Area private schools receive approved reopening waivers, B-2
Local high school teams resume inperson workouts, C-1
A
BONUS EDITION
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See the Anza Valley Outlook beginning on page AVO-1
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SERVING TEMECULA , MURRIETA , L AKE E LSINOR E , M ENIFEE , WILDOMAR , H EMET, SAN JACINTO September 25 – October 1, 2020
Local Lake Elsinore to vote on city funding Measure Z
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AND THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES
myvalleynews.com
Volume 20, Issue 39
Murrieta ‘Strengthened by Community’ in 2020 State of the City event
Jeff Pack STAFF WRITER
When asked why the time was right for Lake Elsinore to put Measure Z, a 1-cent sales tax to help the city address service, public safety and local recovery needs, on the ballot in November, city manager Grant Yates said it was a good question. see page A-2
Local Hospitalization numbers continue to fall countywide Jeff Pack STAFF WRITER
While hospitalizations and known active cases continue to fall countywide, Riverside County Public Health officials Friday, Sept. 18, reported 307 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths since Thursday, bringing the total number of cases within the county to 56,681 since the county began recording data. see page A-4
INDEX
Mayor Gene Wunderlich, right, and Patrick Ellis, president of the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce, talk during a filming of the virtual Valley News/Courtesy photo Murrieta State of the City address.
Lexington Howe STAFF WRITER
Murrieta’s virtual 2020 State of the City highlighted the city’s accomplishments, while discussing
some of the challenges they have faced this year due to COVID-19. In partnership with the Murrieta Wildomar Chamber of Commerce, Patrick Ellis, chamber president and CEO, sat down with Mayor
Gene Wunderlich to discuss what’s been going on in the city. The theme for this year, “Strengthened by Community,” was chosen to highlight the people that have helped keep the city run-
ning and extending that into the community. “It’s really all of you who have kept our city running,” Wunderlich see MURRIETA, page A-3
Anza Valley Outlook ......AVO-1 Business ............................... C-3 Business Directory............... C-8 Calendar of Events .............. B-4 Classifieds ............................ C-6 Education ............................ B-1 Entertainment ..................... B-5 Faith ..................................... C-8 Health .................................. B-6 Local .................................... A-1 National News ...................... C-5 Opinion................................. C-7 Pets ..................................... C-6 Regional News ..................... C-4 Sports ................................... C-1
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Wine & Dine ........................ B-3
The KEA Mill and Pioneer Park are still a long way off from initial plans, city officials say Lexington Howe STAFF WRITER
The KEA Mill in Murrieta, which has been the talk of haunted ghost stories and has given many trespassers reason to be afraid of the site, was gifted to the city in 2013. While city officials say it has hopes of eventually restoring it, due to lack of funding and a delay in constructing Pioneer Park, it remains vacant and in decay. “The lot next door (to the mill) originally was planned to be Pioneer Park, which they had a pretty good vision for,” Kim Summers, city manager of Murrieta, said. “Unfortunately, that piece of property has a lot of challenges environmentally. There’s some drainage that runs through it and some other things, so we’ve kind of been constrained as to what we can put on the park.” They’re currently working on see MILL, page A-7
The abandoned KEA Mill in Murrieta still stands along New Clay Street in Murrieta. Constructed about one century ago, the mill served as a grain elevator for area farmers. Valley News/Shane Gibson photo
Family accused of racial profiling speaks out, teacher responds
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Will Fritz ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The son of a couple who have been accused of racial profiling a teacher at Redhawk Elementary School in Temecula holds family heirlooms, a menorah and a picture of the Lady of Guadalupe to show the family’s Jewish and Mexican heritage. Valley News/Shane Gibson photo
The pair whose verbal altercation with a Temecula teacher triggered accusations of racial profiling and a protest gathering said they acted out of concern that someone was taking photos of their home, according to a police report and interviews conducted with Valley News. The altercation took place at Red Hawk Elementary School in the morning, Aug. 14, when Tiffany Suetos, a physical education teacher, said the vice principal and custodian of the school had been showing her around campus before walking alone down to one of the school’s fields where she
began to take photos for her online classroom. That’s when Suetos, who is Black, said she was confronted by a “White” couple who lived nearby. Valley News has obtained the police report of the incident as well as interviewed the couple involved in the altercation, who would only agree to speak on the condition of anonymity. According to the police report, the woman who first confronted Suetos said she “exited her residence and requested to know the reason why Suetos was on school grounds, her name, and requested to know if she was an employee of see PROFILING, page A-4