hours, completely removed the lymph nodes in her left armpit.
The incision was eight inches axial, around and down the armpit and a four inch incision on the underside of her left breast to remove both the tumor and a safe margin of good tissue.
Her family and close friends were with her during surgery.
A few hours later she found herself lying in bed at home, reading and sending e-mails.
“Now this is making lemonade out of lemons,” she wrote.
She practiced an exercise called “spider up the wall,” with the arm that was operated on.
She described it: “You walk your first two fingers (index and tall man) from shoulder level as high as you can comfortably go.”
She described her condition: “Feeling great! No pain to speak of. . . Floating on prayer and the joy of all the good wishes!”
She experienced nausea after surgery. “They gave me a big dose of anti-nausea medicine when they put me out,” she said. But after surgery she couldn’t keep anything down, even water, until the next morning.
That was the only real discomfort. “The pain is not terrible at all. No more uncomfortable than before I had my surgery. I’m able to do normal things, fold clothes, within reason. It’s not terrifying. It’s a procedure that doctors feel comfortable enough to do and send you home.”
She has a drain sewed into her side, a hole into her chest cavity. Doctors inserted a hose with a bulb on the end of it.
Every four hours she checks it, measures the amount of fluid and notes that in a diary to give the doctor at the post op.
“That’s probably the ickiest part,” she said.
The post op appointment will be Thursday, one week after surgery to see her surgeon, who will have a full picture of her diagnosis, including the results of her CT scan.
Doctors will have the pathology on the “nodes” they extracted and on the tissue surrounding the “invader.”
The anticipated treatment is Chemo first; the type to be determined by the results of the tests.
Following Chemo will be radiation treatments on the areas known to have cancer cells.
She expects to be in treatment for seven months to a year.
“We’ll know more on the twenty-fifth [of January]” she said.
She began walking the day after the surgery. “The more fit I am the better the outcome and future,” she wrote.
The third day she was in her kitchen, writing on her computer. “They give you a heart-shaped pillow that you slip under your arm to put pressure on the incision. Today I don’t even need that,” she wrote.
On the fifth day she wrote: “I think it is important to share that the Christian Fellowship our family is part of is Horizon Christian Fellowship, Valley Center. They have been a total support by prayer, caring phone calls, visits and bringing dinner each night. For me, being part of a ‘Christian Fellowship’ has contributed to my miraculous, relatively painless and positive experience since having surgery.”
By now her left arm had with some effort regained an almost complete range of motion using the “spider” walks and reaching as high as she could.
From now on she will wear a medical alert bracelet that notifies medical personal not to take blood, or place a blood pressure cuff on that arm. It is now prone to lymphedema (retention of fluids) because the lymph system is gone. Lymphedema can lead to amputation.
She must guard against cuts or injuries to the arm because, without lymph nodes, it has no defense against infection.
A week after surgery healing was going well. She was reading a lot about nutrition to help the immune system.
Because of hypothyroidism, a bout with Shingles and a melanoma on her shoulder two years ago, her immune system has been beaten up.
“I will be turning ‘green’ for the rest of my life…organic gardening may become a new hobby (at least for my husband…),” she wrote.
New side effects cropped up from the surgery, due to damaged nerves. “I am now experiencing some discomfort in my left upper arm. From tingling to a burning sensation. Nothing terrible, just makes you aware that things are a bit different now,” she wrote.
“Overall…things are going well. Thursday is my Post Op with my oncology surgeon Dr. Khoe. and I should be expecting the ‘Plan of Attack” to be laid out along with all the reports on all of the testing.”
She anticipates starting Chemo in two weeks.
That night dinner was delivered by Joel & Judy Kooyers from the church. “Roast Chicken, red potatoes, carrots and salad. Yum! Another wonderful day!” she wrote.
On the eighth day after surgery Carol Mohrbacher awoke and the strange “circuitry” issues had subsided. “I actually awoke laying on my right side with my left arm laying straight out over my left side… Almost normal! YAHOOOOO!”
Carol Mohrbacher is excited that others will read of her journey. “I pray that it will help many and cause many to not ‘wait’ before finding out what that ‘thing’ is. If you have a new ache or pain…check it out, especially over the age of 55. Our bodies give us fair warning when something is not right.”
She has also been delighted to hear from several women who say they plan to get mammograms.
