• Cottage Food Operation: Papa Sanchez's Churros

Have you ever heard of a CFO?

No, I'm not talking about a Chief Financial Officer, I talking about a Cottage Food Operation. 

Back in September of 2012 Governor Brown signed AB 1616 into law that took effect January 1, 2013.

In a nutshell, it allows certain types of foods to be made at home, and then sold to the public, with far less regulation, as long as you don't have more than $50,000 in gross annual sales.

I could copy and paste from other articles or rephrase what is already written but if you're interested in what the Cottage Food Laws are about, here are a few links. 

Link 1 (The Law)            Link 2 (How To)           Link 3 (List of Foods)

All cottage food operators will have to meet specified requirements pursuant to the California Health and Safety Code related to preparing foods that are on the approved food list, completing a food processor training course within three months of registering, implementing sanitary operations, establishing state and federal compliant labels, and operating within established gross annual sales limits.  

As of the writing of this blog, there are four Cottage Food Operations that are registered with the county in Wildomar.

• Papa Sanchez's Churros
• Flour House Bakery
• Sweet Revenge Cakery
• Krafted

The first three are Class A CFOs and Krafted is Class B. The difference between Class and A and B is based on who you sell to. Class A can only sell their food directly, whereas Class B can wholesale them to a store. 

Located at 22081 Walnut Dr. 

With that brief introduction to CFOs out of the way, let me now tell you about Papa Sanchez's Churros. 

A couple of weeks back Kenny Mayes was telling me about them, so the next week my wife Grace and I stopped by for a taste. I don't know if I've ever had such fresh of churros before, they were warm and tasty. They had an airiness about them that other churros don't have. Others that I've had are a heavier, more doughnut like texture. These just seemed to melt in your mouth. The prices were pretty good too.

It is run by a local family that is headed by Joel and Yesenia Sanchez and I asked if there was a story to Papa Sanchez's Churrros.

My name is Yesenia Sanchez and we have papa Sanchez Churros. It's a family recipe since 1957, and we've really enjoyed this recipe and were excited to offer it to the public. We've (Joel and Yesenia) been married for 26 years and we've been trying to make the churros [and offer them for sale] here, but it wasn't approved by the city. We were surprised to see churros on the list [of approved cottage foods] and when the cottage food permit came through, I was so excited. 

As of this blog they are opened on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays from 4pm-9pm, but no FaceBook page or other internet site yet. Their address is 22081 Walnut Dr.

Don't be shy, drive on over this weekend and give them a try. It's a throwback to yesteryear when such home businesses were more commonplace. Also, now you have the added assurance that they've gone out of their way to comply with the state and county regulations. Let's hope to see them selling their churros at future city events. ☺

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If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.

 — Cesar Chavez

Wildomar Rap suggests that the first rule for walking in the Summer Sun is to wait for the Sun to go down.

• Wildomar Night At The Diamond 2015

 As part of Wildomar Night, a local charity receives a portion of the proceeds. Wildomar's VFW was this year's choice.

The Wildomar team is assembled on the field before the game. From right to left is Mayor Ben Benoit, then Mayor Pro-Tem Bridgette Moore, and City Council Member Marsha Swanson. Followed by the Wildomar Queens, Members of the VFW, first responders, and Wildomar's Chief of Police Captain Leonard Hollingsworth.

In addition to being a very apt City Clerk, Debbie Lee can belt out a tune too. Below is a vdieo I took with an iPhone... try not to get goose bumps while listening to it... I dare you. ☺

1

Tickets were sold by the Chamber of Commerce and we all sat in section 103. If you're good at "Where's Waldo" you'll be able to pick out many faces that you recognize in the picture below.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Below is a picture of the some of the Wildomar contingent that had been on the field.

I managed to get the Council Members together, 
next time I'm going to have to get them to look at MY camera too. ☺

It was a ton of fun even though the Storm were shut out. A great evening surrounded by good people. Hope to see you at next year's Wildomar Night!

•      •      • 

Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here's the pitch: Swung on and missed, a perfect game. —  Vin Scully, September 9, 1965

Wildomar Rap suggests that if you're attacked by a group of clowns... to go for the juggler.

