• Three Events, One Day

Saturday morning saw Natalie's Rascals celebrate their first year in business. 

They had free doggie treats, a prize wheel (we won a mud bath for our dog - I'm guessing they'll be washing the mud off before returning him to us). They also were holding a raffle with many terrific prizes (winners to be drawn at the end of the day).

Natalie (middle holding poodle type dog), along with some happy customers.

There were also $10 microchips being offered to pet owners.

Nicely decorated treats on display. Inset shows the microchip promotion.

A couple of hours later, Discount Tire Centers had their grand opening.

A look at the front of Discount Tire Centers.

It was a fun time, and weather was great too. 

There was a Grilled Cheese Truck that had many tasty options, all courtesy of Discount Tires, plus several vendor booths.

Abby Benoit gets her arm painted.

KOLA radio was doing a remote broadcast, and they had a couple of games/contests during the time I was there.

Winners of the kissing contest were the Gary & Carrie Brown and Jaimie & Ben Benoit.

☺
At 1:00pm there was a ribbon cutting for welcoming Discount Tires to Wildomar.

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In the evening, Marna O'Brien Park was the site for Astronomy Night 2017.

Kids lining up for tickets to win a telescope.

About 80 tickets were given out to kids hoping to win one of twelve telescopes; thanks to the sponsorship of PVM and Interwest.

An estimate of 120 to 150 people attended.

Boy Scout troop 332 was selling popcorn.

Crew 332 was selling My Buddies Pizza, and they were able to put all the proceeds towards their projects. Thanks to My Buddies Pizza, and their generosity, for giving a big discount on the pizza and George Cambero for picking up the rest of the tab.

Also in attendance were the Temecula Valley Astronomers, the regional agency called WRCOG, SoCal Edison, Wildomar's Mayor Bridgette Moore, Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker, Councilmember Ben Benoit and District 2 city council candidate Dustin Nigg. 

During the presentation.

Since My Buddies Pizza showed some community spirit tonight, I'd like to let people know that they have a 25th anniversary party coming up soon. Check the flyer for details.

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‘It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes, 

Wildomar Rap [remember to insert humorous anecdote here].

• Discount Tire Center Nears Opening

It's been a long time coming but Discount Tire & Service Center is finally ready to open for business in Wildomar. The soft opening is slated for Tuesday August 16th, with a grand opening set for Saturday August 27th. (More details below)

This is located in between Albertson's and Massage Envy. Their three bay doors are in the alleyway.

There had been a sticking point over being located right next to Massage Envy. You know, quiet (massages) vs. loud (removing lug nuts), but it's all been ironed out.

Here's a link to a June 2015 blog covering the planning commission meeting where this was an issue.

Putting in long days, getting ready for business.

From what I was told, part of the delay in opening was that the architect fell ill when the work was nearly complete and they had to start over again.

I asked Olivia Brambila, one of the key people at the Wildomar location, what they have in addition to tires. 

Besides tires, they also do oil changes, 30-60-90K maintenance, suspension work and alignments among other things.

A look from the waiting room into the work area.

They were putting in the phone while I was there and Olivia had to test the new number to make sure it was the right one: (951) 677-6987. 

The number on the flyer will get you in touch with them too, but not directly to the Wildomar location.

23855 Clinton Keith Rd Suite H. Behind Massage Envy and near the back of ACE Hardware.

There is going to be a Grand Opening on Saturday August 27th, with food, snow cones, KOLA radio, face painting and other fun stuff from 11am to 2pm. 

There will be a ribbon cutting at 1pm celebrating their opening and welcoming them into the Wildomar Chamber of Commerce.

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“It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” 

—P.G. Wodehouse, 1881-1975

Wildomar Rap apologizes for not starting this blog five years sooner.

• Planning Commission Meeting August 2015

There were two items on tonight's agenda.

First was Discount Tire Centers and their request for a CUP (Conditional Use Permit).

This was discussed in detail in the blog covering the June Planning Commission meeting.

Click here to see the images and discussion over the noise levels and being located next to Massage Envy.

The vote was 5-0 to approve the CUP.