Jeana Boulos, Dominique Alto, Amanda Kaiser, Whitney Bisplinghoff, Kalyn Peirce, Ivory Martinez, Nicole Citrell, Katrina Brinkman, Alida Diaz, and Brittany Byler are this year’s Miss VC contestants.
Somewhat less than a year after Nancy Coates, widow of Benjamin Coates, whose family has owned historic Rancho Guejito since the 1970s, told The Roadrunner, “Mercy no, we’re not going to develop it!” The Coates family is seeking annexation to the City of Escondido, so they can develop some or part of the 21,000 acres.
One possible development under consideration by the family is a university medical research campus, along with health care, employment, housing and recreational uses.
Last February the Coates family pledged $100,000 to the VC History Museum and used the occasion to host journalists and other interested parties in a rare look at the rancho, the last intact Spanish land grant.
At that event attorney Henry P. Rupp III, lawyer for the Rodney Co. NV, which owns the rancho, told The Roadrunner and other journalists that the only reason that the family was trying to get a higher density from the GP 2020 process was to preserve the land’s value.
At that same event Nancy Coates made the statement that the family was not interested in developing.
However, as reported in other daily media, the Rodney Co. NV, is now seeking annexation for the pristine land by Escondido.
In a letter written Jan. 10 to Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, Rupp wrote: “All of the plans [under consideration by the Rodney Co.] take into consideration environmental and resource related requirements as well as future growth patterns and public needs.”
Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn, who was also at that museum event and luncheon in February, told The Roadrunner Monday, “The last we heard officially was that thefamily wanted to to protect it. They didn’t want to get into the General Plan 2020 process because they didn’t want to develop it, and all of a sudden I read in the newspaper that they want to annex to Escondido. It blindsided me.”
Horn said that he met with the late Benjamin Coates on four separate occasions before he died.
“I did my best to keep the land off the Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP),” he said.
“I was fortunate enough to ride horses there and it is really quite unique and a jewel,” said Horn.
In February at the luncheon he dined with Nancy Coates. “She said it was Benjamin’s request not to develop it. I talked to her daughter also and I thought they were very good stewards of the land.”
At Horn’s 2005 State of North County address in 2005 he told a room of 200 people that after Benjamin Coates died the previous December: “I received a note from his wife. The family is committed to keeping that original Spanish land grant undisturbed,”
This week Horn added, “I think this idea is coming from their land consultant.”
Nancy Coates, although the widow of Benjamin Coates, is not on the board of directors of the Rodney Co. The directors are New York City residents Theodate Coates, daughter of Benjamin Coates and Jim Nicholson.
As to what ultimately happens to the rancho, which would almost double the size of the city of Escondido, Horn says, “I’m going to do what I can to protect it. We have enough development as it is. We approached them once before and they said no, but maybe the County should buy it.”
Whether that is likely or not, Rupp in another publication was quoted as saying, “There isn’t enough money in the state treasury to buy Rancho Guejito.”
Horn isn’t sure that the County would be the best entity to run the property. “We aren’t the best stewards,” he said.
“You have wild turkeys and all sorts of animals on the land. It’s in a great state. It’s kind of a gem. I’d hate to see it ruined. I’m not a no-growther but I think it’s part of California’s history.”
If the Rodney Co. proceeds with trying to annex to Escondido, “They will run into a [Shawne] Merriman kind of defense.”
Horn, who is vice-chairman of LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) notes that Escondido would have to annex the Lake Wohlford area in order to be contiguous to the rancho.
“Otherwise it would create an island which would be a violation of state regulations,” he said.
The Rodney Co. has apparently become more and more impatient with the GP 2020 process as it became more apparent that the County planners were not going to give it any of the density that it was requesting.
A window of opportunity was created when the City of Escondido began its own general plan update.
According to Bob Lerner, an historian with the VC History Museum, “The Rancho Guejito is one of the most remarkable pieces of land in the state. Among the original 800 Mexican land grant ranchos, it is the only rancho still intact in its original shape with no development. It also, to my eye, would compete with any national park. It is an absolutely magnificent piece of property.”
One year after the VC-Pauma Unified School District’s budget crisis was announced, The Roadrunner interviewed Supt. Lou Obermeyer for an update on the resolution of the situation.