• Better Know A Local Charity: The Assistance League

Have you heard of the Assistance League?

I hadn't until a couple of years ago when my mother was moving and donated several pieces of furniture, and countless boxes of clothes, to them. Though they are called Assistance League of Temecula Valley, they help families and kids in Wildomar too.

From the outside, the Assistance League (AL) is seen as a well kept industrial building. On the inside, it's hard to tell that it's a converted bowling alley (that is now owned outright by the the AL), that serves as their thrift store and headquarters. Unlike other thrift stores I've been in, this one is clean and organized throughout. I didn't see any beat up items on display and the prices seemed very fair too.

Though they have a very nice website (link is below), with plenty of details about them, I wanted to get a less polished glimpse into the Assistance League. So I arranged a chat with Electra Demos, a past president (2009-2011), and here are the highlights from it.

Serving all of the Temecula Valley which includes Wildomar.

 WR  Tell me about the Assistance League.
 AL    The Assistance League is an all volunteer organization, we've been in the valley since 1989. It started small, we first clothed 33 children in Operation School Bell; last year we clothed 1,864 students and this year we're hoping to bump it up to 2,000. 

We come from all walks of life, mostly retired. Teachers, business people, business owners, bankers... you name it. We come with that background and that's what makes it so wonderful is that we all bring out expertise to the organization. We operate the thrift shop six days a week, and we also operate all of our philanthropic programs. 

The main one of which is our Operation School Bell, where we work with the four school districts, and we clothe children who are identified by the health technicians as HUD Low Income. It's so gratifying to see the smiles on the kids' faces when they leave with their bags of clothes. Some of these children have never shopped  for new clothes. We take them to the Kohl's in Temecula, Menifee or Murrieta and they are given an allowance of $125. Kohl's pays the sales tax and it gives them the buying power of $140.

Another program we really enjoy is Operation Bear Hug [where] we give bears to ERs of the local hospitals. The nurses love to give those bears to the kids because it soothes them. One time, after we had just approached a hospital and left a sample bear, a child came in that was just inconsolable. The doctor couldn't get near him, then the nurse remembered the bear and gave it to the child. The child calmed down immediately and the doctor's reaction was we need more bears!

We help other Non-Profits. We don't want to reinvent the wheel so instead of implementing a new program (perhaps a pantry program or a homeless program) we partner with others in something we call Operation Partnerships. So we can make agreements with the other 501(c)(3) and for instance, Project Touch, when we had a cold winter, they had apartments to put people up. March [of that year] was still cold and they didn't have the money pay the rent on the unit, so we paid the rent for them.

Banners showing many different things that the Assistance League is involved in.

 WR  Tell me about Operation SHADES.
 AL    It's a financial literacy class. We work with the schools and they identify the at risk or foster youth or OSB kids (Operation School Bell), and the counselors identify other kids [suitable for this program] and last Spring we did five classes at different high schools. It's all day and we run it like a business conference. The kids come in in the morning, we have refreshments, they go through some classes like using credit, banking, [how to balance a] checkbook, credit cards. Things that kids really aren't familiar with.

"Shades" is not an acronym, it just means you're going to have a future so bright you need shades!

A look at part of the clothing area.

 WR  What is Assisteens?
 AL    It's [made up of] 7th through 12 graders. They work the counter [of the thrift shop] on Saturdays. They get a budget of $20,000 a year for working in the store; that way they don't have to do car washes or sell candy. This way it's a win-win, because they get work experience here. Kids can't get jobs at that age (14, 15). So this way they have something to put on their resume; they've counted money, they've run a store. They run their own philanthropic programs. They budget, they have a board with a lot of leadership opportunities.

 WR  Where are the Assisteens drawn from, the general public or...?
 AL    They are from all walks of life, they don't half to be from low income situations. Right now we have about sixty-four boys and girls in the program and it's building everyday. They can get their community service hours here, plus all this other experience. When they graduate we give reference letters for college or employment. 

This looks just like one my son had.

