April 4, 2007 - Top Stories
A different way of doing the Honorary Mayor’s race, a high school art contest and a special Sunday devoted to the community are among the offerings at this year’s Western Days, which will be held during the Memorial Day weekend and is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.
Leading this year’s Western Days Committee is Roger Leydecker.
The Roadrunner interviewed Leydecker to find out how things are going with the Western Days end of VC’s biggest weekend (The VC Stampede Rodeo is also going on that weekend).
Leydecker is vice president of finance for Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and works at Harrah’s Rincon casino. He has been with the company for 30 years.
He is responsible for 300 employees, finance, security and facilities.
He has worked for Harrah’s in Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked with the Rincon casino’s general manager, Janet Beronio for many years. He has been a resident of Escondido since 2001.
Leydecker was recently elected to the VC Chamber of Commerce board.
“It’s one of Harrah’s commitments that we try to involve ourselves in the community where we operate. An opportunity arose for representation on the board. I put my name in the hat,” Leydecker told The Roadrunner.
The Chamber felt that his background of running large operations and projects and company affiliation would benefit the festival.
Also on the Western Days Committee are: LaVonne Johnson, Tom Bumgardner, Charlie Smith, Craig Ames and Kathy Woodhouse.
Many things about Western Days will be the same as in previous years. There will be a parade, a carnival, vendor and food booths at the fairgrounds at VC Community Center.
But there are differences.
Community Day
“Sunday is being themed as a community day, directed toward local organizations and cultural offerings,” said Leydecker.
This won’t be a day for individual talents to shine, but for groups to give demonstrations of music, martial arts, Native American culture, dance, etc. to celebrate the diversity of Valley Center.
“This will be a day when parents and grandparents can come down and see little Johnny performing. The aim is to focus on that as a community day and give them a reason to come and see their loved ones show off their talents,” he said.
Western Days Sunday has traditionally had a smaller attendance than Saturday, so this community-theme day is designed to generate a little more interest for that day.
If your group is interested in participating in that, call Charlie Smith through the Chamber office.
Art Competition
The VC High School art students have undertaken a competition to design the 2007 Western Days artwork that will be used on the annual T-shirts—The winning student receives $100, with all artwork to be displayed at the Western Days.
The winner will be selected by a committee comprised of representatives from VC service organizations at the April 3 meeting of the committee. The winner will be announced in next week’s paper.
Honorary Mayor’s Race
The Honorary Mayor’s Race will also be a little bit different from previous years.
In past years, the candidate whose organization turned in the most money, won.
This year chance will play a part in the selection of the winner, opening the competition up to smaller organizations.
Each candidate turning in money will get tickets, which will be put into a barrel. The winner will be drawn by this year’s Honorary Mayor, Left Eddie.
For each $100 turned in, a ticket will be put in the barrel.
While the organizations that raise the most money will have a better chance of winning, candidates who turn in smaller amounts won’t be shut out.
“We made the change in order to stimulate additional community involvement,” said Leydecker. “We are trying to get all of the community’s organizations involved this year.”
To be a candidate you must be sponsored by one of Valley Center’s non-profit organizations.
Clubs will keep 90% of the money that they raise for the contest. The remaining 10% will go to the Jack Vosberg Community Service Scholarship.
Lavonne Johnson is in charge of the contest.
Now is the time to get your candidates together, since the campaign season begins 60 days before the selection date: May 25. Call the Chamber office to find out more information: 749-8472. The official rules of the Honorary Mayor’s Race will be published elsewhere in this edition of The Roadrunner.
Entertainment
Western Days entertainment this year is leveraging off of Harrah’s entertainment department, which screened and contacted the acts.
Friday; May 25, 5 p.m.–midnight, the Tumblin’ Dice Band will play.
Saturday; May 26, noon–6 p.m.; The Working Cowboy Band.
Saturday, 6 p.m.–midnight; Nitro Express.
Sunday; May 27, 2–4 p.m.; Nitro Express.
No Monday Carnival
One difference from last year’s festival is that there will be no Monday carnival this year.
“There were not enough gate receipts, so we will limit the carnival to three days,” said Leydecker.
He talked about the hard work of the committee’s members.
