AIRPLANE GOES UP IN MUSUEUM

The one half scale replica of Donald Gordon's airplane, the first motorized flight west of the Mississippi, was put on display this week at the Valley Center History Museum. The plane was a joint project, designed by Joe Proctor and executed by Ira Goode. The photos were taken by Goode.

AIRPLANE DOWN ON SATURDAY AT GUEJITO RANCH

At 11:18 a.m. Saturday CAL FIRE-Valley Center Fire Department responded to an airplane crash Guejito Road (on the Guijito Ranch) in Valley Center. Copter 10 (Sheriff/CAL FIRE Helicopter) was in the area when the incident occurred as was able to quickly arrive on scene and begin treatment on the pilot. According to the pilot his engine went, he then attempted to land when the plane flipped over and landed upside down. The pilot had moderate injuries, and was transported to Scripps La Jolla by Copter 10 with a Paramedic on board. Nick Schuler of Cal Fire took the photos.

SILLY ACCUSATION

As I said earlier this week, I'm no supporter of term limits, however term limits might help us rid our county of the stupidity that is Dianne Jacob (She Who Must Be Obeyed), another of our supervisors-for-life. I'm also not a supporter of San Diego Gas & Electric's power shut-off proposal.

But Jacob's accusation that SDG&E "stacked" the hearings with supporters of the plan is just plan silly. I attended the hearing that was held at Harrah's Rincon Casino a couple of months ago, attended by a couple of hundred people, and almost no one who spoke was in favor of the plan. Well, there were a couple of safety organizations that spoke in favor, but 90% of the people who spoke, and almost all of the audience, was against SDG&E's plan.

How this could be called "stacking" is beyond me, but it's typical of the kind of ridiculous things that Jacob says. I recall during the wildfires of 2003 that she accused then Governor Gray Davis of delaying fire-fighting resources to San Diego because, she alleged, he was punishing the county for being the birthplace of the recall movement against him!

This is as dumb as some of the things that Nancy Pelosi says about the CIA. But, because no one ever challenges Jacob in her secure district (unlike Bill Horn, who, although he too says ridiculous things frequently, does at least get viable challengers) she can get away with conspiracy theory type pronouncements that would get other politicians pilloried by the public and the media.

REPORT FROM EDCO MEETING

About 80 people attended Wednesday night's informal meeting about the proposed EDCO green waste facility on Betsworth.

These are Valley Center Planning Group Chairman, Oliver Smith's thoughts on the meeting:



"Tonight's EDCO meeting was interesting. I let EDCO's President and CEO
Steve South know at the beginning that it was not a formal planning
group function but rather an informal opportunity for him and the
neighbors to talk. About 80 people showed up for about 2 hours. Steve
worked his way through a presentation, but it was peppered with
questions shouted out by the audience. For the most part it was civil,
but a couple of comments pushed the civility edge," said Smith.

His notes are below:


- Property purchased in April, 2008. Although there are no permits that
have been formally requested, it appears that they have a letter from
the Water District saying they will be served.
- The compost grinder will be electric inside a building to reduce
noise.
- Plan is for 18 wheelers to come from transfer stations around the
county, 20 trips in and 20 trips out per day plus 2 local trash trucks
with green waste per day plus transports by local community members.
- All incoming green waste will be questioned as to source and only non
quarantine material can be composted. After composting the heat during
the process sterilized the material.
- EDCO will be selling the final compost on site and shipping it out.
- There will be 8-10 people on site, hours planned are 7AM-5PM Monday
through Saturday. They claim they need to conform to this and will n\be
monitored to not go outside the times.
- Composting will be done by aerated covered static piles - after
chopping up the mulch, the pile is covered, air is injected, and the O2
and heat are monitored - it takes about 45 days to process.
- They have no equivalent facilities anywhere else in San Diego County.
- They will be inspected one a month by Dept of Environmental Health.
- There is an old Adobe house on the property that was offered to be
cleaned up and available for FFA an other local groups.
- When asked how the project would benefit the neighbors, the response
was that they felt it would preserve the rural nature of the area and
use of the Adobe house.

TERM LIMITS FOR SUPERVISORS?

I see that the San Diego County Employees union is going to start gathering signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would limit the Board of Supervisors, who I lovingly refer to as our "Supervisors for Life," to two terms.

I'm against it, of course. I realize that this is the Holy Grail of the populist wing of the conservative movement, who somehow think that limiting office holders to two-terms (I've even heard a single term, with no possibility of reelection) will make the Republic work better. I don't buy it. We've had term limits in California for a couple of decades and the state's government has only gotten even worse than it was before. Corruption and stupidity will always find a way around artificial limits. Bad people can do bad things with a single term. And if they know they are limited to one term they will just do those bad things faster.

If the people are going to change their government, THEY need to do it, not rely on some artificial means. The people should be able to reelect able officials as many times as they want. I'm even against the president being limited to two terms.

That said, I do think it's time for the people of San Diego County to start holding their supervisors for life accountable. It's disgraceful that we haven't seen any new people on the board for ten years.

I'm suspicious that this two-terms law is being pushed by a public employees union. If they want to get rid of some of the supervisors, then probably the supervisors are doing some good things. Generally speaking, anything that is good for a public employees union is probably bad for the taxpayers at large.

I'll be watching this one closely. It probably won't get any further than the similar petition drive pushed a few years ago by the pot smokers, but we'll see.

LAWSUIT COULD RESUME AGAINST SDG&E

It's probably safe to say that the general managers of the backcountry water districts and the executives of San Diego Gas & Electric probably don't get together to play golf on their off hours.

Several local water districts, especially Valley Center Municipal Water District, have bitterly fought SDG&E's proposal to turn off the power during red flag days of high winds and low humidity, combined with other factors.

This week, with SDGE&E stating that it's not going to wait for the Public Utilities Commission's ruling on its proposal before putting it into effect on Sept. 1, I asked VCMWD's Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant if that means the water districts are going to revive their lawsuit to keep this from happening.

He told me:

"They say they have the authority to shut off power now, with or without the PUC ruling. It is true, they have the ability to do that, however, what they need from the PUC is a rule modification which gives them tort immunity from doing so. If they had that now had that immunity, why would they have gone to the PUC in the first place.

"They are evidently hell-bent to do this. With their approach and attitude, it is clear that the Emergency Power Shut Off is more about the SDG&E bottom-line and less about community safety.

"The water districts and others participated in the PUC process in good faith as we did in the negotiation process. It seems that SDG&E has as much respect for the PUC as they do for negotiating in good faith.

If they proceed with the shut off plan, then we will exercise any and all other avenues available to protect the communities and people we serve. We are examining our options now, including going back to court right now."

PICTURES OF PALA FIRE

Nick Schuler, the PIO (public information officer) for Cal Fire, just sent over some pictures of firefighters getting the Pala Fire at Pankey Road & Hwy 76 under control. The blaze took off about 1 p.m. and burned about five acres before they stopped its progress. The cause of the Pankey Fire is equipment use – mowing. The operator is cooperating with investigators.