February 28, 2007 - Top Stories
At the annual State of North County address Feb. 20, Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn talked about illegal immigration, public safety and his goal to preserve the huge Rancho Guejito estate from development.
He spoke at the Oceanside City Council Chambers, a last-minute substitute because of roof damage at the Star Theater a block away.
Horn called for using Prop. 84 money to buy the 22,000 acre Rancho Guejito for a state park.
The land, near Lake Wohlford, is the only remaining intact Mexican land grant in the state. It covers 22,000 acres of pristine habitat. It is owned by the family of the late Benjamin Coates.
“Since I became supervisor twelve years ago, the Coates family has invited me onto the ranch several times, including horseback riding on the property at the invitation of Benjamin Coates,” said Horn.
“With each successive visit I was impressed by the fact that the Coates family understood their role as caretakers of this very special place.
“When I toured the property last spring I was pleased to hear that even though her husband had passed away, Nancy Coates wanted to preserve the place where her husband had ‘found his deepest happiness.’
“Given the long history of Coates’s stewardship I was stunned when representatives of the family this month expressed a desire to have Rancho Guejito annexed into the city of Escondido.”
In the 1970s California considered buying this land for a park. “With the passage of Prop. 84, money could be available to revive that idea,” he said.
“When I am in Washington, D.C., I will speak to our congressional delegation about the importance of preserving this piece of our heritage,” he said.
Horn called the rancho, “a piece of San Diego heritage that has played host to the indigenous peoples who first settled this region, to colonists and ranchers who cultivated the land. The story of California is written on its hills, its adobes.
“We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ ” he said, adding his hope that the Coates family would join private organizations and public agencies “in an effort to preserve this vital piece of California history once and for all.”
Horn updated progress on widening Hwy 76 with the San Luis Rey River Park Project.
Regarding reducing traffic congestion: “Our ability to work with the agencies whose hands are on the driver’s wheel helps us move forward. A major project is widening Hwy 76 to four lanes and building a seven-mile long river park along the San Luis Rey River from Melrose to I-15.
“Last year we completed the Draft Master Plan.
“Our goal is to preserve the sensitive habitat in this beautiful region of North County and at the same time make the road safer, reduce traffic congestion and provide people with hiking and biking trails, ball fields and picnic areas,” he said.
Horn cited the recent freeze that damaged county ag and pledged to help farmers recover and extend the County’s record of increased crop values to 14 consecutive years.
Ag is the fifth largest industry in San Diego. More than 200 crops brought in $1.5 billion; a 5% increase over 2004, he said.
He also talked about the border and the impact of illegal immigration on the county.
Last year Horn called for a study on how much illegal immigration costs the County.
The information, “confirms my worst suspicions. In December last year . . . two million dollars in benefits were paid to support citizen children with at least one undocumented parent in the home. We want to know where the money goes; to the kids and not to Mexico. That took up 4,000 of more than twenty three-thousand such cases for our Health and Human Services Agency.”
He said that the County must document how much money, resources, and employee time is being spent on illegal immigrants. “We are being crushed in terms of lives lost, people victimized and enormous costs by the stampede of illegal aliens.”
On Fox News he has talked about the lack of reimbursement from the federal government for services to illegal aliens, including police costs and medical care. “It costs the County 50 million dollars a year just for incarcerating illegal aliens,” he said.
Horn met with Wisconsin Congressman James Sensen-brenner to discuss a strategy to secure the border and last summer he testified to the House Government Committee on Illegal Immigration.
“We can’t afford to let up in our demand for changes from the feds to protect our democracy,” he said.
Horn wants to see polling places require photo ID. “People have no problem being asked for a photo ID when they rent a movie. Why should there be controversy if you are required to show photo ID before you vote?” he said.
Horn praised progress made in county emergency preparedness. The County prepared the “Family Disaster Plan and Personal Survival Guide” and mailed a copy to every home and business.
He also pushed for the County’s first firefighting and rescue helicopter. “Last year Sheriff Bill Kolender and I put in service a second fire-fighting and rescue helicopter and built a base for the crews to use 24-7 in Fallbrook. Those helicopters and the brave crew members are stopping fires before they get out of control,” he said.
“We committed more than $8.5 million a year to keep CDF fire stations open year-round and give crews more training and new equipment in unincorporated areas.”
The County worked with rural unincorporated areas to come up with Community Wildfire Protection Plans.
He also thanked the Rincon tribe that gave a “no-strings-attached” donation of $100,000 to the VC Sheriff’s substation.
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For complete text of Supervisor Horn’s address, visit our Web site at www.valleycenter.com/
New VC fire administrator John Byrne likes challenges.
Byrne, who started a week ago Tuesday at the VC Fire Protection District, was picked from a group of 11 candidates that board president Mel Schuler, at the last board meeting, took the opportunity to call a very impressive group.
Dan Thornton, chairman of the hiring subcommittee, told The Roadrunner: “The hiring subcommittee was very pleased by the response we received with the recent job announcement. We were impressed, not only by the number of applications received, but also the overall quality of the applicants.
“We carefully reviewed each application and picked the top five candidates to interview that we felt had the best qualifications that the job required. As a result of our interview, John was determined to be the best candidate given all the issues the fire district is currently facing.”
Byrne has an impressive resume. He has been a CEO, company president and general counsel and has worked at wineries, multi-million dollar retailers and has been a partner at a law firm.