“The committee has been meeting for the last couple of months. “These folks have been working very hard the last couple months and it’s evident to me as the newcomer that they are dedicated to both the VC community and the success of Western Days,” he said.
The VC fire board Thursday went on record against the proposed consolidation of fire districts in San Diego County.
It held a special meeting to formulate its response to the LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) microreport on the reorganization of structure fire protection.
Directors said the plan is a “one size fits all” solution that may only provide the same protection VC residents currently get, but without local control.
The board did not go as far as some other boards, in asking to be removed from the Phase I process. Instead directors decided to wait and see how the process plays out.
Only two VC residents attended: Earl Brown and Mike McDonald. There were several representatives from other fire districts, all of which oppose consolidation.
“We are being threatened by the County in a takeover. I don’t think the people really understand that,” commented Brown.
“They can’t run themselves, much less a fire department,” commented McDonald.
Another speaker was Chief of the San Pasqual Volunteer Fire Dept., Gilbert Turrentine, who also coordinates several fire districts in the Backcountry.
“We have unanimously voted to oppose any plan. We are not interested in the county running our fire departments,” he said.
“We have spent years building our departments. We have a well-organized machine. We just need to coordinate financial aid,” he said.
VC directors expressed concerns about the microreport recently issued by the LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission). Note: The microreport can be downloaded from the LAFCO Web site: www.sdlafco.org/
VC director Weaver Simonsen commented, “The challenge we face in staffing [as addressed in the microreport] is that one size fits all.”
An example, he said, is that the report says that not only should three firefighters be assigned to an engine, but that two must be paid.
“Some communities have built up a fire department based on volunteers, and provide that level of staffing, but they are not paid. That has to be part of any staffing,” he said.
“Volunteers,” said Simonsen, “are just a professional as people being paid.”
Director Dan Thornton commented: “It’s clear that their proposal only provides what we currently provide. We are trading local control for a system that doesn’t benefit our community one bit.”
Board Pres. Mel Schuler, agreed that the plan presents a “one size fits all” approach, but said it might enhance service by providing more paid firefighters.
“If we are talking about two CDF firefighters on engines, as opposed to two reserves and one CDF, that enhances service. Because our reserves often don’t have a lot of experience,” he said.
He said that when the County offered to pay for an extra CDF firefighter for VC’s and other district’s engines that “it was funding them ahead of the whole organization being established.”
Simonsen said he is concerned about how to fund the consolidated district. “Funding must be sustainable. It can’t be one time. It has to be a funding source that will enable us to pay for the growth we are going to have whether we like it or not,” he said.
Fire districts established after Prop. 13, he noted, all have funding difficulties. “Our funding does not sustain growth. The amount the people will approve lasts about five years before we are back in the hole. I would like to see the County to come up with a model that would allow us to meet growth,” said Simonsen.
Simonsen said that the funding the County currently provides to districts like VCFPD comes from reserves. “I appreciate them doing that, but it is one time money. It is not sustainable. It is out of the goodness of the hearts of five supervisors, three of whom have no experience with the Backcountry.
“We had one supervisor say that the people of the Backcountry should tax themselves to support it. All that has to occur is two other supervisors to vote the same way and that funding disappears. It’s risk money,” he said.
Thornton reminded directors that the County in 1978 made a unilateral decision not to fund firefighting and gave VC and other communities a year to form a fire department.
Participants in the study have been told that property taxes collected locally would stay to provide local fire protection, but there seems to be no guarantee.
Schuler said that the ten or 11 seat member governing board that will be created under one model would have that power.
“When I attended the meeting in Ramona I asked ‘How do we assure that the money is spent in the right place?’ ” said Director Oliver Smith. “What it came down to is that people who have the power to move it from one community to another is the eleven on top. If you don’t like what they do you have the power to vote them out of office.”
How the new district will be governed is another issue.
Among methods of governing being studied are:
• a regional fire district
• a county fire service agency
• keep the status quo
• create a regional fire protection district governed by the Board of Supervisors.
According to VC’s new district administrator John Byrne, who is attending some of the County’s meetings on this subject, the County has said that it doesn’t want to run the new district.
Schuler said that when he first talked to those doing the microreport, he was told that each district would have a representative on any new consolidated district board created.
“But later they said it would have to be a general election throughout the county and some number of directors would be established.
