Friday, June 29, 2007

Water-Contamination Hearing Deferred Again (The Press Enterprise Sat. June 23, 2007)

Water-contamination hearing deferred again



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10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Press-Enterprise

A state hearing to assign blame for the Inland region's largest unabated plume of groundwater pollution was delayed until August, marking at least the third postponement in the case.

The hearing was expected to begin July 9 before the chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board. At issue is a six-mile plume of perchlorate -- an ingredient of rocket fuel -- that has tainted more than a dozen drinking-water wells in Rialto and Colton.

The hearing is rescheduled for the weeks of Aug. 20 and Aug. 27 with specific dates to be announced later.

Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or jbowles@PE.com or visit her blog at www.PE.com/blogs


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BS Ranch Perspective

Well it seems that this whole thing would go a whole lot smoother if they would allow the companies that said that they would pay for the contamination from the beginning, but Owen wanted to see a larger pay check at the benefit of who, Himself? or was it really for the people of Rialto? I wonder, because the people of 'Black and Decker' have said they were willing to pay for what ever there company was responsible for regarding the Perchlorate contamination.

I am not all together sure that Rialto is the only city on the list of City's that are in the Law Suit against all the Businesses, regarding the Perchlorate Contamination. The list of Cities and or People involved in the Law Suit.

BS Ranch


Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Rialto City Council Delays Utility Tax Ballot Measure (Press Enterprise June 19, 2007)

Rialto City Council delays utility tax ballot measure



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10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
By MASSIEL LADRÓN DE GUEVARA
The Press-Enterprise

A perplexed Rialto City Council agreed Tuesday to hold off on putting the city's utility users tax on the November ballot after a handful of residents expressed concern at extending the tax, saying there was not enough information for them to see how their money has been spent thus far.

The council was reviewing whether to call a special election so residents could vote on extending the tax until June 2018. It was being considered because the tax is set to expire June 2008.

But many of the residents present said 10 years is too long of an extension and added that they are unclear on how the money is being spent.

Toby Polinger, of Rialto, said he wants a clearer picture of how money is being spent because he has not seen any documents outlining expenditures.

"I don't doubt there are reports out there that show it," he said. "I just haven't seen them."

City Administrator Henry Garcia said the money is audited each year and each dollar is accounted for. Several council members said there have been community meetings, although poorly attended, where the use of the money has been explained.

To the residents who requested that the tax be lowered, Garcia said there is no way it could be done.

"It cannot be less than 8 percent under any circumstance," he said. "In order for us to restore the Police Department, sustain the enormous growth in our city and ensure capable funding revenue, it's important this moves forward."

The residents' questions on how the money is spent showed little progress has been made in gaining people's trust, Garcia said.

"If in 36 months, with all we have done to keep the community informed and rebuild, there is doubt, we might as well just wait and let" the tax expire, he said.

Councilman Joe Baca Jr. said he wants to explore the option of putting the tax on the February ballot, although the possibility of doing that still has to be determined.

Residents first voted on the tax in 2003 because there was not enough money in the city's general fund to provide quality services despite eliminating 40 positions from the city's work force, records show. It was approved by five votes.

The 8 percent tax, which applies to all utilities and is levied on every nonexempt resident and business in Rialto, represents nearly one-fourth of the city's general fund, records show. Exceptions are allowed for people age 65 and older and for households that qualify as very low income

"As we stand today, it's a critical revenue source that is being depended upon by the Police Department and Fire Department," Assistant City Manager Kirby Warner said.

Because new technology made it possible for people to avoid the utility tax on their home phone lines by using Internet-based phone service, a broader, more comprehensive definition of telephone communication that is taxable will be included, records show.

City Clerk Barbara McGee said the cost of a November election would be clearer in July, when other cities that will have something on the ballot and will share the cost of the election with Rialto will have filed the required paperwork.

A special election can cost from $30,000 to $100,000, she said.

If the tax is put on the February ballot, it will still be considered a special election, and the cost would be nearly identical, she said.

More discussion on when to put the matter before the voters will be scheduled in the coming weeks.

Reach Massiel Ladrón De Guevara at 909-806-3054 or mdeguevara@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective

The Rialto City Council is going to put off the Thought of a Special Election right now? I guess that there was to much publicity for this meeting and even thought there was not that many people there at the meeting the Council felt that there was way to many people there to make the Vote Public! The only Voice of Reason again was that of Joe Baca Jr. Asking to look into the possiblity of putting the speicial Election of the City's Utility Tax on Febuary's Ballot to try and save the City some money, Which Makes a whole lot of sense!! Since there has been a whole lot of money that has been waised over the last 10 years!!

Let me see, The City Council Voted to close the Doors on their own Police Department, Then spent a whole lot of money trying to keep their decision to Contract with the Sheriff Department, there is not a anything know or said if the City Council spent money to the San Bernardino Sheriff Department in their Planning to Bring the Rialto Police into their fold!

The Rialto City Council looked at the 3%@50 Retirement plan and said that the Sheriff Department had that retirement plan, so they figured that they would save money and contract with them. Rialto City Council didn't realize that you get what you pay for and there was a great deal of people that came to speak on behalf of that. Adelanto's Crime Rate Doubled in almost every catagory, Schedule One Felonies, Schedule Two Felonies and all Misdemeanors. The City Council was crazy for even thinking about this fact, not only were they willing to do this, but they were willing to fight to keep the contract. Which might mean that there was some kind of penalty for the City of Rialto backing out of the Contract with the Sheriff's Department!

The City Council would have had to let the public know if there was some kind of penalty for not signing the contract when we were so close to signing and didn't due to the pressure brought from the Citizens that live in Rialto, and wanted their Law Enforcement Not to change, after so many years. The fight brought by the Citizens of Rialto, was so powerful, that the Rialto City Council had to sit up straight and take notice and not just read the minutes of what they had but vote the petition into LAW! Especially after their delay tactic was proven to be an Idiot move by the City Attorny, Owen, (whom should find another job either in another city or actually being an attorney for clients instead of one client, the City).

Again, I am asking if the City's Administrator is representing the People of Rialto, The reason that I ask this is that he gets this Utility Tax voted in 10 years ago, and and the then they try to close the doors on the Police Department, instead of embracing what they have in a city and building from there. They could have had the 3%@50 Retirement plan, instead The City Administrator, took the oppertunity to push the Police Department down when the fight began between the Sheriff Contract and Police Department. The Council was shown plans for and Purchased over $10Million (Ten Million Dollars) for Fire Department equipment, not only that but the Fire department and Maintenance got the Raises and Employee Contracts that they wanted, when the Police Department got NOTHING, until they settled the battle of the Police/Sheriff Contract Negotiation situation. When it was found that the Sheriff's Department was not going to be the Law Enforcement Agency for the City of Rialto and the Police Department was going to stay, and all would be well at Rialto City. The only thing was that they needed to get rid of the Police Chief at that time and the "Under Chief" to clean up the corruption within the Department!


When it was time that they sat down and started to Negotiate the Contract for the RPBA (Rialto Police Benefit Association) The first three contracts were not anywhere near what the City promised and or Said that they were going to give in good faith to the Police Department at the time that the contract was negotiated that was the problem because they were backed away from the table several times, all because the City's Negotiator kept pulling away the stuff that was promised by the City Council. Since the City Council was not there they didn't have to answer to the claims of the lies that were being told. It was a great tactic at that time.

When they finally got a contact that they both could agree to it was Crackers and Crumbs of what they should have gotten in respect to what they were promised. The City Council had spent so much money on the Fire Departments Equipment, that when it came time to Purchase Equipment for the Police Department, they could not and almost didn't have the money for the Police Units, and the Light Bars, and Unitrol Box's etc etc... At the time that they signed the Police Department's Contract, The Police Department had a Fleet of Police Cars that were well over used with some that had close to two hundred miles on them, the break off before they change them out to a new car was at 90, to 120,000 Miles now. I believe that was the miles that it was at when my accident had occurred, simply because the cars were lasting longer. They were taken out of patrol at 70,000 to 80,000 and then were dressed up for an Law Enforcement Tech, or a Volunteer, etc etc... some after that even were used in the Building Maintenance Department etc etc... I guess they go all over the city when they are done. However this time the city didn't spend any money on any replacement vehicles.

