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September 28, 2017
De Luz Volunteer Fire Department among grant recipients
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Volume 21, Issue 38
Temecula council to seek help to fix I-15 gridlock conditions
Joe Naiman Village News Correspondent
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ allocation of Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grants Sept. 12 included $20,000 for Camp Pendleton’s Devil Pups program, $10,000 to the De Luz Volunteer Fire Department, and $5,000 to Rock Rose School for Creative Learning. The supervisors’ 5-0 vote will allow the Devil Pups to purchase uniforms and challenge coins, will provide fire-retardant gel and associated equipment to the De Luz Volunteer Fire Department and to two Fire Safe Council organizations, and will enable Rock Rose School to add base to the parking lot and purchase various items. Each county supervisor has an annual $2 million discretionary Neighborhood Reinvestment Program budget. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program is intended to provide grants to non-profit organizations for the furtherance of public purposes at the regional and community levels. In addition to non-profit organizations, county supervisors
Traffic slows to a crawl along northbound I-15 in Rainbow over seven miles south of the Winchester Road off-ramp in Temecula. Shane Gibson photo Northbound I-15 traffic consistently backs up for miles south of Temecula typically between the hours of 3 and 7 p.m. on weekdays. Tim O’Leary
see GRANT, page A-12 Staff Writer
thisweek Announcements �������������������������A-2 Business ������������������������������������C-11 Business Directory ���������������������C-8 Calendar........................................A-2 Classifieds ������������������������������������B-7 Dining & Food ������������������������������B-5 Education.......................................B-4 Entertainment ������������������������������D-4 Health & Fitness ��������������������������B-2 Home & Garden ������������������������C- 2 Legals.............................................B-6 Obituaries �������������������������������������A-8 Opinion �����������������������������������������A-5 Real Estate �����������������������������������C-2 Sheriff’s Log ���������������������������������A-8 Sports.............................................D-1 Wine................................................D-6
Temecula officials concede that commuters passing through their city endure “unacceptable” gridlock conditions, and they are now seeking help from the state, area cities, the Pechanga tribe and an array of regional planning agencies. “It’s not all Temecula traffic. It’s a choke point,” Mayor Maryann Edwards said in a recent telephone interview. “We’ve been doing our part as best we can. But we can’t take care of the entire region.” It is a problem that impacts a vast area stretching from Menifee and Lake Elsinore on the north to well beyond Bonsall to the south. Residents of the tiny community of Rainbow are especially hard hit, as gridlock conditions on weekday afternoons and evenings jam a
popular frontage road that parallels Interstate 15. Rainbow residents recently focused attention on their growing concerns. The candid appraisals of current conditions, as well as the prospects of what the future may hold, were brought to the fore by Temecula City Councilman Mike Naggar. Naggar asked that his colleagues tackle the issue in a recent open session. During that Sept. 5 discussion, Naggar warned that the area’s flourishing tourism industry might be at risk if visitors must slog through gridlock conditions to reach the wine country, Old Town or the Pechanga Resort & Casino. While Naggar was mayor last year, he spotlighted the importance of the region’s tourism industry during his State of the City speech. In that speech, Naggar noted that
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Verdugo wins
tourism revenue had tripled since 2004 and at that time exceeded $651 million a year and employed about 7,000 workers. He cited the Pechanga complex – which is wrapping up a $285 million expansion – as an indicator of the area’s tourism allure. Area officials are also concerned that gridlock conditions could cost lives. Temecula Valley Hospital has become a regional medical hub since it opened in October 2013. The closure of Fallbrook’s community hospital in November 2014 has boosted the flow of residents from that region to Temecula for an expanding menu of hospital services and specialty medical skills. The congestion that snarls commuters on I-15 has periodically delayed ambulance crews that shuttle back and forth to the
hospital from nearby communities. “The situation on the 15 freeway is terrible,” Naggar said during the brief council discussion. “It’s terrible in each direction at different times, and something needs to be done about it.” Naggar and city staff called for the formation of a regional task force that would draw on the revenue-raising abilities and lobbying muscles of state and federal officials, area cities, the Pechanga tribe and various regional planning agencies. Naggar cautioned that he is uncertain if this approach will work. But something must be done, he said. “We need to get together,” he told his colleagues. “We need to do a lobbying plan, a do-anything plan, a we’re-doing-something plan.”
see GRIDLOCK, page A-12
Operation Double Down results in 49 arrests
Village News
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department photo Forty-nine people were arrested Sept. 21 when San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officials served arrest and search warrants as part of Operation Double Down. Tom Ferrall Staff Writer
Shane Gibson photo Michelle Verdugo celebrates after being announced as the winner of the 2017-18 Fallbrook Honorary Mayor title during the 2017 Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce State of the Chamber Dinner event at Pala Mesa Resort, Sept. 20. See more photos on page C-1.
“The good guys 49, the bad guys 0.” That’s how Detective/Sergeant Patrick Yates of the San Diego County Sheriff ’s Department Fallbrook substation summed up Operation Double Down, which resulted in the arrest of 49 people Sept. 21. Deputies from the Fallbrook substation along with personnel from other units within the Sheriff’s department and other
law enforcement agencies made surprise visits to residences in Fallbrook, Bonsall, Rainbow, De Luz, Vista and Oceanside, serving arrest and search warrants from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. A nine-month operation targeted at drug dealers, Operation Double Down was a follow up to Operation El Niño, which concluded in summer 2016. A member of the crime suppression team came up with the name Operation Double Down.
see ARRESTS, page A-11