Weekly News Roundup: April 21 Edition

City News

April 19, Press Enterprise, "Yucaipa improvements highlight state-of-city update"

On Thursday, Mayor Dick Riddell presented the annual "state of the city" remarks at the Yucaipa Community Center. According to the mayor, Yucaipa is $35 million dollars in the black, about $25 million of which will be used to finance public works improvements and parks.

"The mayor said the city is in good shape financially and has enough surplus to front the more than $6.5 million needed to speed up the start of improvements this year at the Oak Glen-Live Oak interchange at I-10. The city will get reimbursed in 2010, when money is availablefrom the next increment of Measure I gas tax.

Riddell said he also expects the city's master plan, which will guide development along the freeway corridor, will be finished this summer or fall. He touted the environmental and architectural components thatwill be a showcase, "not just big box stores and parking lots.

Later this year, the Wildwood Canyon Road and Fifth Street intersection will get a traffic signal, and construction will start on a third city fire station at the intersection's southwest corner, Tooker said."

The Mayor also pointed out that the rate of residential development has also slowed down significantly.

It wasn't all serious business - the remarks were given in conjunction with a BBQ hosted by the Yucaipa Chamber of Commerce. A presentation on Yucaipa history was also given.

See also: April 20, San Bernardino Sun, "Mayor: Yucaipa in solid shape"

April 19, Yucaipa News Mirror, "'Celebrate Yucaipa' at Yucaipa City Council Monday"

Monday's Yucaipa City Council meeting will be a bit out of the ordinary. The meeting will open with the Yucaipa High School Thunderbird Band's rendition of the 1925 song "Yucaipa" by Lauren Hale. That will be followed by an hour presentation by the Yucaipa Valley Historical Society called "Celebrate Yucaipa", in celebration of the new book "Yucaipa" from Acadia Publishing (amazon.com).

"The authors of the book will be signing editions next week and will be
featured at book signings at the society's headquarters at Mousley
Museum, 35308 Panorama Drive on May 5, at Barnes and Noble in Redlands
on May 12 at 2 p.m., all three days of the Yucaipa Iris Festival and at
Freedomfest celebration on July 4."

The agenda for the April 23 City Council meeting is now available for download (pdf).

April 16, San Bernardino Sun, "Yucaipa steps up on universal issue"

The Sun voices approval for the City Council's decision to support action on global warming.

"The national mayors' agreement won't directly affect city policy. But
signing it will allow Yucaipa officials to go on record in support of
efforts to reduce global warming, including legislation.

Whereas Yucaipa wisely declined in September 2004 to pass a measure
supporting federal and state constitutional amendments banning gay
marriage, considering it outside the bailiwick of city government,
global warming is a different matter.

The personal lifestyle choices that each one of us makes has some
bearing on the planetary picture of climate change, and Yucaipa should
be proud for taking the initiative to provide mature, responsible
direction on government policy."

April 16, Press-Enterprise, "Yucaipa High earns 'distinguished school' status from state"

On Monday Yucaipa High school became only the second San Bernardino County traditional high school to win California Distinguished School status since 2003.

Yucaipa High's 727 base score on the statewide Academic Performance Index in 2006 reversed a 17-point decline from 2004 to 2005. Schools score on a scale of 200 to 1,000.

Yucaipa-Calimesa board President Jim Oedekerk said the school's recognition was a welcome relief from the "drumbeat of negativity going through our district."

Calimesa Elementary was recognized as a distinguished school in 2006, Ridgeview Elementary in 2004 and both Park View Middle School and Yucaipa Junior High in 2001.

Related: Yucaipa-Calimesa Teachers Blog, "Congratulations YHS Teachers and Staff"

Other news bits:

• The Yucaipa-Calimesa School District will hold a ground breaking ceremony for Elementary School #8 on Tuesday, April 24 at 10 am. The ceremony will take place at the corner of Cramer and Chapman Heights road (map). The school is scheduled to be completed by August 2008.
• The Yucaipa-Calimesa School Board is considering new basic history/social studies textbooks. For K-5 they are considering California Vistas (Macmillan McGraw-Hill) and for grades 6-8 they are considering the California Middle School Social Studies Series (McDougall Littell). Interested parties can review the books at the District Education Center (12797 Third Street) from April 24-May 15 during standard business hours.
• The San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) has approved allocation of $410,000 to the city of Yucaipa to continue development of bikeways. A smaller $20,000 award was granted for sidewalk and bus pad work at the proposed City Hall transit center. Projects must be completed by June 2009.

Crime

April 20, San Bernardino Sun, "Threat leads to an arrest"

A 16-year-old Yucaipa high special education school student was arrested Thursday on suspicion of threatening to kill a fellow student.

The verbal threats concerned the investigators enough that they did
check the young man's home to see if he had access to any weapons,"
said Cindy Beavers, spokeswoman for San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department. "They determined that he did."

Two guns, which were registered to the suspect's parents, were taken
from the home, she said.

April 16, Redlands Daily Facts, "Wrongway driver causes fatal crash on Interstate 10"

Beau Cornish, of Parris is suspected of trying to break into a house on 12th street on Sunday. He fled in his Dodge Charger , eventually entering I-10 heading eastbound on the westbound side. Unfortunately he collided head-on with a Honda Civic at Ford St., killing driver passenger Steven Aveles of Upland (thanks to Ramona Aceves for the correction). Cornish was captured and transferred to Loma Linda Hospital.

Locals in the News

April 19, San Bernardino Sun, "Korean Navy vet appreciates scrapbook find"

Korean War veteran Harold Terry stumbled on a posting by Tennesseen Helene Whitehurst looking for his old shipmate Jimmy Drymon. She had found a scrapbook full of pictures of Navy sailors and submarines with Drymon's name written in it. It turns out Drymon had died in 1974. Whitehurst instead sent the scrapbook to Terry.

"Her finding it and sending the book, it's unbelievable. Most people would throw them away, but she's a special person, she kept on and on and on until she finally had an answer and it was me."

Terry, who was discharged from the Navy in 1958 after having a heart attack under the water while performing a rescue, said he's hoping to find the rest of his shipmates and bring them together for a reunion. Meanwhile he'll continue to live in Yucaipa along with his wife, Del, and large family of five children and 12 grandchildren.

There was a more in-depth story about Terry in the April 19th issue of the News Mirror which I can't find online. It talks about Terry's service on the USS Nereus and USS Florikan during the Korean War, and how he found Yucaipa:

While in training he came to Yucaipa to visit some friends on a weekend. It was his first time seeing the beautiful community. He enlisted in the Navy on March 25, 1951, and left for the Orient in August. He couldn't get Yucaipa's rural setting out of his mind, so he visited again when he got back from Korea, China and Manila. While here, he was in Redlands one evening and he met Celia (Del) Munoz. They fell in love here and courted until Harold was sent to Maryland to attend hydraulic school to become a gunner's mate and deep-sea, hard-hat diver. After he graduated, he and Del were married. They've been together now for 54 years.

I love romantic stories like that!

April 19, Yucaipa News Mirror, "Two men walk away from airplane crash in Oak Glen"

On Tuesday Yucaipan student pilot Allan Ympa and his instructor, Brandon Niewenhuis, survived the crash of their Cessna 152 in Oak Glen.

"They walked from the crash site in the northern section of The Wildlands Conservancy preserve east of Oak Glen Road.

Ympa said, "The seat belt worked great, but the dashboard came up" to possibly break Ympa's nose reported Robert Little who was at the scene.Both pilots refused medical treatment."

Tags: Yucaipa, news