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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94

THE COAST NEWS

MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

VOL. 26, NO. 20

MAY 25, 2012

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25 Cool as ice

Council supports mini-fire station

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THISWEEK

■ Carlsbad

teen bests cerebral palsy, is champ skier

By Wehtahnah Tucker

By Lillian Cox

MOVING ON

Ed Fosmire is leaving his position as executive director at the Oceanside Museum of Art after more than two A10 years.

INSIDE

TWO SECTIONS, 48 PAGES

Arts & Entertainment . . . A10 Camp Pendleton News . . . . B13 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . B19 Coastal Cosmos . . . . . . . . . B2 Comics & Puzzles . . . . . . . B22 Consumer Reports . . . . . . . B4 Frugal Living . . . . . . . . . . . B14 Legal Notices . . . . . . . . . . A18 Lick the Plate . . . . . . . . . . A17 Local Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . B9 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . B15 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4 Sea Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3 Small Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A15 Taste of Wine . . . . . . . . . . A9 Who’s News? . . . . . . . . . . . B5

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CARLSBAD — In January, Katrina Schaber earned the distinction as the U.S. Junior National Gold Medalist for Slalom at Waterville Valley, N.H. This was remarkable feat for the ninth-grader at Canyon Crest Academy considering that eight years earlier she had difficulty keeping up with her peers, both academically and physically due to a condition known as toe walking. Between the time she was in kindergarten and third Inset photo: Skier Katrina Schaber (center) with coaches, Maggie Palchak (left) (Disabled Sport Eastern grade, Katrina’s mother, Sierra) and Mau Thompson (Team Mau Head Coach, Adaptive Adventures). The Canyon Crest Academy TURN TO SKIER ON A16

9th grader was recently awarded a grant from the Challenged Athlete Foundation to train this summer. Courtesy photos

District looks to improve tourism in Del Mar By Bianca Kaplanek

DEL MAR — About 18 months after its inception, the Tourism Business Improvement District is ready to begin spending the $172,000 collected to promote Del Mar to business and leisure travelers nationwide. In September 2010, council members authorized the formation of the district, allowing hotel operators to charge guests an additional 1 percent fee that would be used to attract more visitors to the beach city. One month later the district began collecting the money. During the first year, $172,201 was taken in, but only about $56,000 has been spent, primarily to reimburse the city and hotel owners for startup costs such as legal and administrative fees. The district has set aside 10 percent of the funds, or about $16,000, for downtown improvements and another 10 percent for the Del Mar Village Association. But the

bulk of the money — 74 percent, or about $106,000 — will be used to build a website, contract with a marketing firm and hire a professional photographer. “There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Mike Slosser, general manager of L’Auberge Del Mar and chairman of Visit Del Mar, the nonprofit formed by hoteliers to oversee the district. “We’re going to move through that money pretty quickly in the next four months.” The six Del Mar hotels will continue to have their own websites, but the district will create one that will allow people to book directly into them as well. It will also provide specific information about the city, DMVA and other amenities, Slosser said. “When it’s done it will be a tremendous search engine out there for us from an exposure standpoint,” he said. The website will take about four months and

$30,000 to $40,000 to build. Once that is complete, the district will contract with a marketing firm to manage its e-commerce strategy that will allow hoteliers to look at all website activity and measure its effectiveness. “We’re just not going out and spending money to spend money,” Slosser said. “We’ll be able to measure how we’re doing so we get better at it every year.” Plans also include marketing Del Mar “as a brand from a social media and public relations perspective.” “We’re going to have a lot of stories written in a lot of publications about this community and why it’s great to stay here, walk here, shop here and so forth,” he said. Slosser said the website and photographer are onetime infrastructure costs. All additional money raised in the next four years will “drive marketing dollars to improve the visibility of Del Mar as a place to stay,” he said.

The district will automatically expire five years after its creation. Hotel owners can repeat the multistep process for re-establishment and, if approved, it will then be valid for 10 years. The city will receive 1 percent of the money collected annually. That is expected to be about $1,600 in 2012. Slosser said administrative costs will be limited to 5 percent, or approximately $8,000 this year. The city requires an annual report from the district. “The only thing I would encourage is that next year the report be really focused on money spent and accomplishments,” Councilman Terry Sinnott said. “It was kind of fuzzy this year because of the startup issue. … I’m hoping that the next year’s report will really pin down what’s been accomplished with the money.” Slosser said this year the TURN TO TOURISM ON A16

ENCINITAS — After hours of discussion, debate and public comments, the City Council said it would support a mini-fire station in the Olivenhain area and directed city fire officials to explore various ways of implementing the part-time response unit. The decision was disappointing to the numerous residents who supported the construction of a “real” fire station in the rural area. Bob Bonde, a Cardiff resident was an exception to most of the public speakers. Rather than build a fire station, he encouraged the council to place the emphasis on medical emergencies. He said more ambulances should be placed at each fire station to respond to calls in Olivenhain. “We should never add another fire station in this town,” he said. “Every time we do it seems like our response times get worse.” City fire officials provided five options for decreasing emergency response times to Olivenhain.The cheapest, and most unpopular option among residents was renting office space on Rancho Santa Fe Road with an ambulance for 12-hours a day at an estimated cost of $322,000 annually. The most expensive choice was a portable, full service fire station building and a brush fire truck on Lone Jack Road and staffing it 24 hours a day at an estimated cost of $1.65 million a year. Fire Chief Scott Henry recommended the council select the least costly option. “So much for community participation,” said Tom Swanson, an Olivenhain resident who has been advocating for a fully staffed fire station in the community for two years. He noted that residents were overwhelmingly supTURN TO STATION ON A23


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