 WR  What is Chapters for Children?
 AL    It's under Operation School Bell. We're  a national organization and there are several chapters in the Southern California area. We team with these other chapters and we go to Camp Pendleton once a year and we clothe the identified low income military families. Each [AL] chapter is responsible for a piece of clothing or school supply and our chapter is responsible for boys jeans. We give two pairs of jeans to every boy who is in the program. We bought about 780 pairs of jeans last year.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

 WR  Tell me about the AL's fundraising.
 AL    Our main fundraiser is our thrift shop. We very aggressively write grants. We've been very successful with our grants [petitions]. We keep meticulous records because that's very important when you write a grant. Afterward you have to write a report on how you spent the money. We do a lot of California Block Grant writing, we get from the state and the supervisor districts. 

We are gearing up to have a program where we can approach people and ask if they would dress a child for $125. We're in the planning stages of how we're going to handle that. 

I asked if "Dress a Child" was similar to Adopt-a-Child, where a donor gets a letter back and maybe a picture too.

No, the donations go into a fund. It's not like Adopt-a-Child. If you want your donation to go to a Wildomar child, then that's restricted funds and it'll go to that budget for Wildomar.

In addition to our thrift shop and the grants we receive, we do get donations from companies. For example, Subaru. We have been selected as their Share The Love event [recipient]. For every Subaru that's sold, the person buying it can tell them what charity they want to donate $250 to. Once a year, from November to January, Subaru allows the local dealer to pick a local charity and last year we were awarded over $13,000.

 WR  How about membership?
 AL    Membership has been more word of mouth, neighbors speaking with neighbors, we've had new members come in through out website. We're hoping to attract women 40 and under, so we're kind of putting a push on that. You can find the info on our website. With Assisteens we have about 220 [current] members. We have close to 100 work-a-bees...

I had to ask what a work-a-bee was...

Like in every organization you have members that don't do too much, then there are those members that do a lot; we call those work-a-bees. Our backroom is sorting room and when donations come through the back door they need to be rough sorted. Which means if you have a mixed bag of stuff, some goes to the men's department, some to the women's department, books, toys, shoes etc. 

We don't have any paid staff. We gave back 82.7% of our revenue to our community. The only real expense we have is the building. 

The books are organized alphabetically.

While getting a tour of the thrift shop I was shown the various departments. A boutique where higher end garments are displayed; an area with books, CDs, books on tapes, records and even some VHS tapes; a toy section; a housewares section (which is a fun place to find plates, silverware and glasses that aren't run of the mill); a furniture department; and of course the clothing area.

A look at the furniture department.

Fun fact: The Assistance League is in the same 24,000sf building that once was Pinky's Bowling Lanes. If you look closely enough, you can see some tell-tale signs of it by the way its laid out. The thrift shop portion is 18,000sf.

In the room that used to be the Bar and Grill there is now a meeting room. They use it to give back to the community. 501(c)(3) organizations can book the room, and hold their meetings there for nothing. They have about 20 organizations that take them up on this offer.

A look at the meeting room that is available to other non profit organizations.

Operation Couture Closet: They have about 1500 gowns in an offsite location. During Prom and Winter Formal season, the girls who are identified as foster youth and Operation School Bell can just take a gown to wear to their dance... then bring it back for the next girl.

This is also available to adult women that have the need for such a gown too, for a $75 donation.

They have a truck to pick up large items like furniture, but do not have a truck that picks up small bags of clothing. If you have things you'd like to donate, come on down to their building... they'd love to flash you a smile as they help you drop of your donations.

Below is a video that the Assistance League recently had produced. It gives you a good overview of the thrift shop and what their purpose is.

Click to visit AL's website

link to AL's Facebook page

28720 Via Montezuma
Temecula, CA 92590

Phone: 951-694-8018
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Charity begins at home, but should not end there. — Thomas Fuller

El Niño and Wildomar Rap have a lot in common, except that one isn't an often promised rainy season that rarely materializes, and the other doesn't blog on a variety of local topics. Other than that... they might was well have been separated at birth.

• Wildomar Gets A New Skate Park, Thanks To Lake Elsinore ☺

It was a packed crowd over at Serenity Park, just over the border (Corydon St), in Lake Elsinore that was on hand to see the official opening of the new skate park.

A look at the impromptu dais for the dedication and ribbon cutting and those looking on.

