Sunday, April 27, 2008

Rialto Police Reintroduce Bicycle Patrols, Anti-Gang Unit, Mobil Command (Press Enterprise April 27, 2008)

Rialto police reintroduce bicycle patrols, anti-gang unit, mobile command



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11:14 AM PDT on Sunday, April 27, 2008
By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

Video: The ups and downs of Rialto police on bikes

RIALTO - The two Rialto police officers outside Wal-Mart didn't turn heads.

It was a quiet Sunday morning, and officers Shaun Mooney and Mike Morales were ticketing a car illegally parked in a handicapped space.

There wasn't a patrol car in sight -- and that was exactly the point.

"People aren't expecting police on bikes," Morales said.

He and his partner are on the department's bicycle patrol, one of several details recently revived by Chief Mark Kling after disappearing under tumultuous past administrations.

Since taking the job in late 2006, shortly after city leaders ditched a plan to disband the department and have county sheriff's deputies take over, Kling has led a steady rebuilding effort.

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Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise
Rialto police officers Carla McCullough and Mike Morales are on patrol atop their bicycles on Riverside Avenue in Rialto. Officers regularly ride bicycles in pairs through the city's most troubled apartment complexes and busiest commercial centers.

An anti-gang detail, the return of bike officers and an expanded traffic division are among the changes.

"We're starting to do things that we should have been doing all along," Kling said. "We're examining every single aspect of the department and trying to make it better."

People already have noticed. When Wal-Mart's private security guard, Elizabeth Suer, saw the officers ride through the crowded parking lot, she enthusiastically flagged them down.

"It's about time," she said later of the return of bicycle officers. "We could use them here."

Pedaling Police

Mooney and Morales are members of a team of five officers who ride mountain bikes, in pairs, at least twice a month through Rialto's busiest commercials centers and most troubled apartment complexes.

The philosophy is that an officer on two wheels can go places -- both noticed and unnoticed -- that an officer in a patrol car can't.

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"We interact a lot more," Mooney said. "It's all proactive, and when we're in our cars we can't say that."

On the recent Sunday, the two officers pedaled through Rialto's downtown, then south to the stretch of motels, gas stations and shopping plazas along Interstate 10.

They stopped a homeless woman cutting copper wire behind a Hometown Buffet; a man jaywalking across busy Riverside Avenue; and a teen using a knife to slice open a pack of peanuts near a convenience store.

The longhaired, backpack-toting teen, who said he was passing through from Venice Beach to Arizona, bristled when the officers attempted to question him.

"You should thank us because you could easily get robbed standing here," Mooney told him. "We get a lot of drug dealing in this area."

A supervisor said that kind of interaction is the point of the patrols, which are slated to expand to a full-time detail in coming months.

"It gives us a leg up," said Sgt. Vince Licata, a member of the department's original bicycle patrol in the early 1990s. "There's an element of surprise to it. Most of the criminals don't expect this."

The Return

To revive the bicycle team, Rialto police reached out to the community. Local homebuilders donated thousands of dollars to purchase the bikes, special uniforms and wireless communication tools used by the officers.

The patrols were eliminated during former Chief Michael Meyers' tenure, which ended with a no-confidence vote by officers and the City Council's vote to disband the department.

By the time the council backed off that decision and an interim chief had stabilized the department, Kling inherited a force that was a shell of its former self. Dozens of officers had quit. He slowly began recruiting and budgeting improvements.

In late 2006, Kling formed the Street Crime Attack Team, made up of four gang investigators and a sergeant. He also expanded the narcotics and detective bureaus.

Today, Kling proudly points out a new $350,000 computer system in the department and a $205,000 mobile command center that can serve as a main dispatch center should power to the main station fail. The former crisis-negotiation van was a converted Frito-Lay box truck.

There still are budget issues and several open positions yet to be filled, but Kling said that the mood in the department has turned a corner.

"I think the employees here went through tremendous turmoil they'll never forget," he said. "Now, all these good ideas, they're coming from within the department."

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com

Rialto police have revived or expanded several details since the department was nearly disbanded in 2005.

Bicycle Patrols: Donations from local businesses helped purchase equipment and uniforms for the team to return last May.

Street Crime Attack

Team: Specialized anti-gang detail returned in 2006.

Mobile Command

Center: Department spent $200,000 for the crisis-negotiation vehicle that arrived last month. Officers previously used a converted Frito-Lay truck.

Source: Rialto police Department


BS Ranch Perspective:

The Rialto Police Department was the first Agency in the Inland Empire to start a Bicycle Patrol, Myself, Officer Joe Castillo (God rest his soul), then Officer Tony Farrar (now he is Capt. Tony Farrar), Officer Todd Wright, Officer Tim Lane (now Sergent Tim Lane), I believe that even Matt Huddleston (God Rest his soul) had a turn on the bikes for a short time during the start of the patrol!

