• Breakfast With Santa 2017

Another tremendous turnout for one of Wildomar's favorite yearly events. Despite some random raindrops here and there in the early going, more than 350 people filtered through Fire Station 61 for Breakfast With Santa 2017. 

Yum!

The event was co sponsored by the Rotary Club of Wildomar and the City. Also in the house were Wildomar Little League and Boy Scout Troop 332, while Kat Ellis snapped the pics with Santa.

Kip Meyer and Jaimie Benoit scrambling up some eggs.

Don't let me forget Dunkin Donuts. Not only did they bring copious amounts of their award winning coffee, but owner Mike Stout stayed for the entire event to help pour his liquid gold.

Mike Stout, Bridgette Moore, City Manager Gary Nordquist and Brittney.

There were so many people this year, that several tables were added outdoors to accommodate them.

One of the countless families that were enjoying a great morning in Wildomar.

This is an event that kids look forward to every year. 

Scarlet and Sunny... all smiles. ☺

The fire station is a great place for family photos. In addition to shots with Santa, there were plenty of other opportunities to strike a pose too.

Some small children didn't quite know how to react to the white bearded gent in red.

This "face in hole" photo prop was a favorite...
as it had several different locations throughout the morning.

Say "Cheeeeeeese"!

A couple of the helpers from EHS.

The cooking area was set up starting at 6:00am and was full of activity until the last flapjack was served at nearly 11:00am. 

Rotarian Miguel Casillas (owner of the recently reopened El Comal) helped get the cooking crew oriented before having to get back to work.

Gary Brown looks on as Kip Meyer and Miguel Casillas sort out the links.

Jon Favillo and Matt Bennett were the griddle masters.

These young volunteers were either mixing by hand or searching for shells. ☺

Dana DeJong offers up tortillas.

Below are a couple of group shots of those those that worked to make this event go smoothly... at least the ones that could be found as the morning was drawing to a close.

Let's just go with first names here... Martin, Dana, Carrie, John S, Marsha, Ben, Jaimie, Bridgette, Stewart, John W, Tim, Monica, Joseph, Allen and Paul.

City staffers and elected officials. Tim Walker, Brad Evans, Cameron Luna, Janet Morales, Sandy, Araceli Corona, Les Chapman, Marsha Swanson, Bridgette Moore, Ben Benoit and Daniel Torres.

Mayor Walker, Councilmember Swanson,
Councilmember Moore and Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit.

2017 was a great year for community events in Wildomar and we're looking forward to 2018 as the city officially turns 10 years old.

•                •                •

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
– Albert Einstein

Other than Simon, Wildomar Rap is as simple as it gets.

• City Council Meeting December 2017

The last regularly scheduled city council meeting of 2017 didn't have any surprises, but will be known for having beaten back Stonehenge of Wildomar... I'll highlight that where it came up in the meeting.

PRESENTATIONS 
1. Holiday Decorating Winners 

A montage of the three category winners.

1) Griswold Category: 25011 Cinnabar Court
2) Traditional Category: 35690 Woshka Lane
3) Judge's Recognition: 21504 Coral Rock Lane

Plug those addresses into your GPS and be sure to drive by and take a look. There are quite a few spectacular displays throughout Wildomar to be seen this year. Don't miss them. 2. Stan Smith Planning Commissioner Plaque 
It's hard to believe that it's already been four months since all around good guy Stan Smith passed away. The city presented his son, Kevin Smith, with a plaque for recognition of his contributions to the city of Wildomar. 
3. Five Year Employee Pin – Matt Bassi
Matt Bassi hits a milestone with Wildomar and is presented with a five year pin.

4. Miss City of Wildomar 
Jessie Taylor spoke to the crowd as Mayor Walker looked on. Her ultimate goal is to compete for Miss America.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (non agenda items)
• George Taylor spoke about the worsening conditions of Bundy Canyon. 
That is one horrible road.
• Glenn Copple thanked the council on behalf of the youth of Wildomar.
• Scott Scharpen (sp?) pastor at Rock Valley church and a ministry called gomobileforlife that offers free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to women. 
• Ken Mayes spoke for 6 minutes (with donated time from Martha Bridges). He talked about the dismal condition of the city's current website. 

WR Notes:

The website issue has been ongoing for quite awhile.

There is a blog from March of 2016 that quotes Janet Morales as saying they hoped the new website would have been completed last December.