It was a fun atmosphere with skateboarders, razor scooter-ists, and MX bikes were all represented in various age groups that ran the gamut. There were also many reps from various skateboard companies with booths set up and plenty of local dignitaries too. Including State Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, Lake Elsinore Mayor Steve Manos, Lake Elsinore Council Member Daryl Hickman, a representative of State Senator Jeff Stone's office, Wildomar Chief of Police Captain Leonard Hollingsworth, and plenty of others that I didn't know their names.

A little bit of banter between Melissa Melendez and Steve Manos during the dedication.

I asked Melissa Melendez for a quote about the new skate park:

This city has spent a number of years trying to make sure there are amenities available for young families raising children. This is another example of how hard they have worked to make sure that families are taken care of.

—Melissa Melendez 67th Assembly District

Looking at the newly dedicated monument.

I asked Steve Manos for a quick quote about the new park after I thanked him for building a skate park for Wildomar, which brought some chuckles.

We're hoping that the Serenity Skate Park serves not only the families of Lake Elsinore specifically, but also the county (Lakeland Village) and the City of Wildomar. We're very excited and we had a lot of support from many of the constituents and leaders in the area and we're very proud to go ahead and put together something that is been so well received.

—Steve Manos Mayor Lake Elsinore

The park is open from 6:00am to sunset and it's located on Palomar just north of Corydon, and though this park is physically in the City of Lake Elsinore, it's closer to Wildomar's population than it is theirs. So if you're a skateboarder, or like to use razor scooters (I assume that's what they still call them) then you should head on over there and try it out.

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Skateboarding is training, but I don't think of it as training. It's fun. —Shaun White

Wildomar Rap rues that horrid rainy Halloween where a new plexiglass skateboard was promised if 100 pieces of candy could be fleeced from the neighboring houses. What a bust, the final count didn't even come to close 60 pieces.

• 27% Hike In Water Rates

This afternoon a full house attended a rate increase meeting at the water district.

It was a lively meeting and the first half of it was both informative (though I'd actually heard it all before, plus if you read the color mailers you already heard it too) and entertaining. I enjoyed the 18 other public speakers and the way the crowd got into it with applause after a point was made that they agreed with.

You can see EVMWD Board Member George Cambero on the left side of the frame.

That part took about 90 mins and there was a break while the board members went in-camera to count the official protests. Once they reconvened each of the directors did their best to answer the questions posed by the public speakers. (Funny how I didn't get an answer as to why EVMWD is going to charge $2.25 for the same thing that Temescal Water Company charges $1.16 for).

That part dragged on so long that it put my 3 hour video camera battery to sleep with half an hour left to go, though I found it to be interesting.

Before relating to you some of the highlights, let me skip to the end... it was a 5-0 vote to raise your rates, even in tier 1, by 27%. The rates will be going up as of the first of August and you'll be seeing them in your September bill.

A lot was made about Prop 218. It has to do with how an entity, like the water district, can raise rates.

Let me cut through the bovine excreta and tell you what Prop 218 appears to me as (at least the way it affects rate increases in such instances).

It seems that, once upon a time the people were fed up with rate increases that were getting done on the sly, and Prop 218 is a sop to keep the masses quiet (if there are teeth in it I can't find them). On the surface Prop 218 looks like it's telling them big faceless companies that they have to run it by the public before ramming a rate increase down our throats... but in practice it's just another formality that the people can't overcome.

"How's that?" you ask?

Well, if we the people had rallied together, Prop 218 says we could have stopped the rate increase.

One fly in the ointment... we needed 50% +1 of the rate payers to make that happen. I heard different numbers bandied about and the Water District's rep said that number would be around 21,500 letters of protest would have needed to be mailed in.

Read about Prop 218 by clicking here

But don't be impressed yet. Though I didn't hang around long enough to get this confirmed, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that means even if my wife and I had EACH sent in a letter, it still would have only counted as ONE rate payer... since we only receive one bill between the two of us.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss.

☺

Let's imagine how that would work in real life. 

Well, in the 2014 governor's election Riverside County only managed to get 40.12% to the polls, and wanna guess how many people bothered to write in on this issue?

Drum Roll Please........

If you said 37 official protest letters, YOU WON! 

And as an added bonus, they counted the 19 of us that spoke out too... pushing the total to 56 protests... and we only fell about 21,445 shy of the magic number. Derpy-Doo!

