WorldWater & Solar Technologies Corp. Monday announced that it has completed installation of a solar power system for the Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD).
The plant at Lake Turner will provide up to 1 megawatt to power the Betsworth Pump Station.
The system, which was financed and will be owned, operated, and maintained by Solar Power Partners, Inc. (SPP) of Mill Valley, will provide 2.1 million kWh per year of electricity for the district, offsetting up to 20% of the electricity required by their largest pumping station.
The project was done with a power purchase agreement, or PPA, and was built at no capital expense by VCMWD. The district’s only contribution is the land it sits on.
According to Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant, “The benefits are being able to purchase the power at about ten percent below what we would normally pay SDG&E; being able to ‘net meter’ power back to SDG&E at profit, and owning the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) which can be used to offset our Carbon Generation, or can be leased/sold to other entities needing to secure carbon offsets for their own operations.”
The project required no cash outlay from VCMWD, which will buy the generated power from SPP for the 25-year life of the agreement.
“After almost three years of negotiating, planning, and implementation, it is very rewarding to finally see this ‘double green’ project come to life,” said Arant. “This will provide long-term financial benefits for our agency and community, as well as a reduced carbon production environment—thus double green.”
“I feel like Bates Nut Farm is the community,” says Sherrie Ness. “I really don’t separate the two in my mind.”
Mrs. Ness has been named by the Chamber of Commerce as this year’s Citizen of the Year.
She will be honored at the Chamber’s annual Installation Banquet on Jan. 23 at Harrah’s Rincon Casino.
The many activities that she sponsors at Bates are typified by last summer’s Nuts for the Cure, which raised money for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk.
“I had several women come to me for donations,” she recalls. “I felt like there was a better way for them to make money and I felt like I could tie it in with what we were doing and make it a bigger fund raiser rather than getting individual fund-raisers.”
She ended up working with a group of women, putting together an umbrella event that included the Queen of Hearts motorcycle run, also to benefit breast cancer research.
“I felt like the more we could do and the bigger we could make it—the better,” she said. “I met so many people in Valley Center that I didn’t know putting the whole thing together. I felt like it was really special! I ended up writing checks for about $700 for eight women, over and above what the individual women raised for themselves. We were able to set it up in such a way that I provided the opportunity but they had to do the work.”
A resident of Valley Center for 48 years, during that time Sherrie Ness has always been involved with the family business. But it was because of her promotion of worthy causes through Bates that she was given the honor by the Chamber committee, chaired by former Citizens of the Year Ron McCowan and Marcia Townsend.
One nominator wrote: “Sherrie Ness is truly an inspiration to the Valley Center Community. I personally participated in the first ‘Nuts for the Cure’ event at Bates Nut Farm, which she put on for the sole purpose of helping walkers raise their $2,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk.”
Another wrote: “Sherrie donates the use of Bates Nut Farm for many social causes, including all of the hard work she did for the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walkers…She is always the first person to raise her hand when help and support is needed.”
A third wrote: “Sherrie is a behind-the-scenes type, never asking for the spotlight. She is a longtime community contributor. Her donations, her willingness to offer Bates Nut Farm to the schools, breast cancer walk, businesses, weddings, birthday parties, business expos, show she is always ready to step up when the need arises.”
Finally, “…she is a compassionate businesswoman who successfully plans many events at Bates Nut Farm and brings in thousands of people for craft fairs, art festivals, community swap meets, the business expo, students to the pumpkin patch and in December the Country Christmas that benefited the VC Community Theater.”
Mrs. Ness explained her family’s philosophy to The Roadrunner: “Everything we provide is for the community, the park and the animals. It’s a place where you can bring friends and relatives. I feel like our business is centered around an experience for people. It’s not just a business but an opportunity to get out of the house. I have many people who just come because it’s a nice place to visit. I feel really really blessed to have this in my family and that we have something that we can give back to the community.”
Shawneen Burdick will be installed as 2009 Chamber of Commerce president at the annual Award & Installation Dinner Friday, Jan. 23, at Harrah’s Rincon Casino.
She will accept the gavel from outgoing Pres. Verle Yoder.
You are invited to join Mrs. Burdick, the Board of Directors and Ambassadors, as they present the 2008 Citizen of the Year, and bestow other awards.
The new president has been a member of the Chamber for three years.
She is a busy businesswoman in town, owning Store-It-Now, a portable storage business in VC and San Marcos, and with her husband Terrill, Garden Gate Landscape. She is also sales manager for Alternative Housing Solutions and Hedges Metro.
Mrs. Burdick has been a VC resident for 17 years. During that time she has always been a promoter of the community.
“I tend to be more of a people person. I love to help people,” she says. One example of that love is that she has been on the Red Cross Disaster Action Team for six years.
She and Terrill have been married for 14 years and have six children.
She attends Pauma Valley Community Church, is an announcer for the Western Days Parade and has been on the parade committee for the last six years. She is also very supportive of the 4-H Homesteaders group.
She just finished her year as Chamber vice president. She talked with The Roadrunner about what she hopes to accomplish in her year as president.
