February 7, 2007 - Top Stories
The VC water board Monday voted to proceed with a three phase Southern Node sewer project that includes two privately-funded phases.
Water district staff had hoped to have a single expansion project, but in the last couple of months concluded that may not work.
The water board approved the following:
Phase I: This is the Woods Valley Ranch permanent plant under construction, and due to be operational by March 1.
Phase II: a treatment plant expansion to serve Bell, Alti and the smaller property owners. These are the folks who propose to build a Major Market along with some other retail along Valley Center Road near Mirar de Valle.
Phase III: An expansion to serve the needs of the Orchard Run Project, which includes 308 units of residential development.
Under the plan, Phase II would be a private project, with the Bell/Alti property owners creating their own assessment district and issue bonds.
Eventually the water district would take over operation of the water treatment plant.
The interim Woods Valley Ranch Plant (the “Big Blue Tank”) that will be replaced when the permanent facility goes on line, could accommodate the Bell/Alti group in advance of their expansion plant being finished.
Under Phase III, Orchard Run would design and build its own 308 EDU (equivalent dwelling units) to meet its needs and provide eight units for the VC Parks & Rec District.
The interim plant could also accommodate Orchard Run. Currently it treats 50,000 gallons per day.
With the project moving forward, there may be a chance for property owners in the South Node, who did not sign up last year, to be included, or for those who paid deposits to expand their commitment.
However, several property owners outside of the South Village planning area who made deposits will be refunded those deposits. If they can get written approval from the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use by June of this year, they can resubmit their deposits.
No Single Project
Since last December the water district staff tried to develop a structural framework for the South Village Reclamation Project. Their main goal was a single treatment plant expansion project. However, various issues, including time and financial issues, convinced them that a single expansion project was not feasible.
Over the past month and a half, and several meetings with property owners, they developed a plan which seems to fit everyone’s needs.
With the staff approach endorsed by the board, staff will now finish the project master plan, initiative an environmental impact report, and develop facility agreements with the larger property owners involved.
A new high density 63 unit senior living condominium proposal for about 5.5 acres in the Circle R area will be reviewed by the VC Design Review Board and the VC Planning Group this month.
The VCDRB will conduct a preliminary review of the Castle Creek condominium Project Feb. 13, 4 p.m. in the Library Seminar Room.
The project is being proposed by TWA Communities of Santa Ana, for three lots at 8797 Circle R Drive.
These lots are evidently part of the Circle R Resort Specific Plan which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1978.
TWA is requesting a Specific Plan Amendment for Circle R Resort Specific Plan Areas I, J and L which is linked with a General Plan Amendment, a rezone, a Major Use Plan Modification and a Tentative Map.
They propose 63 units in seven buildings on three common lots on 5.46 acres. What’s on the property currently is a parking lot, golf maintenance facility, and tennis courts. These would be removed under the proposal.
DRB Chairman Lael Montgomery told The Roadrunner: “This is a complex project with a 63-page County Scoping Letter, and we are at the very beginning of the process.
“This means that NOW is the time when community input is the most influential and important.”
During this preliminary review the DRB will focus mainly on the developer's basic intentions and plans: site design, location and of buildings, open space accommodations, grading, basic form of buildings and landscape concepts.
“My intention is to focus this meeting on the Site Plan and its impact on the character and function of the surrounding area,” said Dr. Montgomery.
This project may also be within the jurisdiction in the I-15 Design Corridor.
“This is an important project to a lot of Valleyites,” she added.
The planning group will look at the project at its Feb. 12 meeting (7 p.m., VC Community Hall) and possibly form a subcommittee to deal with it.
“I asked for volunteers and Harriett Draper came forward!” recalls former publisher Van Quackenbush of Harriett Draper, a longtime columnist for The Roadrunner who died Jan. 25 at her home, at the age of 99.
Services for Harriett Esterbaurl Draper, who lived in Valley Center for 37 years, will be held Feb. 11, at Hideaway Lake Mobile Estates, 28890 Lilac Rd., VC. McLeod Mortuary is hand-ling arrangements.
In an interview published several years ago, Mrs. Draper, who rarely minced words, commented on her longevity: “I didn’t have anything to do with it. I just didn’t die.”
Even at that advanced age Mrs. Draper had still occasionally contributed a Hideaway Lakes Ripples column to the paper.
She and her husband of 58 years, Dale, were the first residents to set down roots at Hideaway Lake Estates, an upper scale mobile home park in VC.
She was a good reporter of all things Hideaway. Here’s an example of her reporting, from October of 2004, when the park management drained the lake to restore it:
“The last water was drained and bulldozers began the removal of over a half century of runoff dirt.
“Looking at the shallow basin it is hard to remember when it was deep enough to cover Fred Homer’s car (when he forgot to set the brake and it rolled into the lake.) The tow truck chap had to dive to hook-up.