At that time there was a dream of having a full time Bicycle patrol, but Capt. Becknell could not perswaide the chief to the idea of a full time Bicycle Patrol Division at that time, it was then that I switched to the Motorcycle Patrol of the Traffic Division especially since I could and was able to ride the Police Motor's before going to Motor School, with the training of the Motor Officer, which helped me during my time at Motorcycle School.

BS Ranch

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Rialto Apartment Complex Fire Leaves 30 Homeless (Press Enterprise, Thursday, March 20, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective:

It is always a fire like this that reminds us how lucky we are that we have what we have, and so it always brings us to tug our heart string and give to those that need something that they could use! The food and water and even that they have children and it is scary that they don't have a place that is secure to live and, living in an apartment it is very tenuous, that with this happening it could place those that were living in an apartment, out on their own with no apartment, or any permanent address for quite some time, there fore now they are forced to look over their shoulder and see if Child Protective Services is after them or their Children to place them in a Foster Care situation away from their Mother or Father!! Being a person from a broken home that would be one very uneasy feeling that I could not take I would run away before they would take me away from my family!! But that is just me!!

BS Ranch



Rialto apartment complex fire leaves 30 homeless



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10:27 AM PDT on Thursday, March 20, 2008
By JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise

Video: Evacuated residents talk about Tuesday's Rialto apartment fire

RIALTO - About 30 people were left homeless Tuesday night after a fire charred a Rialto apartment complex.

The fire broke out in a parked van about 9:30 p.m. and crept up the side of a building, damaging the roofs of at least five apartments. Thirty residents whose homes suffered fire, smoke and water damage were asked to leave the complex, which was declared uninhabitable.

All but two families stayed with friends or relatives. The American Red Cross opened a shelter for four people at the Unified School District on Willow Street.

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John Asbury / The Press-Enterprise
Residents load their belongings from a Rialto apartment complex Wednesday in the 300 block of West Ramona Drive after a car fire that spread to five apartments on Tuesday night.

Some residents returned Wednesday morning to retrieve clothing and other belongings.

At the shelter, Ernest Buford, 33, said he had just moved into one of the apartments on Monday with his mother, Ladonna Christian, 51. They were eating McDonald's breakfast sandwiches Wednesday morning as Red Cross officials arranged for hotel accommodations.

"I don't understand it. It's devastating," Buford said, choking back tears. "I was partying one day and now I can't party no more."

Officials had not determined the cause Wednesday.

Reach John Asbury at 951-368-9288 or jasbury@PE.com

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Rialto City Council to Vote Tonight on Keeping 'Zero Tolerance' Perchlorate Policy (Press Enterprise March 17, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective
I don't know the out come of the vote, but It would be dumb for the city at this early time to hold back and let loose and just leg go of the "Zero Tolerance" reference such a serious thing as Perchlorate!!
BS Ranch

Rialto council to vote tonight on keeping 'zero tolerance' perchlorate policy



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10:00 PM PDT on Monday, March 17, 2008

By MARY BENDER
The Press-Enterprise

Rialto should stick to its standard for removing the chemical perchlorate from city-owned drinking water wells, even though the state of California has set a less stringent standard, attorneys for the city have recommended.

The Rialto City Council is scheduled to act on that issue during its meeting tonight.

Rialto residents get their drinking water either from two private agencies -- West Valley Water District and Fontana Water Company -- or from the city's own utility, the water division of the Public Works Department.

The city provides drinking water to about half of Rialto's residents -- roughly 11,000 connections. To filter out the perchlorate that contaminates the groundwater under Rialto and to make the water safe for drinking, the city installed equipment on three of its wells.

Tonight, special legal counsel for the city will advise the council to reaffirm Rialto's "zero tolerance policy" on perchlorate. The city first adopted the policy in 2003, and reconfirmed that stance in 2005.

"Under this policy, the Water Division is to shut down any municipal well in which the perchlorate is detected, and not to serve water from that well until the Water Division can reliably remove the perchlorate down to the point that perchlorate cannot be detected in the treated water," attorney Susan Trager, the city's special counsel on perchlorate matters, wrote in a report.

Equipment on city wells can't detect perchlorate at levels less than 4 parts per billion, Trager said by phone on Monday.

In October, the state Department of Public Health adopted a standard for perchlorate in drinking water, setting the maximum allowable contaminant level at 6 parts per billion.

But Trager, in her report, explained that it wouldn't save the city any money to relax its own standard to the perchlorate level that the state of California says is acceptable. It wouldn't be worth the cost and effort of recalibrating the equipment on the city's three wells, she advised.

