to

Build 3 Wildlife Overcrossings

work at Garbani and Menifee roads continues with temporary traffic control to remain in place as necessary through February 2023.

Work continues on the traffic signal and median at McCall Blvd. and Ranch Road as part of the McCall Square project. The construction schedule for this project has been extended and is now expected to continue through April. Traffic control will remain in place for the duration of the project.

SoCal Gas Company will continue the installation of new pipeline infrastructure in the vicinity of Evans Road and Lazy Creek Road. Lane closures will remain in place for the next several months to support the project.

Matthews Road is closed at Menifee Road for more SoCal Gas Company work during daytime hours. Work is expected to continue through mid-March 2023. Traffic control will be in place during active construction.

For questions on the project/ construction updates listed, please contact Philip Southard, Public

Information and Legislative Affairs Officer, at (951) 746-0654 or at psouthard@cityofmenifee. us

Caltrans

Caltrans continues work on a $5.5 million project to construct and upgrade curb ramps to Americans with Disabilities Act standards and modify signal and lighting systems on State Route 111 (SR-111) in Palm Springs. Crews will continue work at various locations on SR-111 from Lawrence Crossley Road to West Gateway Drive. A minimum of one lane will be open in each direction at all times through Friday, Feb. 24.

RCTC

Night time closures on the eastbound Highway 60 truck and middle lanes from Gilman Springs Road to Jack Rabbit Trail were canceled last week but new construction work may be rescheduled. Check for any changes at https://www.facebook. com/60TruckLanes/.

Recent derailments don’t signify rail safety threats in Riverside, officials say

RIVERSIDE – A rash of train derailments, one of them resulting in a significant public health and environmental threat, do not reflect an overall breakdown in railroad safety, including along the network of railway lines that run through the Riverside metropolitan area, officials from two major rail operators insisted Friday, Feb. 17.

“Burlington Northern Santa Fe is committed to safely and securely delivering the goods and products the American public depends on every day, including hazardous materials,” Lena Kent, BNSF spokesperson, told City News Service. “BNSF has made a significant investment in infrastructure, technology deployment, rigorous employee and first responder training, improved operating practices and community safety efforts.”

Kent emphasized that BNSF utilizes “specialized rail cars” to transport hazardous materials,” and that there’s a pre-programmed system in place to “determine the safest rail routes” for hazmat products before they’re shipped.

A nexus of rail lines running in all cardinal directions are operated by BNSF and Union Pacific in Riverside. The lines additionally extend through large swaths of Riverside County, often paralleling freeways.

According to the Riverside Department of Public Works, the transcontinental corridors “carry over 75% of the freight from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.”

“Everyday, approximately 128 trains pass through the city,” the agency stated.

Amtrak and Metrolink commuter trains also utilize the tracks.

UP spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said the freighter “shares the same goals as our customers and the communities we serve, to deliver every tank car safely.

“We are required by federal law to transport chemicals and other hazardous commodities that Americans use daily, including fertilizer, ethanol, crude oil and chlorine,” she said. She pointed out that UP maintains a “24-hour, 365-days-ayear emergency critical center and a robust emergency management plan.

“We also have hazardous materials management teams placed regionally throughout our network to prevent, prepare and respond to emergency events,” Tysver said. “Union Pacific is using new technology and education to reduce variability and risks of derailment, and we are enhancing our training programs and re-emphasizing our safety culture through a joint effort with our union partners.”

BNSF did not have any association with the roughly half-dozen train derailments this month, which involved UP, Norfolk Southern and CSX.

The first and worst of the bizarre string occurred on Feb. 3, when a 50-car freighter went off the rails and ended up in a crumpled heap in East Palestine, Ohio.

At least 11 cars were loaded with hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride used in construction and other applications. The substances were reportedly set aflame by railroad officials following consultation with federal authorities as part of a clearing process, sending up a chemical plume visible on National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration satellite images. The impacts to water channels, soil and air from the dioxins emanating from the spill and burn-off have yet to be fully assessed in East Palestine and surrounding locations, including nearby Pennsylvania farm country. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said earlier this week that he had “serious concerns” about management of the derailment and that Norfolk Southern would be held accountable for damages.

