Incorporated November 17, 1911, the City of Rialto covers 28 square miles. Citizens enjoy the services of City-owned water, fire, and police departments, as well as community recreation facilities. The Police Department offers a variety of services and assignments to include Field Patrol, K-9 Units, School Resource Officer (SRO), Multiple Enforcement Team (MET), Investigations, Traffic, Narcotics, Training and Backgrounds, SWAT and Crisis Negotiations.
Looks like Rialto is following the footsteps, or at least looking to follow in the footsteps of a neighboring city of Redlands with the charge of extra taxes reference to the large Square Footage of Where houses that are all the rage in the cities in the Inland Empire, the only trouble is that they hopefully won't take the time to over charge the Where houses that just might cause them to change them to move them away to another city that doesn't charge such an EXTRA TAX!! Rialto might be playing with fire, I say a small tax yes, but not a whole tax like Redlands is embarking upon!!
Buck
Rialto mulls levying a tax on large warehouse sites
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/25/2007 09:00:00 PM PST
RIALTO - City officials say they're open to the idea of levying a tax on the large warehouses filling up the last chunks of the city's empty land.
A tax could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars or more a year to help offset some of the costs all the big rigs inflict, like traffic and damaged roads.
"I think it could be a viable option," said Councilman Joe Baca Jr.
The idea is something city staff has talked about, said Economic Development Director Robb Steel.
In November, 71 percent of Redlands voters approved a new warehouse license tax of 3.5 cents per square foot, which will bring in about $250,000 a year. The rate will increase every year to keep up with inflation until it hits 5 cents per square foot.
Rialto has about 10 million square feet of distribution center warehouses and could add another 10 million in the next five to 10 years.
City Administrator Henry Garcia said he would have to see some numbers before coming to a conclusion about a distribution tax.
"We'd have to assess the economics of that," he said last week.
But he said he thought a distribution tax wouldn't bring in much money.
A tax at the Redlands rate could bring in a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Rialto's 8 percent tax on utilities brings in more than $12 million a year, so replacing very much of the utility tax with a distribution tax would not be easy.
Besides, the utility tax brings in a lot
of money from distributors because of their high electricity bills, Steel said.
Voters might like the idea of a distribution tax because of the pollution and damage to streets wrought by the trucks, he said.
Rialto already has a fee in place that's similar to the new Redlands tax.
In 2005, Rialto modified its business license fee policy for warehouses to allow businesses to have their annual fee calculated at a rate of 5 cents a square foot, said Greg Lantz, economic development manager.
Instead of making businesses disclose their gross receipts to calculate the fee, distributors can just pay the flat fee.
But not all the distributors pay their business license that way.
So far, no one at City Hall has done a thorough analysis of the implications of a distribution tax.
The city is still reliant on the utility tax, which provides more money to the general fund than any other source.
"Well, I think you know from the city's perspective, we've got to become more fiscally sound," Lantz said.
Looks like the growth of the city isn't what the City Council of Rialto Wants, Ed Scott Threatening to NOT VOTE for the new Building of a Business in the City of which he claims to love. The original Plans of which he claims to have had some input on regarding the Renaissance, Most of that is now planning to be turned into Distribution Centers, Just think if they had kept the Airport, and Expanded the Runway, but closed Laural Ave., but keeping Alder expanded and running through from the I-210 S/to the I-10 Freeway On/Off Ramps. to allow Trucks to go to the stores to deliver goods, but if the Rialto Airport was expanded to allow Jets they could bring in the goods via Jet aircraft and C-130 Airplanes, major shipping could be in and out directly from Rialto. I don't know if Rialto tried to have this done originally, but if they did without wanting to get their hands on the property taxes and close the businesses that are currently at the airport. They also made promises to the Sheriff of the County that they could not keep. When I say they I am talking of Certain Members of the Rialto City Council, excluding the Mayor, Grace had nothing to do with Selling Rialto Police Department to the County!! At least there wasn't any evidence to prove that she was involved.
BS Ranch
Trucks keep rolling
Job-starved Rialto attracting distribution centers
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/22/2007 06:35:01 PM PST
RIALTO - This was once a sleepy, orange-growing town.
Now, a few decades after it transformed into a bedroom community, Rialto is becoming a small distribution hub. This means a lot more trucks are rolling through town.
In the last five years, about 10 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space was built in Rialto. The city could see that same amount of space be built again in the next five to 10 years, estimated Economic Development Director Robb Steel.
"I think what you're seeing is that distribution and logistics is still having a heavy economic impact," said City Administrator Henry Garcia.
The new distribution centers bring jobs, something the city desperately needs. But they also bring trucks that clog and tear up the streets and pollute the air.
There are a few reasons why Rialto is seeing distribution centers sprout up.
One is that, like most areas in the Inland Empire, there is a lot of affordable land.
Rialto also wants to boost its economy with more jobs. Part of the pull, though, has to do with fluctuations in the real-estate market.
"At least at the moment, it's still healthy," Steel said of the industrial market.
A few years ago, cities were increasing the amount of housing in their development plans. Now, they're shifting housing to industrial.
In the south end of town, Panattoni Development is finishing work on a 1.4 million-square-foot distribution center.
Also on the south end, Oakmont Industrial purchased almost 200 acres that was supposed to become a housing project and turned it into 4 million square feet of industrial space. Target, which has a new 3.2 million-square-foot distribution center on the north end, is looking to expand by up to 400,000 square feet.
Instead of developing almost 4,000 homes along the 210 Freeway as part of the 1,500-acre Renaissance Rialto, 2,000 of those homes will become industrial development.
City Councilman Ed Scott, a member of the city's economic development committee, warns he won't vote to approve Renaissance if all the industrial space planned becomes low-paying distribution centers.
"I think with the size of the property up there, we can be sort of selective of what can come in up there," he said.
Before the housing market fell off, Garcia said he wanted Panattoni to be the last big-box project on the south end. He said there had to be a limit to the number of trucks in the area. That hope certainly won't be fulfilled. The Oakmont project will be many times larger than Panattoni's.
"I think my general concern is still that we're looking for that balance between industry and quality of life in terms of truck traffic," he said.
Garcia said trucks can be restricted to certain routes so they won't affect the interior of the city too significantly.
"You know, our market data has always said this community needs jobs," he said.
Rialto has a ratio of 0.8 jobs to each home, Steel said. He wants to boost that figure to 1.25 jobs per home - something that will be a lot easier with the new industrial plans and the change in Renaissance.
In San Bernardino and Riverside counties, salaries in the distribution sector average about $40,000 annually, said Redlands- based economist John Husing.
In November, voters in Redlands approved a distribution-center tax of 3.5 cents per square foot. That will rake in $245,000 a year.
Garcia said he may analyze the economics of a distribution tax in Rialto, but he said he suspects it wouldn't generate much money.
Steel said the city's utility tax brings in a lot of money from distribution centers because of their high utility bills.
The trend of building more giant distribution centers might be coming to an end.
The city is already running out of land and will feel tight for space within five years.
As developers slow their building of huge centers, they might look to smaller ones and even some small manufacturing centers, Husing said. If the western portion of San Bernardino, which is running out of industrial space, is a guide, office space will be the next trend, he said.
Staff writer Matt Wrye contributed to this report.
It seems that the County Claims that they have Just $15Million in Legal fees & Clean up Paid dedicated to Perchlorate clean up, but what this writer was wondering was that the City of Rialto has over $23 Million in Legal Fees and Clean Up Dedicated to Perchlorate, now how can a small City like Rialto have almost double the money in the clean up then the Largest County in the Continental United States? Is the City of Rialto's Attorney adding his fees a little to the heavy side in his favor? That is what I constantly wonder? Because Rialto has double and in some cases triple spent what most cities have had to spend to clean up this contaminant such as Perchlorate.
