Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The City of Rialto, Profiled in 'Strong Cities/Strong State' Campaign by Jim Steinberg

Rialto profiled in 'Strong Cities/Strong State' Campaign
Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer

Posted: 08/30/2011 05:31:12 PM PDT
RIALTO - This city joined the ranks of those
profiled as part of the "Strong Cities/Strong
State" campaign highlighting local government
success across the state.

The project, a joint venture of the League of
California Cities and the California City
Management Foundation, will eventually
highlight all California cities.
"We are glad the League asked our city to
participate in the Strong Cities/Strong State
campaign," said Rialto Mayor Grace Vargas. "It is
important to show what communities like Rialto
are doing to improve their communities, promote
economic development and create jobs in these
tough economic times."
The city's profile details projects that promote
sustainable economic development including its
award-winning Downtown Vision and Strategic
Plan and the proposed development of the Rialto
Eco-Industrial Energy Park.
The Eco-Industrial Park, which will occupy 9
acres at the city's wastewater treatment plant,
will create a "green collar" job sector, while
helping to improve the environment and increase
city revenues.
"Rialto is investing millions of dollars in the
community via its redevelopment agency. We are
expanding our library, making major
improvements in our parks, constructing a new
fire station and investing in large public
improvement projects that will make Rialto a
better place to live, work and play in the future,"
said City Administrator Mike Story.
The goal of the campaign is to promote the
innovation and experience of local officials in
delivering vital services at a time when this
expertise is needed by state leaders struggling
with fundamental issues of governance, said Eva
Spiegel, communications director, for the League
of California Cities.
"`Strong Cities/Strong State' seeks to position
cities as vital, necessary and equal partners in
building a better California," Spiegel said.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Southwest Riverside County: Deputy sued for off-duty shooting (Aug. 25, 2011).. by Sarah Burge



09:59 PM PDT on Thursday, August 25, 2011

BY SARAH BURGE
STAFF WRITER
sburge@pe.com
A Riverside County sheriff's deputy who was involved in an off-duty shooting and then a suspected DUI crash less than nine months later is now facing a DUI charge and a lawsuit, court records show.

Mark Buelna, 26, was a deputy at the sheriff's Southwest Station last summer when he accidentally shot himself and a friend after a night out in the Temecula area, a 2010 Riverside County Sheriff's Department incident report states. Sheriff's officials did not disclose the shooting at the time, and Buelna was not charged with a crime. Earlier this month the friend, Richard Strehl, sued Buelna and Riverside County alleging negligence, court records show.

In April, Buelna crashed into a parked pickup at a construction site on Interstate 215 in Perris, California Highway Patrol officials said. Misdemeanor DUI charges were filed against him in June. He pleaded not guilty, court records show.

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Mark Buelna is the target of a lawsuit and of a criminal DUI case.
Buelna's lawyer, Joseph P. Smith, declined to comment.

Buelna was hired by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in 2005 as a jail deputy, was promoted to deputy sheriff in 2007 and is now assigned to the sheriff's Hemet Station, department officials said.

It is unclear whether Buelna will keep his job.

Capt. Patricia Knudson, of the sheriff's professional standards bureau, said she could not comment on Buelna's case because it is a personnel matter.

Speaking generally, she said, a misdemeanor conviction against a deputy might lead to disciplinary action or termination, depending on the circumstances. But it would not automatically result in termination, she said.

A deputy convicted of a felony would not meet state requirements to be a peace officer and would likely not stay with the department, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Borja said in a statement.

The department thoroughly investigates allegations of misconduct by deputies and takes appropriate corrective or disciplinary action, Borja said.

GUN WENT OFF

On July 25, 2010, Strehl picked Buelna up at his Menifee home that evening, the sheriff's incident report says. They went to The Beer Hunter in Menifee to have a drink and watch television before heading to dinner with a group of off-duty deputies at the Tilted Kilt in Temecula.

Later, the group went to ET's Sports Lounge in Temecula, where Buelna met a woman he had been dating, according to witness statements in the report.

Strehl told investigators that the woman's ex-boyfriend was arguing with her at the bar and he was thrown out by security. The group left the bar about 2 a.m., and the woman asked Buelna for a ride home to the Meadowview neighborhood of Temecula, the report says.

When Strehl, Buelna and the woman arrived, the ex-boyfriend was outside. Strehl said the man approached them, seemed aggressive and demanded to speak to the woman, the report stated. Buelna got his gun from the truck, told the man to back off and identified himself as a police officer, the report says. Strehl, Buelna and the woman left in the pickup.