The City Administrator, and some on the City Council wanted to keep the Officers in the Patrol Units with no Relief in sight, They Kept the Officers in their broken down falling apart Patrol Cars, and what happened was that they kept arresting people and the Crime Rate Dropped in Rialto, Due to the Hard Work that they did from the cars that were breaking down and not running right, They would spend the beginning of the shift getting their Unit running Right!!

Now they are running on new cars, they have a new Chief, Mark Kling, who the RPBA has given approval and Respect to. I have met him once and he has been really nice, Personable, he is a really nice guy!

The Police Department is on the way to recovery, however the City Council has been the one that has brought a little bit of sabotage to their own budget, and now they want to extend the Money, so the Rialto City Council will try to correct the problems that they have made in the previous Council. Surely, you cannot blame Joe Baca Jr. for the problems of the City Council in the past!!


I hope that they Do NOT GET THE TAX EXTENSION!!

The City Council pays a wage to Two People that are getting close to $1.75 Million dollars in Annual wages, That was about half as much in the first year that the Sheriff's Department was going to charge for Law Enforcement. So that is a Subsequent amount, and it is a pretty good amount that could be applied towards a 3%@50 Retirement plan for the City of Rialto's Employee's, Now if they get this Retirement in their first year ten the Utility Tax might be something that would be a Necessary, however again Some of the Salaries of upper management has to come down..


BS Ranch

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Event Draws a Crowd to 210 (SB Sun 062407)

Event draws crowd to 210
Freeway section hosts activities
By George Watson, Staff Writer

RIALTO - With both of his tiny hands clenched around the steering wheel, Isaac Ruiz found himself buzzing along the freeway.

It was the typical stuff found on Southern California highways: rude drivers weaving to and from, changing lanes without using their signals, and driving inappropriately slow in the faster lanes.

Suddenly, traffic slammed to a halt. He threw his hands up in frustration.

"I was like, `errrarrrrrrrggghhhhhh!"' he said. "Keep it going! Get it going! Get it going now!"

And just like that, the 210 Freeway extension gave birth to its first traffic jam.

Of course, Isaac is 6 years old and was driving a go-cart around a course made of plastic during Saturday's Play on the 210 Freeway event, which was attended by thousands to celebrate the unofficial opening of the east-west artery expected to be an economic boon and a savior for drivers. When power was lost to the machine pumping air into the inflatable course, two large pieces fell to the pristine pavement and blocked the way.

Isaac's father, Carlos Ruiz, said his son and daughter, Naomi, 3, were just enthused to check out the roadway, actually slated to open Aug. 31.

"They've been waiting for weeks, saying, `We

get to play on the freeway!"' said Ruiz, 35, of San Bernardino. "I told them it was the only time I could say to them, `Go play on the freeway."'

Sean McGee, 7, of San Bernardino, who sang with the Taft T. Newman Children's Choir at the morning ribbon-cutting ceremony, knew he was violating his mother's cardinal rule of "don't go on the street, or you'll get run over," he said. But this time, he had permission.

During any other time, he said, "I'd be grounded."

Lee Burns, 12, of San Bernardino found the pavement to be perfect for skateboarding.

"It's good," he said. "It's not too rough. It's not too hard. It's cool. But it's hot."

In addition to skateboarding and little motorized cars, kids and adults alike could listen to live music, browse through the dozens of booths hawking food and goods, lug their way up a climbing wall, partake in road races or check out some of the classic cars on hand.

Keegan Holden, 31, of Rialto was there displaying his candy-apple red '65 Lincoln Continental for the first time.

But he was just as interested in getting a glimpse of the freeway that will help out his installation business, K's Garage Doors.

"This freeway is going to give me a lot more time to do business," he said.

That was a focal point at the ceremony held to celebrate the freeway and dedicate the roadway to the late Rep. George E. Brown Jr., California's longest tenured congressman.

"The future of this area, as I have said many times, is going to skyrocket," said Josie Gonzales, the San Bernardino County supervisor whose district includes the freeway extension. "Everything you see here, take a look, it will be different."

Speaker after speaker also lauded Brown, a Democrat from San Bernardino, as a visionary leader.

"George would be humbled by the recognition," said his widow, Marta Macias Brown.

And while Brown might have claimed he didn't deserve it, as his widow said, the dignitaries all insisted that the famed congressman, one of the first to oppose the Vietnam War, did indeed deserve the honor.

Opening Day

RIALTO -It was the question on everyone's mind Saturday: When will the 210 Freeway extension open?

As elected leaders and other dignitaries gathered in Rialto to celebrate the near-opening of the east-west freeway, even San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris pressed transportation officials for not only a date, but, with his tongue placed only somewhat in cheek, the exact moment.

"It will be open by the time school starts," Tony Grasso, SANBAG's executive director, said to an enthused crowd.

But when Darren Kettle, director of freeway construction for the county transportation authority, was cornered later in the day, he gave a far firmer answer: "We are saying Aug. 31. If not a little earlier."

Completion of the freeway will provide another direct link between San Bernardino and Los Angeles County.

- George Watson

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BS Ranch Perspective

It is my belief that if they are going to have a party then why will they not open the rest of the freeway, the lines are drawn, most if not all the on/off ramps are in repair and ready for use, but they say by the time that school starts, yet they have a party now and get everyone excited about the party now. I for one don't understand, the freeway is done for them to break out the cake and Ice cream.

BS Ranch

San Bernardino Associated Governments Host Festival on 210 Freeway Before it Opens.

San Bernardino Associated Governments hosts festival on 210 freeway before it opens



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11:02 AM PDT on Sunday, June 24, 2007
By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

Video: Cyclists and skateboarders play on the I-215

As traffic jams go, this was one of a kind.

No bumper-to-bumper, no exhaust haze, no white-knuckled drivers, no blaring horns.

Just a leisurely crowd milling around vintage cars and rows of brightly colored fair pavilions.

And, at one edge of the throng, a knot of government officials, many in shorts or khakis, with a bright red ribbon and an oversized pair of scissors.

The occasion was "Come Play on the Freeway: the Finale," a festival sponsored by the San Bernardino Associated Governments on Saturday to celebrate the pending completion of Interstate 210 in Rialto and San Bernardino.

SANBAG spokeswoman Cheryl Donahue estimated the crowd at about 20,000.

"I thought it was important to be here," said Delores King, of Fontana, pausing as she strolled down the No. 1 lane just west of the State Street offramp.

A few feet away, King's 5-week-old granddaughter, Jaelnn Dixon, snoozed in a frilly pink stroller.

Caltrans spokeswoman Rose Melgoza said officials hope to open the roadway in September, just in time for King's fall semester at Valley College, where she is studying nursing.

King said being able to drive the 210 will cut her commuting time in half.

"I can't wait to use this freeway," she said. "Someday, I'll remind Jaelnn that she was here today."

Completion of what is known as the Foothill Freeway comes 10 years after SANBAG broke ground. The first six miles of the route, from Rancho Cucamonga to Fontana, opened in 2001.

Story continues below
Amanda Lucidon / The Press-Enterprise
Gabriel Perez, 5, and other children ride bumper cars at the San Bernardino Associated Governments' freeway celebration.

Another segment, 14 miles between La Verne and Rancho Cucamonga, was added a year later.

In 2005, a two-mile stretch from Fontana to Rialto opened, leaving only the section between Rialto and San Bernardino.

The completed freeway will span 28.2 miles from La Verne to San Bernardino, where it will connect to Highway 30. Highway 30 will become part of the 210, completing the connection to Interstate 10 in Redlands.

Speaking at Saturday's ribbon-cutting ceremony, San Bernardino City Councilman Rikke Van Johnson predicted that the freeway will help loosen the economic chokehold imposed on his Westside ward by Interstate 215.

That freeway, completed in 1959, split San Bernardino from north to south. Its offramps were built to direct traffic to the east, away from the Westside and toward downtown San Bernardino.

"We've waited a lifetime for this freeway to right some wrongs that were done with the 215," Johnson said.

He predicted that the State Street offramp, the first freeway access to his ward in almost 50 years, will bring a surge in development.

To highlight the transformation, San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris showed off an artist's renderings of historic scenes that will be included in a mural on a Union Pacific bridge spanning the roadway.