BS Ranch
One perchlorate issue may be near end
By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Created: 12/20/2007 07:26:37 PM PST
RIALTO - A multimillion-dollar legal drama between the city and San Bernardino County over who is responsible for a toxic underground plume may be nearing an end.
The sides appear close to an agreement that would settle the city's lawsuits against the county, according to sources familiar with the situation.
"I'm expecting good results. I really am," said Rialto Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, a member of the council's perchlorate committee.
The city and county are wrangling over the extent of the county's role in the contamination.
A federal lawsuit filed by the city against the county and dozens of other parties won't go to trial until October 2008 at the earliest. If a settlement is reached, the suit still will go to trial, but the portion of it involving the county would be settled.
In a second suit filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, the city alleges the county expanded a landfill in violation of a 1998 agreement made when the county was expanding the Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill. The settlement would put an end to that lawsuit.
The county is one of dozens of parties Rialto says are responsible for perchlorate contaminating local drinking water.
In 1997, the county purchased property to expand the landfill, which is contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic industrial chemical. Rialto says the work done on the property after the expansion caused the contamination to spread.
Perchlorate is used to
produce explosives and can harm humans by interfering with the thyroid gland.
Earlier in the week, Councilman Ed Scott sounded a more pessimistic note about the settlement. He had been saying for weeks the two sides would reach a settlement by Thursday.
At Tuesday night's council meeting and then again by phone on Wednesday, Scott said a settlement agreement between the two sides died somewhere on the county's end.
"We were assured that we would have something in place by the 20th so we could have some good news for our citizens," Scott said.
But county officials say work on a settlement is still moving forward.
"The county's lawyers are working on the settlement with the city's lawyers and our insurance company," Bob Page, 5th District Supervisor Josie Gonzales' chief of staff, wrote in an e-mail.
Gonzales' district includes Rialto.
Last year, a tentative settlement called for the county to pay the city roughly $6 million in exchange for the city dropping charges against the county, but the two sides could never agree on specifics.
Meanwhile, Rialto and the county are continuing to rack up legal bills fighting each other.
At its meeting Tuesday, the county's Board of Supervisors approved spending $400,000 in additional legal services related to perchlorate. Much of that money will go to investigate the extent of pollution, not just to lawyers.
To date, the county has spent $2.2 million on legal fees and $15 million for investigation and treatment, said county spokesman David Wert.
Rialto should have set off to looked at petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency for Clean-up assistance at the get-go when this whole thing started, But instead, The City Father's (City Council) had to listen to the City's Hired Attorney for advice, the same Attorney whom all he could see was dollar ($$) Signs for his pockets. Mr Owen figured that it would be a simple open and closed case and he would pocket a cool million in the process. What Mr. Owen didn't think would happen was that there would be an actual fight on his hands by the businesses that may or may not be responsible for the contamination of the Water supply. To Date the City of Rialto has spent a total of upwards of $23+ Million Dollars and the Company has been fighting it all the way.
Any way that we look at it, they might have been within their Rights at that time to have Disposed of the Perchlorate the way that they did back then!! Mr. Owen in his desperation to fill his pocket with Green, has made a desperate Miscalculation by wanting to fight the companies with whom probably purchased smaller companies of companies which disposed of the Perchlorate the way that they did in back in the day!! Mr. Owen still is filling his pocket, and it is being filled more then he wanted with no end in sight, and now that he wants it to end, he cannot just end it with a Vote to go to the EPA, because the EPA will not take the "case" when it has an active case on the situation So, now Mr Owen has to Petition the Environmental Protection Agency to step in to review the case again, now that they are at a stand still in court due to the whole situation regarding the whole situation.
I mean the situation is this, Now that it is tied up in court NOBODY wants to touch it!! Nobody, not the EPA, not the Court, nobody, so we will see what happens with the EPA Again!!
We will have to wait and see what happens again!!!
BS Ranch
City seeks Superfund
Rialto files petition for EPA perchlorate-cleanup help
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 12/04/2007 10:44:31 PM PST
RIALTO - The City Council has unanimously endorsed a move to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to list a 160-acre industrial tract in the city's northern fringe as a Superfund site.
"It has become very apparent that we need to seek all the help and assistance that we can," said Councilman Ed Scott, immediately prior to the 5-0 vote Tuesday evening.
Even an EPA official who attended the meeting seemed to offer a premature vote of support to the city's efforts to attain the vaunted Superfund listing.
"I think we, like others, started to become concerned last year when the state's process began to get bogged down," said Wayne Praskins, Superfund project manager with the EPA.
The packed Council Chambers burst into applause following the vote.
Superfund is the federal government's hazardous waste cleanup program.
A chunk of the city's northern edge during World War II was a military storage facility and continues to be used as an industrial site.
The chief contaminant, perchlorate, was discovered in 1997 in Rialto.
Perchlorate is used to produce explosives, such as fireworks and rocket fuel. The perchlorate is flowing underground through much of the city in a plume that continues to grow.
In humans, perchlorate can interfere with the thyroid gland, which is necessary for regulating metabolism and development of the central nervous system.
The council-endorsed resolution petitions the EPA to designate a 160-acre area, bounded by Casa Grande Drive on the north and Locust Avenue on the east, as part of a Superfund site.
The resolution also asks the EPA to consider areas surrounding the source area as part of the possible Superfund site.
Numerous source areas of the perchlorate have been identified.
One of those areas is southwest of the 160-acre site and is being cleaned up by San Bernardino County under order from a state agency.
Praskins recently said state and federal environment officials will ask some of the parties accused of contaminating the area to begin doing investigative work at the source of the contamination.
Over the years, city officials have strongly opposed going the Superfund route and put their faith in state regulatory bodies and an upcoming federal lawsuit against dozens of parties. But the suspected polluters have used their lawyers' mastery of jurisprudence to befuddle state regulators and halt the regulatory process.
The State Water Resources Control Board was supposed to hold hearings to see if three companies - Goodrich, Black & Decker and Pyro Spectaculars - should pay to clean up the contamination, but a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge stopped those hearings from moving forward until questions about the fairness of the process could be settled.
The council has also faced scrutiny after it was reported that the city has spent about $20 million on investigations, litigation, treatment and other costs because of the perchlorate.
Praskins said the earliest an announcement on whether Rialto could get added to the Superfund list is sometime in late 2008.
The suspected polluters have complained that the state regulatory process is biased and unfair, prompting them to challenge it in court. EPA's process may be more difficult to challenge because federal courts can award significant penalties to parties that do not comply with EPA orders.
What draws all these idiots to Rialto that have gained a small bit of fame! He gains some Fame, then he wins some money in a Suit against the City of Los Angeles and more then likely at the advice of his Attorney, he was told to move somewhere outside of Los Angeles County, and Rialto was the great place that was decided upon? The question that always Pops up is WHY? Why always Rialto?? Since King has been in Rialto he has been arrested three or four times on Traffic Related Offenses such as Driving while intoxicated, Which would have been the original charge against King had he stopped running from the Police in 1991, when the so called beating occurred. Still I am one that doesn't believe that a beating Occurred, I observed as many did on Court TV the trial, and the Slow Motion Feed of that frame by Frame feed of the film where the so called "Beating" took place. The Jury in that case could only say that two (2) of the over 135+ strikes were unjustified,... 2 (two)! However I feel that it is the "Spirit of the law & not the Letter of the law" by which we follow, so when there is over some 135-140 strikes of a baton, and all but two are justified I say that there was a jury that was looking for a prosecution, as per the Judges Definition of what the "Violation of the law was" but there wasn't the talk of the "Spirit of the law or the letter of the Law now was there.
King should have been on trial and not the Law Enforcement Officers that Arrested him. At the very least if the law Enforcement Officers violated his Rights in any way, that should have been adjusted on the Police Officers Violation of their Crime, and not the violation of the Crimes that were committed by Rodney King. After all if there was to be a trial, Rodney King still should have been put onto trial for his violation of the traffic laws, and his violation of CVC 23152 (a) & (b) Driving while intoxicated with an alcohol level over .08% by volume.
