• City Meeting Double Header

Tonight there were two city meetings. First was the Parks Subcommittee meeting, which has Mayor Marsha Swanson and Council Member Bridgette Moore on it, also on the dais was City Manager Gary Nordquist.

In it was discussed many items. From the future calendar of events for the parks to improvements, like the mention of covers for the playground areas, a water fountain and bathroom at Windsong Park (that would be greatly appreciated).

Highlights of coming events over the rest of the year:

• June 21st, Movie in the Park (Marna O'Brien Park)
• July 5th, Incorporation Day (Marna O'Brien Park)
• July 19th, Movie in the Park (Windsong Park)
• July 25th, Wildomar Night at the Storm (The Diamond, Lake Elsinore)
• August 9th, Camp Out at the Park, (Marna O'Brien Park)
• August 23rd, Freedom Swing dedication (Marna O'Brien Park)
• November 1, Trunk or Treat (Marna O'Brien Park)
• December  13, Breakfast with Santa (TBD)

Another hot topic [with the audience anyway] was should there be "sing-alongs" where there are movies in the park, and which titles would be best to play. I'm guessing that inter-generational relations will be put back 50 years if such a thing is really tried, especially with The Sound of Music... but if that title isn't available why not Singing in the Rain?

☺

The second end of double header was a Budget Workshop hosted by City Manager Gary Nordquist. It was mostly comprised of boilerplate stuff. Facts and figures about past budgets and revenue forecasts. When we got to the part with public input a guy from City by App got up, I believe he was invited by Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit.

For a total of $3560 a year, the city can participate with a mobile app that would keep people updated on all sorts of things. I'd like to be more detailed here, but I'm not a smartphone guy so I zoned out when all the gadget talk was going on. 

Grace Morabito was enthusiastic for it. She was happy to report that she'd already been using the apps for news from Murrieta and Temecula.

Sheila Urlaub went to the microphone to ask the CityByApp rep a question. She wanted to know if it could be affected by the same kinds of trolls that post outrageous things at a local site called The Patch. They made it clear that such nonsense doesn't take place on their app. If you know The Patch that counts as two tallies in the positive column.

Here's a link to the website, you decide if it's something you'd like Wildomar to get or not.  

http://citybyapp.com/

So it was asked if there were anymore thoughts from the public so I went up there and mentioned  more code enforcement. I referenced the CityByApp we'd just heard about while pulling my flip phone out from my pocket, raising it high, as I kiddingly said, "You can take this from me when you pry it from my cold dead fingers."

"As nifty as the smartphone app thing is, we could really use more code enforcement in our town. There are real things that make our city a lesser place that are allowed to become permanent." 

I find it funny that there are those out there that don't want the codes, that 95+% of us abide by, uniformly enforced. The lack of enforcement only leads to a dirtier and coarser city. Once one person decides they don't need to follow the rules of the community, others say, "If he's not gonna, then I'm not gonna either."

If you live in one of the rural sections of town, I get why you don't care one way of the other. Most of the residents in Wildomar live in neighborhoods, and I dare say that most of us would like our city to be a nice place with standards. Sure, there are some that think trying to be a "nice place" is just too fancy for our town... and they like it dirty. Sorry fellas, you're in the minority on this one.

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• Saturday in the Park

Today there was a picnic at Windsong Park. It was suggested and promoted by Robert Garza.

This is a picture of two of the Garza's grandchildren. I was given many good pictures to choose from for this blog, but this one really said it all... this captures the mood of the outing very well.

If you didn't hear about it, perhaps you need to join one of the 

Wildomar Facebook Groups.

Wildomar

Wildomar Friends

The Farm

and the newest one

Wildomar's Talkin

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It was scheduled from 10 to 4. As it turned out, it was great weather, but early reports of bad air quality [due to the fires in San Diego] kept many people away, including my sweet wife Grace. I didn't get there until about 11:30 and brought something I made up called Italian Rice.

That went along with some tasty ribs, tri tip, side dishes of different beans and a nice broccoli salad put together by Ann White.
 