In the treatment process, the perchlorate gets stuck to tiny resin beads in the water. "They molecularly attract the perchlorate and filter it out," explained Francis Logan, an attorney with Trager's Irvine-based firm, which specializes in water and land-use law.

Perchlorate is an ingredient in fireworks, munitions and solid rocket propellant. During World War II, the federal government purchased 2,800 acres of land in northern Rialto to build storage facilities for rockets and munitions, which contained perchlorate.

After the war, the government sold the land. In the ensuing decades, assorted defense contractors, fireworks manufacturers and other companies have done business on the land, and the city alleges that all parties share responsibility for the perchlorate contamination of Rialto's groundwater.

The land is roughly north of Highland Avenue and west of Locust Avenue.

The perchlorate plume polluting the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin is believed to be about six miles long, and to spread at a rate of about three feet per day, according to city officials.

Reach Mary Bender at 909-806-3056 or mbender@PE.com

Rialto to Consider Funding Recreational Trail (Press Enterprise March 31, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective
 
It is a good idea to do this no matter what the cost to bring back the tracks that once took the place down town Rialto, and used to go South to Riverside! With the Price of Gas and the way that our Energy costs are going it is a great Idea!!
 
BS Ranch
 

Rialto to consider funding recreational trail


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10:00 PM PDT on Monday, March 31, 2008

By MARY BENDER
The Press-Enterprise

Rialto's portion of a 21-mile recreational trail to Claremont could get the green light tonight if the City Council approves the funds needed to plan and design the westernmost segment.

The Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail is a walking and bicycling path being built on the route of a former streetcar line. The old "Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric system traveled all over Southern California, and Rialto was a stop on its 59-mile, San Bernardino-to-Los Angeles line.

Segments of the new recreational trail already have been built along the old streetcar right-of-way in Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland and Montclair.

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Tonight, the Rialto City Council will discuss whether to spend $350,000 in Redevelopment Agency bond funds to pay for design of a 1 ¼-mile segment between Maple and Cactus avenues, on the western edge of town.

In a written report to the City Council -- which doubles as the Rialto Redevelopment Agency board -- a consultant hired by the city estimated that portion of the trail would cost $2.5 million to build.

The firm, Rancho Cucamonga-based Dan Guerra & Associates, conducted a feasibility analysis for Rialto's entire 2.5-mile portion of the Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail, between Maple Avenue on the west and Pepper Avenue on the east. Railroad tracks remain along the route, which is parallel to and a few blocks north of the Metrolink tracks.

In Rialto, part of the old Pacific Electric route is still used by Union Pacific freight trains, which deliver lumber from Oregon once a week to Orange County Lumber, at 436 W. Rialto Ave.

The company, which owns 14 acres near Lilac Avenue and Rialto Avenue, moved to the site in the early 1990s, said Richard Hormuth, co-owner and president of Orange County Lumber.

The consultant's report addressed obstacles the city would have to overcome if it wants to build the Pacific Electric trail across the lumber company's land.

That portion of the trail would be part of the project's second phase, a three-quarter-mile segment between Cactus and Riverside avenues. "Options to consider include relocation of the lumber yard ... or reassigning the rail service to Burlington Northern Santa Fe (tracks), south of the lumber yard, and truck (the deliveries) on-site," the Guerra & Associates report said.

"The city has never contacted me," Hormuth said Monday.

A spur from the Union Pacific tracks veers onto the company's property, long enough to fit 10 freight rail cars.

If the city decides that the lumber yard's deliveries should be rerouted onto the BNSF tracks, then the deliveries would have to be unloaded from the rail cars, transferred onto big-rig trucks, driven to the lumber yard and unloaded, Hormuth said.

The extra steps would drive up Orange County Lumber's expenses, he said.

"I guess it would be feasible, but it would be costly," Hormuth said. "Here, we unload the rail cars with our forklift, and the material is set on the ground in our yard."

Orange County Lumber is among the city's top 25 sales tax generators, Hormuth said.

City officials hope to get some money from San Bernardino Associated Governments, a county transportation planning agency that has helped other cities pay for their Pacific Electric trail segments. SANBAG's funds come in part from a countywide quarter-cent sales tax.

A portion of the Pacific Electric trail in Fontana's downtown runs between Juniper and Palmetto avenues. West of that, crews are building another segment from Juniper to Tokay Avenue, said Kevin Ryan, principal transportation planner in Fontana's city Engineering Department.

That stretch will be complete this spring, Ryan said. Fontana's next segment is expected to be a 1 ¼-mile portion, running from Palmetto east to Maple Avenue -- which would hook up with Rialto's first segment, he said.

Reach Mary Bender at 909-806-3056 or mbender@PE.com