General Plan Update Subcommittee members Sandy Smith and Andy Washburn, leaders of upcoming Valley Center Community Plan Workshops, will be packing a lot of information into the morning of April 18.
The workshop will take place from 9 a.m.–noon in the multi-purpose room at the VC Middle School.
Valley Center residents, business and property owners are all invited to come learn about planning, and, more important to share your vision for Valley Center’s future.
The workshop will be led by San Diego County Advance Planning staff member Bob Citrano, Sandy Smith, Andy Washburn, assisted by other members of the Valley Center Planning Group’s General Plan Update Subcommittee.
This workshop will explain briefly what the VC Community Plan is, how it fits into the San Diego County General Plan, and how YOU can make a difference to the future of Valley Center.
The community plan that is being prepared now will guide development in Valley Center for the next 20 to 30 years. This update has been underway County-wide since the late 1990s.
For the next six months, the General Plan Update Subcommittee of the VC Community Planning Group will be refining recommendations for land use and circulation that have been under discussion for several years, and writing the VC Community Plan text.
The text will describe a vision for Valley Center, and will specify goals and policies for land use, mobility/circulation, conservation and open space, safety and noise that will help realize this vision as future development takes place.
An additional workshop will take place later this month in three different locations to discuss these topics in more detail. Residents are invited to attend the one that is most convenient. Choices are: April 23, 6–8 p.m. in the VC Library; April 30, 6–9 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at the middle school; and May 6, 7–9:30 p.m. at Lilac School.
Members of the General Plan Update Subcommittee are: Rich Rudolf, chairman; Sandy Smith, vice chairman; Andy Washburn, secretary; Brian Bachman, Hans Britsch, Anne Geinzer, Deb Hofler, Lael Montgomery, Ann Quinley, Jim Quisquis, Dennis Sullivan, Joe Tanalski, and Jim Yerdon.
Contact Chairman Rich Rudolf at 749-0662 for more information.
Three asteroids, recently discovered at Palomar Observatory will be given Native American names to honor the Luiseño Indians who are native to Palomar Mountain. A presentation was given at the observatory on Tuesday, April 7.
Palomar Observatory presented officials from the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians with plaques depicting discovery photographs of the asteroids. Student artwork based on the asteroids and Luiseño names was showcased.
Asteroid discoverer Jean Mueller found the asteroids years ago while operating a telescope as part of the second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
“It is a privilege to honor the culture of the people who have lived in this area for a millennium,” Mueller commented. “I wanted to recognize their history in a tangible fashion and naming asteroids for them seemed like a fitting thing to do.”
The asteroid names feature figures from the Luiseño creation stories. The names selected were Tukmit (Father Sky), Tomaiyowit (Earth Mother) and Kwiila (black oak).
“These names recognized the cultural ancestry of our people. We appreciate the opportunity to share our world views with the public and foster a greater understanding not only of our people’s legacy in the valley but also in the universe at large,” Chairman Chris Devers told The Roadrunner.
Asteroid (12711) Tukmit was discovered Jan. 19, 1991. Tukmit is Father Sky in the Luiseño creation story. He was made from nothingness and together with Tomaiyowit bore the First People. The First People became all the people, animals, plants and inanimate objects of the earth, the basis of Luiseño existence.
Asteroid (11500) Tomaiyowit was discovered Oct. 28, 1989. Tomaiyowit is Earth Mother in the Luiseño creation story. She, together with Tukmit, gave birth to the First People, which are all things and features of the earth, forming the basis of Luiseño existence.
Asteroid (9162) Kwiila was discovered July 29, 1987. Kwiila is one of the First People in the Luiseño creation story. Kwiila means black oak, which is indigenous to Palomar Mountain where the Luiseño traditionally gathered acorns during the summer months.
The discoverer, Jean Mueller, is a night assistant at Palomar Observatory and the senior telescope operator on the 200-inch Hale Telescope. But for almost 15 years, she exposed wide-field photographic plates for the second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSSII) with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope. The POSSII survey complements an original sky survey done with the same telescope back in the early 1950s.
During the course of the sky survey, Mueller scanned most of the plates. Specifically, under high magnification, looking closely at the images searching for comets, supernovae (exploding stars) and fast moving asteroids. In the course of her work, Mueller discovered 15 comets, 107 supernovae and 14 asteroids.