In all I'm guessing there were thirty or so people there. It's pretty nice when local city council members (Tim Walker, Bridgette Moore and Ben Benoit) stop by just to hang out. I arrived too late to see Bridgette, but Tim and Maria Walker stayed most of the time, and it was really nice to just chat about things in a kick back atmosphere.

A good time was had by all. Summer is still a month a way, and that isn't always the best time to plan large outdoor events... but talk of an "end of the Summer" picnic at Windsong Park was being talked about. 

Let's just pencil in September 27th or October 4th right now. ☺

Robert, thanks for all the effort and the great food too. 

 

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Don't forget about next Saturday's BBQ at

 Marna O'Brien Park.

I don't want to be seen as only writing to the irrationally happy pollyanna Moore-bots out there so let me post one picture to appease the cantankerotti of Wildomar. 
 [If you don't happen to be familiar with the Cantankerotti just count yourself well ahead in the game of life.]

If you've never heard of a "Moore-Bot" it
was an attempt to slur those that respect
the efforts made by our most popular
city council member. Jealousy and blind
hatred runs very deep among the Cantankerotti.

Back to the picture I was talking about:

Proof that things are not perfect in Wild-o-camalot-amar. Whew... glad I got that one in.

╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖ ╕╖

Come listen to a story about a blog named Rap
A fun publication, trying to shrink the info gap,
Then one day he was aimin' at some old tired cranks,
And all the local folks came up to him and said, "gee thanks".

Errr... well, if you don't get the reference you can still like Wildomar Rap on FaceBook.

• City Council Meeting May 14, 2014

The meeting started with a moment of silence for two people. Edy Roadarme and DJ Kisner. Edy published an ebook about Wildomar Cemetery History that I'd started reading last year.

 Here's the link to her book.

—^—

There were a couple of awards handed out tonight. One to the city for its budget (I guess a person needs to be part of the city to get it... sorry, I don't get it, but I'll take your word for it that it's cool).

The other was for our city clerk Debbie Lee. She coincidentally marked her fifth year with Wildomar, and was our city's first employee. She was presented with a city clerk award for excellence in her field. 

Congrats Debbie! 

— • —

City Attorney Thomas Jex gave a brief rundown of Item 3 on the closed session agenda, "the city council voted unanimously to defend the cases, with no more reportable action on those matters."

You may be asking,"What is Item 3?"
You probably know that we keep getting sued by the same group of people.
It's broken into two parts, A and B.

A. Alliance for Intelligent Planning v. City of Wildomar and CV
Communities – Case Number MCC 1400546
B. Martha Bridges and John Burkett v. City of Wildomar and CV
Communities – Case Number MCC 1400557

Wildomar's self appointed, sue happy "community activists" [cough],
better known as "The Unelecteds" (and in one case "The Diselected")
doing what they do best —beating their chests and begging people to
pay attention to them. They need to go back to picking their own
nits and leaving the rest of the citizens of Wildomar alone.

Thank you self appointed, unelected, self glossed "community activists"...

Thanks for nothing that is.

------------

As for the rest of the meeting, I found there to be several items that were very interesting that deserve more individual attention. Among them were issues Council Member Bob Cashman wanted to discuss from the Consent Calendar Items:

• 1.5   — Library Development Impact Fee
• 1.6   — Animal Control Services Agreement
• 1.11 — Sycamore Academy CMFA JPA Agreement

General Business Items of interest were:

• 3.2 — Cooperative Agreement with Riverside County Flood Control -
  Wildomar Master Drainage Plan Lateral C-1 (aka Billie Ann Storm
  Drain)
• 3.4 — Animal Shelter Credits and Marketing Program
• 3.5 — City Hall Facilities

In brief:
1.5 is about a pool of money that has long ago been collected for libraries, but is just sitting there.

1.6 is about Animal Friends of the Valleys. Something that has long been a sticking point for Wildomar since the terms simply aren't distributed fairly among the member cities.  (I'm going to blog about this topic soon.)

1.11 is about the bonds for Sycamore Academy, and the concern was whether or not Wildomar would be on the hook for payment if Sycamore failed to pay them. It was emphatically stated, by City Manager Gary Nordquist, that Wildomar is "not on the hook for that, the city has nothing to do [with that], it's not a liability for the city, there's no need for a surety bond because we don't have any criteria or association with that debt."