This past week, cargo trains crashed in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Houston, Texas; and on Thursday, Feb. 16, in Van Buren Township, Michigan. At least one of the box cars in the Michigan crash did contain hazardous materials, but according to published reports, there was no spill.

“Railroads are the safest mode of transportation, delivering more than 99.9% of the hazardous commodities (to) their destination safely, without a release,” Tysver said.

The most catastrophic derailment in the Inland Empire occurred in May 1989, when a Southern Pacific freighter went off the tracks in San Bernardino after losing its brakes in the Cajon Pass, destroying 11 homes, killing two people and rupturing the Calnev petroleum pipeline, causing a massive fire days later, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Campbell honors Buddy Holly with February 3 skydiving jump

Joe Naiman Writer

Buzz Campbell agreed to join his son for a skydiving jump for his son’s 19th birthday. The earliest date available was February 3. Feb. 3, 1959, is known as “The day the music died.” The Winter Dance Party concert tour which included Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (also known as the Big Bopper) played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959. After the concert Holly, Valens and Richardson were driven to Mason City Municipal Airport. The plane took off in the early hours of Feb. 3 and crashed shortly afterwards, killing the three musicians and the pilot.

Campbell, who has lived in Temecula since 2004, is a musician and is in a Winter Dance Party tribute band. The day before his jump he realized he would be in an airplane on Feb. 3.

“I thought about canceling, but I thought I need to jump in Buddy’s honor so that’s what I did,” Campbell said.

Twenty years after the crash, a Winter Dance Party concert was held in Clear Lake as a tribute to the 1959 musicians. That Winter Dance Party has now expanded to a three-day concert Thursday through Saturday the first week of February. Campbell is part of the John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party tribute band which played at the Surf Ballroom on Feb. 2, although he is also the guitarist for former Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker and was not at the Surf Ballroom on the anniversary of the final concert for Holly, Valens and Richardson.

His parachute jump would be Campbell’s most significant link to the tribute. “It wasn’t my idea,” he said.

Campbell’s son Drew turned 19 on Feb. 4. “He likes challenges and he likes different stuff,” Campbell said.

His son wanted a skydiving experience. “I had never done it,” Campbell said. “I wanted to skydive when I was his age.”

Campbell was born in Dallas, Texas, and moved from Chicago, Illinois to the Bay Park area of San Diego when he was seven. He attended the School of the Madeleine, which is the grade school of Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Bay Park, and then attended University High School in San Diego. After graduating from University High School in 1987, Campbell worked at the Price Club (now Costco) in Bay Park for seven years. Some of the other Price Club staff members had been discussing a parachute jump.

“I wanted to go, but it didn’t work out,” Campbell said.

Campbell founded the band Hot Rod Lincoln in 1991. He was later with Sha Na Na. Music and family priorities kept him from skydiving until this year.

On Jan. 31 Campbell’s wife asked her son who was joining him for the skydive. “He said, ‘Nobody. Nobody will go,’” Campbell said.

Campbell’s wife didn’t want her son to jump alone. “She turned and looked at me,” Campbell said. “I can’t let him go alone, so I went.”

A flight out of Oceanside Municipal Airport which left at 9 a.m. Feb. 3 was the next available opportunity. “For the next two days I didn’t even want to think about it,” Campbell said.

A day later Campbell looked at the calendar and realized that he would be in a plane and jumping on the anniversary of the crash which killed the Winter Dance Party musicians.

“It was completely unintentional.

It just worked out that way,” Campbell said.

The original Winter Dance Party tour consisted of concerts in 24 towns on 24 consecutive days. Concert dates were based on venue availability rather than geographic synergy. On Feb. 1 the musicians played at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, after playing in Duluth, Minnesota, the night before.