A look at the dais at EVMWD.

i

A few other things of note

• There is a plan in the works to credit up to $10 a month for those that apply and are already in the CARE program from the other utilities.
• When speaking, I reminded the board members that the $10,000 per day fine ($300k per month) pales in comparison to what a 27% increase across the board looks like.
• George Cambero wanted to make it clear that this wasn't breaking his campaign promise of NOT voting for a rate increase... unless he had to... and he had to.
• HOA's can't prohibit you from installing drought tolerant landscaping. Nor can they fine you for allowing your lawn to turn brown. (if they try it, contact the water district)
• They're discussing using Lake Elsinore as a reservoir.
• For all the talks of fines, no fines have been issued.
• Andy Morris said that the drought surcharge will come off after the drought is over. Though there was no establishment of what criteria would have to be met to make that determination. I guess we're at Governor Brown's mercy... to be followed by 8 years of Gavin Newsome (you and I both know he'll be the next governor, no need to pretend otherwise).
• President of the Water Board Phil Williams said, "If we could wave a magic wand, and give you free water, we would." (Hey Mr. President, that kind of reminds me of the one about if the queen had a package... she'd be the king.)
• Mr Williams also said, "I promise you I'll be the first to propose a rollback on the surcharge when the drought is over.

In short, or at least the way I see it, the rates are going up because they are a private company and they have a bottom line to worry about. On the one hand they are glad that we have become such good water conservationists, but that means they're selling less water... and selling less water means they're bringing in less revenue. So, we will be paying for more and getting less to make up the difference.

In all fairness, there really isn't much they could do about it. A lot was made about how EVMWD is still approving new development by issuing Will Serve Letters to builders. As it was stated, the builders are well represented in Sacramento and our area relies heavily on the construction industry. If they put a moratorium up, they would have the various cities, the builders and Sacramento raining down the fires of hell on them. 

I appreciated their professionalism, and if you have questions call your board member... I'm sure they'd be happy to discuss your concerns. In the meantime, conserve like you mean it, of get ready to trade in your IRA to pay your next bill.

•      •      • 

Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?

Barmaid: Oh, we got both kinds, we got country and western. — Bob's County Bunker in The Blues Brothers 

Wildomar Rap gives it to you straight, like a BP fastball coming 58 MPH right at your bat.

• Thieves Steal American Flag From VFW

Thieves brazenly stole an American flag in broad daylight from the VFW... on the 4th of July no less!

Here is the official write up of the incident.

DESCRIPTION

Subjects: White Male and Female, both mid-twenties

Vehicle: Dark Silver or Charcoal Grey, 2013-2015 Ford Fusion, unknown license, no front plate with tinted windows

SUMMARY

On Saturday July 4, 2015, at 1937 hours, the above pictured vehicle drove into the VFW parking lot, located at 21180 Waite Street, in the City of Wildomar. The vehicle was occupied by, a white male in his mid-twenties driver and a white female passenger. The vehicle drove through the parking lot making a U-turn (within the parking lot) and returning to the entrance/exit to the VFW parking lot. The driver exited the vehicle, pulled a three by five foot American Flag that was hoisted on a pole, from the ground. The driver then placed the flag on the hood of the vehicle and got back in the vehicle. The driver held the pole to the flag, leaving the flag on the exterior of the vehicle as he drove out of the VFW parking lot, eastbound

If you have any info about this, you are encouraged to contact Deputy Hill at (951) 245-3300.

Note:

I remembered hearing about this a couple of weeks ago, and asked why this took so long to get to the official release stage and was reminded that, as offensive as this cowardly act was, it wasn't a priority call, and that it took some time to get the video reviewed and ready. 

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How sacredly reputation must be guarded. How fragile a thing it is, and should it be lost it is rarely regained. — EG Marshall

You can keep up to date with Wildomar Rap by "liking" the facebook page, or with an email subscription.

• Planning Commission Meeting July 2015

Key on the agenda was the freeway sign at the Bundy Canyon ARCO. It seems that they raised the height of their sign from 45 feet to 61 feet without getting the city's approval first. In 2013 they had applied for a variance but later withdrew the application.