She wants to live up to the Chamber’s mission statement, which is: “to advocate, promote and advance the success of members through networking, education and economic opportunity.”
“What I really would like to accomplish is to, Number 1, support the town’s businesses, to help them grow and get more business,” she says.
“We would like there to be more support from within. We encourage residents to use our local businesses, versus going out of town.
“With this economy the way it is we need to stay the community that we are and support each other. My motto this year for the Chamber is ‘Your Valley Center Business and Mine in 2009.’ ”
She adds, “That means I want to help our local business promote themselves in a manner that I would promote my own. To bring in the most customers.”
One way to do that, she says, is through Chamber mixers, also called Sundowners. “It’s a great way to promote your business and to come in and network. We find that business deals are being made and people finding services that they didn’t know were available in Valley Center.”
She adds, “The big thing in Valley Center is ‘business to business.’ To get people to stay up on the hill rather than going down.”
In that spirit the Chamber encourages members to do seminars about services they offer, and to show how other merchants can promote their own businesses using their services.
“I come from a seminar background,” she says. “Yes, you can promote your businesses one-on-one but if you have an audience you are going to get your message across to more people.”
Another way to promote local merchants will be through the Chamber’s annual business expo, which was at Bates Nut Farm last year and was very successful.
It will be there again this year, although the time and date are still in the planning stages.
Another service the Chamber provides is its Web site, which includes information on individual members, stories and the CofC newsletter. It also contains the directory of members and links to members’ Web sites. Photos from each month’s Sundowners are also posted.
The Chamber refers inquiries to its members. There are other member benefits, including networking at the Sundowners.
“The Sundowners have built up to be very nice events,” she says. “We have had them at Harrah’s, and Gina’s Hair Salon. People have an opportunity to bring a drawing gift, stand up and speak to everyone about their business and promote it.
The fee to join the Chamber is $150 for a business and $125 for individuals.
“The biggest thing we want to do is promote membership and build business,” she says. “People definitely need the support. Some are not people people but we want to help them to come out of their shell enough to build their business.”
She praises her predecessor, Verle Yoder. “Verle did such an outstanding job at increasing our membership along with Vince Sedio, who was the membership chairman. They brought the Sundowners to a whole new level.”
One very important sub-group of the Chamber is the Ambassadors, the worker bees of the organization.
“They have grown to double their numbers. David Morehead is the new chairman. LaVonne Johnson did a fabulous job for years and continues to volunteer, as well as all of our other volunteers. It is interesting to see how our community is so willing to volunteer. Our board and our ambassadors give all of that time and work of themselves to promote businesses.
You can buy tickets for the Chamber installation at Community Pharmacy, Hedges Metro (next to Shoemaker Realty), the Chamber Office (749-8472), and The Roadrunner.
Tickets are $45 which includes the dinner. Many sponsorship opportunities are available for businesses to provide prizes for the evening.
Valley Center Fire Department put out a house fire that started before 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve. The fire occurred at 14451 Oak Meadow Road in Valley Center. The home is a 3400 sq ft ranch style home. The cause of the fire was a chimney. The home was occupied when the incident occurred. When firefighters arrived heavy fire had vented the roof.
Because of an aggressive fire attack, firefighters were able to save the home. Major damage did occur.
According to Nick Schuler, public information officer for Cal Fire, "This is a example of multi agency cooperation. Valley Center Fire Department, CAL FIRE, Rincon Reservation Fire Department, San Pasqual Reservation Fire Department, Oceanside Fire Department (Breathing Support), San Diego Sheriff's Department, American Red Cross."
San Diego Opera Ensemble will perform at VC Library, 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8. The Ensemble, made up of artists just embarking on their careers, will offer beautiful arias, dynamic duets and explosive ensembles. Everyone is invited to the library’s Community Room for an hour of amazing music. Admission is free! Call 749-1305.
“Do we have a gang problem in Valley Center? The answer is yes,” says Deputy Al Vasquez, who, with Sgt. Bob Bishop, is Valley Center Sheriff Substation’s resident expert on gangs and graffiti.
The good news is that, although we have a problem, it is NOTHING like the problems with gangs that exist in cities such as Escondido, Vista or Oceanside.
However, any gang problem is unacceptable.
And if Vasquez would emphasize anything, it’s that constant vigilance is required to keep a minor problem from becoming a major one.
“I would be very comfortable saying that we have a problem,” he adds. “I would caution against any suggestion that it’s a new problem. The subculture has existed here for years.”
Any kind of graffiti stands out in a rural area, says Vasquez, who can look at a graffiti and tell you a lot about the person who put it there.
“It takes a trained eye to read it,” he says. “It is sort of an art form. Everything you articulate in your newspaper can be done with graffiti, from ‘ads’ to warnings to hit lists.”
He adds, “You have street gangs and you have taggers.”
Taggers consider themselves street “artists” although it is questionable whether someone who wakes up to find such “art” on their wall would appreciate its aesthetic qualities.
“Taggers are working their way up to being gang members,” says Vasquez. They operate in “crews,” who often put their name on a wall. Often they will reach the point where they begin to defend their tagger territory from encroachments, in which case they may be moving towards actually becoming gang member.