He said muralist Edward Perez and a work crew were up until 2 a.m. Saturday, laying down primer over the graffiti that had scarred the bridge.

Perez and students from five San Bernardino high schools will paint the mural within the next five weeks, Morris said.

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com

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BS Ranch Perspective

I feel that the "Festival" was nice, and there was a great turn out, however I hope that they understand that the people of the festival and myself are expecting that the Freeway is within a week from opening. I do not believe that the people that put this 'Festival' on are not and do not have any clue as to when the freeway will open, however I hope that it opens soon, the traffic by my house and the people that live off Riverside between Cactus and Riverside on Easton Ave know that there are a whole lot of cars that speed by there once peaceful street! Riverside Ave used to be at least 36% quieter then what it is now, with all the added Detoured traffic. It sucks. I cannot wait for the new Freeway to open. I bet that the Traffic on Riverside Ave will drop over 50%!!
BS Ranch

At Least Five Die In Three-Vehicle Crash (Victorville Daily Press June 24, 2007)

At least five die in three-vehicle crash

The shattered remains of a motor home and a sedan involved in a fatal accident block all lanes of Highway 395, two miles south of Kramer Junction. The accident, which occurred Saturday afternoon, claimed at least five lives and injured eight.
Fred Miller / Special to the Daily Press
The shattered remains of a motor home and a sedan involved in a fatal accident block all lanes of Highway 395, two miles south of Kramer Junction. The accident, which occurred Saturday afternoon, claimed at least five lives and injured eight.
KRAMER JUNCTION — A three-vehicle crash left at least five people dead around 3 p.m. Saturday on Highway 395, officials said.

Estimates are that 11 people were trapped in a van that caught on fire, including a couple and nine juveniles, according to Battalion Chief Tim Sappek of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Three people, including an off-duty battalion chief from Corona, were able to pull two people from the van before the fire got too large to continue.

"The people were alive when the van was on fire. They were trapped and they were screaming. They got one man who was outside the van and a woman from the van out ... when fire got too well established for them to continue," Sappek said.

Off-duty Battalion Chief David Shoemaker, Eric Luning of Bakersfield and Donald Bronaugh of Rialto were the good Samaritans who worked to save the individuals they could after witnessing the crash.

"Someone was able to get the back doors off it and ... it was getting really hot and the flames were starting to come over the inside of the van and a woman was screaming about her leg... eventually we were able to get her leg free and that was great to get her out of there," Shoemaker said.

There was speculation on the California Highway Patrol's Web site that some of the deceased were in a church van at the time of the crash, but that could not be confirmed by CHP representatives late Saturday night.

The accident was called out to officials from the CHPs Barstow office and two vehicles hauling trailers are said to have rolled over, possible striking a third, according to the Web site.

Officer Eric Denny of the CHP said the initial call was that people in a three-vehicle accident were caught inside a vehicle. When they arrived they found that a Ford F-250 was traveling northbound when for an unknown reason it drifted into the southbound lanes and collided with the van before hitting a Toyota Corolla.

Initial reports from the location were that up to eight other people were injured, several of whom had to be flown by air ambulance to trauma centers.

The Major Accident Investigation Team was called to the scene to continue the investigation.

Highway 395 was still closed as of 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
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BS Ranch Perspective

There still is some great Hero's that work here in Rialto, it is just a shame that they have to make their homes so far away from Rialto, If they had a more affordable wage they could call Rialto home. In order for a Rialto Employee to spend wisely they must purchase their home over a 20 minute away from Rialto,

However, having said that, the people that are in need are comforted to know that they might be on their way home and can offer their help, because they will stop to help as in this case on this particular Instance.
BS Ranch

Friday, June 22, 2007

Council to Decide on Special Election for Tax (SB Sun June, 19, 2007) The Council will vote to have costly Special Election and TAX will Fail!

Council to decide on special election for tax
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun

RIALTO - Voters will likely get to decide in November whether to extend the city's controversial utility-users tax for another decade.

At today's City Council meeting, the council is expected to call for a special election to approve extending the tax from 2008 to 2018.

"It's unfortunately a necessary thing right now," said Councilman Ed Scott.

The tax, an 8 percent charge on utility bills, brings in almost a quarter of the city's General Fund revenues.

Officials say they can't run the city at a standard residents expect without it.

During the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the city faced a budget crisis and had to lay off about 50 workers - 10 to 15 percent of its employees, said Assistant City Administrator Kirby Warner.

But residents don't seem to be in love with the tax.

Voters approved it by five votes in 2003.

Pam Machain, who at 50 has lived in the city since she was in third grade, said she doesn't think the tax, which she said costs her about $30 to $40 a month, has helped out that much.

"I'm pretty much decided that I'm not going to vote for it right now," she said.

She said she doesn't trust city officials anymore after the council voted to get rid of the Police Department in 2005, a vote it later reversed.

Getting the tax passed will not be a "slam dunk," Scott said.

"I think it's going to take some significant communication with the community," he said.

The tax has brought in about $12.8 million this fiscal year and is expected to bring in $13.5 million next year, making it the largest source of money to the General Fund.

"It's an essential funding mechanism," said City Administrator Henry Garcia.

Garcia and Warner said they decided to recommend extending the tax for 10 years because it will take at least seven years to rebuild the Police Department.

Even though the tax is the largest source of revenue for the General Fund, about three-quarters of it goes to public safety, Warner said.

Since 2003, the Fire Department has been able to add 10 positions, said Chief Steve Wells.

Before the tax passed, he said, Station 204 in the Las Colinas area was not staffed most of the time, and the department had stopped using the ladder truck.

According to a city fact sheet on the tax, it has allowed the city to eliminate its budget deficit, add 20 police employees in addition to the fire personnel and employees in other city departments, add 59 police and code- enforcement vehicles, add 20 other city vehicles and fully staff Station 204.

With all the economic development taking place in Rialto, especially with the approaching opening of the 210 Freeway extension, some members of the council hoped the tax could be replaced or at least reduced with sales-tax revenue.

But that's just not possible, Garcia and Warner said.

A Wal-Mart supercenter in the planning stages would generate $500,000 in sales taxes per year, Garcia said, which means it would take 24 supercenters to make up for the tax. And the city's needs will only expand as the new development comes online.

Besides, more than 50 percent of California residents pay a utility tax, Warner said.

There are also low-income and senior-

citizen exemptions to make it more bearable.

Don King, a 73-year-old retired pharmaceutical sales representative, said he will probably support the tax. He's noticed city services improving, he said. His street is now swept regularly, which he said hadn't happened in years.

Even though Garcia and Warner say the facts are on their side, a number of residents said the city needs to level with them and hold public meetings on the issue.

Scott said there should be public meetings similar to the large, well-publicized meetings the city has held to talk about drinking water contamination in the city.

Donald Balderrama, a retired high-school teacher who lives in Rialto, said he supported the tax last time but that people are skeptical about whether the tax is necessary.

"I don't think it will pass. I really don't think so," he said.

"People need to be informed."

Contact writer Jason Pesick at (909) 386-3861 or via e-mail at jason.pesick@sbsun.com.

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BS Ranch Perspective

The Rialto City Council will have another Election to vote on Extending the Utility Tax, they will say that it is a necessity to keep the city running the best that it can and keep the employees happy that work for the city. I can tell you that the Police Department has been totally Fixed, they got the Right Chief to return the Police department to the glory days that it was back when Ray Farmer was chief and there was much of more of a watch your partner's Back to the department, that has returned instead of worrying about your own back and now you feel that there are people that are looking out for you as a Police Department should.

The only thing that is missing in the Police Department is the 3%@50 Retirement Plan that 98% of every other Law Enforcement Agency in the United States now has. Rialto is in a Small class of Law Enforcement Agencies that don't have that and what that does it makes Rialto a Training Ground for people that are just out of the Academy! You really would have to take note that if you would want the Officers that you have now to consider to stay here in Rialto and finish their career's here, that they should have this Retirement Plan, the other just is an Obsolete Plan anymore. The Law Enforcement Officer is a Young Game and there are not many Officers that are out there chasing People that are on Narcotics at the age of 50, that don't come up with some kind of injury that they are retired on, with a Full 50% Tax Free Pension, for a say 38% disability, then they go and work at say an Insurance company making say $50,000. a year and another $25,000 a year tax free that is like making a whopping take home of $75, 000.00 if they have tax write offs. So, they don't have much hard work to do and they make pretty good money.