The reason why this wasn't voted on back in June was that a sound/decibel test needed to be done first. The tests came back and were well within the standards already in the city code.

A question by Larry Ferguson, owner of Massage Envy, was asked.

"I would like to know what happens if Discount Tire Centers moves in and month or two months we start losing members... if it negatively impacts our business. I would like to have some reassurance that you guys (the Planning Commission) would be interested in being involved, or could we get another meeting to discuss this? Or once you guys decide is that the end of it?"

Regional Vice President of Discount Tire Centers, Mike Nelson responded with:

We understand what the city code is, and we fully intend to comply with it. I understand Larry's concerns. We've had some experience with this (noise abatement) in the past and we felt our design, before the sound study, was going to meet the city code. The sound study just reaffirmed that, but if there is a fault and something is incorrect then we have every intention as a company to rectify that. We want to be a good neighbor.

With the reference that Larry [Ferguson] had brought up —and I thought about this before the meeting, what if the commission might want to discuss adding a condition to the effect where the applicant shall perform a second set of noise readings 60 days after opening. Then we could bring back a report to the commission at a future meeting with those findings to insure that real world activity is still within 55 decibels. 

—Matt Bassi Planning Director

Commissioner Bobby Swann asked, "Are there legal ramifications for doing that?" 

Assistant City Attorney Erica Vega chimed in there, "Yes, there probably would be, because we would've already approved the use so how you would craft that... would be for informational purposes... This could be a code enforcement issue, but wouldn't necessarily be a permit revocation issue." 

Commissioner Stan Smith added, "I don't know that I'm in favor of having the applicant expend that cost after he's already gone to the expense of this study."

In the end this is really about two tenants and a landlord in my opinion. Massage Envy is an asset to the community, but when they chose that location, they had to know that there was a suite right behind them with large bay doors that were intended for just such a business. 

Let's hope they take Commissioner Smith's advice and work out a coupon for the tire customers to get a massage while the work is being done on their car. It could be a win-win if both parties want it to be.

I caught up with Mike Nelson after the meeting and welcomed him to Wildomar. I asked when they were going to open up and his response was to the effect of "as soon as we can". They've already ordered the necessary equipment and hope to be opened in under two months.

Looks like another solid business for Wildomar, including the tax revs from high dollar items. I already lobbied them about joining the Chamber too. ☺

2.2 Elm Street Residential Project

Click this link to see the pictures and info from the Feb 2014 meeting on this topic.

This project has been in the works since before Wildomar was incorporated. In the time that I've been watching it, it's gone from 15 houses on 4 acres, to 12 houses, and now back to 15 houses. The big difference here is that Elm St will no longer be part of the project.

Before, Elm St was the sole ingress and egress. Talk about kicking a beehive when that was suggested a year and a half ago. Funny thing is that some of the neighbors that spoke against this project tonight hadn't updated their drivers... and still seemed to have the impression that Elm St was in play.

The developer really is trying to work with the locals here as he's prepared to not use Elm St at all, and cede 10 feet to a common alley (making the total 20 feet wide for the continued use of those that live on Darby). Now the new road that is proposed will be a one way street. 

Direct access to each of the lots created by the proposed project will be via a proposed one-way street that will be accessed via Central Street to the northeast and Gruwell Street to the southwest. The traffic will flow from Central Street through "A Street" and onto Gruwell Street.

At this point, there really is nothing more that the Darby-ites can complain about. Their road will not be impacted and they get to keep the access to the back of their properties. 

The bigger question is: Who is going to want to buy a new house that gets wedged into that little parcel?

But as I stated when I spoke in front of the commission... "I guess that's not my problem."

This passed 4-0 (Commissioner Langworthy had to recuse herself since she lives near the project). Next step for this is in front of the city council, but I'm still placing my life savings on Wildomar's favorite group of malcontents (the people that sue us for blinking) to hold this up. 

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If I'd just tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around .600.

 — Babe Ruth

The First rule of Wildomar Rap is to always discuss Wildomar Rap.

• Planning Commission Meeting June 2015

There was only one real item on tonight's agenda: Discount Tire Centers.

The issue was about the location. It's to be in the building just to the south of Albertson's and the nearest neighbors are Ace Hardware and Massage Envy.

