Around Yucaipa: Weekly News Roundup: August 11 Edition

Here's the Yucaipa news from the last week.

City News

The next City Council meeting is August 13 at 6PM. Download the Agenda Packet (pdf).

On the front page of this week's News Mirror was a sad story about animal cruelty. Yucaipa resident Debbie Roth complained several times to San Bernardino Animal Care and Control Department that her North Bench neighbor, Robert Minerich, was neglecting the many animals (goats, cats, dogs, chickens, and more) on his property. Each time they came out to investigate, Minerich was able to convince them that he was caring for his animals. It wasn't until July 23, that Roth was able to convince an Officer to come out again to check on the suffering animals.

The animals were in dire straits and needed immediate attention. It was too late for one dog on the property that was found dead tethered to a tree with no access to food or water. Davison called Smith to the location, who in turn called the Police Department to the scene and began removing the animals.

The Police Department was able to gain access to the inside of the home where more animals were found in deplorable conditions. The animals were locked in a sweltering house without food or water, where floors were covered with feces and urine. In addition, investigators found that the water on the property had been shut off two days before so the automatic water supplies had no way of being used by animals.

Minerich's house has been red-tagged as uninhabitable and his animals are on on "legal hold" until the investigation is complete. I can't even begin to understand people who don't care for their pets.

In what I would consider related news, The San Bernardino County Sun reports that a new, centralized animal shelter serving the East Valley (including Yucaipa) has been proposed. It's not just that there would be space for more animals, according to Ken Childress, animal control director for the city of San Bernardino.

Childress says an added benefit of a new shelter is improved animal care. At existing shelters, sick animals are taken to private veterinarians. In-house veterinary services could be established if a new central shelter is built, Childress said.
"It would probably double our adoption rates because it guarantees people a healthy pet," Childress said. "The end result is reduced euthanasia. When you have a shelter full of sick animals, it drives down the marketability of adoption."

According to the Sun, San Bernardino County Supervisors are moving forward with a plan to repair potholes and seal cracks on Sand Canyon Road all the way to Crafton Avenue.

"This is a win-win situation for the residents, taxpayers, and drivers in the area because it will protect and prolong the pavement," said 3rd District Supervisor Dennis Hansberger in a prepared statement. "It will not only make the roads better and safer, but it will save valuable resources and time so the pavement lasts longer."

The Sun also reports that a number of schools in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District have been spruced up over the summer.

Keep an eye out for the new flooring that were done in 46 classrooms at Canyon Middle School, Yucaipa Elementary School, Yucaipa High 9th-Grade Campus School, Ridgeview Elementary School, Park View Elementary School, Oak View Education Center and Valley Elementary School.

There has been exterior painting at Park View Middle School and Yucaipa High School, and new paving at Yucaipa HS and the 9th Grade Campus.

The Yucaipa Planning Commission met on August 1. Some of the bits from that meeting:

The new shopping center at I-10 and Live Oak Canyon Road being developed by Target will probably not have a movie theater.
Associate City Planner Toomey told the commission that a cinema had backed out of the project, but other businesses have filled in the space. Toomey said while there were no specifics given, the decision may have been based on marketing and demographic decisions, including the expansion of the Kirkorian theater in Redlands and plans for a theater in Banning.
There were no objections for a proposed 4,900 square foot storage unit at the 31000 block of Dunlap Blvd at the existing Shoein' Shop.
A new office building on the southwest corner of Yucaipa Blvd. and 13th Street has been proposed.
Magnolia, who also represented Jim Peterson and this project, which is to be built adjacent to Zabella's Mexican Restaurant, said, “The offices and retail stores would compliment the restaurant in structural esthetics and landscape.”
A new car wash has been proposed for Yucaipa Blvd. near 10th, between Del Taco and A&W.
After adjournment Mr. Toomey was asked if consideration was made that a car wash was being planned merely a stones throw away from another car wash with similar amenities. He said, “We are getting two more car washes. Demographic studies show this city can use even more.”

He further noted, “Each car wash is different from all the others in some way. Some people like doing the work while others don't want to get out of their car.”
That sounds totally crazy to me, but I wash my own car.

Apparently two "gargantuan developments" have been proposed for the western side of Calimesa, near the northern border with Yucaipa (map).

