• Various and Sundry Things Vol 4

If you're signed up for city emails, and you read them, then you've already read about the road improvement projects going on.

Below is the direct wording from the email with pics I took today.

The City of Wildomar is under contract with Hardy & Harper, Inc. to construct CIP0048 Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Improvement Project.

The work was scheduled to begin on June 18, 2018, and construction is anticipated to be completed by July 20, 2018. 

• Clinton Keith Rd – Completed

The ragged road in front of The Barn, near the corner of Clinton Keith and Palomar heading westbound got a fresh pave job. Photo by Wildomar Rap

• Grand Ave – Completed

It starts at the intersection of McVicar and Central and continues south in large swaths.
Photo by Wildomar Rap

No more broken asphalt in this area.
Photo by Wildomar Rap

This area remains as it was.
Photo by Wildomar Rap

• Inland Valley Rd – Clinton Keith Rd to Prielipp Rd (Night work June 26-June 28, 2018 7PM – 5AM)

All the bad areas of Inland Valley Road were fixed with this repaving project.
Photo by Wildomar Rap

• Bundy Canyon Rd – Oak Circle Rd to The Farm Rd (Day Time July 2- July 3, 2018 8:30AM to 3:30PM). There is no road closure proposed with the project. The project will close one lane at a time and use a flagging operation to direct traffic through the construction zone. 

The project construction is funded by SB1 – The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (new gas tax). 

Construction of this nature creates a hazardous environment for those construction personnel and for persons not related to the construction. Please use extreme caution when traveling on the various streets during construction. We place a high priority on public safety and ask your help and cooperation with these issues.

If you have any questions or concerns you may contact Hardy & Harper, Inc at (714) 444-1851 or the City of Wildomar at (951) 677-7751.

WR NOTE: There was no mention of when the lines would be repainted on either Clinton Keith or Grand Ave.

Wildomar Rap opinion time:
The above is good, solid communication from the city. Now let's up the game and have it archived in the form of a city newsletter/blog (with in house photos too). 

And instead of sending out the emails when the work is done on three of the four items (it was dated yesterday), how about before the first paving job starts?

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Does $67,648.34 of grant money (one time) really have an "approximate value" of $200K per month?

Something that flew under my radar came from the May city council agenda, on the consent calendar (which is the place that agenda items go that are not intended to get council or public comment) was the rebranding of Baxter Road.

I emailed all five council members about this. Just looking for some basic info as to when the public was going to start to see some movement on the transition.

Hi [insert council member name here],

I didn't see the consent calendar item in May about the funding for sign changes regarding Wildomar Trail and branding of the water tower. I've always liked the idea and am glad to see it happening. I want to write a blog about it, sharing what's coming, and if you can add any details (when it's supposed to happen) that would be helpful.

Thanks

Joseph

Kudos to Councilmember Tim Walker for being the first to respond, and then followed up the next day too.

"Yes we’ve been working on that for a while. Wrcog is helping cities with branding and they kick in some funding for these types of projects. I can’t remember which meeting it was but we have passed all this. That’s also who paid for the new City sings [sic] on the building."

I asked if he had an idea when it would begin and he replied, 

"We are still waiting on Caltrans they have to do their share first. It’s going to [be] some time for them."

Bridgette Moore also responded. She reminded me that the info was on page 512 of the agenda packet, and that the "project must be completed by November 15, 2018"

From west to east, then south the road names will be going from Central, Baxter, Porras, George and Shopping Center to Wildomar Trail.

The roadway name change first was brought up by Mayor Ben Benoit at the May 13, 2015 city council meeting, he was mayor that year too. (video at the bottom of the blog)

This graphic was first scene in the May 2015 blog covering the city council meeting.

I'm all for the idea of having one of our off ramps, and key thoroughfares, named after the city. The part that gets lost on me is the need to attach a questionable value to the name change; a value that can't be redeemed at any bank. 

Back in 2015 I had a public comment about this, I suggested that if the "approximate value" of such rebranding really was going to be $100K per month, then we should sell the naming rights to Coca-Cola and make $1.2M per year.

It was funny to watch the head shaking at my comment by staff (it's subtle but it's there), suggesting that I wasn't quoting their own agenda packet verbatim. 

Now, the May 2018 agenda claims that wrapping the water tower is also valued at $100K per month. Preposterous! 

If this is too small to read on your device, here is a link to the agenda item. Go to page 520.

Still, you can clearly read the claimed value of the tower wrapping... I think this project is a good idea, especially since the costs are being covered by another agency. It just doesn't need eyebrow raising claims attached to it in the process.

If those numbers are supposed to be real, how in the world is it that a struggling city like Wildomar hasn't looked into getting some of that back by way of selling the naming rights?

Because that suggestion is equally as preposterous... offsetting penalties, play goes over. 

Or just continue to repeat the same rhetoric, you choose.

Once we get past the silliness of the claimed value of rebranding, it's a good idea. 

Location of the water tower in question, decked out in a Wildomar Rap wrap. I don't get how in the same paragraph the claim of $5000 a month and $100,000 a month are made. Must be new math.

This should have been trumpeted in the lead up to the May 2018 city council meeting. This is a win for the city. Why was this put on the consent calendar where the likelihood was that it would get no recognition? Which is what happened.

This is another reason why I'm running for city council. Things like this need to be part of the full agenda and discussed in public. Worst case scenario, the city council meeting lasts another 9 to 14 minutes. 

Why should it be blogger guy that is getting this info to the residents of Wildomar, weeks after the fact, instead of the city itself?

The election is still four and a half months away, but it's never too early to discover what the candidate stands for. Click this link to visit the website.

Below is the video of the May 2015 agenda item. It's like a little time capsule that takes you back to the old council chambers. Understand that much of that item is NOT part of the rebranding. Item 3.3 from that meeting was also dealing with updating street signs too, which isn't happening now.

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Easy Pickin's?

It was disclosed to me that The Corporate Room was sent a letter by the city saying they aren't allowed to have the marketplace event anymore.

Credit does go to Councilmember Bridgette Moore for at least trying to intercede when at the last city council meeting she asked for an ordinance that would allow for such events during the Future Agenda items.

I guess you got your answer... 

This probably isn't a fair juxtaposition, but what everyday people in town see is that there is time to chase away a quality event in its nascency, while the homeless encampments remain for another day.

"Ouch, that's not fair," some of you are saying.

Ok, you got me, I have to agree that comparing the ordinances for events like Wildomar Marketplace to ordinances dealing with homeless encampments is like comparing hamburgers to rollie pollie bugs (yes, I just said "rollie pollie"). 

Homeless issues are bigger than cities and regions, and seem to have no real workable answers with the way the state (and the courts) are dictating things be done (or not be done, as the case may be).

But comparing the ordinances that would allow something like the Wildomar Marketplace with ordinances banning trucks on Palomar, that are circumventing the codes day after day, and year after year... is definitely a Granny Smith v. MacIntosh moment if ever there was one.

My guess is that these guys have been there longer than Wildomar has been a city. I don't blame code enforcement, they need an ordinance with teeth in it before they can actually do anything about it. 

Let's hope that the city kicks it into high gear when it comes to allowing such events as Wildomar Marketplace in the future.

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The windows of my soul I throw Wide open to the sun.
– John Greenleaf Whittier 

Wildomar Rap neither throws, nor tosses nor hurls any windows... not even if they come equipped with the Vista operating system.

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