• Year In Review 2018

The close out of another year has occurred, while a new year busily pecks its way out of the shell. 

What will be in store in 2019?

This will be a quick look back at some of the bigger stories that came out of Wildomar in 2018... as seen through the e-pages of this blog. 

Depending on how much time you have on your hands, you can just look at the photos as we stroll down memory lane, or if you have a ton of time to kill, click on the provided links to read the original blog entries. The choice is yours. ☺

In January there was a quick resolution to a dilemma involving the location of a bus stop.
LINK TO BLOG

In February there was a strong arm robbery at Golden Spoon.
Video link in the blog here.

In February, Wildomar lost a cherished member of the community, Kirk Schrader.
This photo was from October of 2013 at The Great Day of Service.

At the end of February close to 100 people attended meeting at the VFW regarding Nevada Hydro's LEAPS project.  LINK TO BLOG

In March, the city hosted a Parks Visioning meeting that had about 15 residents attend.
LINK TO BLOG

The annual Eggstravaganza was held at Marna O'Brien Park.
Mayor Ben Benoit was checking his watch to know when to start the next round.
LINK TO BLOG

Wildomar Square hosted its grand opening.
LINK TO BLOG

At the end of March a drunk driver crash landed on top of the roof of a preschool on Bundy Canyon.
LINK TO BLOG

One of the best April Fool's Day blogs... ever!
Check out this link to see the other logos that were Wildomar-a-tized

The city hosted a community meeting discussing improvements to Bundy Canyon.
LINK TO BLOG

The Annual "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast" was held... with no city funds going to it.
LINK TO BLOG

A kickoff to the 2019 Craft Brew Festival was held at the visitor center at the Santa Rosa Plateau. This is going to be a great event. Mark your calendars NOW!  ☺
LINK TO BLOG

The city's annual memorial day service was held at the cemetery.
LINK TO BLOG

A new Little Free Library was unveiled in the Windsong Valley neighborhood.
LINK TO BLOG

In June, Adam Fain of new Wildomar business The Sleep Squad, donated some mattresses to a local family. LINK TO BLOG

In June there was a fatal shooting near Stadium Pizza.
LINK TO BLOG

Malaga Park, at the corner of Mission Trail and Malaga at the north end of town, neared completion. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for early 2019.
LINK TO BLOG

One of the many great programs seen at the Wildomar Library this year: Buster Balloon.
LINK TO BLOG

Local Blogger guy gets one of Melissa Melendez's "Power to the People" awards.
LINK TO BLOG

Serious rollover collision closes Baxter/Central on a Friday afternoon in June.
LINK TO BLOG

A contentious subject known as the "Cervera Greenbelt" took center stage and propelled the candidacy of Joseph Morabito for Wildomar City Council.
LINK TO INFAMOUS BLOG aka THE BLOG HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD - lol

As with the rest of the state, the vagrant population (also known as the homeless) proved to be a very vexing problem for residents and city officials alike in 2018. There were many dozens of public comments at city council meetings dedicated to the issue of homelessness in town during the first half of the year. LINK TO BLOG about crackdown on encampments.

The city celebrated its 10th birthday at Marna O'Brien Park.
LINK TO BLOG

This was one of several "Coffee With the Mayor" events held at The Bean in 2019.

The first of the political signs were seen in late August... the Quintero sign had actually been up since the primary where he'd only received about 4% of the vote.

The McBride sign blight hit parts of Wildomar with the force of halitosis after a weekend of binge drinking coupled with an all you can eat liver and onions contest. 

If you've already forgotten, we had a very hot Summer.
So much so that this poor palm tree near Taco Bell took a knee.

The new multi-purpose trail on Grand Avenue was dedicated at this ribbon cutting ceremony in September.
LINK TO BLOG

Windsong Park saw 50 people assemble for a neighborhood watch meeting in September.
LINK TO BLOG

Measure AA passed with 58% voting in favor of the 1 penny per dollar sales tax increase.

A look at all the political signs as we got nearer election day.
Some areas were harder hit than others. 

Faith Bible Church gave out a ton of free ice cream at several city events in 2018.

September 26th saw a community meeting at the City Council Chambers dealing with the effects of homelessness in town. 
LINK TO BLOG

Construction of a new bus shelter at Central and Palomar.