King never served any time for that violation, and he was given a very large amount of cash for his part in this dance, while the police officers were fired and placed into jail!!
Now that he has been in Rialto he has had more contact with the police and every time he has had contact with the police it has made the news, However, each time that he has been arrested, or been "Shot" etc... the less news worthy he has become, soon he will be just the same as anyone on the street before people will be saying Rodney King?? who is Rodney King? why does that name sound so familiar?? Funny how the world twists and turns like that when you are truly the bad apple, and the people are starting to see you for who you are!! once you are shown for who you are, such as a Criminal and a "Felon" such as Rodney King is His popularity will become less and less, and really nobody that is of star power equal to him will want or feel safe being with him or next to him because he is a CRIMINAL and will always be viewed as such!!
BS Ranch
Rodney King shot in San Bernardino
01:36 PM PST on Thursday, November 29, 2007
By PAUL LAROCCO The Press-Enterprise
San Bernardino police detectives are interviewing Rodney King this afternoon, after his report that he was shot last night on a city street.
King, the 42-year-old Rialto resident whose 1991 beating by Los Angeles police gained him national fame, told Rialto police last night that he was shot in the area of 5th Street and Meridian Avenue in San Bernardino, just over the Rialto city line.
After saying he rode his bicycle home, King reported the shooting at 11:39 p.m.
When Rialto police arrived at the home, King had pellet wounds to his face, arm and back from a shotgun, said Rialto police Sgt. Don Lewis.
He was taken to a local hospital, but his wounds are not considered life-threatening.
San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson said this morning that officers found no evidence of a crime scene in the area that King reported being shot.
The shooting was possibly sparked by some sort of domestic dispute, Paterson said, and that detectives will try to determine if it occurred in Rialto or San Bernardino.
Other details are scarce this afternoon. After police arrived at King's Jackson Street home, King and others inside appeared intoxicated, Lewis said, and few were cooperative in providing information.
Since gaining his fame, King has had several brushes with Inland police agencies, most recently a 2005 arrest on suspicion of domestic violence.
I don't know what my thoughts are today that are different then yesterday, other then I have been thinking an awful lot about the Hydrogen Engine that is going on the market next year when the Water supplies to the Municipal Cities in Southern California are being Cut in Half!! If there is already an Oil Shortage, and we start to run our Vehicles on Hydrogen Engines that would mean that all oil sources would shift from GAS/DIESEL to plain WATER, if our FRESH WATER is cut in half and we are not using any of it for driving CARS what will happen when Honda, and Chevrolet gets their HYDROGEN ENGINES running at a full swing, and people buy into it!!
YOU THINK WATER SHORTAGES NOW!!! WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR OR THE YEAR AFTER!!!!
BS Ranch
Water supplies to local area being cut drastically
By Shawbong Fok, Staff Writer
The Inland Empire's water supplies from Northern California next year are going to be cut in half thanks to a drought as well as an endangered fish swimming in a delta near Sacramento that needs the water.
In the face of less water flowing locally, landscapers, golf courses and even citrus growers might get socked with higher water bills.
"We might hand water (with a hose) the dry spots," said Bill Henning, superintendent of Shandin Hills Golf Club in San Bernardino.
The water cuts are the result of some of the driest weather in years.
The Inland Empire's apportionment of water next year has been cut because of the drought hitting the state, according to the State Water Contractors, a nonprofit of 27 public agencies that buys water under contract from the California State Water Project.
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, which serves about 600,000 residents in an area spanning Fontana to Yucaipa, is part of this water group.
In 2008, the water district is expected to get 58 percent less water than this year from the state, said Randy Van Gelder, water district general manager.
"I don't know if there'll be a raise in rates," said Joe Zoba, Yucaipa Valley Water District general manager. "Just because there's a shortage of water from the state doesn't mean there'll be an increase in water rates."
The California State Water Project includes reservoirs, lakes, storage tanks, canals, tunnels,
pipelines and pumping and power plants that move and store water in the state.
Collectively, the State Water Contractors deliver water to more than 25 million residents in the state and to more than 750,000 acres of agricultural land.
The water delivery cuts, which are among the largest since 2003 in the Inland Empire, are attributed to a legal ruling that is trying to protect an endangered fish, called the smelt.
That fish needs the water in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta where it lives. The delta is located at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.
On Aug. 31, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger limited how much water could be delivered from the delta between December and June.
The State Water Contractors announced water cuts that will permit the statewide consortium to purchase only 25 percent of the requested water.
This will only supply about half of what's needed for the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, officials said.
"We'll have to secure more water from Northern California," Van Gelder said.
Sixty percent to 70 percent of water from the State Water Contractors is used for landscapes, both commercial and residential.
The result of these cuts will be conservation measures, including everything from the showcasing of low water-retention plants and irrigation techniques to tests in San Bernardino parks on remote-controlled sprinklers that conserve water.
This isn't the first time a water shortage has hit Californians. Drought conditions in the early 1990s pushed water agencies to adopt conservation techniques.
"Conservation is a means to adapt to water changes," said Linda Fernandez, an environmental scientist at UC Riverside.
The Inland Empire is one of the nation's fastest growing areas, resulting in more water needs than ever.
Already, San Bernardino County has some 2 million residents, hundreds of thousands of more people than a decade ago.
Not all water agencies in California will implement the same water-saving techniques.
"Each agency will respond differently depending on local conditions," said Bob Muir, spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves western San Bernardino Valley residents, as well as metropolitan Los Angeles and San Diego.
It seems that the Water Drought is catching up to the water public of the West San Bernardino Water District, along with the People that use the Rialto Water Department for their water, but reading this report it isn't the people of Rialto or the County Area Surrounding the City of Rialto, This report is covering the East Valley Water District, The West Valley Water District, the Rialto Water Department, the San Bernardino City Water Department as well!! Not only those cities but, Colton's Water Ranchio's water, Fontana, and Ontario's water Departments & or Supply agencies are going to have to cut their usages in half as well. Not only is my lawn going to be Brown, but everyone surrounding my block will be brown as well!!
There will not be able to have anyone to be able to wash cars in their driveways or as I previously stated the Automatic Sprinklers will have to be turned to the Off position to be treated to the super light water position. Soon, if this DROUGHT continues the way that it has, we will not be allowed to take a shower everyday. Dome people will be asked to take a shower once a week to avoid any further cuts from our water discomfort.
If the DROUGHT CONTINUES FURTHER THEN WE EXPECT IT TO, we could end up like that city in Mississippi, where they get their water turned on from 18:00 hrs to 21:00 hrs every Monday through Saturday for their whole water needs, they are forced to stock up on water for all their needs through the day, for example the three hours that their water is on is spent filling the bathtub, and then filling plastic Gallon Jugs, Bottles, and five gallon Jersey can's all are used to fill the toilet after they go to the bathroom. They cannot flush the toilet after each and every Urination, they must allow the yellow pool of goodness to stay in the bottom of the toilet and ferment until somebody has to have a Bowel Clearance, then when that is done they are cleared to use some water to clear the solid waist from the bowl. The showers that they take are done so, or tried to be done so during the three hours that there water is turned on, Since the water is being used all over town the pressure is so low that they are lucky to get any pressure to get the water to take any kind of shower. some or most households take an old fashion bath of the depression days when the most important bread winner took the first bath and the next one got into that dirty bath water on down to the children. they all used the same water because it not only saved money using the same water, but it would could save a great deal of money by taking that bath.
It is unfortunate that we are coming to this crossroad, but the talk of Global warming has come up, but I just have been wondering this Where has all the water gone, There is all kinds of documentation that the water isn't frozen in glaciers. if the water isn't stored in Ice and on Mountains were has the water gone, the drought is here, the water table isn't raised anywhere it is lower, the water is gone where is all our water gone, through that hole into outer space?? if so space has a hole bunch of our water.