Link to Blog covering the topic

Just like the live streaming, the city website is something that should have been given more importance from the get go. 

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons why the city's website has been so poorly run over the years, but none that couldn't easily be refuted. Sorry city fellers, but them is the facts. 

Much of the second half of Ken's comments were directed at Wildomar Rap... but of course not by name.

Normally I'd just ignore this, but this is too fun to let go by the way side. 

He seemed to take umbrage with my assessment of Kathleen Hamblin's outrageous claims, at the most recent planning commission meeting, that the city was trying to somehow keep the populace in the dark about the inner workings of the city by not live streaming of meetings.

Seriously? Do you think that the city council is the yard duty, and that you quoting things to them is supposed to get me sent to time out or something?

His quotes and misquotes only proved the original point I made. They bent the truth (commonly known as lying) to make a point. They were called out on it, and then didn't like being exposed. Bummer man. 

Part of the accusation was that I'd never even spoken to Kathleen before. Probably not. However, when her new bestie is Martha "Park Slayer" Bridges (sitting side by side and chatting throughout the meeting) connecting the dots is child's play.

Who doesn't love to play dot-to-dot?

Kathleen, if you'd like to talk sometime, let's do it. I'll be at the Breakfast With Santa event this Saturday, and would enjoy saying hello to you. Heck, the city council and many of the staffers will be there too. 

More WR Notes:

My favorite part of his diatribe was when he said that Wildomar Rap used "Gestapo tactics".  

Let's do the math here. 

I go to city meetings and city events and I write about what I saw... from my perspective. (This has NEVER been a secret)

I have a facebook page that allows comments, and I answer nearly all of them. Same for this blog. I allow comments, and I respond to nearly every single one of them. 

"Gestapo tactics" is childish, and typical of what a worn out intellect comes up with when faced with a different point of view.

• Kathleen Hamblin talked about the need for live streaming of city meetings.
• Mason Ballard showed off his festive sports coat and talked about his wife Lisa being elevated to president of Wildomar Little League.
• Miss Miller sang for the council before getting into a diatribe against Christmas. I actually agree with many of her points about it. Her part starts at the 15 minute mark of the video.

3.1 Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez Update on State Issues
I've included the video of the good assemblywoman for those that would like to hear her assessment of things at the state level. 

There were about 2000 bills signed into law this year.

As a non partisan myself, that has plenty of reasons to strongly dislike BOTH parties (especially the further out on the fringes one travels) I was stunned once I heard about Bill AB 1448 (Elderly Parole Program). 

It will allow convicted felons, that are at least 60 years old and have served 25 years, to be up for early release, no matter what crime it was that they committed.

This is what happens when we have one party rule for decades... Hey Liberal, are you really that enamored with convicted felons that you want them running around the community instead of behind bars? Shameful!

3.4 Temporary Storage of Brown House Cornerstones at Marna O’Brien Park 
Here's the skinny on this. 

The Wildomar Historical Society wanted to store some old stones (purported to have been from a local quarry) at Marna O'Brien park. 

City Manager dubbed the collection of stones as "Stonehenge". The moniker was picked up by both Mayor Walker and Councilmember Nigg during the discussion.

The area selected is across from the wheelchair swing (also known as the Freedom Swing). 

It seemed like a slam dunk, until the council started discussing it. It also didn't help their cause (WHS- Wildomar Historical Society) to be a complete no show at the meeting.

This item, like many other agenda items dealing with the Brown House over the years, took FAR TOO LONG, but ended up getting voted down anyway. 

At first it appeared that it would get tabled until more information came in, but the Mayor made a good point when he said, "Let me ask you this, who want's it in the park?"

Marsha Swanson said, "I just think what we're seeing there is not pretty. If there's something they (WHS) really want there, they could show us how they could put it together there and what kind of plaque they're going to put up [...] or take them somewhere else."

Dustin Nigg made the motion to deny, but that led to more discussion. Which led back to the Mayor's first point about wanting it in the park or not.

It was a 5-0 vote to deny.

I don't understand why members of the Wildomar Historical Society don't just have them moved to one, or more, of their own rural properties. It made no sense to have a temporary pile of rocks at the park, even if the WHS was paying liability insurance on them.

As the discussion mentioned, "temporary" in connection to the Brown House can become a decade in a blink of an eye.
3.5 Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem 2018
This was a quick item. 

Mayor Walker nominated Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit for mayor and was voted in 5-0.