Ten years ago when my accident happened we didn't make as much as they do now, and with my house payment I was close to losing my home, it was a struggle. I Have to say, If it was not for the Men, and Woman of the RPBA (Rialto Police Benefit Association) Members back then that Elected to write myself and my Wife a little bit of money to help us through the hard situation, we would have lost our home. I really don't think that I properly thanked them, I guess it was because I was so over whelmed with the accident, Pain, Doctor Appointments, Pain, The adjustment to medication, Pain, all the new treatment that I had questions about, Pain, and the Physical Therapy, and OH YEA, The constant throbbing Pain, that continues to this day!!! Thank you RPBA, A Little late, and well now it is a little hidden too (I am sorry about that).

The Special Election costs the city some $40,000.00 from previous stated amounts from city council meetings, I could be wrong, they might be a whole lot more. But they are willing just as they were to fight the RPBA, to have a Special Election to continue a Tax that is at a time when people are wanting to lower the cost of their living if anything due to the current cost of Gasoline used to motivate their internal combustion engines to work and to play!

The Only Point that the City Council will have is that you are currently paying the TAX and you will not see it at all! and if we don't get this tax we will be in such a bind that we will fall apart and turn the whole government over to the Sheriff of SB County and they will run the Fire Department and Police Department so you will lose both parts that you fought so eagerly to keep.

However they spent upwards of a million to fight the Police Department, and when it was time to keep the Police Department they had spent all the money that was collected from the Utility Tax Increase on the Millions and Millions of dollars collected on new Fire equipment!! all to make the Police Department Jealous, and to top this all off The Council had asked the Fire Department to Campaign against The Police Department During the Fight for the Sheriff Department with the enticement of a 3% at 50 Retirement in their contract!! But since the Fire Department didn't successfully get rid of the Police Department then they lost their 3% at 50 Contract Special.

Please they are mishandling funds, the City administrator, and the city Councilor should be the ones that go, they make to much money. the city administrator makes $734, 000.00 a year, and the Cities Attorney makes a little less. then that . Together they clear, Almost a quarter million shy of two million.

BS Ranch




Monday, June 18, 2007

Gas Prices Plunging, at least Region sees 25 cent drop since last month!! (SB County Sun June 18, 2007)

Gas prices plunging - at last
Region sees 25-cent drop since last month
Andrea Bennett, Staff Writer

One month after drivers balked at the highest gas prices in history, the cost of fuel in the region has been rapidly dropping.

Jeffrey Spring, spokesman for the Auto Club of Southern California, said Friday that gas in San Bernardino and Riverside counties costs 25 cents less than it did last month and 8.6 cents less than last week.

Fuel prices have fallen about a penny a day in the past month, with consumers now paying 7 cents less than they did this time last year, Spring said.

Darrell Lewis of Fontana said he was relieved by the lower gas prices.

"I think it's great," said Lewis, 18. "I don't have money to pay high gas prices."

It's already made about a $20 difference in his budget, he said.

For Dan Cross, 44, of Temple City - who filled up at $3.05 a gallon at an Arco station on Archibald Avenue in Ontario - the new numbers mean more family outings.

"Instead of putting it in the gas tank, I can take my boys out to the beach and spend it going fishing," Cross said.

While the decreasing prices are good news for those planning a summer road trip, some are still skeptical.

"It scares me," Veronica Moran, 33, said at a Thrifty station charging $3.03 a

gallon on Sierra Avenue in Fontana. "I think it'll go way up again all of a sudden."

Spring said the volatile nature of gas prices in the past few years - with extreme highs and lows - are partly due to traders and analysts increasingly looking to make a buck in the market on oil and gas.

Another factor at play is unrest in the Middle East.

In years past, the price of fuel was primarily dictated by supply and demand, Spring said.

A hike in the spring is standard as refineries go out of commission to clean out their systems and do repairs before switching formulas for the warmer months, he said.

But since drivers in the region paid the highest ever - $3.48 a gallon - on May 8, the direction of gas prices has been decidedly downward.

Pricey commutes have influenced the patterns of drivers - including Spring - in recent years.

"It started to change my habits when it hit $2.50 a gallon two years ago," Spring said. "I started car-pooling, and I didn't hit the gas as much."

Eva Shipman, 65, of Rancho Cucamonga said the prices last month made her change her driving habits, too.

"It was terrible," Shipman said, while filling up for $3.05 a gallon at a Sam's Club station on Milliken Avenue in Ontario. "I drove less, and I tried to do everything while I was out."

Silvia Vargas, 42, of Perris said she isn't celebrating the lower prices just yet.

"It's still too high. I'm a mother of eight who has to (drive) kids back and forth to school and to work," Vargas said, sitting among seven passengers in a Ford Excursion at the Thrifty station in Fontana.

"It affects us. It has gone down, but not low enough."

Spring said if things hold out, gas prices at many stations in the region will be below $3 a gallon in the next weeks.

Linda Wubker, 47, of Fontana said the lower gas prices today are all a matter of perspective.

"When it hit $2, we were really upset," Wubker said. "Now we're all happy that it's hit $3."

Staff writer Selicia Kennedy-Ross contributed to this report.


Average price per gallon of unleaded gas in San Bernardino and Riverside counties by year:

6/15/02-6/14/03: $1.72

6/15/03-6/14/04: $1.94

6/15/04-6/14/05: $2.27

6/15/05-6/14/06: $2.75

6/15/06-6/14/07: $2.94

6/15/07: $3.22

- Auto Club of Southern California


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BS Ranch Perspective

The Announcement was just out on Sunday that Gas prices was down to $3.00 a Gallon, and which was great information. We will see how long it will last. I guess that people have not been going anywhere or doing anything this summer and the people have been staying home. Now they lower the price and entice the Americans to venture out and Vacation!

BS Ranch


Saturday, June 16, 2007

California Court Rules Police Can Search Homes on Anonymous Tips (SF Chronicle 061507)

California Court Rules Police Can Search Homes on Anonymous Tips

Posted: June 15th, 2007 02:02 PM EDT
BOB EGELKO
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (California)

Police who get an anonymous tip about a crime suspect don't have to check it out before going to the suspect's home and asking to be let in, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a unanimous decision, the court said police can enter a home with a resident's permission, after a "knock-and-talk" conversation at the door, without the evidence of wrongdoing they need for an involuntary detention or search.
"The sanctity of the home is not threatened when police approach a residence, converse with the homeowner and properly obtain consent to search," Justice Carol Corrigan wrote for the court.
She dismissed defense arguments that allowing police to seek entry into a home based on an unverified tip would invite harassing visits instigated by anonymous calls from a resident's enemies.
The case came from Oceanside (San Diego County), where police got an anonymous report in January 2004 that Juan Rivera was wanted on an arrest warrant and was living at a particular home.
Police went to the home and asked the owner if she knew Rivera. An officer later testified that he could not recall her answer, but that she had invited him in and had later consented to a search of her home.
Police said they had found Rivera in a shed and found a large knife in a sheath under his shirt.
Rivera, who was wanted for traffic and parole violations, pleaded guilty to a concealed-weapons charge after unsuccessfully challenging his detention and search. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
A state appeals court in San Diego overturned Rivera's conviction, saying police can't rely on an anonymous and uncorroborated report to detain and search someone. The court cited a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that overturned a gun conviction after a "stop-and-frisk" search based on an anonymous tip.
But California's high court said Rivera's case was different because police had entered the home with the owner's consent. The reliability of the original tip was irrelevant, Corrigan said, because officers need no evidence of wrongdoing before approaching someone and asking to talk or to be allowed into a home.
Rather than reinstating Rivera's conviction, however, the court returned the case to the appellate panel to decide whether police acted legally in holding him. Deputy Attorney General Felicity Senoski, the state's lawyer, said she was confident the lower court would uphold the detention.
"The court recognized that police may lawfully approach a private home and seek consent from the homeowner without infringing on anybody's Fourth Amendment rights," she said, referring to the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
Rivera's lawyer was unavailable for comment. .
The case is People vs. Rivera, S138898.
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BS Ranch Perspective

This is wonderful News, especially if the Officer knows the history of the house based upon other officers testimony to him from other cases that he has heard about he can use that and by the Tips that he gets regarding a call of a Domestic Violence for example, if the victim of the Case was pulled violently in to the home, he can search for all parties of the fight/argument to make sure no one was hurt or otherwise injured. Or if it was a call of sales, and he contacts the people that called and they say that they saw the salesmen go into that house with stuff in his hand, along with a wad of cash, and the other neighbor that he talks to says the same thing then he might be able to get away with using this Court Approved Tip Search of a Home!! Great News. I guess the best thing for me to have done was to look up the case before I started to get excited about it, then reading it might have made a change of heart. you know, but right now I am excited for law Enforcement.
BS Ranch

Friday, June 15, 2007

Inland Cities Eagar For 210 extention to Open (LA Times June 11, 2007)

Inland cities eager for 210 extension to open

Rialto and San Bernardino expect a commercial boost when the freeway is completed by the end of the year. But some residents are uneasy.
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer
June 11, 2007

Although the opening of the final leg of the 210 Freeway through Rialto and San Bernardino is still several months away, merchants and city officials are gleeful at the thought of new businesses already being planned along the roadway and for another route to the Los Angeles area.