THE NEXT THINK IS IF WE ALL STARTED DRIVING HYDROGEN ENGINES TODAY, WILL MAKE COUNTIES GO TO WAR OVER WATER AND NOT OIL, MARK WHAT I AM SAYING, BECAUSE WATER IS MORE OF A NATURAL SENSE OF THINGS THAT WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT!!!.
BS RANCH
2:30 p.m.: Inland Empire's water supplies cut in half
The Inland Empire's water supplies from northern California are going to be halved next year.
This is all thanks to a drought and an endangered smelt swimming in an inland delta near Sacramento that instead needs the water.
Landscapers, golf courses and even the food we eat might get socked with higher water bills, even in the face of less water flowing here.
"We might hand water [with a hose] the dry spots," said Bill Henning, superintendent of Shandin Hills Golf Club in San Bernardino.
The water cuts are the result of some of the driest weather in years. The IE's apportionment of water next year has been cut because of the drought hitting the state, according to the State Water Contractors, a non-profit group of 27 public agencies in California that buys water under contract from the California State Water Project.
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, which serves some 600,000 residents in an area spanning from Fontana to Yucaipa, is part of this water group. In 2008, it's expected to get 58 percent less water than this year from the state, said Randy Van Gelder, general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District.
I know that this subject matter is not the thing that you want the anyone to feel what it is like to have all the business conducted behind closed doors, but sometimes the old saying "What Goes Around Comes Around" comes to mind with this story!!
The reason being is that the Rialto City Council is crying because the people in charge of the Perchlorate situation that THEY are in Charge of, are ignoring all their requests and going behind closed doors and having the meetings to discuss the Perchlorate problems. Ed Scott, Owen, and others are very confused why this is happening to them, Well I have to say that "What goes Around, Comes Around"!
The people of Rialto didn't speak out the last time and they are asking for the services that they are getting when it comes to the business of Rialto and what goes on there. The Perchlorate should have been turned over to the Environmental Protection Agency at the start, but the City Council listened to the Council whom is not working in the best interest of his Client, but the best interest of his WALLET!! He Recommended going to Court and filing a case against businesses that were probably not in control of the employees that were dumping the perchlorate in the first place. They were the companies that purchased the smaller companies that were responsible for the disposal of the Perchlorate. The EPA, should have been called to begin with, and then the EPA should have been the people that should have been after the responsible party for the DISPOSAL of PERCHLORATE!! It wasn't up to Rialto directly to be the police for the EPA. Owen just wanted to fill his wallet with a whole bunch of money that he would be using for this case. The other employees of the city that were on board were hired by Owen as experts for their testimony.
Now this is all coming back to bite the city Council in the butt and still nobody is up in arms against them, nobody is wondering why they spent some $23Million dollars of the Utility Tax to get through the first part of this Perchlorate Battle, and now that they are not seeing any recourse and any money coming back in, Owen is still not being fired. I don't get it??
BS Ranch
Closed-door water talks frustrate Rialto council Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Article Launched: 11/26/2007 09:35:13 PM PST
Rialto wants its groundwater cleaned up, but a local water board has cut the city out of talks with three companies who are in "closed-door briefings" on the remediation process. The city, which wrote a strongly worded letter Monday to the state's Environmental Protection Agency headquarters complaining about the insider talks, views the negotiations as a slap in its face.
It wants to be at the table on the talks to clean up industrial chemicals discharged in its northern section because it did a lion's share of the legwork to build a legal case against the companies.
The three companies accused of contaminating a 160-acre site in Rialto are Goodrich, Emhart - a defunct division of Black & Decker - and Rialto-based fireworks company Pyro Spectaculars.
The purpose of the letter on Monday was to request that state EPA Secretary Linda Adams order the local water board to open the door to city officials on the talks with the companies.
"Rialto needs more than a prayer and a hope that the regional board staff will safeguard Rialto's water interests," wrote councilmembers Winnie Hanson and Ed Scott. "We simply want our underground drinking water supply cleaned up so it can be replenished in the future."
Rialto officials say that 720million gallons of water will become contaminated while the water board and companies "talk" over the next few months.
"I think it's totally ridiculous," said Scott, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.
"Why are they doing it behind closed doors? It makes no sense to me," he said.
Scott suggested that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should dissolve the regional board.
The staff of the local water agency - called the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board - and lawyers for the companies, recently agreed to negotiate a possible settlement.
"The parties have agreed to enter settlement discussions," said Bob Wyatt, a lawyer for Emhart.
The two sides only agreed to talk recently after a court hearing was put off last week that would have examined whether public hearings could proceed on who was responsible for the pollution.
"We are seeking a settlement that achieves cleanup of the perchlorate and TCE contamination ... (flowing down from) the 160-acre site," said Gerard Thibeault, the Santa Ana board's executive officer, referring to the Riverside-based Santa Ana board's recent cleanup efforts.
TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a solvent used in various industrial cleaning products.
Perchlorate, used to produce explosives like rocket fuel and fireworks, is flowing through Rialto from industrial sites first used by the U.S. military during World War II.
Perchlorate can be harmful to humans by interfering with the thyroid gland, which plays a role in metabolism and neurological development.
The state umbrella group that oversees the Santa Ana board, called the State Water Resources Control Board, was scheduled to hold hearings in August to determine if the three companies should clean up some of the perchlorate. Rialto and the staff from the regional Santa Ana board, headed by Thibeault, were going to act as prosecutors against the companies.
But before the hearings could start, the companies filed lawsuits saying that the state board process was flawed and asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs to keep the hearings from getting off the ground.
Janavs halted the hearing process. On Nov. 1, she consolidated the companies' lawsuits into one and made it clear that no matter what she decides, someone will appeal the case, likely up to the California Supreme Court.
On Nov. 21, the two sides - the companies versus the regional and state water boards, which are represented by the California attorney general - were scheduled to argue about whether Janavs should allow the state hearings to go forward. But Wednesday's arguments were delayed because the parties said they wanted to talk.
Rialto officials complained that they were not part of the discussions between the parties. Rialto provided a majority of the regional board's evidence against the suspected polluters.
"We can only hope that the regional board staff is going to obtain the emergency cleanup that this community needs," said Bob Owen, Rialto's city attorney.
Scott said at the next council meeting on Dec. 4, he hopes the council will vote to recommend Schwarzenegger ask the EPA to declare the 160-acre site a Superfund site.
Also on Wednesday, Thibeault ordered Ken Thompson, who owns land above the McLaughlin Pit, which is a major source of perchlorate contamination, to conduct a soil and groundwater investigation.
Well it is my thought that the City of Rialto, and the City Council should think really hard about this small area of the city, it was an area that was originally Town Home Apartment Complex, but that Apartment Complex FAILED, Miserably! There was so much Gang activity that there was a Kidnap & Very Violent Rape that took place to finally wake up the average law abiding citizen, and the City Council into getting something done. The Police Department was constantly in there and at one time were given one of the Apartments to use as a place to write Reports, however it was so little, so late, by then the gang had such a handle on the neighborhood that when the Police Officers were in the Apartment that was supplied to the Rialto Police Benefit Association, it was all just to clear that they were in to little to late, because when the Officer would leave the area the calls for service would start to come in.
This Apartment was the Swift Idea of Chief Michael Meyer's and as I have stated it was a failure, even before it was rented to the City for use. Chief Meyers had a few of these locations Rented to the Police Department, once he found that they were Renting to the Police Agency or City of Rialto for One Dollar a month, for a total of $12.00 a Year!! The Apartment that they Rented to the Police Department was used as a place for the Officer to get some sleep if there was a call back or a double back shift, however Nobody would stay there for their own safety!! They might have been killed by the AM. Just about a year before I was completely mangled by my accident, which ended my career with Rialto, The Land Owner's Committee for the Apartment Complex here in question Asked and was granted to Sell their Apartments as Condos, However they were not a great big or Very good Sellers. The ones that did sell were turned around and an attempt was made to sell them again right away, but nobody wanted them, they were in a Gangland Garden of growth for the Main Staple of Drugs and Massive Death and heartache!!
