Eastvale Town Hall Meeting July 26, 2010
by Lupe Nava
We had a great turn-out with the meeting opened by Dickie Simmons thanking the attendees for taking the time to attend and he explained that questions to speakers would be limited to two or three each at the end of their presentations. John Field from Second District Supervisor John Tavaglione’s office was introduced. Mr. Field said there wasn’t too much happening with the County at this time and that they had their budget ready but were waiting for the state to complete their budget before approving it. He said things with the County, as a whole, were still not looking good economically, but that the County was still receiving applications for development in Eastvale, which is a good thing. With regard to those applications, the County is choosing to delay decisions on these applications until our incorporation is official and then will defer the applications to the city of Eastvale for our council to decide on approvals or not. Jurupa’s cityhood effort will be going to the ballot in March for their voters to decide on incorporation which affects those who live in Township east of the 15. He also explained that Supervisor Tavaglione would still be serving Eastvale, even after incorporation becomes official on October 1.
Following Supervisor Tavaglione’s office was the introduction of City Council member-elect Adam Rush to give an update on City activities. Mr. Rush spoke briefly on the few meetings that the council has had to date and said that they expect to be ready for business on October 1. The council has had 3 meetings so far and they have selected the transition team that will put the necessary events in motion to make the change from county to city. That team is interim city manager Mr. Robert Van Nort along with Interwest Consulting Group and Cavanaugh Law Group. Services like code enforcement and permits will move to the City while other services like social services or the district attorney will continue to be provided by the County. Residents are encouraged to attend council meetings to get the best and most current city information. While there may be some daytime workshops, most council meetings will be held in the evenings. Meeting notices are currently being posted at 6080 Hamner (in the Eastvale Gateway center), Starbucks, and the Eastvale Library. A city website will be up soon but until then, Mr. Rush encourages contacting him via his website at www.AdamRush.org.
Interim City Manager Robert Van Nort was invited up to speak next. A city manager’s job is to oversee the actual working of a city. Mr. Van Nort’s experience includes a long string of city manager positions including for the cities of Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. Starting in August, he will be meeting with the Sheriff’s department, code enforcement, and County planning department to begin discussing the transition of those functions to the City. He said the period beginning in approximately February or March will be a most crucial time in the establishment of our city and would be the time when those who want to be a part of shaping the community should get involved. During this time, the city will be developing its general plan which must be completed within 30 months or risk losing state funds. Until city offices are established, Robert Van Nort can be reached on his personal cell at 775-291-2758.
There’s a new sheriff in town! Riverside County Sheriff Captain Danny Feltenberger from the Jurupa Station gave the next update. He introduced Lt. Jason Horton, who has previously worked at the Jurupa Station and whose experience includes working on the transition team when Menifee incorporated. At this time, all officers assigned to Eastvale are the same. The station will be asking their deputies for who would like to work in Eastvale beginning October 1. From those interested, they will determine what, if any training will be required and get that done so there will be a smooth transition.
California Highway Patrol was next to speak. Currently, CHP is responsible for traffic enforcement in Eastvale. Effective October 1, this will not be the case and the responsibility will transfer to the Sheriff’s department. The CHP is currently working with the Sheriff’s department to transition these services and will assist with traffic enforcement after October 1 if that is needed. Otherwise, CHP will no longer be in Eastvale after October 1, except for highways and unincorporated areas.
Chief John Hawkins, Rob Bywater, Tim Williams, and Kevin Brown from CalFire were next up with information on their roles with the County. Mr. Bywater is the northwest Division Chief of 20 stations and his office is in Norco. He will be working with the City on the incorporation transition. The groundbreaking for the new fire station at Hamner and Schleisman was on August 2. A county grant has allowed the purchase and implementation of an Emergency Warning Notification System that will dial out and send a message to an area in the case of a disaster or emergency. Both listed and unlisted land-line numbers are in the database. If you wish to register a cell or VOIP number, you can go online to www.RVCFire.org and click on “Early Warning Notification” under “Quick Links.”
Corona Norco Unified School District was represented in full force! In addition to District Superintendant Bob Taylor and Ted Rozzi, Superintendent of Facilities, all of the principals from Eastvale schools were in attendance. Dr. Taylor introduced all the principals including Mark Lenoir from ERHS and Danny Kim from River Heights, who are both new to our schools in Eastvale. Mr. Rozzi spoke about the progress on Ramirez Intermediate which is expected to open on August 10, 2011. Ramirez Intermediate will open with a traditional calendar schedule and River Heights will also be switching to a traditional calendar at that time. Students in the Ramirez boundaries, who are attending River Heights this year, who wish to remain at River Heights next year will need to complete an IntraDistrict transfer request. At this time, they do not anticipate any problems with approving these requests. Also present at the meeting was ERHS Climate Boosters President Bill Newberry. This November there will be 2 seats open on the CNUSD Board of Education and Mr. Newberry will be campaigning to be elected to one of those seats in hopes of representing Eastvale.
Last on the agenda was County Code Enforcement’s Greg Flannery. Working together with the Sheriff and Fire departments, he said their job is to help a community age gracefully. There are currently 2 officers, out of 6 at the Jurupa office, that work in Eastvale responding to complaints. Depending on the County-to-City transition, this office may continue to service Eastvale for as long as one year after October 1.