I was surprised when Dustin Nigg then nominated Marsha Swanson to be Mayor Pro-Tem... all along I anticipated that spot to be going to him. My guess is that it'll be his (if he wants it) this time next year.

2018 being an election year, makes me think that Marsha Swanson will be running again since she took the mantle of Pro-Tem here. Just a guess, but can see it coming to fruition.

•                •                •

Don't be so humble - you are not that great.
– Golda Meir

The conundrum continues since Wildomar Rap is neither humble nor great.

• Planning Commission Meeting December 2017

There were two items that drew some attention, though any potential impact wouldn't be felt for many years to come.

But let's start with public comments on non agenda items.

• Kenny Mayes was talking about bad smells all over town. He smelled them on Mission Trail, over by Barons and Stater Bros. He said the smells were all over the west side of the freeway.  

I travel all over town too, but haven't had any encounters with the effluvia he was describing. He attributes it to EVMWD venting out the sewers. Could be, but let's do the math here anyway. 

He detects foul odors everywhere he goes... what's the common denominator? Or in the parlance of tweens... could it be a simple case of he who smelt it, dealt it.

• Kathleen Hamblin asked the planning commission to start live streaming the meetings. 

I fully agree that all city meetings should be live streamed and then archived so that they can be viewed for years into the future (I've been asking for such since 2013). 

Unless YouTube changes its policies, such a thing costs nothing more than the purchase of the equipment, and the labor to run the operation. You don't have to start off with major league level cameras at first. Get the starter package, and then look to upgrade 2 to 5 years later, after it's become second nature.

Where I differ with the speaker is with her other comments that suggest some type of concerted effort to keep the people of Wildomar from having a voice.

•  I feel the residents are out of the loop and denied the opportunity to be included without live streaming. It's a disservice by the city not to make transparency a priority.

•  One of the council members suggested that we go on a blog to watch it; someone who films the meetings here, and I think that's unacceptable, we should be able to have live streaming like everybody else.

—Kathleen Hamblin, Public Comments 12-6-2017

Sorry to burst your bubble Kathleen, but it takes a paranoid fantasy that rivals The Matrix meets Shutter Island to conclude that the Wildomar city council is trying to maintain an ignorance among the local masses. It's painfully obvious that you've never had a single conversation with any of them.

As to the second point, I'm calling Fake News here and now. 

What's with these people that make outrageous claims about people, then don't have the stones to say their names? 

However, if you're willing to name the council member you alluded to, I'd be happy to retract my exclamation of fake news on your claim.

One other note. Bringing this important issue to the planning commission is akin to telling the valet parking attendant that you'd like your steak medium rare. Wrong place, wrong time.
3.1 Extension of Time (Nyiri Way)
I really didn't expect this to get too much attention. It's another of those extension of time requests for a project that was approved before we were a city, but got tabled by the recession.

It is looking to make 7 half acre parcels from an existing 3.75 acre lot. 

Off Grand, about half a mile south of Corydon.

A couple of Nyiri Way residents spoke in opposition to this project.

I thought that's what the Wildomar is Rural crowd wants... large lots.  

They were worried about being flooded out once the homes were built. It sounds interesting on paper, but when you look at the area in question, it starts to tilt to the preposterous when scrutinized.

I used to get flowers from the guy there... best place in town for day old flowers. Funny thing about it, this flower stand was going to be my first "better know a local business" blog back in 2013... but the proprietor politely declined. He seemed to be weary of drawing attention from the city (though he always had signs out on Grand). Link to blog.

Right now it's a dirt road, once the new half acre homes are constructed, they would be coming with a paved road and all the modern drainage bells and whistles that come with a 21st century home in California.

There was also worry that the homes would be on a septic system, but that was proven erroneous when the applicant said the homes would be connected to the sewer system.

Included is the 8 minute video of the item... you know, since this is currently the only source of such. ☺

3.2 Wildomar Trails Residential Project
This was listed as a "Study Session" where the applicant would talk about his proposed project, and then get feedback from the public and the commission.

This project first came to my attention back in August of 2014 when it sought a General Plan Amendment at the planning commission meeting. Technically it wasn't an actual request for a GPA, just an inquiry about a potential GPA... which is where we are now. It called for 48 homes on 15 acres off the southeast end of Baxter Road. 

You can see two roundabouts (traffic circles) in this graphic.
One on Baxter and another on Susan.
Just a concept at this point, not a tract map.