"It can't happen too soon," said Midge Zupanic, president of the Rialto Chamber of Commerce, which is so happy at the prospect that it will hold its 100th anniversary black-tie gala on an unopened portion of the roadway on June 22.

The $233-million, 8-mile extension is scheduled to open by the end of the year. The Foothill Freeway now extends 67 miles from Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley through Pasadena, Arcadia, Azusa and San Dimas along the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. It ends abruptly in Fontana, not its ultimate destination of San Bernardino. About a three-quarter-mile portion of the extension is open.

The extension will link the 210 Freeway to Interstate 215 and the present California 30, giving many San Bernardino-area residents what they have wanted for decades — relief from the congested San Bernardino Freeway and an alternate route to Los Angeles. The effect on surface streets will be mixed, residents say. North-south streets congested with cars now headed for Interstate 10 should see an improvement, but streets near the new freeway should see the flow increase.

Significant work still needs to be done, including finishing on- and offramps and erecting freeway signs. On one stretch of the freeway Friday, 50-foot-long, 3-foot-diameter steel tubes rested in an eastbound carpool lane, waiting to be formed into an overhead sign. Workers were still digging drainage ditches and were gluing Botts Dots lane markers onto the roadway with a sticky, black ooze.

Not everyone welcomes the extension, however. Some worry that the extension will only add to surface-street congestion and change the nature of their cities.

"You'll get trucks coming and going," said William Avery, 75, of Rialto, "which is highly undesirable and dangerous."

Planning for the Foothill Freeway began in 1948. But the portion proposed for San Bernardino County languished unbuilt for decades because of a lack of funds and priorities that put roads elsewhere. But San Bernardino County voters approved a half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax in 1989 that provided the money. Nine years later, construction began on a 20-mile leg, from La Verne to Fontana, that opened in 2002.

Work on the last stretch started in 2003. The cost of the entire 28-mile project is estimated to be about $1.2 billion, most of it paid for by the sales tax, said Cheryl Donahue, spokeswoman for San Bernardino Associated Governments.

Despite the lack of an official opening date, many residents are happy it will be soon.

"Beautiful! I'm excited," said San Bernardino florist Edwin Alvarado, who hopes to see an end to the 15- to 20-minute delays he says he now encounters on busy surface streets when making deliveries.

"Any time you have a main artery coming through your city like that, it has to stimulate your economy," said San Bernardino barber Jerome Lewis.

In neighboring Rialto, some civic leaders hope the city can now change its reputation as largely a bedroom community by adding restaurants and commercial establishments. Even a Target store has so far eluded Rialto, though the city is home to the store's regional distribution center.

And they say many residents are happy they won't have to drive as far to get to major businesses and will have a wider selection of good restaurants nearby.

"You can't be a bedroom community and not have the things people want — the upscale amenities and the restaurants we want," Zupanic said. Developers are already sketching plans to develop some of the vacant land surrounding the freeway extension. Zupanic said 50,000 new homes are being considered for a city whose population is 100,000.

Preliminary plans are being made to transform 112 acres near Pepper Avenue into a development with as many as 236 single-family homes, 550 apartments and more than 340,000 square feet of commercial space, said Peter Templeton, one of those working on the idea.

The opportunities for changing the face of Rialto are dramatic, he said. The northern part of the city through which the 210 Freeway extension runs is mostly barren, with rock-crushing operations and sand and gravel pits.

"It was the backside of town for all these cities," Templeton said. "You build a new freeway there, and all of a sudden you build new opportunities and a bright future."

Earline Black, 59, said she savored the idea of strolling down the street from her Rialto home of 30 years, browsing at a Barnes & Noble bookstore or a JCPenney. Now, she says, she often must make shopping trips 22 miles west to Montclair or 14 miles east to Redlands.

But other residents have mixed feelings.

Beverly Clayton, 60, said she would enjoy the new freeway route when she visits family in Pasadena, but worries about increased truck traffic near her home. She is also not happy about the idea of apartments being built close to her neighborhood of single-family homes.

"It's a Catch-22," said Clayton, a retiree. "I love where I am. I love my home. It took me 30 years, and I don't want anything to come in and disturb that, and decrease my property values."

Across the street, Avery agreed with Clayton's concerns. He also hopes, however, that the freeway extension will boost the local economy.

The retired engineer said there wasn't much of a job market in San Bernardino and Rialto. "It'll get better when they build businesses along the 210. They're going to get more sales tax monies, and this whole city will make major changes when that occurs."

Such changes have benefited Fontana, Rialto's neighbor to the west, city officials there say. When that city gained access to the freeway in 2002, Fontana was opened up to San Gabriel Valley homeowners seeking to upsize their homes, said Fontana Mayor Mark Nuaimi.

"We saw quite an influx of folks moving down east on the 210," Nuaimi said. "With increased property values came increased family income and commercial development."

Since 2002, he said, major shopping centers have sprouted near the freeway, attracting auto dealerships, home improvement stores, and, last November, a Costco.

As a result, sales tax revenue for San Bernardino County's second-largest city has doubled in five years, Nuaimi said. Money has been freed up to invest in a new library and 40-acre regional park.

"All of that is tied from the 210 and connecting folks to the west," said Fontana Mayor Mark Nuaimi. "It's really been a major lifeblood for us."

But some warn that the freeway extension will put more pressure on existing roads like California 30 and the San Bernardino Freeway heading east toward Palm Springs, which have not yet been widened to accommodate growing traffic. California 30 will lose that designation and will become part of the 210 when the extension opens.

"Everyone's excited about it until they come to the reality — and I've been saying this for years — of … all the additional traffic," said Ross Jones, the mayor of Highland, just east of San Bernardino. "Locals are going to have to stick to surface streets." The problem, Jones said, is that these freeway improvements should have been completed two decades ago.

"That's part of the transportation problem in California: We under-design and under-plan for the growth and the need," Jones said. "Therefore, all our freeways are crammed because the demand just continues to increase."


ron.lin@latimes.com

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BS Ranch Perspective

Everyone is in a hurry to get home!! They don't have time to stop off the freeway and get anything but maybe a tank of gas!! So, the Commercial that they are waiting for might just be a pipe dream, Most of Highland Ave. Dried up of the businesses that were on there and they are just now starting to come back and that is only because they are dreaming that the new extension of the 210 will bring the business back. But what took the business away from Highland.

I will tell you it was the Completion of the Crosstown Freeway, that is going to be also known as the 210 Freeway or 30, Cross town Freeway, Unless the Crosstown ends at the 215 Freeway. I believe that if the people live beyond Rialto they will drive beyond Rialto, and that will be that!! say good by to them unless the people that they are talking about are the ones that move to Rialto to live. that is different. If that is the case then they are here and they are stuck.

BS Ranch

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Fwd: Police Find Half-Ton Pot Stash in Rialto (SB Sun June 9, 2007)

Police find half-ton pot stash in Rialto
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:06/09/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

RIALTO - Police found a half-ton of marijuana at a house in the Las Colinas area of the city Friday.