Now that most of the people have been taken from the area, and moved out, they want to sink multi millions of dollars...YOUR MONEY into this place to make it "Safe"!! If all that money is "Sunk" into that neighborhood, what about YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? If that neighborhood rates Millions of Dollars to rebuild it and make it better then it was before, then I have to say what about the neighborhood that you are living in, if you are living in Rialto? Why, is that neighborhood so much better then your neighborhood? Just because you have taken the pride in the place in which you live and made it a safe place, the city will over look it as a place that doesn't need any sidewalk repair or sidewalk for that matter, they will not fix your lawn for free or stairs etc etc... But, that is what the city of Rialto is taking under way here!! I really don't care if it was a gang hot spot, there are other ways to clean up an area of a criminal element, other then condemning the buildings, if they did condemned the buildings they would have closed them down that way, and forced the managers to listen to them!! I just cannot see how they would benefit, by them just purchasing the land and making it the property that belongs to the city!! That is border line business, that the city shouldn't be involved in!!
BS Ranch
Rialto could extend its plan for troubled area
City might invest millions in neighborhood
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/19/2007 07:53:31 PM PST
RIALTO - The City Council will decide today whether to expand an aggressive effort to root out crime in the city's most troubled neighborhood.
Plans presented to council members call for the city's redevelopment agency to invest tens of millions of dollars to expand the Willow-Winchester neighborhood revitalization project.
The expansion would include buying 42 housing units around Vista Avenue and Cascade Drive and 94 more units that make up the Sierra Pointe Apartments.
The property would then be rehabilitated with the National Community Renaissance, a nonprofit affordable housing developer in Rancho Cucamonga, taking over and managing it.
"We will essentially transform what was one of the worst neighborhoods in Rialto," said Rialto Housing Manager John Dutrey.
Residents have already started moving in to the 152 newly renovated units that are part of the first phase of the effort to improve the area around Willow Avenue and Winchester Drive. City leaders originally wanted to improve the entire area in one phase, but that task became too expensive.
This first phase cost $38 million, including an investment of $15 million from Rialto.
The area around the adjacent area of Vista and Cascade could cost $14 million, $8 million of which will come from Rialto. The Sierra Pointe Apartments could cost about $28 million, $10.5 million of which would come from Rialto.
The latest project phases are the site of crime, drug-dealing, poor property management practices and blight, Dutrey said.
From 2004 through July 2007, there were almost 500 calls for police service in the areas going before the council tonight.
In July, a man was shot and killed in a garage in the area.
Another reason for expanding the project is to keep Willow-Winchester from slipping back into trouble, Dutrey said.
Eisenhower High School and the new development projects near the 210 Freeway are located nearby.
The redevelopment agency will begin making offers to buy the properties next week. It'd prefer not using eminent domain to takeover the buildings, Dutrey said. He said he is committed to buying the property around Vista and Cascade and will make an offer on the apartments as well.
The first phase around Willow and Winchester has proceeded smoothly, he said. "It's already had a dramatic impact on the area."
Construction on the next phases could begin in the summer of 2009.
RIALTO - One of the most important meetings in city history actually took place outside the city - at the Coco's in Diamond Bar in fall 2004.
About a half dozen people met for a power breakfast that morning. The topic of conversation: getting Rep. Gary Miller's help to close Rialto's airport so it could be replaced with the indiscreetly named Renaissance Rialto, a master-planned community.
Set up by the project's developer, the Lewis Group of Companies, breakfast-goers included Miller, David Lewis, some advisers and Robb Steel, Rialto's economic development director.
"It was such a pipe dream," Steel said of closing the airport, which, with Miller's help, Congress approved in 2005. The breakfast was a success.
After chowing down on the weekday special of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and coffee, Steel, now 50, picked up the check, calling it a "small price" to pay.
It's been a week since the opening of the 210 Freeway extension between Rialto and San Bernardino. The completion of the freeway makes the coming months and years critical for Rialto, and Steel is the man in the center of it all.
"I feel really, really blessed to have him," said City Administrator Henry Garcia.
Garcia said he "begged" Steel to come to Rialto after the two worked in the same capacities in Colton.
An old baseball player with a dry wit and dark hair sprinkled with gray, Steel looks like a guy a developer can do business with. And he talks like someone you want managing projects. He has a tendency to answer questions by referencing complex economic models, footnotes in financial studies and in a bureaucrat-speak it takes a master's degree in public administration to have a chance at decoding.
Steel couldn't be at the city at a better time, said former Councilman Joe Sampson.
"From an economic development and redevelopment point of view, Robb has been one of the best things that has happened for the city," he said.
Earlier this year, Steel saved the city millions of dollars by negotiating an increase in the minimum amount of money the city would make off selling the airport to develop it.
When it became clear the city might get only $6 million because of a disagreement with other parties in the deal, Steel helped negotiate increasing the minimum the city would make to $26 million.
"I respect Robb Steel more than any redevelopment director we've ever had," said resident Greta Hodges, who doesn't shy away from criticizing city officials and decisions she doesn't like. She said she's a fan of Steel because he's honest - he answers even tough questions truthfully, she said - and because he's realistic about what should be built in Rialto.
Steel, who lives in San Clemente, said he's willing to make the drive because working as a redevelopment director in the Inland Empire is exciting. He likes the intellectual challenge of dealing with a region that is growing faster than its infrastructure can be built.
A project like Renaissance Rialto, with a price tag between $1 billion and $2 billion, is almost unheard of in a city the size of Rialto, he said.
"I'd like this to be the last city that I work for."
Steel's office is packed with binders about the projects moving forward in Rialto. He also has a Maxwell Smart bobblehead - "I'm bumbling like he was," he said - and an autographed photo of Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 in "Get Smart."
Steel thought the autograph was real, but learned it was a joke perpetrated by some of the staff in the office.
There's an air of levity in the Redevelopment Agency office downtown, which is down from City Hall a few blocks.
Steel's No. 2, Economic Development Manager Greg Lantz, said Steel makes the staff work long hours.
"He's a taskmaster," Lantz said of the boss, "but at least he's good to work for."
That very important meeting as it is quoted as saying took place, and I am actually surprised that the reporter finally!! FINALLY!! A Reporter got it right that there was something funny going on with the Congress, and the "Largest Transportation Bill" in the Congresses History!
Representative Gary Miller of Chino Hills, Whittier, and that area, Which had NOTHING TO DO WITH RIALTO at that time, placed a small piece of "pork" to the Transportation bill. If the president signed the bill, that little piece of added pork that Rep. G. Miller placed in the can was going to allow the City Council to Close the Rialto Airport with a small Popular Vote by them. Something that had NEVER BEEN DONE IN THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA BEFORE!! Rialto was about to make history, against the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). As we know the president signed the bill and the City of Rialto made that Historical Vote Against the advice of the F.A.A.
Rep. G. Miller's Payback for his contribution to this plan was simple, Rialto Council member's Ed Scott and Joe Sampson Promised by a hand shake no doubt, since this is kind of not so up above par, promised the Development of the Airport land to Rep. Gary Miller's Development Company, You know it makes you wonder? How the congressmen, and Representatives of this fine land go into Office and come out Richer then when they entered!!! Just something that makes you wonder?? Especially since this was such a cut and dry thing. However I hope that the properties were held above the standard again. It just makes me sick how this happens. Business is just sickening.
This whole meeting makes me sick, because the hard working development companies that worked hard to get to where they are today!!