As they drove near Winchester and Murrieta Hot Springs roads, Buelna tried to holster the gun and it went off, the report says. A bullet passed through Buelna's left hand and Strehl's right thigh, lodging in the driver's seat.

Strehl said he hobbled out of the driver's seat. The woman drove them to Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, where hospital employees called police, the report says.

Strehl told investigators the shooting was an accident. Although Buelna had several beers, his friends told investigators he did not appear to be drunk. The report does not mention any tests to determine Buelna's blood-alcohol level. It says Buelna declined an investigator's request to collect a blood sample a few hours after the shooting.

"It's just a case of negligence," said Strehl's attorney, Timothy W. Peach.

Peach said Strehl, a tribal ranger on the Pechanga Reservation near Temecula, suffered painful injuries that caused him to miss several weeks of work. The lawsuit does not allege that Buelna was intoxicated, Peach said.

Peach contends that Riverside County should be liable for Buelna's careless handling of the gun, though he was off-duty that day, because Buelna retrieved the weapon while trying to keep the peace and identified himself as an officer.

Peach said Strehl would not be giving a statement.

DUI ALLEGATION

On April 6, Buelna crashed on Interstate 215 in Perris while driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Buelna was heading south in a Dodge Dakota in the early morning when he came to a full freeway closure, CHP spokeswoman Officer Sylvia Vargas said. All southbound lanes were closed for construction, and traffic was being detoured off the freeway at Nuevo Road, Vargas said. Despite signs, cones and a light board marking the closure, Buelna drove into the construction area, striking a parked pickup, Vargas said. The impact pushed the vehicle into another parked truck.

Buelna's truck sustained major damage in the crash, she said.

Buelna suffered moderate to major injuries and was taken to Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley for treatment, Vargas said. No one else was injured.

The month before the crash, according to the sheriff's officials, Buelna had received an award from Mother's Against Drunk Driving honoring him for the number of DUI arrests he had made.

Four Arrested For DUI at Sobriety Checkpoint

RIALTO
Four arrested for DUI at sobriety checkpoint
The Rialto Police Department Traffic Unit conducted a DUI Drivers License checkpoint on Saturday which resulted in six vehicles being towed, 15 citations and four arrested for DUI.

One person was arrested for unlawful cultivation and transportation of marijuana when they entered the initial screening area with the back seat of their vehicle full of mature marijuana plants.

A handgun was also located during a search of that suspect's vehicle, according to a Rialto Police Department news release.

The checkpoint was conducted between the hours of 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Saturday in the area of Cedar and Rialto avenues, police said.

Copper Theft Leaves 25,000 without power in Rialto, Ca. (San Bernardino Sun)

Copper theft leaves 25,000 without power in Rialto

Posted: 08/26/2011 08:44:49 PM PDT

The theft of copper wire caused 25,000 people to lose power Friday afternoon in Rialto, Lytle Creek and parts of Fontana.
The outage was reported around 4:35 p.m., said Mashi Nyssen, spokeswoman for Southern California Edison. Someone got into one of the substations and stole the wire, she said. Repair crews responded and restored the power by 6:15 p.m.



13th Annual Family Festival - City of Rialto

The City of Rialto is hosting its 13th Annual Rialto Family Festival on Saturday, September 17, 2011 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, located at Rialto City Hall 150 S. Palm Ave. The 18th Annual Pollution Prevention Fair, 10th Annual Redevelopment Agency Housing Fair and 4th Annual Fitness Day will be held in conjunction with the Rialto Family Festival. more

The festival was developed by the Human Relations Commission of the City of Rialto to celebrate the diversity of the community. It's a fun day of free games and entertainment including: the Rialto High School Cheerleaders, Dance demonstrations, K-9 demonstration, Fire Dept. vehicle extraction demonstration and much more. Please click here for the full schedule. For more information, please contact the Rialto City Clerk's Office at (909) 820-2519.

High-Speed Rail Cost Could Soar!! By Tim Sheehan.. The Fresno Bee

High-speed rail cost could soar


Download story podcast

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 27, 2011

BY TIM SHEEHAN
THE FRESNO BEE
For two years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority said it could build 520 miles of high-speed train tracks between San Francisco and Los Angeles for about $43 billion.