After receiving a call that there might have been narcotics activity at a house in the area, police arrived at 3422 N. Amberwood Ave. at about 5:30 p.m., said Rialto police Sgt. Andrew Karol.

"It looked like a brick wall," Eddie Vargas, who lives down the street, said of the marijuana.

Neighbors gathered to watch police as they lined the marijuana up in the front yard, he said.

When police arrived, 24-year-old Armando Isaac Hernandez showed up with 350 pounds of marijuana in the back seats of his Ford Explorer, Karol said.

Hernandez, who lives in Ontario, said he was just delivering the marijuana to the single- family house.

"He looks just like a runner," Karol said of Hernandez. Karol said he doesn't know who was running the operation or who owns the house.

When police entered, they found marijuana bricks stacked throughout the house, Karol said. The street value of the marijuana is about a half-million dollars, he said.

It was packaged in different sizes and looked ready for sale, Vargas said.

The marijuana was almost all there was inside the house. There wasn't even any furniture, Karol said.

Before Friday, the house blended into the neighborhood, Vargas, 27, said.

"You never noticed that house," he said.

Hernandez was booked at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of transportation and sales of marijuana and of maintaining a drug house, Karol said.

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BS Ranch Perspective

I just want to hand it to the Rialto Police Department to Rialto PD for keeping on top of everything and working to keep the neighborhoods clean even though they are still short handed from the Vote to Go to the Sheriff for Law Enforcement. It is going to take more time, but they will get the department all caught up on man power. With a Chief like Mark Kling in the Wheelhouse, things are right again.

BS Ranch

Friday, June 08, 2007

State of City: Rialto Approaching Crossroads of Change (San Bernardino County Sun June 8, 2007)


State of city: Rialto approaching crossroads of changeJasonJPesickesick
, Staff Writer
Bernardinoino CouSunArticleicle

RIALTO - This city is at a critical point.

That was the clear theme of Thursday night's state of the city address at the Tom Sawyer Pool Patio.

Residents, developers and city officials all came out for the formal affair.

The centerpiece of the event was a video presentation by MBI, the city's media consultant, and paid for by Young Homes, EDCO Disposal SaresaRegisegis.

The sound of horns and drums accompany a flying Rialto logo to begin the video in dramatic fashion, as if a national news network were announcing a major presidential address.

Then Rialto Mayor Grace Vargas appears on the video, titled "Rialto at the Crossroads."

"The city of Rialto stands at the crossroads to the future," Vargas says in the video.

Much of the presentation focused on the opportunities the city has for rebirth following the completion of the Interstate 210 extension through Rialto later this year, an event Vargas calls "one of the most important historic moments in time for the city of Rialto."

The video's narrator reviews the major projects and plans under way, especially on the north end around the 210.

"Currently, this part of the city is a blank canvas - one which can be painted into a picture of what we want Rialto to be," Vargas says.

The narrator mentions work to updRialto'sto's General Plan, a plan to improve the Foothill corridor, a plan to improve downtown, expansion of Metrolinklink parking lot, new senior housing, new industrial development, a Wal Wal-MSupercenternter and, of course, the redevelopment of the city's airport into Renaissance Rialto.

Renaissance Rialto, which will be located along the 210, is an aggressive project filled with retail and industrial buildings and almost 4,000 housing units.

In the coming years, the video says, Rialto will build 12,000 new homes and welcome more than 50,000 new residents.

The event itself featured gourmet food, jazz music, Mayor Temporepore Winnie Hanson singing the national anthem, jazz music and city staffers like Recreation and Community Services Director LaThornburgburg and Police Lt. Joe Cirilo grooving to the jazz music.

There was also a chocolate fountain.

But the theme of the night was the tremendous opportunity the city has for growth. The city is "on the cusp" Henry Garcia, the city administrator, said.

Even though the presentation was delayed because it was too light out to show the video presentation on schedule, there was a sense of excitement in the air.

"We have done so much in our city," Vargas said.

Contact writer JaPesicksick at (909) 386-3861 or via e-mail at jason.pesick@sbsun.com.

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BS Ranch Perspective

am wondering what crossroads are we approaching and just what is it that the 210 freeway is going to bring us. I guess it is like the movie 'Field of Dreams' "Build it and they will come!"

Then you look to the last line of this optimistic story, and it is the Mayor saying that we have done so much in our city. However, 4000 houses when they are all finished being constructed they will bring a whole bunch of families, but it is going to take a great deal long time to sell these houses since the properties are going to be not in style at the time that they are finished.

It is just a feeling that I have nothing more, just a feeling brings on this prediction, I could be wrong. People by that time might have seen what happened to the people that had land on Fillmore Ave, and their back yards backed up to Cactus Ave, however the water took out their Block Walls, and part of their back yard was gone in the rain storm that we had during the peak of global warming.

Now they are going to turn the airport into homes and lawns and that will be great! I mean just super...The whole airport gone, and they have the promise of one store to move into Renaissances Shopping Center, and that is Target!, I mean TARGET? That is a great store and that is a good store, but Rialto should hold themselves Higher, and maybe Nordstrom's or J.C. Penney's or even a good old Sears Grand, which is a Glorified K-Mart now.

Anyway, I just hope that things come together more for them, other then just that of Target, because if there is more then four thousand homes coming in there should be more then enough shoppers for the new stores that would be willing accommodated the new shoppers that are here.

On that other Road of the Crossroad however, If the City Council continues to run the city by trying to Shut down ,major Departments that are needed Such as the Police Department, where the Battle and fight that they encountered Cost the City, and the City Council Over $4,500, 000.00 to battle the Police union and the publicity against the People that elected them onto the City Council who were trying to keep the Police Department where they should be instead of having the Sheriff's Department in their place. But who cares about $3,000, 000.00 to 5,000,000.00 when it is the people that elected you into the seat that you old and you voted to have the Sheriff Department, and then you had an overwhelming fight from the Council members to put the Sheriff Department in place of the Police Department was overwhelming especially when the ratio was 1 Positive Sheriff Department Citizen to every 25 against the Sheriff Department Vote at every Meeting. Even with that the City council didn't see what they did wrong.

Yes it is true the City is at a Crossroads It is time to THOSE THAT WAISTED ALL THAT CITY FUNDS IN THAT FIGHT!!

BS Ranch

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Inland Empire's 25-Year Growth Targeted (USA-Today June 6, 2007)

0 0
Inland Empire's 25-year growth targeted 
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — This vast county east of LoLosnAngelesthe biggest in the continental USA, could hold the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont and Rhode Island and still have room left over. Most of San Bernardino County remains mountains and empty dedesert.Butn

ever-larger piece, the part known as the "Inland Empire," is freeways, fast-growing cities, traffic congestion and seemingly endless sprawl. For years, this has been the refuge, with Riverside County to the south, for hundreds of thousands of home buyers fleeing soaring LoLosnAngelesrprices.STATESAKE

the suburban dream, for sale on a third of an acre.

"San Bernardino has never seen a project it didn't like," says Brendan Cummings, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has brought several lawsuits in the Inland Empire over global warming. "They rubber-stamp development. It's very much of a frontier mentality."

Test case draws attention

Opponents of sprawl have found an unexpected ally: global warming. They see unfettered sprawl as a big contributor to greenhouse gases that fuel warming, mainly from the fossil-fuel burning homes, businesses and traffic it crcreates.The

tate and conservation groups have made San Bernardino County a test case of that status ququoCalifornia Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the county in April under the state's envircrcreates.Thetateact for failing to account for the impacts of global warming in the county's 25-yearququoCaliforniapproved in MaMarch.The

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society sued in a separate case.

county has to take some steps to solve it," says Susan DurbMaMarch.TheThe attorney general handling the state's case.

California Durbinear passed the nation's first law ordering an acroscase.California reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020. The attorDurbinneral is looking for more ways other laws can suppocase.CaliforniaaDurbinearn says.

County officials protested that Browacroscase.CaliforniarmingDurbindsays.Countyanning process years in the making and that the state had given localities no rules on how to abide by Durbinwsays.County

o, the county redid its plan to combat global wawarmingDurbindsays.Countyanningys county spokesman David Wert. He says the county will make sure employment centers and housing arWertarlaw.Evenrtation corridors to reduce traffic and do more to promote coBrowlaw.Evensuedt and mass transit.