Here's what happened in a nutshell.

ARCO found that there had been structural damage to the sign's pole, from bee activity, and chose to repair it... which was a prudent move. Thing is, when they put up the new pole, they raised the height by 16 feet without getting the proper variance from the city. Now they are having to say, "I'm sorry" after the fact.

I still haven't heard what the honey tasted like.

I'm not big on needlessly punitive actions, and as it turns out, the applicant said all the right things with the right demeanor. It's just that we can't set a bad precedent of businesses doing whatever they feel like, then coming back and saying Oops, my bad... I'm sorry without incurring a fine of some type.

Still, I think their shortsightedness will cost them more (in lost sales) than any fines.

"How's that?" you ask?

Well, by my calculations, the only people that use a gas station freeway sign are those that don't already know the gas station is there: out-of-towners.

The locals don't need a tall sign to let them know the station is there... they already know it.

A freeway sign is for one purpose only: To attract people that are not from the area, alerting them to a gas station that is up ahead. The taller the sign, the better. Had they applied the proper way, perhaps they could have raised it to the same height as the Shell Station on the east side of the freeway which is at 71 feet tall.

Wildomar doesn't have a ton of sales tax coming in, and gas stations bring in a big portion of what we do get. It would have been to our advantage to encourage ARCO to raise the sign to at least the 71 foot mark.

In the graphic I made you can see the comparative heights of the sign. The picture was taken from Canyon Dr.

Then again, if you're looking for an ARCO station (which I do) and you were to miss the one going south at Bundy Canyon, you'd get another shot at one, and I think a nicer set up too, just a couple of miles down the freeway at Clinton Keith. Since they are both owned by the same people, and the same sales tax would be coming to the city, perhaps it's all a moot point.

Now the sign can be clearly seen from the other side of the freeway.

As you drive west on Bundy Canyon, the sign is now visible from the east side of the freeway. If you're traveling north on the 15 you're still likely to only see it after you've driven past the off ramp.

On my list of questions I had prepared, I wanted to know who ratted them out. Who dropped the dime on ARCO?

As it turns out Wildomar Planning Director Matt Bassi is very astute, and he saw the difference in the height himself, as he's been making that drive for the last five years and is paid to be observant.

PROJECT ANALYSIS (from the agenda packet)

Variance Request: 

While the Arco owner increased the height of sign to 61 feet illegally, the fact remains that, at the original approved height of 45 feet, the sign could not be seen from the southbound I-15 freeway lanes before passing the Bundy Canyon off-ramp. The primary reason the sign could not be seen is due to an approximate 40-foot grade difference between freeway and the Arco site. In addition, there is a 8 to 10-foot tall dirt berm along the west side of the freeway extending northwards from the Bundy Canyon off-ramp.

It is staff’s opinion, that this situation results in a unique topographical feature/constraint that supports the need for a taller freeway sign at this specific location. This conclusion was verified by a balloon test done with the original variance application that determined the optimal/minimum height to see the freeway sign prior to the Bundy Canyon off-ramp was 61 feet (refer to Figure 8 on the following page). 

Further, it is staff’s opinion that the variance will not grant a special privilege to Arco, nor will it be detrimental to the health, safety or general welfare of the community. The specific findings in support of the variance in outlined below.

The consensus of the commission seemed to be that, if anything, the sign should have gone higher if they'd only have not put the cart before the horse.

The applicant made it clear that the reason they didn't pursue the previous variance was that it was going to be an additional $175K to install a new and redesigned sign, in addition to the other money they'd spent on a remodel.

Further, that his sign maintenance team had taken it upon themselves, unbeknownst to the brass at ARCO, to extend the pole based on previous conversations, when they'd discovered it needed to be replaced.

From what I could gather, they can expect to pay twice the regular permitting fee, and also pay for a special inspection, for the rash exuberance of the maintenance team.

After a 4-0 vote ARCO agreed to fully comply within thirty days.

•      •      • 

Westley: Give us the gate key.

Yellin: I have no gate key.

Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, tear his arms off.

Yellin: Oh, you mean this gate key.

—A Princess Bride

Wildomar Rap reminds you to set your clocks back one hour. Not now silly, that isn't until Sunday, November 1st.