But that figure -- long derided as unrealistic by critics -- went off the rails this month when the authority released detailed environmental reports for its proposed Merced-Fresno and Fresno-Bakers- field sections, the first two segments the agency wants to start building next year.

The authority's most optimistic estimates for the San Joaquin Valley sections alone total about $10 billion; route choices could run the price to $13.9 billion.


AP
This image provided by the California High-Speed Rail Authority shows an artist's conception of a high-speed rail station in California. The rail authority wants to begin work next year.
That's a far cry from the 2009 estimate of $8.1 billion.

If projected costs can rise by as much as 71 percent in the San Joaquin Valley -- a relatively flat, straightforward stretch -- what will happen when tracks must be built through mountains and across cities in the Bay Area or Southern California?

If costs escalate statewide as much as in the San Joaquin Valley, the price to build the system from San Francisco to Anaheim could leap from the 2009 estimate of $43 billion to as much as $67.3 billion, even before buying any trains.

Eventually the statewide line will run from San Diego to Sacramento. Bullet trains are planned to run through the Inland area, traveling to Ontario International Airport and then either eastward to San Bernardino and Riverside before going south to Murrieta, or southbound through Corona to Murrieta. Any Inland line would offer quick connections to downtown Los Angeles and San Diego.

Some critics are saying, "I told you so," and others worry about even more cost increases in the San Joaquin Valley and statewide before a decade of construction begins in late 2012, as planned.

"It is about time that more realistic numbers are being used," said Elizabeth Alexis, co-founder of Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design, a group that has long doubted the authority's estimates.

Roelof van Ark, the rail authority's CEO, acknowledged last week that the earlier estimates, set forth in a 2009 business plan to the Legislature, were "a little bit optimistic."

Construction plans have changed in the San Joaquin Valley between 2009 and now, van Ark said.

He said an updated plan due before the Legislature in October will reflect the higher costs for the valley -- and statewide.

"What you're seeing in the Central Valley, you are going to see in the other parts of the state as well," van Ark said. "Quite a few of the components (that add to the cost in the valley) will definitely carry into other parts of the state. However, some of them could be even larger."

'WE KNOW MORE NOW'

The higher estimates in the draft environmental impact reports for the San Joaquin Valley segments are the result of engineers refining the route options and gaining a better understanding of construction challenges, van Ark said.

"We know more now," said van Ark, who was hired by the authority months after the 2009 plan was prepared. "When you start designing systems like this, you look at the alignment, the cities, the rural areas, and you make assumptions. ... (But) you don't have the detail to consider what real costs are going to come about."

With that detail in hand, the authority has identified about $5.8 billion in new costs, including:

About $3 billion more to build about 36 miles of elevated tracks over the cities of Madera, Chowchilla and Corcoran to avoid closing streets.

About $844 million more for elevated structures, tunnels, bridges, overpasses and undercrossings to cross waterways, streets, highways and railroads along the route.

About $685 million more for earthworks and retaining walls to raise the tracks above flood plains.

Van Ark said that since the first estimate, prices also have gone up for materials, such as steel, needed to build the system.

Between Merced and Fresno, the cheapest route option -- now estimated at about $3.8 billion -- follows the Union Pacific freight railroad and Highway 99 between Merced and Chowchilla. It loops west around Chowchilla, then heads east to follow the BNSF Railway track around Madera to the east.

The line then crosses the countryside to return to the UP tracks and Highway 99 by the time it reaches the San Joaquin River, and remains along the UP tracks through downtown Fresno.


The most expensive option is one that follows the UP tracks and Highway 99 all the way from downtown Merced through Chowchilla and Madera to downtown Fresno. At an estimated cost of $6.7 billion, it includes the stretch of elevated tracks from north of Chowchilla to south of Madera.

Between Fresno and Bakersfield, the route roughly follows the BNSF Railway tracks, except for a stretch that crosses the Kings County countryside east of Hanford.

The most expensive variation, at about $7.2 billion, would pass through the cities of Corcoran, Wasco and Shafter and the historic community of Allensworth, with elevated tracks through Corcoran.

The lowest estimated price, about $6.2 billion, is for a route with bypasses around those towns.

The new cost projections in the valley are about in line with what Alexis' Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design group predicted, based on figures in the authority's application for federal stimulus funds this year.

"We had already built in the escalation to our cost figures, so our current estimate is consistent with newly released information," Alexis said. "The budget numbers in the federal applications revealed the much higher price tag to those of us keeping close tabs on the project."

