The VC-P school district has estimated that 191 students were displaced by the recent wildfires.
“Please note that we are still acquiring data and these may not be the final numbers,” advised Olivia Leschick, administrator in charge of special projects.
This is broken down into the following:
Students in the district who have totally lost their homes and been displaced: 83.
Students currently displaced who have some damage to their homes : 17.
Students who are still affected by the fire due to temporary evacuation: 91.
Mrs. Leschick said the district believes that the current count of homes lost in La Jolla Reservation from Tribal members is 29 homes. She had no figures for Rincon as yet.
The VC-Pauma School district took a financial hit from the Poomacha Fire, but will likely be hurt permanently by the loss of perhaps 50 students.
Four years ago the results of the fire led to a loss of about $1 million a year in federal impact aid. This loss did not become apparent until two years ago, when it caused a temporary financial crises at the district.
“If we lose fifty students due to the fires, loss in revenues would be approximately $315,000 per year in ADA and we would also lose impact aid, Title 1 and other categorical funds,” commented Supt. Lou Obermeyer this week.
But right now the district is tallying up the costs of the fire.
Transportation costs for taking evacuees back and forth to various locations between Oct. 22–Nov. 7 cost a total $4,305.
Costs of repairs to the high school facilities that resulted from evacuees staying there for nearly two weeks totalled an estimated: resurface rubberized track, $28,000; repair football turf and sprinkler system, $5,000; repair soccer field turf and sprinkler system, $5,000. TOTAL: $38,000.
The entire school district was evacuated at one point.
The school district expects to get some, but not all of these costs reimbursed by FEMA (Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency).
The district recently got a partial reimbursement check from FEMA for the costs of running the evacuation center in 2003.
The FEMA claim for the Paradise Fire was for about $72,000 and the district received $29,000.
Palomar Mountain firefighters found this mystery box during the fire. It includes private papers and a coin collection and apparently belonged to a former resident named Bonnie Pickett. The fire department would like to find the owner to return it. Currently it is in the custody of the VC Sheriff’s Substation on N. Lake Wohlford Road.
The Roadrunner won seven press club awards, including five first place awards at Wednesday night’s San Diego Press Club’s 2007 Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Editor David Ross won first place in Humor for Alien Artifact found on Cole Grade Road and first place in Public Service writing for Saving Valley Center's Fireworks Show, a series of articles that the paper ran last spring to drum up public support for the fireworks show.
Cartoonist Mark Brock won third place in political cartooning for “Iran Chef.”
Columnist Patsy Fritz won third place in Health & Medicine for her two-part series, My Life on Drugs and One Lucky, Lucky Rat. Mrs. Fritz won first place in Travel for Vroom, Vroom, Vrooooom! and first place in Commentary/Opinion for Bush’s War or al-Maliki's War? She also won first place in Columns for her trio of Bush's War or al-Maliki's War?, New Iraq (the Solution) and War: the Horror and the Tragedy.
The Roadrunner competes in the non-daily newspaper category and the awards recognize work published July 2006 through June 2007. They were presented Nov. 7 at the Press Club's annual awards celebration in San Diego.
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Other area writers also copped awards.
Debra Lee Baldwin of Hidden Meadows received six awards—three first-place and the entire category of Garden Writing!
Her awards included first place for Daily Newspapers and Websites - Gardening for The Lush Look in the Dallas Morning News; first place in Magazines—Architecture and Design for Stylish and Sturdy for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles; first, second and third prizes in Magazines— Gardening for Succulent Serendipity in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles; Magical Makeover in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles and Unwitting Excellence in San Diego Home, San Diego Union-Tribune.
Baldwin also won second place in the Magazines - Column category for “In the Garden/Edibles” in San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles.
Local Boy Scout Troop 619 raises the colors at Monday’s Veteran’s Day observance at the Valley Center Cemetery. Cameron Izadi is playing taps on the bugle. About 40 people attended.
The VC Municipal Water District has gone from gung ho, to go slow and maybe no go when it comes to the annexation of the tiny San Luis Rey Municipal Water District, which lies along I-15 near Pala.
Because of pending lawsuits and the grim probability that water supplies will be drastically cut next year the VC board Nov. 5 took a good hard look at what had been virtually a no-brainer just a few months ago.