Gangs are very “tribal” in their behavior and attitudes. Some are nomadic in that they wander from place to place tagging. Others are associated with a particular place.
Sgt. Bishop nodded towards Vasquez during the interview and commented, “It’s fortunate that Alvin (that’s what he calls Al) is assigned here because he has a background in street gangs that is very extensive.
He noted, much to Vasquez’s embarrassment, that Vasquez was awarded the Sheriff’s Department’s Medal of Valor for saving a life during the Poomacha Fire and four years earlier at the Paradise Fire. He was a joint Grand Marshal of the VC Western Days Parade in 2004.
One of the most well known area gangs, and the one that local kids are most likely to be trying to emulate is the so-called VLS gang, which stands for Vario Loco Sur, which translates loosely as “Crazy Valley Guy,” and whose members sometimes refer to themselves as the Valley Boys.
Vasquez says he is reluctant to call gang members in training as “wannabees. Because if you are doing the crime than you are a gang member.”
The only way to keep gang members and taggers from taking over your neighborhood is to not allow graffiti to remain. Although you should first call the Sheriff’s Dept. so that they can send someone over to examine the graffiti. Or, if you can’t stand letting it remain for even that long, be sure to take a photo of it.
Are you in danger if you rub out or paint over a graffiti.
“A gang member is not going to confront you about painting over his graffiti,” says Vasquez.
He recalls the story of an old man in a San Diego City who when he saw graffiti in his neighborhood park, immediately painted it over. Eventually he started to play cards a the location with his friends.
Some taggers showed up and tried to intimidate them, and eventually they called the police, who, including Vasquez, showed up in plainclothes, and joined the neighborhood residents in playing cards. Eventually the taggers gave up and went someplace else.
“That’s how a community can slowly take back its neighborhood,” he says.
He notes former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s maxim that if you allow a window to remain broken that you are inviting more broken windows, and says that theory absolutely applies in this case.
“If you let graffiti sit than they know that you don’t care.” Don’t let it stay up for more than three or four hours before covering it up.
Recently local deputies noticed that some of the large pipes that were going to be put into the ground along Valley Center Road had been tagged. The deputies persuaded the somewhat bemused road contractor to paint over the tags, even though they were destined for underground.
It was a symbolic gesture.
“The question is,” says Bishop, “Who is going to win the battle, me or the tagger. Some kid who is marking his territory. Well, a dog is marking his territory too!”
Bishop and Vasquez invite community members to call them.
Deputy Vic Perry is one of the deputies tasked with covering up graffiti as soon as it is reported.
If the tagging is in progress, call 911 or the substation at 751-4400.
“If you see a neighborhood kid that you know, maybe his dad or mom would like to know what he’s up to. Or if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, call us,” says Bishop.
He reiterates that compared to Escondido, VC’s gang problem is “nothing. But by putting as much effort as we can early on you can help suppress gang activity.
The current gang activity in VC is, says Bishop, unrelated to any racial tensions that exist in the high school.
“There is tension, but I don’t think VLS can be documented as being any more a part of the problem that just tension between Indian and Hispanic kids. We see just as many instances of VLS taking on other Hispanics as Indians.
Parents should be on the lookout to see who their kids hang out with.
“If you don’t like the people your kids are hanging out with, then do something about it.”
Occasionally parents will be surprised to discover that they kids are wearing gang clothing.
“When he left he wasn’t dressed that way,” they might say.
To which Bishop would ask, “Did your son leave home with a paper bag under his arm this morning? Maybe the gang clothes were in that bag.”
Protecting your children from gangs requires constant vigilance.
“The biggest influence has got to be the parents early on,” says Vasquez. “Kids can’t be raised on autopilot. Once you lose kids to drugs or gangs you will almost never get them back.”
By DAVID ROSS
The other day I was talking to an old friend of mine who was once a planning group chairman, and we were reflecting about how remarkably unsuccessful the group’s members have been over the years in stopping the undesirable elements of developments from getting past them.
He was making the point that years ago when he was on the group that it made some specific recommendations about the Woods Valley Ranch Development, that if followed, would have led to a development that was much less of a cookie cutter than is the current neighborhood.
Of course, that project was carried forward by several development companies over the years before it was finally built. In the process, almost any degree of control that the planning group had was lost.
Then it hit me! The tendency of most no-growthers on planning groups to delay and delay projects is also the reason why the developments ultimately sneak past them in forms that they don’t like.
That’s because when you delay a project for years, such as Orchard Run, the planners who know something about the project get attritioned off the group long before the project is ever actually built. The longer a project is delayed, the more the institutional memory of the planning group passes away.
So the very tactic that anti-development people employ against projects that they dislike eventually comes back and bites them—but long after they have stopped being active in trying to influence a project.
I suspect that county Dept. of Planning & Land Use staffers, who sometimes seem to have the longevity of oak trees, probably count on this phenomenon. As do staff members of our Board of Supervisors, who are, after all, Supervisors for Life.
This strikes me as both a bit sad, and also just a bit of poetic justice. Maybe planners should try to have more influence on a project by trying less to delay it.
The Valley Roadrunner
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