I truly hope that the business practices that Rep. Gary Miller took to get the Bid for the development of Rialto's Airport Land ("The Rialto Renaissance) Because that sure puts a bad taste in my mouth about how the business is done for small cities and towns. Bloomington is attempting to become a City, however I feel that Fontana, and Rialto might be putting up some blockages up to keep that land from becoming a City all their own! Now it doesn't seem like it on the news and this report (My BLOG) is the first that you are hearing of it, but mark my words there will be some blockages in a way that you will least expect it, to keep Bloomington from becoming their own City!!
Rialto Renaissance is something that might or might not happen either, they keep closing and slowly closing the airport. but as for now the airport is still open!! The places that they were hoping to make large gatherings of Automobiles and travelers to get from their homes to the 210 Freeway are not happening.
In fact there are less cars on Ayala, Riverside, Baseline, and well most all the commuter streets in Rialto then there was before, with the exception of the ones that are around the commuter streets (Valley S.Riverside Ave, Riverside around the 210 on ramps, Ayala at 210 fwy, Ayala at 210, North Riverside Ave @ Sierra Ave, to get in I-15 fwy) Other then that the city streets have about the same amount of traffic on them and there is less or slower traffic.
There really isn't that much Traffic increase that would warrant any closure of any Airport for shopping and more traffic desire, the Rialto Renaissance should be placed on hold because the demand is slow for it right now. Also the way that the airport was closed should be looked into by the Federal Government for any Criminal Wrongdoing, on the part of Rep. Gary Miller, any and all of the Council members on Rialto City Council, Specifically Edward Scott, and Joseph Sampson, the rest of the council for possible wrong doing on this passing of the note & closure of the Airport Via their Vote!!
I keep repeating myself on this issue, and this is the last time that I write on this one. The City of Rialto Engineers or the City of Rialto's Lawyer's came out with a Press Release Yesterday stating that there was an Emergency Situation when it came to the water in The City of Rialto!! Well, the problem with that is that there wasn't any previous announcement of any Pending Emergency, such as that we cannot clean our cars or Water our Lawns! As far as I know at this point and time there still isn't any Emergency enough to make a statement that says that we cannot wash our cars in the driveway or Water the Grass in our Yards!! It is just some tactic to get the EPA to take up the cause against the Businesses that the Law Suit is over currently, and I believe that this is a Brain Child of the same Half Witted Individual that came up with the great Idea to Sue the businesses that were supposedly at fault for the Perchlorate Contamination. But that was a huge backfire too now wasn't it!!
Owens should be fired before that 8% Utility Tax is taken up for that and only that!!!
RIALTO - The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an official declaration of local emergency, a mechanism to persuade the state to help clean up and stop the spread of perchlorate fouling Rialto's groundwater.
The city has been battling several companies that did business on a 160-acre industrial site -- believed to be the source of the pollution -- but assorted claims of legal responsibility remain unresolved while the contamination continues to spread.
"This is the best move we ever made," Rialto Mayor Grace Vargas said after the vote. "I think we've wasted too much time already."
The chemical perchlorate, suspected of causing birth defects, is contaminating 360 million gallons of Rialto's drinking water each month. Rialto's request to Gov. Schwarzenegger also seeks funding to stop the 6-mile-long plume of tainted groundwater, which moves about 20 inches per day.
The contaminants have polluted the Rialto/Colton Groundwater Basin, an underground reservoir from which Rialto pumps drinking water through several wells.
A hearing is scheduled for today in Los Angeles Superior Court, on a lawsuit filed by Goodrich Corporation, one of 42 "potentially responsibility parties" in the long-running conflict with the city. Rialto contends that the basin was polluted over the decades by several businesses that operated on the site north of Highway 210 in Rialto. Besides Goodrich, those companies include Pyro Spectaculars, Inc., Black & Decker Inc., Kwikset Locks, Inc., Kwikset Corporation and Emhart Industries, Inc.
The plume "is headed toward the city of Colton and the city of Riverside," City Councilman Ed Scott said on Monday. "The city stands firm on the responsible parties cleaning it up."
Meanwhile, Rialto has installed filters on several city wells to reduce the perchlorate to levels that make it safe.
"The maintenance of each well costs (the city) approximately $500,000 per year," Scott said on Monday. During Tuesday's Rialto council meeting, City Attorney Robert Owen noted the past year's paltry rainfall totals are putting pressure on water agencies all over California to scramble for a sufficient supply.
"The city and county are experiencing an unprecedented regional drought," Owen said. Further, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary ruling in a case to protect an endangered fish, the Delta smelt, which is expected to significantly reduce the amount of water available from the State Water Project aqueduct, Owen said.
According to this story in the LA times the city of Rialto is making another move on another strategy to see if they can get the Environmental Agency to move from their first findings on that they have a Court Case started that they should play out the way that it is working in court! Since they cannot get the problem fixed, and the money that they are getting to come in now on the new Taxes are for other expenses that they want that they are going to attempt to get the EPA to take another look into the Sudden Emergency that Rialto is under with the lack of Fresh Water that we are under. Yet There has not been any Issuance of Problems related to the lack of fresh water to keep our yards green and our plants nice and the cars in our driveways clean.
Even with this State of Emergency that has been Printed in the Los Angeles Times, they still have not asked via local efforts for Rialto not to Water or Wash our Cars Etc Etc...
I don't know what the Emergency is But that they are getting tired of paying for the Law Suit that they were talked into by their City Lawyer that should have been fired Back when the Sheriff Department was not Hired as the Law Enforcement Agency, and the whole Law Suit was lost to the Rialto Police Benefit Association. Then and only then was the time that the City Council should have rolled the heads of City Administrator Garcia, and the representation for Rialto as the lawyer Owens...but NOOO they were kept...that means they have to much dirt on the current administration running the city!!!
BS Ranch
Rialto declares a water emergency
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The city hopes to get state funding to help clean up and halt chemical contamination of its drinking water supply.
By Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 24, 2007
Rialto city officials have declared a state of emergency, citing concerns about a shrinking water supply in danger of further contamination by dangerous chemicals.
The City Council voted on the declaration Tuesday in an attempt to secure state funding to halt the spread of industrial perchlorate in city groundwater. The growing, six-mile-long chemical plume in the north end of the San Bernardino County city contaminates 360 million gallons of groundwater each month.
"It's time now that somebody heard us and helped us," said Mayor Grace Vargas. "We need to protect our citizens."
The declaration criticizes state and local regulatory agencies for failing to aggressively enforce cleanup efforts, and warns that Rialto would be "extremely vulnerable" in the event of a "catastrophic interruption" of its clean water supply.
Although the city says its safeguards prevent residents from drinking polluted water, the plume grows about 20 inches a day and poses a growing threat to nearby communities such as Colton, officials said.
The wet winter of several years ago caused the levels of perchlorate in water samples to spike, said Rialto Mayor Pro Tem Winnie Hanson. About half a dozen wells are affected by contamination, said Councilman Ed Scott.
In addition, Hanson said, drought conditions and water shortages in Northern California have increased pressure on Rialto's aquifer, the city's main source of drinking water.
"It is now beyond the city's water department to continue to provide a safe, affordable and reliable water supply," states the city declaration, which cautions that Rialto might have to impose water rationing or a moratorium on new water hookups.
"It's really jeopardizing our growth," Scott said.
The city has spent an estimated $20 million over several years on cleanup efforts and legal fees in an ongoing lawsuit against several corporations that it blames for causing the pollution at a 160-acre site, Hanson said.
More than 40 companies are alleged to be involved in the contamination, including Goodrich Corp., Pyro Spectaculars and Black & Decker. The cleanup could cost as much as $300 million.
Perchlorate, used in rocket fuel, batteries and fireworks, can interfere with thyroid function and produce birth defects.
Rialto has had a court battle with The Companies that they feel are involved in the contamination of the water Supply below the Water Table of Rialto. The Water Department has to install these huge Filtration Systems that are known as Reverse Osmosis Filtration System, where it uses Electrical power to Reverse the polarity of the water as it comes from the ground and that allows the filters to remove the Perchlorate from the Water, This is the best way that I can describe the situation in my most plan English, as good as I understand how the filters work??