3.2 Has to do with an area that constantly floods (during those rare rains). If you know where Plow Boys is on Palomar near Arnold, this project will help that area.

3.4 This wasn't clear. It has to do with matching funds at Animal Friends of the Valleys. We had a surplus, of $18k and the options were to put it back into the general fund or to apply it to animal related programs, like altering and ID chips... or in the words of Council Member Tim Walker Clip n' Chip.

AFV is offering an incentive to the participating cities of matching up to $12,500. Due to the wording involving "Marketing Program" the council wants that clarified before entering into such agreements. I can just see it now... a large portion of the "matching funds" going into the marketing arm... I agree with the council that the program is a good one but the "marketing" angle needs to be hammered out first.

3.5 The lease was extended for two more years, and the city council chambers will be moving down the hall.

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• Meet Ashley Fox

I had the chance to meet a remarkable young lady while at the Astronomy in the Park event. Her name is Ashley Fox.

She's a girl scout and is in the middle of a Silver Award Project.

Read up on what a Silver Award is here.

She was busy manning the Marna O'Brien snack bar for the fund raiser, but still found ten minutes to chat with me.

Selling Pizza at the snack bar at Marna O'Brien Park on Astronomy night.
Ashley and Stephanie Moore at the counter and Cheryl McCool-Benedicto behind them.

—☺—

WR: I know that you are 13 and in 8th grade, what school do you go to?
AF: Elsinore Middle School and I'm in the GEMS program.

WR: What is the GEMS program?
AF: It's a magnet program (Gaining Excellence in Math and Science).

Click to learn more about Gaining Excellence in Math and Science

WR: What subject do you enjoy the most?
AF: My favorite subject this year is astronomy.

WR: What a perfect evening for your fundraiser (it being Astronomy Night at the park).
AF: Exactly!

WR: Were you born in Wildomar?
AF: No, I was actually born in Carlsbad. We moved to this area in 2005 or 2006.

WR: Besides the girl scouts do you have other activities?
AF: Oh yeah, absolutely. I have Families of SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy), which is basically a lot of parents and people who have SMA like me... which is my disease. Then there's MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association), who supports you and I go to MDA camp in the Summer; it's like a week long.

 Click to read what SMA is

WR: Do you have any siblings?
AF: I do, I have a brother but he doesn't have it... but he may be a carrier so he has to check before he gets married.

WR: Do you find that people treat you the way they'd treat other people, or do they come up to you with big eyes [speaking in an affected manner] saying "how are you today?"
AF: That's a very interesting question because no one's ever really asked me that. Actually I get baby talked to a lot, and you would be surprised about how many people [don't] treat me like a real person.

It's probably like a 1 in 20 chance that a person will actually talk to me like a real person... 

...but the others treat me like I'm a baby and not all there. It's frustrating to me because until you get to know that person, that has a muscle disease, then people just lay eyes on them and say "she's cognitively affected, she's not all there." 

Then that's how I got treated in school when I was younger. They called me names, they called me the "R" word, they called me stupid, they threw stuff at me.

—휸—

Let me interrupt this conversation to chastise some of the parents out there. 

Really?
Feel free to teach your little darlin's some decency... 
the rest of us would be much obliged.

Now back to your regularly scheduled conversation, already in progress.

—휸—

WR: What was the first part of the Silver Award project?
AF: basically, deciding where it would go, and if we can meet the deadline and how much we were going to raise.

WR: The goal was $3500, and you're more than half way there ($2800 as of last count), do you have ideas of what to do if you raise a lot more than the goal?
AF: If we raise $4000 we might put in a piece of  sensory playground equipment.

I really enjoyed this next exchange with Ashley. I wanted to ask her about her experience on these types of swings.

WR: When you've been on these swings before... [I noticed her eyes getting a bit bigger] I'm sure you've been on one... right?
AF: Actually I have not.

WR: Oh, you haven't?
AF: I haven't. [Said with a big smile]

WR: Oh no. [Said with an even bigger smile from me]
AF: I've just heard about it.