The rules for naming comets and supernovae don’t allow the discoverer to have any say in their names, but for asteroids the discoverer has the right to bestow names. Asteroids, also called minor planets, are first “numbered” after accurate orbits have been determined. Many of the asteroids that she discovered are Apollo-type asteroids. Apollo asteroids have orbits that cross the orbit of Earth and have the potential to someday impact Earth. There are rules for naming Apollo asteroids that are governed by the 15-person Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union. It was only recently that cultures such as the Luiseño could be honored in this way.
Valley Center's Middle School Jazz Band April 4 finished third out of 17 middle schools at Fullerton’s Jazz Competition, held at Fullerton Junior College. Schools came from as far away as Arizona. Student Brent Allen received a solo award of recognition.
How would you like to have a scholarship named after you?
You can if you sponsor one of the $1,000 scholarships that the Real Estate Professionals will be giving away with funds raised at the Real Estate Professionals Scholarship Golf Tournament, which will be held May 8 at Woods Valley Golf Club.
Last year the Real Estate Professionals were able to give 13 scholarships to graduating Valley Center and Pauma Valley seniors.
Their goal this year is to raise the same amount or better.
This year anyone or any business that donates $1,000 to the cause will have their name attached to the scholarship. Plus they will automatically become a hole sponsor.
To sponsor a hole or play golf it costs $100.
Call Selma at 760-737-0152 or Garry at 749-6606.
This year’s tournament will be held at Woods Valley Golf Club on May 8 with an 11 a.m. sign in.
In addition to the golf there will be dinner and prizes.
The VC-Pauma school board voted Thursday night to put the Adult Education Program “on hold” until further notice.
The vote was 5–0.
According to a report to the board, the Adult Education Program operates under an ADA (average daily attendance) formula which provides funding in the current year based on the prior year’s ADA. Last year’s ADA for the program was 47 and enrollment is “significantly lower” than expected this year at 27. That reduces the revenue from the program by $50,000.
An adult education program will still be available to Valley Center residents through the Escondido High School District.
The program was put “on hold” because indications are that things will get better next year or the next, according to Supt. Lou Obermeyer.
Denise McAndrews, who has been the director of the program for many years, spoke against the proposal.
She said that many of the people who take Adult Education classes in Valley Center are probably unable to speak for themselves at the school board, and so she would speak for them.
Mrs. McAndrews added that the program is an economical way for many people who live in the Valley Center area to get classes that they need for educational requirements, such as GED certificates.
She’s mad as hell and she’s not going to take it anymore!
Those are actually not Lynn Miller’s words, but you get the idea.
Mrs. Miller, a Valley Center housewife, has organized the local version of those “tea parties” springing up all over in response to the bailouts and tax increases being contemplated in Washington D.C. and Sacramento. TEA stands for “taxed enough already.”
She stresses that they are not “Obama bashers.” “We are just as mad at Arnie,” she says. “We’re trying to get independents, and people who may have voted for Obama and woken up.”
She and fellow organizers will hold a rally at 403 N. Broadway in Escondido, at the post office across the street from the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. It will be held on April 15, 5–7 p.m., just as the late tax filers are delivering their returns to the post office. It’s also when TV crews are likely to be out filming the last minute filers.
No politicians will be asked to talk. Some local grassroots residents will talk using a bullhorn borrowed from their church.
People attending will be asked to bring signs, flags and wear red, white and blue. The rally will be peaceful.
“We don’t want any more tax increases, we don't want any more bailouts, no more stimulus packages, we want a balanced budget, no more earmarks,” she says.
“A housewife can do a lot with just a Mac computer,” she says, noting that at first she emailed people on her list of friends and the recipients emailed others on their lists. Now she spends two hours a day answering emails.
The group met to organize on Monday afternoon at the Miller home and The Roadrunner was there to talk to some of them.
Robert Miller (Lynn’s husband) said the event’s goal is, “to tell people that we have a democratic society. It’s our right to say what things are wrong. We don’t want socialism—we are into capitalism.”
Miller was recently laid off from his job as a mechanic of heavy duty tractors. The family is having a hard time living off their savings—unemployment barely helps.
Debby Lenson, also unemployed, has spent her 30 plus year career as a dental office manager.
But they don’t favor the higher unemployment benefits that are part of the stimulus package.
