Organizers of the first VC Parks & Rec concert, which featured Rockola, are calling the free event “a hit!”
About 250 enthusiastic members of the public attended the free concert.
Friday’s concert was performed at the Community Hall & Stage. “You would have been hard pressed not to find a soul toe tapping, clapping, screaming or up on the dance floor,” said one observer.
This is the only such concert that will be performed this year, but now that it has been demonstrated that such musical events will attract a good crowd, there will probably be others.
“We’re hoping to get a budget passed for about three concerts a year,” Melissa Hague, who organized the concert, told The Roadrunner. “The district was trying out a new concert series idea that Rockola helped fulfil,” she said.
Although Rockola is used to playing to much larger audiences, band members told Hague, “they really loved it because it was an intimate atmosphere and setting.”
To make the concert series a reality, Hague is hoping for “one or two businesses that would like to sponsor the bands.”
Friday’s concert cost about $3,000-$4,000 including advertising.
“Finding the perfect group to help kick off the very first concert of the series was a difficult decision. We couldn’t have chosen anyone better than Rockola,” said Parks & Rec. general manager Doug Johnsen. “In fact, they will be the first band in next year’s three concert summer series.”
Photos of the concert can be viewed at www.rockola.com
Sponsors this year were Bill Horn and the County Board of Supervisors, Angelo Damante of Mercedes Benz of Escondido and VC California Bank & Trust. To become a sponsor for next years’ event call Doug Johnsen at 749-8852.
Someone broke into Grangetto’s Farm and Garden Supply Sunday night or early Monday morning and took 26 power tools valued at more than $9,000.
According to Gary Osburn, assistant store manager, the break-in occurred between Sunday 4 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Monday.
The burglar(s) broke the connector at the locked gate on Cole Grade. They left the gate open, cut a hole in the overhead door three feet off the floor big enough to crawl and push material through.
Stolen was gasoline powered Echo power equipment, such as trimmers and hedge clippers.
In addition to the lost merchandise the store is also spending about $2,000 to fix the doors.
Sgt. Ed Wells of the VC Sheriff’s substation said that power tools such as these are a frequent target of home burglaries, although currently there isn’t a pattern of such burglaries.
“They are easy to get rid of. Easy to sell. Hard to track. It’s the kind of thing there is a market for.”
If you have any information about the Grangetto’s break-in, be sure to call the Sheriff’s substation at 751-4400.
An exhibit on actor John Wayne’s days in the Valley Center-Pauma Valley area may be on its way to becoming the biggest-drawing attraction at the Valley Center History Museum.
“Hundreds turned out on opening day, which recorded the largest single-day attendance since the museum’s opening ceremony in 2003,” said president Bill Hutchings.
Hutchings said a very popular display on the original Betty Crocker, who lived and cooked in Valley Center for more than 40 years, holds the record for popularity, but that the John Wayne exhibit may eventually surpass it.
Personal mementos, photos and memorabilia document the years the actor lived, shopped and rode horses in this area. The show continues through the end of the year.
The history museum is located at 29200 Cole Grade Road. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 1–4 p.m. Admission is free. For information, call 749-2993 or visit valleycenterhistory.org/
Valley Center Municipal Water District Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other water executives last week as they toured Sweetwater Reservoir.
The reservoir is at less than 50% capacity. Their tour illustrated California’s mounting water crisis. They and the governor called on the legislature to pass a comprehensive water plan.
The Governor's $5.9 billion plan will provide additional water storage, create conservation and efficiency measures, repair the fragile delta and lead to the development of a modern conveyance system to reliably supply water to California's growing population and $32 billion agriculture industry.
VCMWD, like many water agencies in San Diego and southern California, is 100 percent dependent on imported water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project.
Arant told The Roadrunner: “At this time, the State Water Project (SWP) is in crisis, with pending regulatory and legal actions poised to reduce its annual capacity up to fifty percent of normal year deliveries. A fifty percent reduction in SWP flows means a twenty-five percent reduction in imported water available to MWD [ Metropolitan Water District, the supplier to all of Southern California] and on to the SDCWA [San Diego County Water Authority]and its member agencies, one of which is VCMWD.
“The governor’s water plan, 5.9 billion for two reservoirs and securing delta conveyance, is essential to secure a reliable water supply for our future.”
Arant added, “Because we don't have enough surface storage and reliable and environmentally safe way to move water across the Sacramento/ San Joaquin Delta our growers are facing a minimum thirty percent supply reduction in January of 2008, a reduction which could last for several years. If conditions in the delta worsen and we have yet another dry winter, the ag reductions could be deeper and we could see mandatory reductions to domestic and commercial users.”
Arant pointed out that even if Schwarzenegger’s proposal is approved by voters next year, the improvements will take five to ten years to complete.
“Even though there won't be an immediate fix, we must start the process soon, and approval of the governor’s plan is that first step.”
The San Diego Assn. of Governments (SANDAG) voted to release its draft 2030 Regional Transportation Plan, including updated completion dates for projects including the widening of Hwy 76.
An 18–0 SANDAG board vote June 22, with both City of San Diego representatives absent for an announcement on the city’s homeless shelter, accepted the draft RTP for distribution and set a September 14 public hearing date on the draft RTP. The SANDAG board is scheduled to adopt the final RTP on November 30.
The RTP includes a $41 billion Revenue Constrained Scenario and a $58 billion Reasonably Expected Revenue Scenario, although the Reasonably Expected Revenue Scenario includes $10 billion in revenue whose sources are yet to be determined.
“We’ll work with the board to identify and pursue additional revenue sources after the plan’s adopted,” said SANDAG senior transportation planner Mike Hix.
The plan also includes an $89 billion unconstrained needs scenario.
The revenue-constrained plan has completion periods of 2008, 2010, 2014, 2020, and 2030. The widening of Hwy 76 from two to four lanes between Melrose Drive and I–15 has a 2014 completion date, as does the construction of the four-lane Hwy 241 toll road between the Orange County line and I–5. Widening the toll road to six lanes in some areas has a 2020 completion date.
The Reasonably Expected Revenue Scenario also adds four toll lanes to I–15 between Hwy 78 and the Riverside County line, which was designated for completion by 2020. Transit service from Riverside County to the Sorrento Mesa area of San Diego is also slated for implementation by 2020. Adding four toll lanes on Interstate 5 between Vandegrift Boulevard and the Orange County line has a 2030 completion timeframe.
The unconstrained revenue network expands Hwy 76 to six lanes between Melrose Drive and Mission Road, to four and six lanes between I–15 and Pala Mission Road, and to four lanes between Pala Mission Road and the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
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.