WR: I've heard there's one in San Clemente, right?
AF: There is. There's an accessible playground where you can actually go on the equipment; big playground equipment with ramps and you can hang out like the other kids.

—☺—

The next fundraiser for Ashley's project is Monday May 12th at Stadium Pizza. It's an all day event and to participate just order from the menu (no specials or delivery) and be sure to mention the Freedom Swing.

Another great event on the fund raising schedule is

  Wildomar Night at the Storm Game.

Friday July 25th

$2 from each $10 ticket sold will be donated to the project. There will be grab bags with many great things inside for $5 apiece.
When buying your tickets, be sure to mention Wildomar and the Freedom Swing so that they know to add the money to the donations.


If you'd like to donate directly to the project, be sure to contact Ashley's mom, Kimberly. She gave me her phone number and would be happy to speak to you. (951) 639-7864.

 Click here to get in touch with Ashley's mom through facebook.

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Even if you're still stuck in the past and only use MySpace... don't be afraid Wildomar Rap's FaceBook page is house broken.

• Wildomar In Action

Here's a quick story about our how our city can work as a community and get something done quickly.

Once upon a time, some guy name Joseph was walking his dogs in the recently reopened park in his neighborhood. He noticed what looked like a hazard near the playground, that might cause injury, but was too busy talking to his grown up daughter, as they went on their way, to make more than a mental note of it.

Several days later, while out walking the same dogs, in the same park, he noticed that the cones were now being used as toys, and the hazard, was just waiting to trip someone —or worse. So out came the flip phone (yes, I still have one of those and I ain't never getting a smart phone... but I digress) and I... I mean "he" snapped a picture.

The next morning, around 8:30AM, the picture was uploaded to the Wildomar FaceBook Group, tagged in it were Council Member Bridgette Moore and Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit, along with an explanation of what the concern was.

Here is the original text of the group post:

***HEADS UP PARK GOERS***
I've noticed some very dangerous hazards at Windsong park. In the image you can see uncovered studs that are for anchoring benches. There are four sets of these right next to the kiddie area. They are spray painted orange, and there are cones, but the cones are often used as toys and moved. Even at that there are only two cones. I seriously suggest the city remedy this or lock the park up so as to not risk injury to a park user. They are not easy to see and someone is going to rip up their foot on them or trip while running. I'm guessing that new benches are slated to be installed there, but it would be far more prudent to cut those off and drill new holes than allow those to remain for another hour.

I thought it best to post this in this group, which has good traffic, than to try and figure out the best department to send this to. Between Bridgette Moore, and Ben J. Benoit I'm thinking they'll know best how to get this corrected before someone gets hurt.

By 9:30AM Benoit posted this.  

Ok found the equipment was being stored offsite and the City was working to get it back somehow there was a bit of a communication breakdown and it was taking a bit longer than needed. So Daniel (Torres) and myself are on the way to pick everything up. We may have benches by the end of the day.

Within a short period of time, Ben followed up with this post and picture on the ever growing thread.

Man these things are heavy!!! Ok now that staff has them we should be up and running today.

By noon, the benches had been trucked from where they were being stored, and reinstalled.

Loaded up and ready to roll.

Hazard gone, and places to sit just waiting for park goers.

—☺—

The moral of the story is to get involved

We are all members of the community, and the city of Wildomar isn't some big bad wolf that looking to blow your house down, or some Wizard in a far off Emerald City. Our city runs better when there are more that take an active role. So if you see something that needs attention, don't just keep it to yourself. Contact the city and report it.

 http://cityofwildomar.org/  or  951-677-775.

Again, a  hearty thanks to those that are working to make this city, this community, a better place for all of us. Especially Ben Benoit and Daniel Torres.

Windsong Park was getting its first haircut today.  She's sure looking purdy... now time to take that fence down!

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Yeah, so have the rest of us so go there and like Wildomar Rap.

• State of the City 2014

I'd never been to a "State of the [fill in the blank]" before. So my attendance at today's State of the City was something new for me. w00t!