Wert pointsWert that only 15% of the county is controlled by the transit.Wertrest arWertars and federal and state land. The county has budgeted $325,000 to fight the lawsuit.

The plaintiftransit.Wertcounty to rewrite its growth plan's envirlawsuit.Thepact secttransit.Wertrestethods to measure greenhouse gases and take steps to reduce them.

Durbin and environmelawsuit.They the county addressed global warmingthem.Durbinpecifics.envirlawsuit.Thepactve required developers to build energy-efficient homes, they say. It could have othem.Durbiner subdivisions and more multifamily construction, paidwarmingthem.Durbinpecifics instead of pushing driving alternatives and mandated tree-planting to capture carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

National forests in San Bernardino County have had one of the USA's hgas.Nationalire rates in recent years, a condition likely to worseUSA'sglobal warming brings extended droughts and dry tigas.Nationalet the county has done little to restrict resort and sUSA'sthgas.Nationalire in mountain regions or to expand already inadworseUSA'sglobalutes from fires, says Steven Farrell, the timberlands's local chapter's vice chairman.

Marin County's example

secondtimberlandsopments Marin County. Thchairman.Marinifornia enclave took a forceful approach to greenhouse gases in a growth plan likely to be approved this yechairman.Marin set up standards to measure greenhouse gases and set tarThchairman.Marinifornia

Surrounded on three sides by water, Marin also started planning for them.Surrounded sea levels, as polar ice melts, by identifying areas that shouldn't be developed or, if already built migthem.Surroundedls and levees. Marin has long had a progressive, "green" ethem.Surroundedighting global warming came naturally, says community development director Alex Hinds. "We feel fortunate that our population recognizes these concerns," he says.

Environmental groups are also focusing on specific developments in Ssays.EnvironmentalRiverside counties that they claim ignore greenhouse-gas impacts. A suit filed in November by the Centesays.Environmentaliversity against Banning, Calif., says the city failedSsays.EnvironmentalRiversidemissions when it approved 1,500 new homes on 1-acre lots on open space it planned to annex.

"It's coincidental that our first wave of litigation has all been down here," says Kassie Siegel, the center's climate program director. "But to some degree it's nSiegelcause we have the nation's worst sprawl."

The lawsuits are a wake-up call, says Cary Lowe, a San Diego lawyer and plSiegel consultant. "Cities and counties are scrambling, absolutely," he nSiegelcauseknow there's a good chance they'll get sued."

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BS Ranch Perspective


It appears to this writer that the population of the Inland Empire will grow larger then that of the lower projected amount of the report in the news paper indicating only a half million people will be expanding the Inland Empire in the next 25 years. However just the feelings that I get and the amount and success that the people and businesses are getting at this point in the Inland Empire with the kinds of shops and businesses that are running here seem to be very successful right now and there are not that many Businesses that are Failing in the Inland Empire!

So the Growth is welcome and it s a wonderful ting that is always have to look back on and laugh!!

BS Ranch

Pet Lovers at Odds Over Spay-and-Neuter Bill (Press Enterprise Sun June 3, 2007)

Pet lovers at odds over spay-and-neuter bill


10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, June 3, 2007
By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - A bill requiring most California dog and cat owners to sterilize their pets or risk $500 fines faces a key deadline this week, following weeks of debate about the wisdom of a statewide spay-and-neuter policy.

The measure, dubbed the Healthy Pets Act by supporters and the Pet Extermination Act by some opponents, divides animal control officials, veterinarians, breeders and pet owners in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and around the state.

"I've been involved with animal issues for 10 years. And I know people are passionate on all sides of the issue. I knew it was going to be contentious," the bill's author, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, said. "I didn't know it would be this big, but I knew it would draw a lot of people out who don't normally come out."

Story continues below
Amanda Lucidon / The Press-Enterprise
Richelle Romano plays with her dogs, Lola and Chase, in the yard of her Riverside home. Romano, who shows her Dalmatians, opposes a bill that would require dogs and cats to be fixed by the time they are four months old. She says the bill wouldn't stop backyard breeders.

In recent weeks, both sides have flooded lawmakers' offices with letters, faxes and e-mails. Bloggers and talk-radio hosts have joined the fight.

Proponents contend that the bill would reduce the estimated 1 million strays who end up in pounds and animal shelters each year, many of them the offspring of ba

ckyard breeders or irresponsible owners who let their pets roam.

But critics slam the proposal as an ill-conceived government intrusion. They argue that the measure would punish legitimate breeders and pet owners, while doing little to reduce the number of abandoned animals.

Trying to lessen the opposition and win over skeptical members of his own party, Levine late last week introduced amendments that carve out clearer exemptions for dogs used by law enforcement, the blind, and as animal companions. They also restrict what cities and counties can charge the owners of "intact" animals.

Vote This Week

The bill has cleared two committees already. But it needs to pass the 80-member Assembly by Friday or else it's likely dead for the year. A vote could come as early as today.

Republicans, who opposed the bill in committee, seem ready to do so again on the Assembly floor.

"I appreciate that he's trying to address a problem but I just don't think this is the right way to go," said Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands, who voted against the bill twice in committee. "I just think it adds a lot more fees on legitimate breeders."

Some of Levine's fellow Democrats also seem skeptical. Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto, who backed the bill in committee last month, would not commit in a recent interview to supporting the measure on the floor.

Introduced in February, the bill would require cat and dog owners to get their animals fixed, or "altered," at four months of age.

The only exception would be for pets with special intact permits. People eligible for the permits include licensed breeders and owners or handlers of service dogs, police dogs, or pets too unhealthy for the surgery.

Animal control departments would enforce the law, with the help of tips from other agencies and residents.

Violators would be fined $500. The bill would take effect in April 2008.

Supporters Active

Proponents estimate that it costs $250 million annually to house stray dogs and cats in California.

Story continues below
Rodrigo Peña / The Press-Enterprise
Dr. Allan Drusys, left, chief veterinarian, and Robert Miller, director of Riverside County's Department of Animal Services, back the bill.

Cities and counties already can adopt spay-and-neuter ordinances. The city of San Bernardino recently approved a similar rule.

A spay-and-neuter ordinance has been on the books in Santa Cruz County since 1995. Officials there estimate that the number of animals in the counties' pounds has fallen by about two-thirds.

But supporters of the Sacramento legislation say there needs to be a state law, not a patchwork of local regulations.

"This bill would give us one additional tool to address those who breed irresponsibly," said Brian Cronin, program manager for San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control.

Animal-control departments in Riverside and San Bernardino counties have endorsed the measure. Government-run and private animal shelters in both counties house about 85,000 animals annually.

"We as organizations have basically exhausted all the post-impound strategies," said Dr. Allan Drusys, Riverside County's chief veterinarian. Many animals cannot be reunited with owners or adopted out, he said, and have to be put down.

Levine's office has received more than 5,000 letters on the bill. Messages of support have arrived from the band INXS, comedians Bill Maher and Kevin Nealon, actor Pierce Brosnan, actress Diane Keaton, and "the Dog Whisperer," Cesar Milan.

Wrong Approach?

But opponents say the state proposal would fail to make a dent in the overpopulation problem.

Responsible breeders would comply with the law, they say. But backyard breeders -- those in California and out-of-state -- would continue to produce thousands of puppies and kittens.

"They're violating the law already. They're not licensing. They're involved in dog fights. I don't think they're all of a sudden going to say, 'We're going to get him spay and neutered,' " said dog owner Luisa Serrano, of Redlands.

Richelle Romano, of Riverside, shows her two Dalmatians and would be eligible for an intact permit.

The bill does not set a permit fee schedule; that would be up to cities and counties. But Romano said she fears that the permits would be too expensive for many legitimate breeders.

Organizations such as the American Kennel Club, which opposes the bill, have predicted that the law would discourage people from participating in dog shows held in California, costing the state millions in lost tourist activity.

"It's unfair to treat us that way and everyone else does whatever they want and gets away with it," Romano said.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the bill.

Even if the measure fails, spay-and-neuter requirements still could come to the Inland area. Riverside County has held several hearings on a county ordinance and Cronin said he would recommend a San Bernardino County ordinance.

"Really, to have a healthy community, indiscriminate breeding is not acceptable," said Robert Miller, Riverside County's director of animal services.