"Hopefully," she added, "all the cost surprises on this (valley) segment going forward are good ones."

'SALES, MARKETING'

Research shows that for decades, cost overruns are the rule rather than the exception for big transportation projects in general, and for big rail projects in particular. And California's proposed high-speed train system is a biggie.

"Even in the best of times, large infrastructure investments have a dismal performance record in terms of cost overruns, delays, and benefit shortfalls," Oxford University program-management professor Bent Flyvbjerg wrote in a 2009 research article in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

In 2009, the cost for San Francisco-to-Anaheim was estimated at about $39.3 billion, or just under $43 billion by the time trains were purchased to run on the system.

Lynn Schenk, a former congresswoman from San Diego and a member of the rail authority's board, said the 2009 plan was created in "an atmosphere of wishes, hopes and faith, and ... was more of a sales and marketing piece" than a reliable prediction of costs.

Schenk said the October business plan will be "just about our last chance to rebuild confidence in this project, and us, that we can get this done" in the face of growing statewide concern over the rail project.

Van Ark also understands the implications of the new business plan, which will detail not only the costs for the statewide system, but also how the authority expects to pay for it.

And, he added, it will paint a much more realistic picture than the 2009 plan.

"We -- I say we even though I wasn't around -- we were a little bit optimistic in those days," van Ark said.

The authority's new estimates are priced to include all types of route options, "and these have all been cross-checked by a second group of costing engineers," he added. "I want to make sure I'm right when I go out and talk about these things."

California has about $6.3 billion available to start construction, a combination of federal stimulus funds and money from Prop. 1A, a $9 billion bond measure approved by California voters in 2008. Planners decided the best place to use that first chunk of money is the San Joaquin Valley.

"We will build as many miles as we can out of that $6 billion," van Ark said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story resulted from a partnership among California news organizations following the state's high-speed rail program: The Fresno Bee, The Sacramento Bee, California Watch, The Bakersfield Californian, The Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Press-Enterprise.

Surprise! Look who ranks as most influential anchor

   
The names are legendary: Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, Paul Harvey, Peter Jennings, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley.
All powerfully influential in their time because of their positions delivering the news to Americans.
Now follows NBC's Brian Williams, picked in a new scientific poll as the media personality thought to be the most influential in America today – even though his liberal bent is so well-known President Obama himself publicly joked about being in bed with him.
One in four respondents picked NBC's Williams in response to the question, "Of the people on this list I am going to read to you, please tell me which media personality do you think is the most influential figure in America today?"
Williams beat Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Oprah Winfrey.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Rialto man sentenced in 2009 Double Shooting by Mike Cruz (Daily Bulletin)

Rialto man sentenced in 2009 double shooting

By Mike Cruz
Created: 08/27/2011 10:58:22 AM PDT

A Rialto man was sentenced Friday to 87 years to life in state prison in a 2009 shooting that killed a man and wounded a teenaged boy.
Mark Rodriguez Morales, 18, was sentenced before Judge Cara. D. Hutson in Fontana Superior Court for the death of 19-year-old Josue Romero, of Bloomington, and wounding of a 16-year-old boy, according to court records.

A jury found Morales guilty of murder and attempted murder on July 26 during trial deliberations, court records indicate.

Rialto police were called to the 800 block of Grovewood Street about 12:50 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2009 and found Romero and the boy lying in the street suffering from gunshot wounds. The shooting occurred during a confrontation between Morales, who was 16 at the time, and the victims, police said.

The victims were taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where Romero died.



Read more: http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_18771270#ixzz1WNOAne7m

Friday, August 26, 2011

Rialto: Possible Health Problems from Old Wells, by Janet Zimmerman (Press-Enterprise

10:15 PM PDT on Friday, August 26, 2011

BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
STAFF WRITER
jzimmerman@pe.com
A state health assessment has found that tap water from two wells contaminated with a rocket fuel ingredient could have caused thyroid problems that affected the physical and mental development of people who grew up in Rialto in the 1980s.

The report, released this week, said that the amount of perchlorate found during some periods in West Valley Water District's well No. 22 and Rialto's well No. 2 could have delayed speech development in some children there. Those with concerns about potential health affects were urged to consult their doctors.

Residents have expressed concerns that the contaminated water caused a variety of other problems, including migraines, attention deficit disorder, kidney cancer, miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects.

