First annual Hamilton Museum Founders Day events announced

Diane Sieker Staff Writer

Residents of Anza will celebrate the inaugural Founder’s Day Celebration on the grounds of the Hamilton Museum and Ranch Foundation Saturday, July 29. The county fair-style event is free from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a barbeque from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and a dance starting at 6 p.m. at a cost of $25 per person.

At 10 a.m. the Cahuilla Bird Singers will open the day with a performance of traditional bird songs.

“Few people alive today speak Cahuilla, the language of the bird songs,” said organizer Allison Rencke. “It is not clear how old the songs are except that it is said they are from the beginning, gifted to the people by their creator Mukat.”

Following the Cahuilla festivities, Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington will present a proclamation plaque to Ruth Roman, CEO and daughter of museum founder Margaret Wellman Jaenke. Jaenke, born

Cochise, Az.

Board vice president Steve Lauzier called the meeting to order and introduced the AEC board members - Chili Ainsworth and Diane Sieker representing District One, Hope Adams and Treasurer Harold Burdick for District Two and he and Secretary Stephen Silkotch, Sr. for District Three.

Board president Ryall Stewart was unable to attend the meeting due to illness.

The candidates for District 1 included W.A. Chilli Ainsworth and Steven Leash, Jr., District 2 - Hope Adams and District 3, Stephan Lauzier.

Secretary Stephen Silkotch, Sr. presented proof of notice of the meeting as well as approval of the minutes from the membership meeting from 2022.

Audit Manager Jarrod Bryant, from Bolinger, Segars, Gilbert and Moss L. L. P., from Luboc, Texas, gave the auditor’s report on the financial condition of the AEC via video message.

The AEC is once again in excellent financial standing, according to Bryant. The cooperative’s equity to assets ratio indicates good financial health. He went through several graphs, explaining the details and positive numbers to the membership.

“The Cooperative received a clean, or what’s referred to professionally as an unmodified audit opinion, on the financial statements,” Bryant said. “The audit opinion is important to your outside lenders in terms of gauging the financial health of the Cooperative and making sure that that information is reliable.” and raised in the Anza and Garner Valley area, spent her later years collecting Cahuilla and cattle rancher history until her passing in 2022.

Board Treasurer Harold Burdick said that the audit was approved by the AEC board in June. The complete audit report is available at the AEC office.

Operations Brian Baharie and Member Services Representative Betsy Hansen then conducted a round of raffle prize drawings.

Patrick F. Ledger, Executive Vice President and CEO of Arizona G&T Cooperatives, gave the Arizona Electric Power Cooperatives report.

“We are a cooperative of cooperatives. We’re a group of cooperatives from Arizona, from California, from Nevada, that gets together and we take care of a lot of the complex transactions. The complex regulatory support and the way that we do that is expressed right here in our mission statement - we want to be safe, reliable and we want to be affordable,” he said.

He described the power portfolio that makes up the electricity that AEC provides to its members..

“We have a resource portfolio and it’s pretty diverse. We have steam units, we have combined cycle, we’ve got natural gas, we’ve got a lot of hydro and we have solar. And the solar is really part of a growing portfolio of new generation,” Ledger said.

He discussed the closing of coal and nuclear plants due to regulatory requirements, making it harder to provide power to an ever-growing demand..

The celebration is a fundraiser for maintenance of the historic Contreras homestead, house and barn where local historical artifacts are on display.

The Hamilton Museum Founders Day Celebration will feature local artisan’s vendor booths, competitions and tours of the museum. The Anza Quilters Club and Idyllwild Quilters will be on hand, displaying quilts created by their members.

Guests may enter numerous competitions and show off their talent. Categories include: Fruit Pie Contest; Preserved Food/ Pickles contest; Best Dressed Pet Rock; Photography Contest - Beauty in the Mountain Communities; Sewing - Apron; Quilted Article - Placemat; Best Dressed Dog; Rubber Chicken Throwing Contest; Corn Hole games and more.

“In the evening the museum is hosting a BBQ dinner and dance,

“So how do you beat this?’ he asked. “With local generation, we’ve been assisting Anza with a couple of various projects over the last few years. We have grants that we’ve filed so that we can continue to do this. The benefits here obviously are that no matter what happens on the system, if you have local generation, then you can connect that local generation to certain circuits. You’ve got a micro grid here and you can keep some of those primary important circuits going.”

He added that the Apache Generating Station is building an array consisting of 235 megawatts of solar panels and 200 megawatts of battery storage.

Next to speak was Jessica Nelson, General Manager of the Golden State Power Cooperative. This organization provides costsaving services such as legislative and regulatory lobbying to electric cooperative utilities. The California Air Resources Board’s scoping plan is of major concern, she said.