“The lack of vegetation made the cattails, reeds, and sedge thick enough that Art Holms and Dale Draper built a forklift gadget to dredge it out. So, Lee got some grass-eating carp to keep it down. They were very frustrating to the fishermen who did not know they were only grass-eaters.
“And to remember the remote control electric sailboat races that brought contestants from as far away as Long Beach and Yuma.”
* * *
Over the years Mrs. Draper contributed to the improvement of operating nurses, an accomplishment she was honored for in the 1960s with a national award.
Harriett Draper came from the small town of Pleasanton, Nebraska, where she was born on June 28, 1907.
Harriett attended the University of Nebraska to become a nurse. A family illness brought her to San Diego, where she taught operating room nursing.
She was kept out of the war by bad eyesight. After the war it became evident that nursing education needed more structure. She was instrumental in giving it that structure.
Dale came from Idaho before WWII. He was in National Youth Administration and went to work at North Island as an aviation metal smith.
They met on a blind date at a beach party. They dated for a couple of years and 58 years ago decided to marry.
He tells how when he took Harriett home to meet his mother that she said, “Well, if you marry her you’ve got to live with her. Does she cook?”
“No,” he told his mother, “but she knows how to read and she’s got a cook book.”
After WWII Mrs. Draper was active in starting the Assn. of Operating Room Nurses. She served on some national committees and was president of the San Diego chapter.
Because of her long years of teaching and advancing operating room nursing, in 1969 she was honored with the Johnson & Johnson Prize as Nurse of the Year.
Both retired in 1969 and they’ve been VC residents since 1970.
Wanderlust brought them here. For years they had RV’d in the summers. They decided to do it full-time when they retired.
“We wanted a place where we could continue our travels,” she recalled. “We saw a sign on Gopher Canyon that advertised Hideaway Lake Mobile Estates, eight miles. We looked at it. It was only about half full. We got on ‘the trolley’ and rolled around and looked at the spaces.”
They bought a coach and persuaded Dale’s brother to buy a coach and move next door.
“I wasn’t going to do any crusading, I was just going to retire,” said Mrs. Draper. “But the first thing that happens is people ask you what you were doing when you retired. I told them, ‘I’m a teacher.’ ”
She was asked to do the park newsletter, which she did until not long before her death
This evolved into her column for The Roadrunner.
Over the years they helped to set up and take down the monthly potlucks. Dale frequently left bags full of fresh picked vegetables on his neighbors’ doorsteps.
Recently the Drapers were honored for working to get the old park “trolley” working again after many years of neglect.
Today this 40 year old conveyance is known as “The Draper Express.”
Traffic delays can be expected from 11a.m.–3 p.m. on Feb. 8 & 9 in order for the contractor to blast rock along Valley Center Road at Lilac Road.
Blasting is a process that uses a targeted and contained explosion to break hard material that cannot be easily removed.
To ensure the safety of vehicles traveling along Valley Center Road, through traffic will be temporarily stopped when blasting occurs.
The blasting and inspection process is anticipated to take about 15 minutes, said a spokesman for the county Dept. of Public Works.
The closure time may be extended if additional cleanup work is necessary. Allow extra time while driving through the area or use an alternate route.
For questions or concerns, call the Project Hotline at (619) 232-2640.
The school board Thursday will be asked to approve a summer school schedule that continues the four-day, four hour a day schedule begun as a pilot program last year.
According to Supt. Lou Obermeyer, that arrangement saved $18,000 in electricity last summer.
In addition to the remedial classes usually offered, summer school would offer classes that will allow high school students to accelerate their accumulation of credits. During the two three-week sessions, students will be able to earn a maximum of ten credits.
This would return the high school to a schedule that was ended several years ago when the high school’s summer school schedule was made concurrent with that of elementary summer school.
The summer school schedule will be as follows:
Elementary Summer School July 2–26
Secondary Summer School, Grade 7&8, July 2–26
Secondary Summer School, Grade 9-12, June 19–July 26
Locations of summer school will be Lower Elementary School (Grades 1-6) and Valley Center High School (Grades 7–12).
Dental Assessments
Kindergartners attending classes in the VC-Pauma Unified School District will be able to get free dental assessments under an agreement that will be considered Thursday by the school board.
Assembly Bill 1433, signed last year by the governor, mandated such assessments be performed. The agreement that the school board will consider will be with Neighborhood Healthcare, which operates nine clinics, including the Mountain Valley Health Center in Pauma Valley.
The dental assessments will be at no cost to the district, or to the parents of the children getting them. They will be conducted on campus and similar to hearing and vision assessments currently being conducted.
The meeting will begin Thursday, 6:30 p.m. at the high school media center (library). The public is invited.
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
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