Probably because it was just a study session, but the project didn't have any set parameters. Sometimes it was 15 acres and 48 houses, then I could have sworn it jumped to 55 acres and 100 units.

Public Comments
Surprisingly there was just one, Joseph Morabito (me). Though there are many positive things that could come from this project, I'm always looking for consistency in government. (Don't laugh... well, go ahead and laugh a little.)

Unless my memory is shot, I could have sworn that the city council drew a distinction between zoning changes and general plan amendments when the Camelia project came before them last Summer... especially when it came to keeping Wildomar "rural".

(link to blog about the Camelia project)

I suggested that "it sure would seem hypocritical to think this [project] would get the green light... considering the position of the city council on that other project." 

I loved adding a quote that I'd managed to dig up from the past on this project.

You know you're in trouble when Council Member Tim Walker says, "Miss Miller was right" and Mayor Ben Benoit says, "I'm with Miss Miller here." Referring back to her public comments on the project and the area in general.
 

—From Wildomar Rap, January 2015

The commission gave guarded advice to the applicant that he consider keeping the project in the low density range if he wants a winnable battle on this.

As previously stated, this is miles off in the future. It's basically a nice looking project (though better suited for a less rural area of town). I'm just curious how this will play out at the next level. 

•                •                •

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
– Abraham Lincoln 

Wildomar Rap is hustle.

• Busy Saturday in Wildomar

Everyday can be busy, but Saturday, December 2nd, was a notch above usual. Not counting the break-in at the American Legion (Link to blog about it here), there were other things going on too. 

In addition to the fire fighters, Scott Rux (blue tank), Mama Rux to his left,
Shirley Moreno and her daughter, Miss Teen Wildomar Daisy and Bridgette Moore.

There was a picnic at Windsong Park, put on by Scott Rux and other locals, as a thank you to the local fire fighters (especially considering the recent "Wildomar Fire".

Picking the winners.

Then there was the 19th annual Christmas Tree Lane held at the Elks Lodge. This is a much anticipate yearly event where the money raised goes to scholarships.

A large crowd checked their numbers.

There were 9 trees this year and a packed house eager to see who won. The proceeds go towards scholarships for local youths.

When I bought my tickets, I made the money taker promise that I would NOT win before I made my purchase.

Seriously, I was just happy to contribute, plus I have no way of carting off any winnings if I were so lucky to be in such a position anyway.

Larry Ryan keeps watch as others check their tickets.

While all that was going on, the last of the Brown House was being put into a dustbin. I've been pretty harsh about the Brown House over the years (justifiably so according to the venerable Stan Smith), but I can acknowledge its importance to others. Sorry things didn't work out as you'd hoped. 

(video courtesy George Cambero)

Still on the agenda for 2017 is Breakfast With Santa at the fire station. This will be Saturday morning, December 16th, from 7:30am to 11:00am. It's a great event whether you have kids or not. Mark it on you calendars now! 

This is too fun to miss. Mark it on you calendars NOW! ☺

•                •                •

If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.
– George Bernard Shaw 

Wildomar Rap advises that you ground all skeletons to powder that refuse to learn how to dance.

• American Legion Crime Victims

Around 4 a.m. (and in less than 8 minutes) two people with gloves, masks and hoods did a smash and grab at the American Legion Post 200 on Grand Avenue. 

Police tape cordons off the scene.
Photo courtesy Vitalia Gonzalo 

They took "a huge safe" as it was described by Vitalia Gonzalo who had a meeting at the location in the morning.

"[They] dragged it through the American Legion from the office out the front door and left with it," she added.

Reports are that there was only a small amount of money in the safe, but many important papers regarding the American Legion were stored in the safe too.

I asked if there was anything else about the crime I could share, and I was told, "They even stole beers out of the fridge before they left. Despicable!"

The American Legion emblem laying in shards of glass from the busted front door.Photo courtesy Vitalia Gonzalo 

A toy drive was set for today, and they aren't going to let this indecent act prevent them from pushing forward. There are many worthy causes looking for help this time of year, but if you're in the area, consider showing some community spirit and dropping off a toy for their drive.

Address: 18871 Grand Ave, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530
Phone: (951) 678-7777

If you have any info regarding this case, please call the Riverside Sheriff's Office at 

Lake Elsinore Police Department
non-emergency:

(951) 245-3300

Or use the Crime Tip webpage with this LINK.