The VC district isn’t actually part of any annexation yet, but is one of several districts that are part of a study being conducted by LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission).
Land owners in the SLRMWD want to develop. LAFCO, the agency that creates special districts and determines their boundaries, is near the end of a study to best determine which agency should provide water and wastewater services to those land owners.
SLRMWD, located along I-15 near Pala, is mainly responsible for administering ground water rights. It has no capabilities to provide water or sewer services.
One neighboring district that could provide those services, Rainbow Municipal Water District, has been reluctant to do so because of opposition of its ratepayers to the potential development.
It has become increasingly obvious that LAFCO will probably finger VCMWD to do the job.
However, at the Nov. 5 board meeting VC directors urged caution in proceeding now that the San Luis Rey district has been sued over the programmatic environmental impact report that it issued in August over its wastewater and recycling master plan.
The plaintiffs in three separate suits are the Rainbow water district, the Pala tribe and the Endangered Habitats League.
The suits are based on the premise that the EIR for the master plan is inadequate.
Neither the VC water district nor LAFCO are named in the suits.
However, both are obviously worried about it.
VCMWD Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant told the: “It makes LAFCO a little nervous having this litigation ongoing.” He added, “heretofore we have been fairly positive in working with San Luis Rey and the property owners out there but we have to agree that there have been some significant things that give us pause. People are making decisions and making investments and processing developments and we need to be forthright as to where we are coming from.”
He proposed three possible options for the board to take. Boiled down to their essentials they amount to:
1) Tell SLRMWD thanks but no thanks
2) Indicate that VCMWD is still interested but that it wants to back off for a while
3) Communicate to LAFCO that VCMWD remains supportive Valley Center as a service provider but that it won’t push the issue until LAFCO makes a determination
Director Chuck Stone said, “I think it’s premature for Option one. We have no idea what the immediate future holds, much less the extended future. An annexation is only viable for VC if it’s good for VC ratepayers. I’m still open for that but obviously there are hurdles.”
He added, “Ten years from now if there’s a dramatic change in agriculture we ought to have some options in paying for the rates. I think it’s very prudent not to move ahead but I wouldn’t want to see us foreclose the options.”
Board president Gary Broomell agreed with that sentiment.
Director Merle Aleshire commented: “The most important thing is that we don’t want to get our district involved in any legal action. That’s number one. Also the regional water supplies have got to get back to where we are not facing water shortages.”
The district’s counsel, Michael Cowett said he felt there was no chance of a legal challenge to Valley Center at the moment.
“However, changing your position makes you a more likely target,” he said. “Right now the the litigation is about an EIR, which we have nothing to do with. I don’t see any potential to where we could become the target . Changing your historical position does create that potential.”
Aleshire responded, “It seems to me that they need to know where we are at. That we are interested in continuing the conversation provided that there are no legal issues involving us and water supplies have returned to normal. If those two conditions are met I would continue the conversation.”
Arant added, “The ball is really in the court of the San Luis Rey water district to continue forward. Then we would be asked whether we agree with the findings of the service review. Current thinking is that the recommendation would be to bring in territories into sphere of influence, with SLR given a zero sphere.”
LAFCO is not going to move forward with the review until the legal issues are resolved, Arant said. Neither would the Valley Center water district, he added.
Help us bring some holiday cheer into the lives of the about 191 students impacted by the recent wildfires.
The school district has provided us with the ages of boys and girls who could really use some Holiday Cheer.
To help with gifts that hopefully brighten the lives of these children, The Roadrunner staff is again setting up a Giving Tree in our office.
Hometown residents are welcome to assist by stopping by to get information to purchase a holiday gift for one of the children. When we did this after the fires in 2003, there were two ladies who, in addition, brought bags of stuffed animals.
We wish we could have shared with everyone the joy in the eyes of the small children who came in and not only got a Christmas present but also got to pick a stuffed animal from the large pile.
If anyone would also like to add a stuffed animal to a present or just bring by a stuffed animal or two, the cuddly animals certainly add an extra bit of joy to each present.
We would need all gifts wrapped (except stuffed animals) and returned before Dec. 7 so we can be sure they are delivered before Christmas. Please call The Roadrunner at 749-1112 with any questions.
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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