“The routing was horrible. The roads were terrible. The weather was terrible,” Campbell said. A colder than normal winter in the upper Midwest combined with the failure of the heating system on the tour bus caused Holly to charter a plane after the Clear Lake concert. Holly’s drummer, Carl Bunch, had to be hospitalized due to frostbite Feb. 1 and did not make the trip to the Surf Ballroom. Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup were Holly’s other two backup musicians. Richardson was ill with the flu, so Jennings gave up his seat on the flight to Richardson. Allsup and Valens agreed to flip a coin for the final seat on the flight.

Crash attributions

The crash has been attributed to weather and visibility issues compounded by pilot error. Had the plane left after daybreak it likely would have arrived safely in Fargo, North Dakota, and the musicians would have had time to travel to Moorhead, Minnesota, for the Feb. 3 concert. “I think that’s a fair assumption,” Campbell said.

Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo were also headline acts. Campbell has met Dion DiMucci, who is originally from New York City. DiMucci told Campbell that the weather was cold from DiMucci’s New York perspective.

Holly and Richardson were from Texas. Valens was from the Los

Angeles County town of Pacoima.

“They were not used to that kind of cold,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s Feb. 3 flight during daylight thus avoided the risks the Winter Dance Party musicians had. Campbell also would have taken a Feb. 3 flight had he played with John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party at the Surf Ballroom on Feb. 2.

John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party has played at the Winter Dance Party in Clear Lake in the past, and Campbell has been part of that. “It’s an amazing event,” he said.

“So many people come from all over the world to it,” Campbell said. “It’s just amazing to see the giant age group.”

Giant mural tribute

A giant mural of Holly, Valens and Richardson faces the stage. “It’s an incredible experience,” Campbell said. “To be able to play in that room and play those songs and keep that music alive, it’s very special.”

Campbell, who turned 54 in January, has enjoyed being in the Surf Ballroom for other events even before joining John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party. “As a 20-something year old it was very glamorous,” he said.

Mueller and Campbell have been friends since the 1990s. Mueller has been re-creating the stops of the 1959 tour. This year the group played at the Riverside Ballroom and in Dubuque, Iowa, as well as at the Surf Ballroom.

Campbell has also been to the site of the crash. “That was a really weird feeling because it really became real,” he said. “It just made it so real. It broke my heart.”

This year’s Riverside Ballroom concert was Feb. 10, and Campbell took a Feb. 9 flight to join John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party.

“That’s a big honor, too, to play the

Riverside in Green Bay,” he said.

The Dubuque concert was Feb. 4, as was Lee Rocker’s concert at The Ranch in Laguna Beach. Campbell thus missed the Dubuque concert as well as the Surf Ballroom concert, but he is usually with John Mueller’s Winter Dance Party. “The only time I’m not doing that gig is if I’ve got something else with Lee,” Campbell said.

Because Campbell was not performing with Rocker on Feb. 3, Mueller was willing to fly Campbell to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for the Feb. 2 concert. “As much as I enjoy the experience I was not looking forward to flying out there to Minneapolis,” Campbell said.

The concern wasn’t the Feb. 3 return flight date but the round trip for a limited amount of hours performing. Campbell told Mueller that he would be willing to make the trip but if Mueller could find another musician who wouldn’t incur the plane fare Mueller should use that musician.

Robby Vee took Campbell’s place at the Feb. 2 Surf Ballroom concert. “When Robby was available I was very happy that he stepped in,” Campbell said.

That wasn’t just due to Campbell not having to make the trip. The original Winter Dance Party tour continued after the crash. Jennings transitioned from backup musician to headliner. Vee’s father, Bobby Vee, actually made his performance debut at the Moorhead concert.

“How strange is that?” Campbell said of Bobby Vee’s son taking over on Feb. 2. “There’s an incredible amount of history there.”

Holly, Valens and Richardson were driven to Mason City Municipal Airport. Campbell and his son drove to Oceanside see CAMPBELL, page C-6