The city council members at the 2018 State of the City event.
LINK TO BLOG

2018 Scary Dairy at Dejongs.
LINK TO BLOG

The City's Trunk or Treat event was a great hit.
LINK TO BLOG

Election night saw a changing of the guard. The early percentages held true to the final count where Joseph Morabito ended with a little more than 1200 votes.

Tim Walker surprises Joseph Morabito with a gift of chocolates and wishes him (me) well in the seat he had won back in 2010, at the November City Council Meeting.

10 year old Mikayla earned her Girl Scouts Bronze award with murals at Wildomar Elementary School. 
LINK TO BLOG

Joseph Morabito is sworn in as Council Member from District 3.
LINK TO BLOG

One of the biggest stories of the year happened on December 20th. A man with a gun necessitated the closure of Clinton Keith Road for most of the afternoon through the middle of the evening. In the end he surrendered and no one was hurt... just very inconvenienced.

LINK TO BLOG

What a busy year 2018 was!

I'm sure that we could have easily tripled the number of stories to highlight, but time is of the essence and all that jazz. Happy New Year, be safe!

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You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.
– EG Marshall (CBSRMT 1976)

Wildomar Rap flies more one of those giant moths seen up in the nosebleed sections of many sporting stadiums. You know the type —the ones that dive bomb you incessantly until someone dares the drunk guy to eat it... yeah, that kind of moth.

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.

• Arrest Made After 8 Hour Standoff

After an eight hour standoff, 44 year old Wildomar resident, Eric Clifford Rinderhagen, surrendered to police. 

This began around noon and kept the busy corridor of Clinton Keith Road closed until nearly 9:00pm. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Based on the press release from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, this wasn't the first run in with the Wildomar resident. 

"On November 26, 2018, detectives assigned to the Wildomar Police Department received information from an allied agency regarding a citizen of the city of Wildomar making threats to kill multiple people related to and acquainted to the suspect, on a specific date."

- Press Release

This incident kept many local social media pages busy with rumor and innuendo throughout the evening. I know we'd all like real-time updates, especially if we live near the affected areas, but that is only a reality in Hollywood productions.

As it happened in this case, our police did a top job with everyone's safety in mind, no one got hurt, and periodic updates were issued at key periods.

Details: (directly from the press release)

On November 26, 2018, detectives assigned to the Wildomar Police Department received information from an allied agency regarding a citizen of the city of Wildomar making threats to kill multiple people related to and acquainted to the suspect, on a specific date. Detectives conducted interviews with potential victims and witnesses and obtained evidence from recorded phone messages and text messages. A threat assessment of the suspect was conducted and based on multiple weapons registered to the suspect, the Riverside County Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team was notified.

On December 20, 2018, at approximately 11:11 A.M., residents living on the 24000 block of Mauri Ct., city of Wildomar, called 911 regarding a male adult standing on a driveway firing a rifle into the air and making threats to neighbors. The suspect identified firing the rifle was confirmed to be the suspect identified in the terrorist threats investigation. The Riverside County Sheriff’s SWAT team was activated and responded to the scene. After several hours, the suspect was taken into custody without injury to him, the public or deputy sheriffs.

The suspect, identified as Eric Clifford Rinderhagen, 44 years old and resident of Wildomar, was interviewed and later arrested for multiple charges of making terrorist threats, negligent discharge of a firearm, stalking and resisting arrest. Mr. Rinderhagen was booked into Cois Byrd Detention Center. There are no other suspects related to this incident and there is no threat to public safety at this time.

This is an active investigation and the Wildomar Police Department would encourage anyone with information regarding this incident to call Lead Investigator Kelleher of the Wildomar Police Department at (951) 245-3300.

Citizens may also submit a tip using the Sheriff's CrimeTips online form.      

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is seeking applicants for Deputy Sheriff, Deputy Sheriff Trainee, Correctional Deputy, Sheriff's 911 Communications Officer, and other employment opportunities such as clerical and support positions.  

If you are interested in a career with us, please apply at www.joinrsd.org or call 1-888-Join-RSD


Sgt. Brett Seckinger #2252
Lake Elsinore Station
Detective Bureau
Desk- 951-245-3343
bsecking@riversidesheriff.org

• City Council Meeting December 2018

I'm experimenting with blogs about city council meeting recaps.