Corona-based Fiesta Development is the company proposing Mesa Verde Estates, a 1,492-acre project designed to include 3,450 dwellings, 350,000 square feet of commercial space, more than 57 acres of parks and about 453 acres of natural open space.

They could begin construction on Mesa Verde Estates as early as September 2008.

Developers have already won the City Council's approval for tentative tract maps covering all 2,590 acres of SummerWind Ranch. Workers could start building models for the 3,683 homes planned for SummerWind Ranch in 2008, said Peter Johnson, senior project manager for SunCal Companies, the Irvine-based firm developing it. Besides homes, SummerWind's designs include 129 acres for commercial development, 130 acres for business parks, 645 acres of open space, 90 acres of parks and space for three schools. Johnson said developers are working with Forest City Enterprises, the same company that operates Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, to plan a new shopping center.

The Calimesa City Council will hold hearings in the coming weeks on the Mesa Verde Estates project.

Yucaipans in The News

The Press-Enterprise reports on the graduation of Class 67 of the Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic program at Crafton Hills College.

Fifteen students now hold certificates from an intense program that included about four months of classroom time, 200 hours of hospital rotations and 600 hours of interning with a fire department or an ambulance crew.

Check out the article for a photo of the graduating class.

Yucaipa's Michael Coronado graduated with a degree in biochemistry from UC Riverside in June and is entering the Molecular Toxicology and Environmental Medicine Ph.D. program at The Johns Hopkins University.

His experiences at UC Riverside led him to say, “I knew that conducting research was definitely a passion that I could keep for the rest of my life because the fulfillment attained from it is truly grand.”

Good luck to Michael!

I love the headline for this article in the News Mirror: "Ellen Marie Drummonds - Destined for something great". She's not quite Harry Potter, but Ellen is a smart, academically-successful 14-year-old. Like most 14-year-olds she is still deciding on her post-high-school path: first doctor, then lawyer, now a novelist a la J.K. Rowling. To that end she's been taking Brenda Hill Seaman's novel writing class at Yucaipa Community Center and writing poetry.

She has her sights set on college and plans to apply for scholarships to help pay her expenses. She'd love to go to Stanford or, to be closer to home, University of Redlands. Miss Drummonds seems to be headed for something special in the future; perhaps we'll all be reading her novels in a few years.

Ellen if you are reading this: keep reading widely and set your sights high! You'll be pleasantly surprised when you get to college and find yourself surrounded by others who love books and learning. Also, consider the University of California - UCR is close to home, and UCB (my alma mater) is naturally superior to that other northern California college.

The News Mirror also has a nice story about the return of a young man to the Yucaipa Teen Center at 12385 Seventh St. at the park.

As the conversation went on, Hester said he mentioned how much he enjoyed hanging out there and what a huge influence the Teen Center had on him. He recalled how positive the staff was and how they kept him on the right path to do the right thing and make the right decisions, especially when it came to dealing with peer pressure to do drugs and alcohol. The last thing he asked was, “Do you accept donations?” Hester and his staff said proudly, “Yes, we do.” The man was gone before they got his name.

The Center is for teens from sixth grade to high school seniors to come and hang out after school or on holidays or during the summer.

The Fostering a Brighter Future blog has an article about Trinity Youth Services that was founded in Yucaipa in 1966.

A single group home in rural Yucaipa forty years ago is now home to a residential treatment center for sixty-six foster youth. Students learn to deal with the anger that comes from being victims of abuse and neglect and learn how to create healthy relationships with peers and adults through Trinity’s proprietary treatment approach, Group Centered Leadership. Students also receive individual therapy and attend specialty groups that address treatment needs. Adjacent to the campus is a non-public school designed to meet the special education needs of the children in care, Wilson Creek Jr./Sr. High School.

Finally, searching via Google News always pulls up some unexpected articles. This week I found one in the Waxahachie Daily Light about the 2007 Youth National Baseball Team. Yucaipan right-handed pitcher Matt Davidson is one of six players from California named to the team.

Team USA will remain in Cary (North Carolina) for four days of training before departing for Barquisimeto, Venezuela to compete in the IBAF World Youth Championships August 17-26.