Rialto City however, could have very well have avoided this whole situation by contacting the EPA first, and had them help through Grants in acquiring the filters needed to remove the contamination from the water that would make it safe to drink. However, since the Environmental Protection Agency was not contacted first, and the Rialto's City Lawyer was listened to, they went to Court!! Since the Can of worms has been opened, they cannot go back and break the egg that they broke, by the court event that they decided to go down. The $23Million so far that has been spent, I can gamble to say most of has been entered into the pockets of the Litigator with whom had the great Idea to go to court in the first Place, and that was Mr. Owen. The City Attorney. I am sorry I don't trust them at all especially after my court case with my Workers Compensation Case.
Now that the city is totally involved in this case they are on the streets begging for the city to Vote for an extension for another 8% tax on the utility taxes, all utilities!! My cellular phone was $150 for three phones, and now it is $199.00 for the same three phones. Great huh??
I just live in the sphere if influence of the City, and so because of that the Tax Applies to my address even when I live in the County, which Sucks!! Just another reason to move!! The bills go up because they have a high crime rate because of the actions of their city council, by letting all probationary Police Personnel go, at a time when they were trying to have the County be the Law Enforcement Protection, that move reduced the Police Department down just shy of 30 (THIRTY) Positions, Now that they have lost, there is still not an equal in experience Law Enforcement surrounding us that there was, the Crime Rate has shot way up.
BS Ranch
Rialto declares water emergency as dryness grips SoCal region
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/22/2007 06:14:25 PM PST
RIALTO, Calif.—The Rialto City Council has declared a state of emergency as it faces a dwindling water supply and the task of removing harmful chemicals from contaminating more water.
Officials declared the emergency Tuesday in hopes of receiving state funding to help clean up a six-mile-long plume of perchlorate that's moving through the city's drinking water supply from industrial sites.
Perchlorate is a chemical used in rocket fuel and defense equipment manufacturing.
"A chronic local condition has evolved into an acute emergency," city administrator Henry Garcia wrote in the declaration ratified by the council.
Officials said a regional drought and recently imposed limits on water imported from Northern California also prompted them to declare the emergency.
What is strange is that some of the televisions that the report is talking about, some cost as much as $7000.00 and as low as $2500 depending on the size of the screen of coarse and the way that the picture is powered etc etc... Still it isn't as if the people that were living there were planning to give their home up to the bank any time soon, it could take one small thing before they could miss a payment or two and then they would loose their home, I just feel bad for those that have to try to enter the renting field now, when the rent prices are as much if now more then what it cost to make a payment on a home with an impound account assessed against that payment on your home. This whole situation is a very deep and bad one!!
BS Ranch
Vacant houses: picking up the pieces
Business booms in collecting items left by residents hit by foreclosure
Matt Wrye, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/18/2007 08:24:24 PM PST
They may not be able to afford their homes, but their showy TVs are another thing.
An old wooden house along Genevieve Street in San Bernardino was the scene recently of a trash pickup for tenants who lost their home to a bank foreclosure.
On Thursday morning, the driveway was piled up with appliances, furniture and clothes that were littered everywhere - a telltale sign of a family that recently lived there.
An old gas stove with a skillet full of dust was found. In the back yard, there were mattresses, a microwave, two mangled couches and a bulky refrigerator.
But it's all gone. Cleaned up.
Foreclosed homes all over the Inland Empire are turning into what Lisa Carvalho calls "trash-outs" - wooden and stucco carcasses with piles of junk left behind by former tenants.
In the big picture, the Riverside-San Bernardino area ranked No. 3 in the United States on the home-foreclosure chart for metro areas, according to a Wednesday report by RealtyTrac, a real-estate data company in Irvine. There were more than 20,600 foreclosure filings during the third quarter of this year, it stated.
It's partially Carvalho's job to get junk hauled out of these abandoned homes.
"There's usually debris and clothing and beds," said Carvalho, co-owner of Casablanca Associates Inc. in Ontario.
The company, among others, has its hands full cleaning out foreclosures in the San Bernardino and Ontario areas.
Sometimes her workers stumble across gems - like prized computer parts. But it's been a potpourri of things, such as cars, computer monitors, stoves and washing machines.
The High Desert offers even more interesting tales.
The area is full of tract homes in subdivisions that have stacks of furniture piled inside every room, she said.
"These typically look like they're occupied, but they're not trashed," she said about these homes. "(The owners) just walk away and wash their hands of it."
Mike Meyers sees the same thing.
The owner of San Bernardino-based Best Price Hauling spends more time cleaning out foreclosed homes than he did before the subprime fallout enveloped the Inland Empire.
"It's bad, but it's a lot of work for the (cleanup) industry," Meyers said. "It's a sad situation all around for everyone, except for us in the service industry."
He's seen what looks like pricey televisions and other expensive electronic entertainment gadgets left behind by tenants thrown out.
"There are times we've gone to a house and we've stood with 4-foot-high furniture in every room," Meyers said. "A lot of times we just take it to the dump. It's usually pretty horrific when we go out to these jobs."
Inland Empire Realtor Bobbie Miller said low-income evictees usually take most everything when they leave.
"They can't afford to buy it again," said Miller, who gets properties cleaned up for banks that end up holding the bag on loans that go south.
She's recently worked on homes in Fontana, Ontario and Rialto.
Evicted residents are given 18 days to reclaim their property inside a foreclosed home, Miller said.
In her case, everything inside the home gets thrown away or goes to auction, depending on how valuable it is.
"Most of the time, they don't come back to get anything," Miller said. "A lot of our economy is being supported, unfortunately, by people who've lost their homes."
It seems that all the original Plans for the southern end of Rialto are not as they were originally intended, and now The Rialto City Council is willing to Fly By The Seat of Their Pants, and get Buildings on those properties, it will not matter what kind of Building's but just as long as there are buildings and they are developed, and have working toilets, and there is a need to have trash service delivered to that address (all of which the city gets tax money from). I know that it is a time that things that were originally planned are likely not going to happen for a long time, if you were going to wait for the pieces of the Real Estate to come back to the Ballooned Prices that they had become before the Market "Popped".
It just doesn't seem right that Rialto reform from a sleepy little bedroom community to a small industrial city, by just the change of the market!! I guess that is what they are going to have to do to keep Rialto's Budget in the Black!! The additional taxes that are brought in will pay/replace the current 8% Utility Tax, which the people of Rialto will be tired of paying in the next five years.
I might be beheaded on the Internet on this statement, but I will make it, Officer Sergio Carrera's Death on Duty was a Wake Up Call to the Citizens of Rialto, they finally realized that they were living in a City that had been let go by their City Council Members, and the City Administrator, upheld by the Advice of the Cities Attorney, Owens that they Reduce the Staff of the Police Department to Unsafe Levels, by SERVING THE PINK SLIPS TO THE ACADEMY TRAINEE'S (TRAINEE'S WHOM HAD NOT YET MADE IT TO THE TITLE POLICE OFFICER), POLICE OFFICERS THAT WERE IN TRAINING & ON PROBATION, & ALL NON-SWORN PERSONNEL WHICH WERE STILL ON PROBATIONARY STATUS, WAS LAID OFF!! This was done early in the battle with their own Voting Citizens, and the Rialto Police Benefit Association, in an attempt to make Police Officers Quit, and move on to other Police Agencies who was on the Cal-PERS retirement system (The Retirement system that Rialto is currently on).