He was also told that one proposal is to establish advisory fire boards to represent each community.
He laughingly commented, “There’s at least three of us who have sat on the planning board and know what advisory boards do!”
He added that if you look at underfunded districts that will come under the consolidated district, “that tells me the money is not coming our way.
“On our board we can sit down with our community and say, ‘There’s no free lunch’ and if the community realizes that they will support us with a bond. If we go to the County we lose that. The loss of the ability to improve your district is major issue.”
Simonsen said that the reason given for a consolidated district, the response to the Paradise and Cedar fires of 2003, is wrong.
“In that fire we had central control. It was a major wildland fire. CDF had control. This is a red herring, because this command control already exists.”
All fire departments in North County are under the administrative control of CDF (Cal Fire).
He added that supporters of a consolidated district always cite the countywide non-binding vote that called for creating a County fire department.
“It was like ‘How would each of you like a Cadillac?’ and the people said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a great idea!’ They use that to say that public overwhelmingly voted for it.”
He doubts that the public would have supported this concept if they had been told of the impacts and cost.
He recalls seeing fire engines from all over California covering Valley Center in the Paradise blaze. “There were cities I couldn’t even name that we protecting our structures, because CDF had pulled the trigger to get them in
What puzzles him is that the areas where central control of the 2003 fires was an issue was South County. Yet they will not be included in the Phase I consolidation. Only North County fire departments will.
Schuler asked whether under a consolidation VCFPD would lose all its staff, to be replaced by others hired by the County.
“What will change in Valley Center tomorrow if we change. We are happy with CDF. If this consolidated district is created, it will contract with CDF. We already do. They aren’t going to give us any more engines. I’ve asked point blank if we had another Paradise Fire and we were under regional fire would it have made a difference and the answer I have gotten is NO. So, what is the benefit?”
Simonsen said a better solution is centralized service and procurement.
A representative of the Elfin Forest fire department remarked that the County wants a standard issue engine. However his department has bought engines that work on their steep hills.
Joan Van Ingen, a director of the Deer Springs Fire Protection District, said her board wrote to LAFCO asking to be excluded from the study because their residents approved a tax surcharge to fund their district.
Her district opposes having those special approved taxes go into a general pot, with a regional board to decide where to spend them. “What if they decide your new fire engines will work better another place? We do not trust the County,” she said.
Simonsen said that everyone remembers when the County bureaucracy shut down the Optimist holiday turkey sales and cited the fire department for polluting storm drains by washing their fire engines.
“We have dealt with county issues in the community.”
Small organizations spend local money more efficiently, he alleged. “All volunteer organizations own their own equipment. So if the County takes over they will have to go out and buy new engines,” he said.
Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary was asked what the benefits would be from a consolidation.
“In theory it could enhance training opportunities,” he said.”It could regionalize purchasing, but I don’t necessarily think you need a regionalized fire district to do that.”
He noted that there have been large devastating fires in neighboring counties that have county fire departments. “Just because you are a county fire department it’s not going to prevent a major disaster like we had,” he said.
Leading up to the vote against the proposal, Simonsen said, “I think we can’t support it unless there is a governance model that recognizes the importance of local issues and provides adequate local input.”
Smith added, “With any of the governing models we might have one individual from Valley Center on that board, but that’s not going to protect us from being outvoted to get something of ours that they want.”
Thornton concluded: “Now we have five members whose sole dedication is to the VC fire district. On a regional board we will have one out of ten, and we will lose local control.”
Scores went up or stayed the same for all VC-Pauma schools in a report that compares last year’s test scores of schools against all 10,000 schools in the state, and against schools of similar demographics.
For complete scores, see our Web site: www.valleycenter.com
So, in an example that has for several years proved frustrating for VC school administrators and demonstrates the somewhat schizophrenic nature of the system, Pauma Elementary School was a 3 in statewide ranking (where 10 is the best), but 10 when compared to similar schools.
At the same time, under No Child Left Behind standards, Pauma continues to be a “Program Improvement” school that is eligible to be hit by state penalties.
The scores broke down this way:
Lilac Elementary, whose statewide ranking last year was 8, kept the same ranking this year. However, compared to schools of similar demographics, its ranking was 10, same as last year.
