Special Graduation Edition
VALLEY
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NEWS
June 20 – 26, 2014
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Section
www.myvalleynews.com
Volume 14, Issue 25
OPINION
District claims ring hollow Robert Eilek Special to the Valley News
Children play on a specialized playground apparatus that will be permanently installed at the special needs playground at Margarita Park in Temecula. Shane Gibson photo
Start of work on Temecula’s Special Needs Playground spotlights increasing focus on autism-related services Tim O’Leary Staff Writer The start of work on Temecula’s Special Needs Playground – the only such facility in a broad swath of Riverside County – marks another plateau of autism-related services in the city. It also marks a far higher level of city spending, as it will boost Temecula’s investment in such services and facilities to about $940,000 this year. It also revealed the inner churning that Mike Naggar, the Temecula
councilman who has championed June 5 ground-breaking ceremony those programs and services, has in Margarita Community Park. experienced since his son, Liam, They met near the hub of the 20was diagnosed with autism about acre park, an area that will soon be the region’s first eight years ago. That diagno- “The new playground, when special-needs playground. sis was, Naggar it opens in September, will But the stage said, a sudden emersion into be the most tangible sign of w a s s e t s i x months earlier, that “shadow Temecula’s plunge into the which was when population out the City Council there.” special needs arena.” agreed unaniAbout 120 residents and city officials – as mously to allocate $875,000 for the well as a pot-bellied “therapy” pig design and construction of the first named “Baxter” – gathered for the phase of the playground.
The funds for the first phase of the new playground will come from development and park fees, according to a Dec. 10, 2013, city staff report. The existing playground at Margarita Community Park, which opened in 1995, had become outdated and was showing signs of wear, the staff report said. Rather than simply ordering replacement pieces for the aging playground, city officials instead shifted the focus of a two-acre section of the
see PLAYGROUND, page A-6
Due to long-term budgetary crises, Temecula teachers have neither requested nor received salary increases for the past seven years and willingly accepted pay cuts by agreeing to multiple furlough days to help the Temecula Valley Unified School District remain financially solvent. While pay was stagnant and reduced, teachers absorbed annually increasing health care costs, inflation, and now face additional increases in their contributions to retirement. Against this backdrop, Temecula teachers strongly rejected the school district’s meager salary offer of a 4 percent (1 percent for 20132014 and 3 percent for 2014-2015) wage increase.
see DISTRICT, page A-7
Hard News
De Luz residents voice concerns about sex offender Andrea Verdin Special to the Valley News Concerns over how the Sheriff’s Department and parole board inform residents when and where sexual offenders are being released in their area were brought up at a community meeting in De Luz on Saturday, June 14, after area residents became aware that a convicted rapist was living in their community.
Report details abuses at Temecula National Bank multiple California rehab celebrates 100th anniversary Home & Garden Menifee couple centers
see page A-2
converts front yard into vineyard to save water and make wine
Alex Groves Staff Writer Every day millions of Americans wake up dealing with an addiction problem. Approximately 23.5 million people needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem in the year 2009 alone, according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) National Survey on Drug Use and Health. However, addiction isn’t limited to substances that are illicit. Prescription painkillers or any number of substances that impact the way the human body functions can be abused and can gain an addictive hold over the people that use them. Each and every day many of the individuals who suffer from current substance abuse problems will attempt to kick the habit for good; they’ll go to a rehab treatment facility in the hopes that it will give them the ability to overcome their dependence on a substance. That dependence in many cases isn’t just mental, but also physical. Detoxification, or the process by which a drug leaves the body, can be a key example of that. People who actively and habitually use opioids at the time of their checkin at a rehab facility could begin to experience agitation, anxiety and severe muscle aches among a number of other withdrawal symptoms, according to studies by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). People who suffer from addictions to alcohol also suffer from an array of symptoms that includes seizure, rapid heart rate and fever, according to officials. Some specialists in Southwest Riverside say these withdrawal
Laura Rathbun Special to the Valley News
symptoms can be deadly when paired with an extenuating illness or disorder, especially in facilities where medical staff aren’t present on a regular basis. Locally, and in California as a whole, there have been a number of deaths at rehab facilities that took in individuals trying to get themselves clean of a particular substance. There was Brandon Jacques, a Missouri resident, who came to an Orange County rehabilitation center after developing an eating disorder and an addiction to alcohol. The facility failed to transfer him to a hospital immediately after lab testing indicated his electrolytes were out of balance. He would later die of cardiac arrest attempting to do 30 pushups. Gary Benefield of Arizona was another out of state resident who came to California seeking treatment for his alcohol addiction. He came to the state in spite of a recent bout of pneumonia and a case of COPD (chronic obstructive
see REHAB, page A-4
A front yard vineyard is helping Menifee residents Craig and Jeri Westerson save on their monthly water bill and in two years they will be producing wine from their grapes as another benefit. see page B-1
thisweek
The Bank in Old Town celebrates its 100th anniversary with a ribbon cutting on Tue. June 10, 2014.
Paul Bandong Staff Writer Craig and Christy Puma, owners of The Bank Mexican Restaurant & Bar in Old Town Temecula, hosted the 100th anniversary of the charter of the Temecula First National Bank on June 10, 2014. The restaurant is housed in the
historical building that has been maintained in much of its original condition. The celebration also included a re-enactment the following day of the first bank robbery in Riverside County. A plaque on the outside of the building attributes the establishment
see BANK, page A-4
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