Who knows, perhaps it'll all work out swimmingly and they'll cross promote with offers
to get a massage while you get your tires changed... or get a free tire after ten back rubs. ☺

There was a lot of discussion about decibel levels and noise deadening efforts so that the two businesses could live in harmony. What was easy to see was that there was effort being put forth on all sides. Discount Tire Centers, Massage Envy, the landlord and the planning commissioners.

After a brief presentation, outlining the new business layout, the reps from Discount Tire were explaining all the noise mitigation efforts they plan to use here.

It's all about the decibels. An Ingersoll Rand pneumatic drill with Quiet Tool technology is approximately 80dBs.

• A special noise reduction type of compressor placed at the furthest point away from Massage Envy. 
• Also in mind are rubberized pads under the compressor to reduce vibration. 
• Quiet tech pneumatic tools.  
• On the wall between the businesses will be a special noise deadening drywall. 

In the graphic below, the lower portion is on the alley between them and Albertson's. The upper portion is the common wall with Ace Hardware and Massage Envy is on the right side.

Let's not forget how vibrations tend to be tenacious little buggers and though aren't always heard, quite possibly could be felt as a person was trying to achieve that long sought after moment of Zen after a long day at work. I invite you to rewatch part of the classic T-Rex-water-in-the-cup-vibration scene from Jurassic Park to illustrate the point.

Larry Ferguson, of Massage Envy, spoke for about 6 mins. You can tell that he's very worried about the potential effect of impact wrenches on his business. Even with noise deadening mitigation plans, you're not going to remove the fact that a tire center wants to move next to a massage place.

If you've ever had a massage from one of the modern establishments you know that ambiance is everything.

I was the only public speaker on the topic. I mentioned how that I'm pro business and it would be good to have another tire shop in Wildomar, but part of being "pro business" means being pro existing business too. It would be different if the massage place was trying to move next to a long time tire store, and then asking them to hush up, but Massage Envy has been there for more than seven years.

Also, I mentioned that even with noise mitigation efforts, unless the roll up doors are down, the sounds would echo off of the block wall across from them (Albertson's) and find their way to the front where Massage Envy is. 

The key hangup for tonight's meeting was that there had not been a comprehensive noise/sound test done for the project. So in the end, the item was continued until after such a study is completed. Below are the words of Commission Chairman Veronica Langworthy.

We have two very wonderful businesses that are working to present how to make this happen. I appreciate the graph that was brought in by Massage Envy (a decibel graph). I appreciate the experience of Discount Tires, but to make a decision like this we need more than feelings... we need some facts. A noise study in advance would make us all more comfortable with making a really good decision for both businesses, so you [don't end up as] contentious neighbors.

— Veronica Langworthy

I'd like to see Discount Tire Centers in Wildomar, I'm just not so sure how well of a fit they make in that location. I feel bad for Massage Envy, because even though the landlord made it clear that they want both businesses to succeed, I got the feeling that the tire store would be a bigger feather in their cap (maybe it's just me projecting). I'm probably just a worrier, but I'd be sleeping with one eye open if I were in the front unit... figuratively speaking of course.

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Since I had access to assistant city manager Dan York, I took the opportunity to ask him for some details on the signal light being out at Cervera and Central.

Here's where we're at. Southern California Edison is improving our electrical service through the southern part of the city. Through that process the power going to the signal was down. As a result, we turned the light off. So that when they powered back on we wouldn't blow our controller. 

It was a joint effort between Edison and the city... we've known that. Now that they're completing their work, our signal still didn't energize. Meaning that there was some construction impact to our line. The guys in the field have identified it, they're correcting it, and that light should be energized pretty soon. 

This has been frustrating for us but realistically understanding what's going on. This is good for our community —the upgrade of the electrical power system, and fortunately the traffic volume is such on Central and Cervera that we're able handle it with stop placards.

— Dan York 

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Sometimes you will never know the value of something, until it becomes a memory. — Dr. Seuss

Wildomar Rap hopes Commissioner Gary Brown gets over that bug that kept him from the recent Chamber of Commerce breakfast and tonight's planning commission meeting.