“What the Air Resources Board scoping plan does is it’s going to set us on a course in California to achieve carbon neutrality across all sectors - not just electricity - by 2045,” Nelson explained..

“So this audacious plan contains basically a series of goals and mandates to constrain greenhouse gas emissions, and then transition to cleaner energy sources in electricity, transportation, agriculture and industrial sectors. All of these things are going to be constrained. But we also have some unprecedented advantages and opportunities with an array of incentives that have become available. So with the passage of the infrastructure law, as well as the new direct pay tax credits and rural investment transition funds we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have these tools to actually mitigate that cost of transitioning.

“Golden State Power Cooperative is here to support you and partner with you on these great ambitious projects as you transition,” she said.

GSPC is dedicated to advocating for financial tools to invest in a cleaner, safer energy future. At the federal level, they continue to push for direct pay tax credits to provide an alternative incentive to allow electric cooperatives to build renewable energy.

Kevin Short, general manager of the AEC continued the meeting with his General Manager’s Report. He reviewed the progress of the Cooperative and gave updates on various programs.

He called up the staff, managers and crew to the front of the room.

Short recognized Jaime CardenasRosas and Kelly Brenz for five years of service with the Co-Op.

The financial health of the AEC is excellent, he said.

“There are 920 cooperatives in the country,” Short said. “The latest report from one of our banks has us at number 66 in the nation for a percentage of capital credits retired back to our members.”

He addressed the increased building activity on the aged electric system. The Tony Lapos substation, an over 70-year- old structure, was completely modernized and reengineered. Additionally, the circuit in Terwilliger has been refurbished.

“We have about $30 million in total plant. We’ve been investing heavily. You’ve probably seen as you drive by that our main substation behind the office has been completely rebuilt. We rebuilt most of the line down Terwilleger. In the last couple of years, it’s been a very busy building time for us. Our plant is getting to be a little long in the tooth in places and it’s time. So as we invest more and more in the system, that plant value goes up,” he explained. Short reported that about half the capital credits have been retired and returned to the cooperative’s members.

He introduced the Washington DC Youth Tour winners, Hamilton High School juniors Hosanna Guerrero, Olivia Lopez, Jasmine Moralez and Ashlynn Rozzo. The girls traveled to Washington D.C. this summer for an all-expense paid trip to get an inside look at government and to see the many historical sites.

AEC accountant Celena

Downey, who accompanied the girls to the nation’s capital earlier this year, spoke about the experience.

“This program has been going since the 1950s. President Eisenhower decided that juniors in high school needed to go to DC and see some of the buildings and some of the history being made and appreciate our beautiful country. It was just a week full of traveling and these girls were just phenomenal. They’re smart, they’re beautiful. They’re heading toward tomorrow. There were 1,800 teens there that descended on DC and it was an amazing adventure,” she said.

Olivia Lopez was chosen to represent the state of California for the Youth Leadership Council. Short talked about the AEC’s involvement with the community

The Hamilton Museum and Ranch Foundation is located at 39991 Contreras Road in Anza.

For more information, please visit www.hamiltonmuseum. com, email hmrf.Anza@gmail. com or call Allison Rencke at

(951)763-1350. Diane Sieker can be reached by email at dsieker@reedermedia. com and the various programs that help members.

The Hamilton Museum Founders Day Celebration will be held Saturday, July 29. Anza Valley Outlook/Courtesy photo which will encourage socializing and meeting your neighbors the old-fashioned way. The music entertainment is the notorious and revered Barnyard Boyz band, so be prepared to dance until you drop,” added Rencke.

The Cooperative Connections helps small businesses within the community with free advertising in exchange for discounts for AEC members, he said.

The Operation Roundup program, administered by the Anza Thimble Club, has assisted many families with donations placed into the Cooperative Care Program, of over $26,000 last year, according to Short.

He recognized Erinne Roscoe for her volunteer work keeping Anza Community Radio KOYT 97.1 LPFM on the air.

Short praised the Cooperative’s partnership with the FIND Food Bank. Over 15,000 families have been served with 800,000 pounds of food distributed in the monthly mobile pantries at the AEC offices since the program’s inception.

He revealed a project with the Beneficial Electrification League in which, with funds provided by Wells Fargo Bank, two local homes were weatherized and upgraded at no cost to the owners. A video documented the process.

The pilot program was a success and more homes will be considered for the upgrades. Other energy saving options included a smart thermostat, available though the Cooperative for free.

“The home thermostat program is an active program that’s ready to go,” Short explained. “We’re going pay you $100 per year let us put a brand new thermostat in your home for free, as long as you’ll let us get into it every now and then during the high temperature summer months and adjust the thermostat up and down for a couple of hours at a time. This is totally voluntary but it really benefits you from a perspective of cost control and it benefits the Cooperative from a perspective of demand control.”

