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March 15, 2018
DUI driver to be retried for murder in 2015 accident that killed activist Crews
D e L u z , R a i n b ow, C a m p P e ndl e t o n , Pa l a ,
Volume 22, Issue 11
Ortega appointed to BUSD board
Tom Ferrall tferrall@reedermedia.com
Marco Antonio Pastor, who has already been convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter in the 2015 death of Fallbrook resident Joseph Howard Crews, will be retried for second-degree murder, according to Deputy District Attorney Bob Bruce of the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. A North County jury Feb. 20 found Pastor, who had two prior convictions for driving under the influence, guilty of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated but hung on the second-degree murder charge. According to Fallbrook resident Wayne Avery, who was a member of the jury, the vote was 7-5 in favor of not guilty. Pastor, an agricultural worker, was on probation for his second DUI conviction when the Ford Freestyle he was driving collided head-on with Crews’ Mitsubishi Outlander along East Mission Road in Fallbrook at 4:45 p.m. Oct. 21, 2015. Crews died five days later as a result of the injuries he sustained in the accident. Crews, 77, was a longtime
see DUI, page A-10
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Superintendent David Jones, right, swears in Eric Ortega after his appointment to the Bonsall Unified School District board. Lucette Moramarco lmoramarco@reedermedia.com At the end of a four-hour long meeting March 8, members of the Bonsall Unified School District board voted to appoint Eric Ortega to the seat left open when Dr. Erin English resigned in January. Seven people applied for the position and each was given seven
minutes to talk about themselves and their qualifications. This took place after members of the audience had a chance to tell the board about issues regarding Bonsall schools that are important to them. Somewhere around 100 people attended the meeting, a higher than usual number. After reports from several parent organizations,
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superintendent David Jones and the board members talked about violence in schools. Jones said they are “generally concerned about gun violence” and “are thinking about systems and trainings to make our schools the safest they can be.” Board member Sylvia Tucker
see ORTEGA, page A-11
Rainbow Water adopts new rates Joe Naiman Village News Correspondent
The Rainbow Municipal Water District adopted rates for the remainder of calendar year 2018. A 5-0 Rainbow board vote Feb. 27 approved the rates in the Proposition 218 notice sent to accountholders and property owners within the district while also calling for Proposition 218 notices to be sent every year rather than every five years as is required by law. “The board did adopt the rates that were published,” said Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy. In November 1996 the state’s voters passed Proposition 218, which requires a public vote on benefit assessments. Proposition 218 exempts water agencies from raising rates if a cost of service study shows a relationship between the rates and the agency’s cost to provide water. A rate setting policy can be in effect for up to five years and must include a rate design and public hearings. Rainbow approved cost of service studies in 2010 and 2015. Although an update was not legally needed until 2020, the 2015 rate study was based on an estimated annual demand of 18,000 acre-feet and recent actual demand figures are closer to 16,000 acre-feet. The decreased sales created a revenue shortfall for Rainbow, so in July 2017 the Rainbow board approved a contract with Raftelis Financial
see RATES, page A-10
Wildlands Conservancy presents Santa Margarita preservation proposal to FPUD board Joe Naiman Village News Correspondent The Wildlands Conservancy proposes to acquire the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s Santa Margarita property, and Feb. 26, The Wildlands Conservancy presented its proposal to the FPUD board. The presentation was a nonvoting item. “That was just a presentation on the proposal provided by Wildlands,” FPUD general manager Jack Bebee said. “It was just an initial information item and opportunity to review what they’re proposing.” The components of the proposal will require that the state’s voters pass Proposition 68 in the June 5 election. Proposition 68 would authorize $4 billion of general obligation bonds for state and local park, environmental protection, water infrastructure and flood protection programs. The Wildlands Conservancy would use $10 million of Proposition 68 funding to help finance the acquisition of the Santa Margarita property. The pres enta tion by The Wildlands Conservancy also included a management component; the integrated resource management plan submitted would grant a trail easement to the Fallbrook Trails Council before the close of escrow, maintain the existing 18 miles of trails, protect sensitive plants and animals on the property and develop a fire mitigation plan. In the late 1940s, the FPUD board pursued the building of a dam on the Santa Margarita River and purchased the 1,384-acre property with the intent to use the land for a dam. Issues involving Camp Pendleton water rights needed to be resolved at higher government levels, and by the time
Area residents enjoy riding their horses along the Santa Margarita River. that occurred, environmental and funding issues prevented the dam from being built. The plans for the dam have been replaced with the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project, which would enhance groundwater recharge and recovery capacity within the lower Santa Margarita River basin and develop a program to increase available water supplies for Camp Pendleton and FPUD. The Santa Margarita property includes approximately 18 miles of multi-use trails for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. FPUD owns the trails but has a maintenance agreement with the Fallbrook Trails Council. The county’s general plan designates the property as public agency lands, while the zoning is open space for all but a 3.6-acre parcel which has limited agriculture zoning. In September 2015, FPUD’s
board approved a sale agreement of the 1,384-acre property to Western Rivers Conservancy for $9,975,000, and the revenue from the sale would have been earmarked to construct the Conjunctive Use Project facilities. The purchase and sale agreement stipulated an escrow closing date of Dec. 31, 2016, unless Western Rivers Conservancy chose to increase the deposit and extend escrow to June 30, 2017. The expectation was for the land to be placed into a permanent conservation easement, and the purchase and sale agreement stipulated that a recreational trails easement as well as a long-term stewardship agreement would be finalized before the close of escrow. The process would have involved The Wildlands Conservancy undertaking the role of the long-term steward for the entire land with an equestrian
Shane Gibson photo easement being granted to the Fallbrook Trails Council. Concurrence in writing by FPUD, Western Rivers Conservancy, The Wildlands Conservancy and the Fallbrook Trails Council would have been necessary for the agreement to be finalized. The conditions to close escrow were not met, and in June 2017, FPUD’s board voted 3-2 to reject a motion which would have extended the escrow agreement with Western Rivers Conservancy for an additional 90 days. In September 2017, the FPUD board voted 4-1, with Milt Davies opposed, to issue a Request for Proposals soliciting interested parties to propose a transaction agreement to acquire the Santa Margarita River property, which would include preserving access to the trails on the land. The proposals
see PROPOSAL, page A-10