The Tactic was a success in many ways, there was three officers that left on one day, and went to the neighboring City of Riverside. These Officers had been with Rialto their whole career, Officer Madson had started with Rialto as a Cadet, and then became a Reserve Police Officer, which was his title when I started @ Rialto Police Department. He left to put himself through the Academy and was hired then by Hemet Police Department, as soon as Officer Madson got his Basic Post Certificate he came back to Rialto where he worked for over 10 years, before this Occurred. He has a family to take care of and he was concerned for them in making the decision to move to Riverside. Officer T.Roy was 16 when I first met him, his car was stolen and I took the stolen vehicle report. It was then that I talked him into becoming an Explorer at Rialto Police Department. He worked his way up to being the Capt. of the explorer group, then shortly after I had transferred to being the Reserve Coordinator he followed me there, when I went to Traffic he became a Regular Officer at Rialto Police Department. He too had just short of 10 years with Rialto when he went to Riverside, all because he had a family to support and it was time that he made sure that his retirement was set and the fight was to much for his family to bear!!
The Tactic's that the Rialto City Administrator Garcia, Rialto City Council Members (Vargus, Scott, Robertson, Sampson, Hanson) took at the advise of the City's Council, Owens, It was clear at that time that the Public Safety and the Safety of the Police Officer's that were trying to keep the Criminal Element Away was all jeopardised by this action, Now I know that they say that the city has almost recouped all the officers that were lost, All 27 of them, however you had over I venture to say 50 years police experience that left, and now you trade it for these Officers that have a combined 27 years Police experience (IF EVEN THAT) Not one of the position's that were filled to replace the Police Officers that left were Experienced Officers, they all were Police Officers, FRESH OUT OF THE ACADEMY!!
Because of the Current Contract that the City Council Negotiated and refused to budge on any points of interest with the Rialto Police Benefit Association's Negotiation Team, therefore they're has NOT BEEN ANY Lateral Entry Police Officers that had Experience being a Police Officer from another Agency. The reason being is that The City Council, Didn't and will not, and continues to fight against the Retirement System that more then 97% of all other Police Agencies have and that is the 3% at 50 Years of age Retirement Package.
The past tactics taken by the Rialto City Council, Rialto City Administration, they should feel that they are a GREAT PART TO BLAME FOR THE RISE IN CRIME IN RIALTO!!
BECAUSE THE RIALTO CITY COUNCIL, RIALTO CITY ADMINISTRATOR (GARCIA), RIALTO CITY REPRESENTATION (OWEN), ARE A GREAT DEAL WHY THE CRIME RATE IN RIALTO INCREASED SO HIGH. BECAUSE OF THE TACTICS THAT THEY USED TO GAIN THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT TO COME INTO RIALTO AND TAKE THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OVER, THEY DID SOME THINGS THAT MADE RIALTO POTENTIALLY UNSAFE FOR POLICE OFFICERS........EVEN TODAY...SINCE THE STUFF THAT WAS DONE BACK THEN IS STILL BEING FOUGHT TODAY BY THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME JUST ASK THOSE THAT HAVE PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR THE TACTICS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL TOOK IN THEIR WAR TO HAVE SHERIFF PENROD TAKE OVER!!!!
BS Ranch
Rialto project's details hazy By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
RIALTO - The entities that will make up the industrial project that Atlanta-based Oakmont Industrial Group is planning here are still uncertain - but the project will leave a major mark on the region.
The 192-acre, 4million-square-foot project will be located around Cactus Avenue near the city's southern border with Riverside County.
"That is akin to the redevelopment of the former Kaiser Steel plant," said Tim Howard, Oakmont's regional partner.
What exactly will be included in the $350million project is not yet clear, he said.
Councilman Ed Scott seems to have an idea though, and it's fine by him.
"I think the major component of the project is a manufacturing facility," said Scott, a member of the council's economic development committee.
Scott had recently expressed concern about the number of distribution centers moving into the region. He said the centers bring trucks and low-paying jobs.
Such a business will be included, Howard said, but it is too early to say how much of the project will be allotted to manufacturing.
Construction isn't expected to start until early 2009, he said.
"It's freshman year in college and we don't need to declare until our junior year what our major is," Howard said.
Scott said that since there is no fire station south of the 10 Freeway in Rialto, building such a facility will be part of the project.
The area was supposed to include more than 720
homes. In February, the council approved the housing project. The Local Agency Formation Commission in April allowed the city to annex the land.
But in August, developer Young Homes sold the land to Oakmont for $92million. Not a shabby price considering the land isn't even approved for industrial development.
The council would have to approve the new project considering it has undergone such a dramatic change.
In addition to the project on the city's south end, Oakmont is also planning to build a smaller business park, which will include 11 buildings on 31 acres.
Construction on the smaller park, which will be near Rialto Airport where the Renaissance Rialto community is planned, could start in about six months and include buildings that are 10,000 to 50,000 square feet, Howard said.
The only problem is that the Restaurant Deal that was made is falling apart and will not hold! The money for the tax will be all of the money taken in to extend Pepper Ave, and many of the other contracts that will have to be filled with the Labor Union's in the City, I am speaking about the Rialto Police Benefit Assoc. They didn't take the best deal for them the last time, in hopes that this time the city Administrator, and City Council might take a nicer look at them and the hard job that was Created for them by the Vary people that are Responsible for making their job so difficult, by their actions when they wanted the Contract with the Sheriff's Department, However when that Failed the Council and the City Administration they still have not paid the people that have stayed by giving them a Well deserved Contract that will make them happy that they earned their time working through the difficult fight, instead they have fought as if they gave all the TAX money to other City Departments. ??
BS Ranch
Voters relieve city's worry
Rialto relies on utility tax to stay afloat
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/11/2007 09:21:41 PM PST
RIALTO - Phew!
That was the reaction at City Hall to last week's election, when voters renewed the utility users tax for five more years.
Soon, development projects will come online along the extended 210 Freeway and throughout the city to improve its economy and its finances.
But those who think new projects like the 1,500-acre Renaissance Rialto development will mean the end of the tax are probably thinking wrong.
The new money the projects produce will not even come close to making up for the tax.
The 8-percent add-on to utility bills in the city provides almost a quarter of the money in the city's general fund - more than $12 million a year.
Even when Renaissance is done - the project has yet to be approved - it's only expected to make the city $3 million a year if the tax isn't in place.
"I think five years is enough time for us to put an economic strategic plan out," Councilman Joe Baca Jr. said. He said that since the tax passed, he has received a number of e-mails from residents who say they support the tax but want it spent well, and ultimately reduced.
One resident who voted for the tax said she thinks the 210 development should make the city self-sufficient without the tax.
"I'm surprised they need it again," said Angie Consolo.
The city needs to look at where it can cut costs, starting with its legal costs and the number of outside law firms it hires, she said.
Baca said he thinks the city needs to be more resourceful about accomplishing things at a lower cost and needs to prioritize projects to keep costs down.
But the city's costs will increase in a number of areas over the next five to 10 years. For example, Rialto's public safety employees have lower retirement benefits than their peers at nearby agencies, and those benefits may be increased.
Members of the council also want to improve the level of city services, especially public safety, over the next few years. And grants might run out on state-funded after-school programs, which would mean the city would have to spend millions of dollars to run them itself.
Another upcoming cost is improvements members of the council want to make to facilities, like the police department, city hall, the library and recreation facilities.
In the spring, City Administrator Henry Garcia said a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter would generate about $500,000 in sales tax revenue per year. That means the city would need at least 24 years to make up the money the tax currently provides.
In California, it's difficult for modest bedroom communities like Rialto to have a robust budget, said Economic Development Director Robb Steel.
In wealthier residential areas with higher property values and property tax revenues, there are fewer children and less need for city services and public safety, he said.
Regina Balderrama, who has lived in Rialto since 1978, said she doesn't see the tax going anywhere anytime soon.
"I think when the next five years are up they're going to put it back on the ballot," she said.
The good news for the city's budget is that now that the tax is in place, developers will find it easier to build and sell homes in Rialto, Steel said. The city won't have to charge a very high community facilities district - or annual fee - to residents in new housing developments.
The council also might be ready to increase development impact fees to fund capital improvements in the city, he said.
A number of residents say they want a citizens' oversight commission to make sure the money from the tax is spent properly.
Baca said he would support that kind of commission.