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But California Department of Public Health officials reported that their study, based on existing scientific and medical information, found no link between those problems and exposure to perchlorate and trichloroethylene, or TCE, an industrial solvent also found in Rialto drinking water. TCE has been linked to cancer.

The 160-acre Goodrich industrial area north of the Rialto Airport was designated a federal Superfund cleanup site in 2009, prompting the health assessment.

Russell Bartlett, a state health assessor, said the report was prepared to address public concerns and represents the worst-case scenario. Because early records were not available to them, investigators had to assume that water from the contaminated wells was not blended with cleaner sources.

"If it was blended, then it would have reduced contaminant levels. There was nothing on paper or any kind of report we could use to verify that," he said.The water is safe to drink, Bartlett said.

From the 1940s to the 1980s, private companies and government agencies stored, tested and manufactured munitions, rocket motors, fireworks and other explosives on the site, where perchlorate and other toxic chemicals were dumped onto the ground and burned in pits.

The contamination leached into the groundwater supply, causing a plume that has traveled at least three miles to the southeast, affecting various wells and moving toward water supplies owned by the city of Riverside.

Perchlorate can inhibit the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland and decrease its production of hormones that are critical during pregnancy and childhood for normal physical growth and brain development. Adults are not affected, according to the report.

"It's of no surprise to me that they're finding something. People were drinking water with perchlorate in it for many, many years," said Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in Glen Avon.

The findings will be discussed at a future community meeting in Rialto, local water officials said.

Butch Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water District, said he fears the findings will trigger a rash of lawsuits by people who think they may have been harmed by the contamination.

"I think there'll be some people who, if they have an ache and a pain, will think it's because of perchlorate, but I don't think it was. All of us might have drunk some perchlorate at some time in our life, because we didn't know what it was," said Araiza, who has lived in Rialto for 61 years.

The report also erroneously assumed that water from well No. 22 went to consumers directly, when in fact it was blended with other sources that would have reduced contaminant levels, he said.

The well, north of Interstate 210, was used only intermittently for a couple of months in the summer when demand was up; it was lower-quality water because it was sandy and jammed meters, Araiza said.

The well was last pumped in 1988 and permanently shut in 1997 after the perchlorate was found, he said. Other wells in Rialto, Colton and Fontana also were closed.

The agency installed ion exchange treatment systems in 2001 to remove perchlorate, which residents have helped pay for with an average $12 monthly surcharge on their water bills. Treatment takes the perchlorate below the level at which it can be detected, which is 4 parts per billion, Araiza said. The state's health standard for perchlorate is 6 parts per billion.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is leading the cleanup effort in Rialto, has issued a plan to spend $18 million building pumps and treatment systems to clean water of perchlorate, TCE and other compounds and deliver it to homes and businesses.

Newman of the Center for Community Action said she is concerned the EPA systems wouldn't clean the water enough, because even 6 parts per billion could pose a risk for infants and fetuses and lower levels over long periods of time could cause problems for adults.

"For people who have continued to drink this water for decades, that 2 parts per billion may be enough to put them over the threshold for developing disease," Newman said.

Dave and Diane Mavity and their two children, now 38 and 41, lived in Rialto from 1975 to 1980 and again from 1994 to 1998. In 1997, Diane was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and many of their neighbors also had thyroid problems, he said.

"Something's not right," Dave Mavity said.

The highest concentration measured at the Rialto site was more than 1,000 times the drinking-water standard, according to the EPA documents. TCE was found in concentrations more than 300 times the drinking-water standard.

Officials with the city of Rialto could not be reached for comment on the report because their offices were closed Friday.

Health report

Water agencies didn't have a test for perchlorate until 1997. That's when high levels were found in two wells that intermittently served Rialto. The contamination radiated from the Goodrich industrial site, now slated for federal Superfund cleanup. A state study concluded:

People who currently work at the Goodrich site are not at risk from chemicals in the soil or groundwater.

Drinking water supplied by Rialto, Colton, West Valley Water District and Terrace Water Co. is safe.

Some drinking water from West Valley's well No. 22 in 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988 may have contained TCE but isn't believed to have harmed people's health.

In the same years, perchlorate contamination in well No. 22 could have been high enough to modestly impair iodine absorption by the thyroid gland, potentially affecting physical growth and brain development of fetuses, infants and children.

The same is true of perchlorate in Rialto's well No. 2, from 1979 to 1997.

It is not possible to know whether eating fruits and vegetables from a garden irrigated with perchlorate-tainted water would have been harmful.

Source: California Department of Public Health