They will be much drier than in the past, but still have valuable information (assuming I still have the time to do them). It's a work in progress, so it may take some time getting my bearings here.

I'll try to get some pictures of the presentations when I can, but I still need to figure out the logistics on such. My apologies to the winners of the Holiday Lights Contest. 

A map of the winning entries.

I won't be logging the public comments, and will only add the parts most interesting to me. 

1.5 Video Streaming/On Demand and PEG Broadcasting City Meetings

The City of Wildomar will immediately be able to broadcast our meetings on the custom Livestream web address: 

https://livestream.com/accounts/26084177/Wildomar

Be sure to bookmark this page and/or utilize the "get notified" option.

Additionally, The City of Wildomar public meetings (City Council and Planning Commission) will be live and rebroadcasted on: 

AT&T Channel 99

and

Frontier Channel 36

So far the two December City Council meetings have been recorded, and are still up and available. Please remember that the equipment used for the December meetings was temporary, therefore the produced videos weren't perfect. 

https://livestream.com/accounts/26084177/Wildomar/videos/184714203

Please allow some time for the kinks to be worked out, and they will be in short order. 

1.6 Declare a Vacancy on the Planning Commission
(directly from the agenda packet) At the November 6, 2018 election, the incumbent, Timothy Walker was not re-elected. 

Since the Planning Commissioner terms run concurrent with the appointing Council Member terms, the appointee of former Councilman Walker will also have her term expire on February 10, 2019. 

With the declaration of the vacancy, the City Clerk will take applications for a period of 30 calendar days. In this case the open filing period will be December 13 – January 14 (the 13th is a Sunday so it would go to the next business day). It is anticipated that an appointment would be made at the February 13, 2019 meeting.

If you are interested in serving the community, consider putting in your application. 

Here is a direct link to the application

I'm hoping to fill the position by the next city council meeting after the filing period. 

1.13 Measure AA
On November 6, 2018, the voters of the City of Wildomar approved Ordinance No. 161, establishing a Transactions and Use Tax (Measure AA) that will be administered by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA). 
Effective on April 1, 2019, Measure AA establishes a 1.0% transactions tax on the gross receipts of any retailer from the sale of tangible property sold within the city limits. In addition, an excise tax of 1.0% is imposed on the storage, use or other consumption within the city limits of Wildomar of tangible personal property purchased from any retailer.

3.1 Resolution Approving Increase in City Manager Compensation
The City Council approved a Third Amendment to the Agreement for Employment of the City Manager on April 12, 2017. This Third Amendment, among other things, increased the base salary for the City Manager and provided that the City Council may, in open session of a City Council meeting, increase the City Manager’s base salary in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Section 2 of the Third Amendment provides in part: 

“Subject to a satisfactory performance review and the approval of the City Council in open session of a City Council meeting, the City Manager’s annual base salary may be increased as follows: 
• $201,000 effective January 1, 2018 
• $210,000 effective January 1, 2019 
• $219,000 effective January 1, 2020” 

Therefore, the City Council may increase the City Manager’s base salary for 2019 through the approval of the attached Resolution upon completion of a satisfactory performance review.

I will not be making a habit out of abstaining from votes, but this was a "performance review" of the City Manager's past year. I wasn't there in a position to see the work that was done, so I thought it only reasonable to abstain from the vote.

There is a lot for me to learn between now and next year's "performance review". The job of a city council member is a lot more complex and nuanced than I understood when I was looking in from the outside... as is that of the City Manager.

3.2 2019 Parks and Community Services Special Event Dates
There are 17 events on the calendar so far. That's not counting the various events at the library or the schools (check with those entities for their calendars of events).

The Proposed items from July 1st onward are in the next fiscal year... that budget hasn't been set yet.

3.4 Appointment of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem for 2019
The Mayor for 2019 will be Marsha Swanson, and the Mayor Pro-Tem will be Dustin Nigg.

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"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
– Bertrand Russell

Wildomar Rap has been full of doubt since day one.

This blog was produced for viewing on a desktop or a laptop. Though it's been optimized for smartphones, the formatting can look odd on a smartphone or if you get this delivered through email (such as missing video links). Link to proper format.