Monday, December 31, 2018

• 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.
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!

•                •                •

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.

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