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Q: It's been a year since the school district announced that it would have an approximately $1 million deficit due to declining enrollment and an unexpected cut in federal impact aid. How are we doing now, one year later?
A: I’m happy to say that we are fiscally sound after reducing our budget last year by $1 million, without cutting any of our educational programs.
Q: Well, you have must have cut something.
A: Yes, we used a budget process that included representatives from all of our schools, and included community members to look at the budget and discuss areas that we could reduce expenditures or realize savings. We were able to reduce school site budgets and yet not cut programs because categorical funds can be used to do the things we were using general funds for.
Q: Please explain what categorical money is.
A: These are funds that we received from the state and federal governments that can used for certain programs, for example, Title I funds can be be used to supplement programs for our low income students. GATE funds are used for students who are excelling in school and have been identified to be part of this program.
Q: Did you cut any positions?
A: Yes we did. We reduced classified staff by looking at positions as people retired or left the district. We looked at the teaching staff and with declining enrollment only hired in critical positions such as math and science. We reduced the administrative staff by one.
Q: How did teacher and classified salaries fare in this cost cutting?
A: The board just approved total compensation (for both classified and certificated employees) of 4% on the salary schedule and the equivalent of 1% added to health benefits.
Q: If declining enrollment continues are we looking at more pain?
A: We certainly need to monitor the budget carefully and staffing will be the critical piece as we build next year's budget.
Q: Where are we at with federal impact aid?
A: We lost $660,000 last year in federal impact aid and the amount we will be receiving will be slightly reduced from last year. We anticipate seeing a continuing decline in federal impact aid.
Q: Are they moving to eliminate it entirely?
A: The federal government is very supportive of federal impact aid funds and legislation that has been submitted for consideration supports increasing impact aid funds.
Q: Does the Democratic Congress seem more friendly to such an increase than the previous Republican Congress?
A: At this time I don’t know, however we will be attending a conference in Washington D.C. in March and we will most likely get a feel for their inclinations.
Q: What is federal impact aid, and why is it so important in Valley Center?
A: Valley Center-Pauma has five reservations and we receive funds for students that live on the reservations because residents of reservations don't pay property taxes, and property taxes are where school districts get most of their money.
Q: You just had an audit. Did it find any irregularities?
A: They found no irregularities. We had nothing out of order and they had no recommendations for improvement?
Q: How was the district blindsided last year about the deficit being as high as it was?
A: Declining enrollment and the decrease in federal impact aid funds were the big factors in last year's budget. The federal impact aid funds are computed with three year old data and the loss of students from the Paradise fire was just catching up with us.
Q: Do you know of any other districts that have had similar problems?
A: Yes Fallbrook elementary and high school districts and Oceanside K-12 have experienced a decline in their federal impact aid funds. About the half the districts in California are experiencing declining enrollment.
Q: Obviously, we can’t do much about declining enrollment, but can we do something about getting more kids to attend classes regularly?
A: Absolutely. Each of our school sites has a goal to increase attendance by one percent this year and at this time they are achieving that goal.
Q: Do you have anything aimed at high school students?
A: We're expanding our offerings at the high school in both career technology education and academics and we hope to offer courses next year so that students have more choices for zero periods and periods 7 & 8.
Q: How can you expand programs when you have less money?
A: We have teachers developing new courses for our career pathways that we are developing and we are also looking at teachers, if they choose, to have a staggered work day
Q: We know that the construction budget for the Maxine Theater did not impact the general fund. However, there continues to be a whispering campaign out there to imply that the theater somehow caused the budget disruption. How do you address that?
A: FCMAT (Financial Crisis Management Analysis Team) was hired last year to review the district's budget. They certified or reported that the Maxine was built without using general funds. Funds used were developer fees, community contributions, and state grants, and money saved from the Lilac School construction and modernization projects.
Q: Did the FCMAT team find any practices that it recommended that you change to make sure similar budget problems didn't happen again?
A: They had 12 recommendations which have all been addressed and implemented.
Q: Which, in your opinion, was the most important
A: The most important was the position control system which verifies that there is a budget for each position, that we have a check and balance system.
Q: During the protracted salary negotiations, we often heard staff members complain that they didn't have enough information about the budget. Is anything being done to address that?
A: Yes, we developed presentations on the budget which was shared with all employees and we now have monthly newsletter for all employees with a section for the business department to report updates.
The Valley Roadrunner
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