Pauma Elementary, whose statewide ranking was 2 last year, increased that score to 3. However it’s similar schools raking was 9, as it was last year.
VC Elementary Lower’s statewide rank went from 6 last year to 7 this year. It’s similar schools ranking went from 9 last year to 10 this year.
VC Elementary Upper’s statewide rank last year was 5. This year it was 6. It’s similar schools ranking went from 6 to 9.
VC Middle School’s statewide rank went from 7 to 9 this year and its similar schools rank rose from 9 to 10.
The high school’s statewide ranking went from 6 to 8, and its similar schools rank increased from 6 to 9.
About 10,000 schools in the state are included in the comparison.
There weren’t enough students in the All Tribes American Charter School, Palomar Mountain Elementary and VC Independent Study and Oak Glen High to be rated.
The primary school increased its statewide ranking from 7 to 8, but there were no figures available for its comparison to similar schools.
The goal set for each school is to reach or increase its 800 2006 API (Academic Performance Index) goal.
Three VC schools achieved that goal: Lilac Elementary, VC Elementary Lower, and VC Middle School.
Others came close: VC Elementary Upper achieved a API base of 760. VC high school achieved a base API score of 751.
Pauma Elementary’s API base was 688.
For basis of comparison, 1,000 would be a perfect score.
“We’re thrilled with the scores,” announced Supt. Lou Obermeyer. “It showed that all of our school.s increased or remained constant
“Four years ago I don’t think anybody would have predicted that we would have two schools over 800 and now we have four,” Supt. Ken Clark told the March meeting in anticipation of these reports.
Each year the state reconfigures the base figures.
The state will release the base numbers, which will be their target for the new year.
The report is the first of two that will be issued this year by the state detailing student test performance and effectiveness of schools.
Tests are given each spring in math, English, history and science.
Dos Valles Garden Club is busy planning its annual flower show to be held April 21–22.
For the second year it will be held at St. Stephen Catholic Church at 31020 Cole Grade Road in Valley Center. Saturday the show is from 1:30–5:30 p.m. and Sunday hours are 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
The public is welcome with free admission and an opportunity drawing. Refreshments will be served.
The theme of the show this year is “Travel to Adventure.” Each display section will be named after a region of the world, such as Tuscany and the Amazon Rain Forest. Show entries include horticulture, which includes flowering, fruiting or cone plants, vegetables, fruits, cut specimens, and container grown plants.
The design section includes original designs of dried plant material, table artistry, fresh plants, and petite designs.
There will be a section for entries from the club sponsored Boy’s Ranch youth, affiliate Girl Scout troop, and the Valley Center High School agriculture department.
There will be a plant sale at the show with tomatoes and many varieties of plants suitable for growing in Valley Center. Proceeds from the sale go to the Dos Valles Garden Club scholarship fund.
George Lucia (center) is sworn in Thursday as VC fire marshal by retiring VC fire marshal Joy Justis and VC fire chief Kevin O’Leary. Lucia is also fire chief of the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept., a position he will continue to have.
See local talents shine Saturday night in the Maxine Theater when the fifth season of Teen Talent kicks off with its Preliminary Show.
Once again there is a flurry of excitement as contestants go over their monologues, fix that final dance step, tune and re-tune their instruments, and work on reaching those high notes in preparation for the fifth season of Teen Talent.
All those hours of preparation will pay off when one talented person from each category places first and walks away with a $500 cash prize.
The Teen Talent Show and Competition Preliminary Show takes place in the Maxine, April 7, at 7 p.m.
This competition offers an opportunity for students to expand their talents, whether dance, vocal, instrumental or drama.
Contestants registered between January and March and must first go through a preliminary show where judges decide who moves on to the Finals Show.
Once in the finals, contestants compete for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place with prizes of $500, $250, or $125.
Contestants include students from: VC Middle School, VC High School, Escondido Charter High School, Escondido High School, San Pasqual High School, Carlsbad High School, Cathedral Catholic School, Hidden Valley Christian, Academy, St. Mary’s School, Grace Christian High School, Heritage Christian High School, San Marcos High School, Mission Hills High School, La Costa Canyon High School and Calvin Christian.
For tickets and information please visit the show’s Web site at www.teentalentshow.com.
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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