Short touched upon rebates on energy-saving appliances and HVAC, and low interest loans that will soon be available to members.

“And we’re working on a battery storage system and solar for your home. We would rebate 10% of the cost of that,” he added.

Short described the cooperative’s other projects such as more solar production and the use of sheep to clear weeds from the existing arrays.

An update on ConnectAnza fiber optic internet service was given, with Short reporting over 3,400 members connected to date.

He next discussed rates, waiting that the AEC’s rates are much lower than those of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. The annual comparison at 1000 KW revealed AEC as the winner, boasting only 15 cents a kilowatt hour, even after the rate change that took effect in January.

“We can talk about the causes of fuel increase, electric increases, market pressures and the changes that are going on, but I wanted to bring you a little bit of history here. The last rate change prior to that was in 2009. That’s a lot of years between rate changes for an electric utility. The last rate change before 2009 was in 1986,”

Short said.

Short’s report concluded the meeting, with election results presented after a question and answer session.

A total of 748 valid, identifiable, ballots were received, Secretary Silkotch Sr. said.

District 1 position

W.A. (Chilli) Ainsworth - 430

Steven Leash, Jr. - 318

District 2 position

Hope Adams automatically seated for a three-year term

District 3 position

Stephan Lauzier automatically seated for a three-year term vs Fallbrook Public Utility District water suit.

The Anza Electric Cooperative may be reached by calling (951)763-4333 or online at http://www.anzaelectric.org/ or on Facebook at https://www. facebook.com/Anzaelectric.

Staff reports opened with Animal Services’ Huennekens issuing a brief statement regarding the planned reopening of the San Jacinto Animal Campus. She also fielded several questions from the audience.

Up next was Code Enforcement Officer Gregorio, who reported that of 113 open Code Enforcement cases from the Anza/Aguanga area from May through the middle of July, 68 were closed. Eighty three inspections had occurred, 8 vehicles removed and 2 abatements completed. He added that the state was offering free vehicle removal through their Abandoned Vehicle Abatement program.

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. DeLoss mentioned the date for the area’s National Night Out, where the sheriffs and other agencies display their assets and mingle with the community.

The event will be held Tuesday, August 1, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Lake Hemet Sheriff’s Substation in Mountain Center.

DeLoss also touched upon the social media outcry concerning the new Flock cameras being installed in Anza.

“The Flock cameras are not intended to be Big Broher,” he said. “They are there to record license plates only. They have already proven beneficial in this community.”

He added that the data has a retention of one year or longer and they are designed to record license plates and that data would be used in the investigations of crimes.

Lt. Sgt. Tiburzio quoted statistics from July 7 through July 17. There was 1 robbery, 2 assaults, 3 auto thefts and 2 larcenies/thefts. Year-to-date crimes include 1 rape, 3 robberies, 23 assaults, 25 burglaries, 30 auto thefts and 42 larceny/thefts in the Anza Valley.

Marijuana search warrants from May 1 to July 19 incided 28 search warrants served, 63,427 plants seized, 8,447 pounds of marijuana seized, 16 arrests and 5 firearms seized.

Senator Kelly Seyarto’s aide spoke briefly by Zoom regarding several bills that the senator has been following, including SB86, which if passed, will create a resources website for the victims of crime.

Riverside County Supervisor

Chuck Washington’s staff member gave an update on the ADA improvements to the Anza Community Hall, and many grants given to the community from the Supervisor’s office. These include $5,000 to the Anza Electric Cooperative to help fund the FIND food pantry, $10,000 to the Hamilton Museum for improvements, $6,500 to the Anza Valley Community Library, $35,000 to the Wellness clinic and additional funds to the AEC to assist with brush reduction in their service area.

Gordon Lanik and Frank Miller took the floor and presented a water suit update. The legal action, 51-CV-1247-GPC-RBB US vs Fallbrook Public Utility District, was first filed in 1951.

The case had been moving upstream for the last 50 years, Miller said. “My parents were originally served in this case in 1956. I can’t wait till it’s over.”

The history of water rights in the Santa Margarita River watershed is well-documented, according to Lanik. From 1936 to 1940 Vail Ranch and Rancho Santa Margarita had water rights in the lower half of the watershed. The US bought Rancho Santa Margarita for Camp Pendleton in 1942.

This case commenced January 25, 1951, by the United States of America to secure its rights to water from the Santa Margarita River and its tributaries. During the years 1941, 1942 and 1943, the United States acquired, either by condemnation or purchase, most of the Rancho Santa Margarita. This land is used principally by the United States as a military reservation and includes Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, a United States Naval Hospital, and a Naval Ammunition Depot. The military

AnzA VAlley