Helix Water adopts mandatory drought conservation measures Jeremy
Ogul Editor
A
fter more than six months of above-average temperatures and meager rainfall, state and regional water authorities have moved from voluntary to manda-
tory restrictions on water use to preserve the region’s dwindling water reserves. Meanwhile, an exceptionally wet El Niño pattern this winter is becoming less likely, according to weather forecasters at the National Oceanic and A decorative fountain on Eastridge Drive in La Mesa. New restrictions prohibit the operation of fountains unless they recirculate water.
See DROUGHT page 9
Police, neighbors find each other on Nextdoor Marty
Graham
T Small business owners say the construction zone is scaring customers away. (Photo by Jeremy Ogul)
Village businesses remain open despite construction Jeremy
Ogul Editor
B
usiness owners in La Mesa’s downtown say they’re struggling to keep their heads above the rubble now that construction has begun on the Downtown Village Streetscape Project. For the first segment of construction, workers have torn up the street and sidewalk on the southern half of La Mesa Boulevard between Palm Avenue and Third Street. The work
area is surrounded by orange and white construction barriers, but openings and metal plates form an improvised walkway to the doors of the businesses, which remain open despite the construction. Most streets in the area remain open, most parking is still available and there is full pedestrian access to the businesses, but even the contained chaos of construction is repelling customers, said Shannon O’Dunn, owner of O’Dunn Fine Art on La Mesa Boulevard. On one recent Saturday, not a single customer See VILLAGE page 20
he La Mesa Police Department has found a better way to reach its residents: a website called Nextdoor.com that lets people set up neighborhood-based virtual places to talk to each other. The department opened shop on Nextdoor in May. Since May, when the department had 121 La Mesans in touch, the Nextdoor numbers have jumped to 1,532 people in a half dozen neighborhoods, according to Claudia Ortega, a crime prevention specialist with the department. The website divides La Mesa into about two dozen neighborhoods — divisions that were created by La Mesans as they joined the San Francisco-based site. When the department started thinking about joining, Ortega contacted both the com-
See NEXTDOOR page 4
La Mesa church seeks to help immigrant children Jeremy Ogul Editor
A
Border Angels founder Enrique Morones (Photo by Jeremy Ogul)
I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Since hearing that sermon, an ad hoc committee has mobilized to determine what the La Mesa congregation can do to help the immigrant children, many of whom are seeking asylum from violent gangs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They started writing letters to their members of Congress, which eventually led to
s the news emerged earlier this summer of a tidal wave of unaccompanied children crossing the border from Central America, the Rev. Kaji Douša gave a sermon to her congregation at the United Church of Christ of La Mesa. Framing it as a humanitarian issue, Douša pointed to Matthew 25:40, which says: “Truly See BORDER page 22