Which begs the question, why is he at VC Fire Protection District’s little operation?
“I’m satisfied with the size of the organization,” he told The Roadrunner. “I’m more driven by challenge and goals than I am by financial considerations.”
Byrne has a long list of things the board has asked him to pay special attention to.
The list goes “from human resources, to finance and accounting, to day-to-day administration.
“The annual budget process is going to get started in another month or so and that will be a hot item. I’m doing a top to bottom review of all administrative functions to look to make betterment and improvement,” he said.
A resident of Escondido since 1980, Byrne saw the newspaper ad for the position and got a copy of the new job description.
“I thought it would be a very challenging position given my background,” he said.
Byrne most recently was general manager of Elizabeth Hospice before it was taken over by St. Vincent de Paul and transferred to an all volunteer organization.
He spent six years in the U.S. Marines, where he served in Vietnam at the height of the war, 1966-72, as a combat engineer officer and infantry officer. He earned two Purple Hearts and left as a captain.
After leaving the service he went to law school and got a degree and then went to the University of Miami Law School where he earned a masters of law degree in taxation. He has been a member of the California Bar since 1974.
Although he was not hired as in house counsel, certainly the district will benefit from his legal expertise, including his familiarity with labor law and governance.
Up until recently Byrne was almost entirely in the business world. Some past positions he has held:
• General counsel and chief finance officer for Wavetek Corp., producers of electronic test equipment and cable TV test equipment.
• Partner in the law firm of Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye.
• President and CEO of Thornton Winery in Temecula.
• General manager of Verite Winery, LLC in Sonoma County.
• General counsel and CAO for Super Shops Inc., a $200 million retailer and manufacturer of high performance auto parts with 189 stores in 32 states.
The initial challenge, says Byrne, “is to find out what happens in the fire district, and who are all the players and who they do it with. I’ll be in my data taking, data assimilation mode.
“From there the mission is to do whatever I can do to improve the overall administration of the fire district.”
Bryne and his wife, Kay, have three sons. One of them is a few weeks away from starting as a firefighter at the Los Angeles Fire Department.
A VC middle school teacher has won a state bilingual education award.
Ana Hernandez, a middle school bilingual education teacher who is on assignment as the Distinguished Teacher at Cal State San Marcos, has received the California Assn. of Bilingual Education Teacher (CABE) of the Year award for the State of California.
This is the same organization that awarded recognition to middle school student Alex Carr. He was the recipient of the CABE Writing Contest Award.
Both Ana Hernandez and Alex Carr will be recognized at the CABE Conference, March 15 for the Educator Award Luncheon and March 16 for the Student Award Luncheon at the Long Beach Convention Center.
They will attend the ceremonies with their families.
Accompanying the award recipients and representing the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District at the awards will be Chris Sommer, middle school principal, Geri Geis, bilingual program specialist and Rosa Gonzalez, middle school bilingual teacher.
These are two awards recognizing the bilingual program at the middle school.
The two award recipients will also be honored at the March 8 board meeting.
Olivia Leschick, administrator in charge of special projects at the district, told The Roadrunner: “I was so pleased to hear that Ana Hernandez was chosen the CABE Teacher of the Year, her expertise and dedication to bilingual education is indicative of her twenty-nine years of service as a bilingual educator in several districts in the state of California since 1978.”
Hernandez came to Valley Center in 1996 and has worked at various grade levels in the bilingual program. During her last assignment as the Middle School bilingual teacher, Hernandez has been able to showcase her students, coming from English speaking and Spanish speaking households, to excel in both languages, as demonstrated by their exemplary work and excellent academic scores in both English and Spanish standardized exams.
No stranger to awards, Hernandez was named Distin-guished Teacher in Residence at CSUSM, College of Education for 2006-08. In 2006, she was named Valley Center Teacher of the Year and also was recognized as one of the top 50 teachers in the 2006 “Salute to Teachers,” by San Diego County Office of Education.
“The CABE Teacher of Year is just one more award that Ana can put on her mantel,” said Mrs. Leschick.
Traffic delays can be expected at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28, Thursday, March 1, and Friday, March 2 in order for the contractor to blast rock along Valley Center Road at the intersections of Lilac Road and Old Road.
Please note that the scheduled time of 2 p.m. may change. Rain or thunderstorms may require the blast to take place earlier the same day for the safety of the public.
The blasting on Feb. 28 and March 1 will take place near the intersection of Valley Center Road & Lilac Road on the northbound side of the road.
The blasting on March 2 will take place near the intersection of Valley Center Road & Old Road on the southbound side of the road.
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. 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.
Be sure and check out our new section, Valley Express, which is the kids’ page, written for and by the children of Valley Center.
Each month we will have articles written by children about subjects that interest them.
This is not another school page. We have one of those and it’s called the Campus Page. The Valley Express is a special page for kids to write about their passions and interests. Parents helping with small children’s articles is OK.
Obviously we won’t be able to put in every article, but we will try to fit in as many as possible.
The name “Valley Express” was created by fifth grader Matt Barnes. Because he came up with the winning name, Matt will get a $25 check from The Roadrunner. Come by the office, Matt, to pick up your check.
The Miss Valley Center Pageant contestants are getting ready for the big night, March 10. You can still get your tickets from them.
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 © 2007, 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.