“We want to send a clear message that everyone is not thrilled about ‘the change.’ Capitalism is really what works. We need to reward the people who are successful and not punish them!” says Mrs. Lenson.
Her husband, Bob, a self-employed home maintenance worker, who teaches a home repair class at the Escondido Adult School, adds, “My concern is that we seem to have forgotten history. We have never been able to spend our way out of an economic correction. Our spending is pushing us into a depression.”
Jason Miller (Lynn & Bob’s son), a 21-year-old Palomar College student interested in a career in radio, who is seeking an internship at KUSI, says he was motivated by CNBC’s stock market reporter Rick Santelli’s famous on-air rant about the bailout—and subsequent “tea parties” around the country.
“I watched that and said, ‘You know, you’re right! What the heck? Why not get something done out here?’ ” Miller didn’t undergo much of a conversion, since he was a Republican precinct organizer and community leader in VC, where he was in charge of “get out the vote.”
He stresses that he is conservative first, Republican, second. “I’m a conservative. The president is doing the ‘change’ that we don’t want. This massive spending will impact me and my children. How will I be able to send my children to college?”
Although he listens to talk radio icons like Rush Limbaugh, he’s more attracted to a new voice, that of Glenn Beck, a radio and a TV political commentator.
“He’s the person I agree with the most,” he says.
He’s been on local radio programs, including Roger Hedgecock to promote the “tea party.”
Mike Mata is a retired Marine Corps. sergeant major. He was recently laid off from Lowe’s after he had bypass surgery.
“My biggest goal is to let people know we are against this big government spending,” he says.
What really got under his skin was a recent speech in which President Obama said the following at a summit in Europe: “There have been times where America’s shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”
“He has insulted me and all the people who died before me. I don’t want my president telling other people that we are arrogant,” says Mata.
Mata also echoes another sentiment common to the people we talked to: “They work for us! I don’t like socialism and I don’t want socialism. I will die fighting for what we have. He is our president. He should stand up for us, not behind us!”
Diana Taucher, a retired nurse, adds, “My concern is the government is no longer listening to the people. I’m unhappy with both parties. The Republicans are not listening. They didn’t fight for what we voted them to do. The current administration is going to force this bill down our throats.”
She calls herself part of “the silent majority.” “We have sinned. We have allowed the country to get into this condition by being silent. We are not going to be silent anymore!”
The Roadrunner asked Mrs. Miller why not hold the demonstration in Valley Center?
She felt that road conditions would make it harder to get the hoped for crowds. They are looking for 300–400 people.
“I think the grassroots people are going to have to move this country,” says Mrs. Miller.
“I think it will become a bigger movement. I think if the politicians don’t listen to what the people are saying right now that there will be consequences in the next election.”
* * *
The Valley Center organizers are actually part of a larger organization called the Southern California Tax Revolt whose Web site is: www.socaltaxrevoltcoalition.org/
You can email Lynn Miller at miller6219@sbcglobal. net or call her at 760-638-0386.
By DAVID ROSS
Sheriff Bill Kolender, who retired this week, was a public official who was remarkable in that we didn’t hear much about him during his long tenure, unlike his predecessors.
He wasn’t an arrogant loudmouth and a buffoon like John Duffy. He wasn’t a complete incompetent despised by everyone in the department, like Jim Roach. He just did his job, and did it well enough that the Board of Supervisors, who used to duel regularly over the department’s budget with the aforementioned Duffy and Roach, didn’t dare mess with him. You can’t argue with success.
We are told that Kolender’s endorsement was sought each election cycle with the same deference as being blessed by the Pope. Well that makes sense, as they were both about the same age—towards the end, at least.
Now we enter a new period, where various officials will joust to replace Kolender. Whoever the Board of Supervisors names as an interim sheriff will have the indoor track.
One thing that Kolender DID do that was a disappointment to many rural types in the Backcountry was to make San Diego County among the most onerous counties for law abiding gun owners to carry a concealed weapon—a right that is recognized and encouraged in most states, and indeed in most counties of California.
Duffy had an extremely liberal concealed carry policy. Kolender enforced as restrictive a policy as exists in the country, outside of, say, New York City or San Francisco.
People interested in such things—as many freedom loving people in this community are—should make the concealed handgun policy of the department one of the issues of the upcoming election in 2010.
It is important to know where the top law enforcement official in county stands on the Second Amendment.
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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