—☺—

It was attended by local dignitaries from neighboring cities and organizations. Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Murrieta and Temecula were represented. As were county supervisor Kevin Jeffries' office, state assemblywoman Melissa Melendez's office, county supervisor Jeff Stone, of California Secession fame. *link to that story if you've forgotten*

Rounded out by our own city peeps, except for Bob Cashman that is... I'm pretty good at photoshop and can add him into any official photos if the city would like.

The list of dignitaries was so long that it took up about 10 minutes to go through. I was sitting next to Doug Ames, and at one point he leaned over to me and said, "looks like we're the only [average] citizens here." 

Even his son, Mike Ames, was among the honored guests, on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout, he lead the group in the pledge of allegiance.  Ready? Begin....

The theme for today's event was:

Had I seen this theme in the first ten years I lived here, I would have scoffed at it. Back then I didn't do much more than wave to some of my neighbors from time to time. I never got out of my own bubble long enough to know if there was a community or not. Ever since I ventured out of my safe zone last year, I've seen that there is indeed a community in this city, and it's full of good people.

Mayor Marsha Swanson giving the State of the City speech. 

Remember when I said  I am pretty good with photoshop? Well, those banners weren't behind the mayor until I put them there. I'm telling you, I can insert council member Cashman into pics of any event he can't make it to.
 
 

 —☻— 

Now let's get down to the nuts and bolts of the speech.

***Spoiler Alert***

[There weren't any "nuts and bolts" of the speech.]

First, let me ask you... have you ever heard a State of the Union speech? After you listen to one of those, no matter which party is in the White House, you end up scratching your head and asking... what was all that? There's no difference here.

There wasn't going to be any fiery rhetoric. These speeches are meant to be flowery and glowing, filled with optimism —which it was. Though I did appreciate it when the phrase "frivolous lawsuits" was uttered, as did the rest of the crowd... if you can deem groans mixed with muffled laughter, as people "appreciating" something that is.

I enjoyed the experience for what it was and look forward to going next year too. A round of thanks to those that made it come off so well. Mayor Swanson did a nice job with the speech, though some of the surnames, of the local dignitaries, did give her a run for her money. :)

A view of the north side of the Elks Lodge banquet room.

Mayor Marsha Swanson posing between banners.

 

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4 out of 5 dentists surveyed suggested FaceBook over every other leading brand when it comes to following Wildomar Rap. So, unless you're looking to get a mouth full of cavities, you need to go like WR's page.

• Astronomy Night in Wildomar

What a great event for Wildomar.

Many thanks to John Garrett and Temecula Valley Astronomers for the enjoyable presentation and setting up their telescopes and allowing others to take a look at the night sky with them .

Looking at the Sun through a telescope was a first for me. They use special filters so you can safely view it and see 'bumps' around the edge of the Sun. I learned they are called a prominence.

A panoramic view of the inflatable screen that the presentation was projected on.

Manning the snack bar, selling pizza and sodas.

Ashley Fox chatted with me about her Girl Scout Silver Award project (click this link to read what a silver award is).  I'm going to write up a blog about her project soon. In brief, her goal is to raise $3500 for a swing that will accommodate those in a wheel chair. Before tonight she'd already gotten half way there with $1800 raised. Tonight they added nearly another $300 to the total. The next fund raiser is at Stadium Pizza on Monday May 12th.

You couldn't ask for better weather and the temps were perfect for family time outdoors.

SunPro Solar donated 12 of these telescopes to be raffled off. All those in attendance were giving a raffle ticket, free of charge, and there were two drawings throughout the course of events.

Four of our Five City Council Members were in attendance for the evening event.

Here you see a live projection of the moon (below) and setting up the equipment (above).

It's hard to judge crowd size, but it safe to say there were more than a baker's dozen and less than 1,000. Ok, my real guess would be around 200 people. More thanks goes to city staffers that put in a long day. 

As I was chatting with Public Works Superintendent Les Chapman, I like how he put it. That these kinds of events are what make us a community, and he'd like to see more of them. I was telling him about times I've driven to neighboring cities to listen to live music in the park while having a picnic, and he thought that would work well here too. We just need to get our parks department up and running.

Follow this link if you aren't already subscribed to the city of Wildomar's email alerts. It's the best way to keep up with when things are happening.

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