Reach Jim Miller at 916-445-9973 or jmiller@PE.com


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BS Ranch Perspective
This bill is not seem to fair to to this to the breeders of great dogs, that there is a demand for in the County of San Bernardino and Riverside. They Breed their Dogs here in San Bernardino County, and then the Dogs in some cases are get shipped all over the United States and beyond if there is a demand for them. Some of these people make there money solely from their Dog Breeding business and this Spay Neuter Bill makes it hard for those business men and woman to keep their business going and in some cases running with a good profit, so that they can keep their prices competitive

BS Ranch


Rialto's Historic 1853 Adobe Celibrated (Press Enterprise Sat. June, 2, 2007).

Rialto's historic 1853 adobe celebrated


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10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 2, 2007
By PENNY E. SCHWARTZ
Special to The Press-Enterprise

The Rialto Adobe came back to life Saturday for festivities celebrating its history and that of the adjoining cemetery.

About 100 current and former city residents toured the one-room adobe, built in 1853, and walked through the cemetery, noting graves of family members and prominent residents. Music, food, craft activities and self-guided cemetery tours were organized by the Rialto Historical Society.

The inside of the 18- by 28-foot building has been decorated with period artifacts that include parts of an old covered wagon and a section of wooden pipe believed to have carried irrigation water. An iron bed, wooden chairs, a pot-bellied stove and cooking utensils give the building the look it might have when Englishman Michael White built it and used it as a temporary home while overseeing his Mexican land grant.

Story continues below
Penny E. Schwartz / Special to The Press-Enterprise
Built in 1853, the one-room Rialto Adobe once served as a stagecoach rest stop. It had stood on Walnut Street in Rialto and was donated by the Isadore Strommer family to the city.

The building also served as a stage coach rest stop and an animal exchange depot, where riders left exhausted horses for fresh ones when riding back and forth to Rancho Cucamonga.

During the Prohibition years, the adobe housed a wine-making operation, said Rialto historian John Adams.

It was donated to the city by the Isadore Strommer family, its last owners, and moved from its original location on Walnut Street, now the site of the Rialto Unified School District Office, to its current location in Bud Bender Park, formerly Lilac Park, in 1961.

In 1967, the Rialto Adobe was designated a state historical building.

A number of former city residents and graduates of Eisenhower High School attended Saturday's events, organized by Jennifer Selbert, 63, of Laguna Woods.

Selbert and her committee located and identified the graves of former teachers, doctors, police officers and other prominent city residents. An alphabetical listing and map indicated the locations of graves, which were also marked with helium balloons.

Adams led an informal walk through the cemetery, which has about 4,100 graves. He pointed out the resting places of Dave Manuel, who built the cemetery and dug its first grave; Edmund Strommer, whose father made wine in the adobe during Prohibition; Milo Meddock, who bulldozed the city's orange groves in the 1950s to make way for housing tracts; and Margaret Todd, for many years the city's only kindergarten teacher.

At many of the graves, he related an anecdote or remembrance about the deceased.

Linda Bunting Smith, 62, came from Prescott, Ariz., to attend Adobe Day. She grew up in Rialto, where her great-grandmother built Rose Courts, a collection of Sears Roebuck redwood kit houses.

"The city has a wonderful history and it's great to walk around the cemetery with John," she said.

Cardiff resident Connie Blair Coe, 62, was delighted to see that the adobe and cemetery have been so well maintained.

"My grandparents are buried in the cemetery and coming here is like coming home," said Coe, who grew up in Rialto.

"Walking around the cemetery triggers a lot of emotions," said Adams, whose family owns the last orange grove in the city. "Here you can easily find your beloved teachers, store owners and doctors. The whole adult population you remember from your childhood is buried here."


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BS Ranch Perspective:

It does come to mind that there is a great deal of Rialto's History that is around that Building, In Fact the first and only Officer to Die in the While On Duty is buried in the Cemetery as well as the store keeps and School teachers. There is some of the Clerks and Office Personnel that keep the records straight at the Police Department that are at the Cemetery too. Yes there is a lot of Rialto History there. I also say that one of the best Leaders of the Police Department is buried there. Chief Sid A Jones.

BS Ranch

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Others Had Seen Fake Bomb For What it Was, Arrestee Says ( Press Enterprise May 30, 2007)

Others had seen fake bomb for what it was, arrestee says


11:24 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 30, 2007
By SHARON McNARY
The Press-Enterprise

The clock that Fontana resident Brian Babcock rigged up on the dashboard of his 1991 pickup truck to look like a time bomb triggered Monday's five-hour evacuation of Rialto's Home Depot and surrounding homes and stores.

Babcock, 55, a semi-retired construction worker, had taped and wired a $4.50 analog clock and a couple of 9-volt batteries to five orange-taped, foot-long sections of plastic pipe. He stuck "Danger" decals on the bundle.

Most people who saw his unique clock got the joke, said Babcock, who described himself as a funny guy.

"A couple of my friends said, yeah, it looks like it might be a bomb," Babcock said Wednesday. "When I was at the smog place, the guy was looking at it and laughing and said, 'Let's take it into the liquor store next door and show them.' "

Rialto police Sgt. Paul Wing, one of the first officers to arrive at the Foothill Boulevard store parking lot and view the dashboard device, said he and bomb squad officers considered it to be very realistic.

They called for a wide evacuation in case it was real. If it were dynamite, he said, there were enough sticks to inflict damage for a third of a mile around the store.

"He wasn't using his common sense, and when he gets a fine or jail time, he'll be re-evaluating his sense of humor," said San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Jim Mahan, who works on the bomb squad.

A fake bomb used as a scare tactic can be a form of terrorism and is taken as seriously as a real bomb, he said.

Babcock said he installed the clock in December after he bought the truck. But due to a difficulty passing smog inspections, he had not driven it until Monday, after he got a provisional smog permit. His first outing was to buy circuit breakers at Home Depot.

While shopping, he and others were evacuated from the store. He said he did not hear store security announcements describing his truck.

The parking lot was taped off and it appeared it would be some time before he could get to his truck, which he could not see. So he hitched a ride home with a man who told him the evacuation was caused by a report of a bomb in a vehicle in the parking lot.

"As soon as I heard about that, I flagged a Fontana police officer down on Sierra (Avenue)," and told the officer his vehicle's clock might have caused the scare, Babcock said. Within minutes, he was sitting in handcuffs in the back of a police car being questioned by the bomb squad.

"They asked if there were screws on the numbers of the clock," Babcock said Wednesday, one day after his release from West Valley Detention Center.

Wing said Babcock didn't alert Fontana police until three hours into the incident. By then, homes and several large stores had been evacuated, losing hours worth of business on a busy shopping day, Wing said.

Babcock was booked on suspicion of possessing a look-alike destructive device, a misdemeanor, according to the Rialto Police Department.

His truck remains in the sheriff's impound yard, its windows destroyed from the water cannon that was used to blast the device.

Reach Sharon McNary at 951-368-9458 or smcnary@PE.com

BS Ranch Perspective:

The Gentlemen, Babcock is a real Genius, to figure out how to make a simulated Explosive device that would be so realistic as to make the City Police Department Close the Business that he is parked in and evacuate the premises for almost 1/3 of a mile to attempt to detonate the explosive device only to find out for sure that it is a simulated Explosive device.

Babcock is such a mental giant that he left his vehicle at the Store at which he was shopping at because he was being evacuated due to a Bomb scare in the parking lot! HEY BABCOCK! YOU WERE PLAYING LETS SCARE THE PEOPLE IN THE OTHER STORES  EARLIER, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT IT WOULDN'T BE YOUR CAR THAT WAS THE ONE THAT WAS SCARING THE PEOPLE IN THE HOME DEPOT PARKING LOT JUST A HALF HOUR LATER!!

Babcock I hope that you make enough to pay someone to mow your lawn, because I would be afraid if you were operating a Lawn Mower, VERY AFRAID,  I certainly would want any of your fingers toes, or even feet to come flying into my lawn and feeding my lawn with your blood. I hear that blood is good for lawn care, but I don't want to have to clean up the fleshy parts after flying from your machine!!

BABCOCK BRAIN. I guess when we were looking for the next super here villain you would be the next villain to Super Chicken!!

BS Ranch