Published weekly

December 29, 2005

Airport, water, quality of life, emerge as 2005 issues 

By Billie Jo Jannen and Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     A review of the past year’s headlines show a number of growing issues, and spotlights increasing concerns among Alpine and Back Country residents over threats to their quality of life.
     Alpine’s growing pains continue apace and hundreds of residents and organizations stepped to the fore in planning with the formation of a committee, the Alpine Revitalization Steering Committee, chaired by San Diego Board of Supervisor Diane Jacob, to plan how the town should look and to strategize ways to boost local businesses while preserving the living standards they sought when moving here.
     A community group also dedicated to Alpine’s revitalization, and chaired by APG member Joe Forlenza, got the year started with a “Vision of Alpine” workshop held on Feb. 19, and holds regular monthly meetings. Forlenza writes a bi-weekly column for The Alpine Sun to keep readers abreast of its progress.
     Further east, other residents of the region are girding for battle with the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which is studying both Boulevard and Imperial County as possible sites for a new international airport. 
     A November forum co-hosted by The Alpine Sun and the airport authority drew more than 100 residents from throughout the region. Alpine residents, too, are concerned about an airport that would require doubling the size of freeways from Lakeside to the airport.
     The increasing draw on groundwater supplies, from eastern Alpine out to Boulevard, prompted residents, in 2004, to pressure the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to perform a massive study in conjunction with its general plan update (GP 2020). Disturbed that no progress has been made on the project, the Campo-Lake Morena Community Planning Group formed a groundwater subcommittee and, amid hot debate over wording, drafted and adopted a resolution to reiterate the request for a comprehensive study.
     Other communities, long concerned about groundwater, as well, have shown an interest in Campo’s subcommittee and resolution.
     Wright’s field remains a bone of contention in Alpine, with the purchase of the remaining 145 acres being very much in the headlines. Designated by the county as open space, some parks proponents would like to see active use, such as sports fields, and some others see it as a possible site for a new high school. Developers, too, are eyeing the plot, which Back country Land Trust insists it intends to buy.
     Border control, long of concern to our region, where its impacts are seen and felt directly, have become a nationwide interest and rural border communities have been host to protesters on both sides of the issue, as well as a host of reporters. Pro-border control activists in remote communities, long resigned to being lone voices in the wilderness, have returned enthusiastically to the fray and have even formed their own versions of the MinuteMan groups.
     While The Alpine Sun is the undisputed leader in covering these issues, we also did plenty of just plain fun community coverage. Take a stroll with us through the year’s highlights: 

FEBRUARY 24
Mark Price appointed to Governor’s Coalition on Education
     Mark Price, President of the Alpine School Board has been appointed co-chair of the Governor’s Coalition on Education. The coalition is charged with the responsibility to look at our present education system and make recommendations as to how to improve the quality and resources.

Local residents design future of Alpine at workshop

     Residents from Alpine took part in a design and planning workshop on Feb. 19 to discuss future development.
     The event, entitled “Vision of Alpine 2015,” included the participation of more than 100 community groups, brainstorming what they want Alpine to be in the year 2015.

MARCH 10
Soldier visits classroom of student 'pen pals'
     A group of fifth graders from Alpine Elementary had a special class speaker — a U.S. soldier who recently returned from Iraq. During his deployment, Specialist Shawn Le Valley received letters and care packages from the students. Le Valley spent an hour with the students who sent the packages, talking about his time in Iraq.

APRIL 14
Tuesday quake had plenty of company
     An early morning earthquake, originally clocked at 3.9 on the Richter scale and strong enough to rock residents awake, was not an isolated event. According to United States Geological Survey records, there had been a quake a day for almost a week in both urban and rural south county. 

APRIL 28
Long awaited fire station takes shape
     After months and years of anticipation, the town's new fire station on Tavern Road is well underway., with structural steel for the bays already up and the foundations for the rest of the building scheduled to be poured over the next week or two. Site work was started in early February.

MAY 5
Sage and Songbirds garden tours dazzle hundreds
     Hundreds of visitors participated in the 8th Annual Sage and Songbirds Festival, which included home garden tours, an educational festival at the Viejas Outlet Center and a twilight jazz concert featuring “Ladies Sing the Blues.”

MAY 12
Teacher's union denies complicity in 'sick-out' — some teachers may face disciplinary action
     The Grossmont teacher's union denied that it encouraged hundreds of teachers who were absent from the Grossmont Union High School District last month in what district officials called a “sick-out” to protest stalled contract negotiations.

MAY 26
School bus drill tests local crisis response 
     Alpine sheriff’s deputies and several East County emergency services teams joined forces Tuesday morning, May 24, to carry out an emergency drill in Harbison Canyon. The drill was a mock bus crash resulting in over twenty “victims.”

Renaissance Faire offers sleek costumes, period games, jousts 
     It’s not every day that someone can walk across the courtyard at Joan MacQueen Middle School and rub elbows with Henry VIII, William Shakespeare and Magellan. But that was just the case Thursday evening, when the seventh graders hosted the school’s annual Renaissance Faire.

JUNE 2
Speakers thwarted in choice of local planner
     The Alpine Planning Group filled the vacant seat created by the departure of Harold Cox at the last meeting held May 26. Pat Cannon was voted in by board members, upsetting the obvious community favorite, Linda Richards. More than 60 people and 20 speakers attended the meeting to voice their support for Richards.

JUNE 9

Wright's field rally spells it out in large letters
     More than 400 Alpine area residents gathered at the edge of Wright’s Field last Thursday, June 2, to show their support for preserving the field. Participants filled lines on the ground to spell out “SAVE ME.” Local photographer Andy King captured the words from the air, flying in a small Cessna airplane above the field. 

JUNE 16
Alpine fire district names new chief
     In a special meeting of the Board of Directors of the Alpine Fire Protection district on Tuesday, June 7, Alpine resident Douglass Matter was hired as Alpine’s first fire chief in five years.

JULY 14
100 gather for 'Evening with Representatives'
     Nearly 100 Alpine residents gathered at the Alpine Community Center to sit down for dinner with some San Diego County’s elected officials. The annual event is sponsored by the Alpine Chamber of Commerce.

JULY 21
Border Watch comes to Campo
     Anarchists angry: The prospect of a neighborhood watch project on the border near Campo brought an estimated 200 protesters up from town for a day in the country, Saturday, July 16. There, they entertained many and frightened a few with threatening remarks, and forays on vehicles driving through their encampment near the border monument at the Pacific Crest Trail.
     Residents riveted: Residents, many of whom routinely round up illegal aliens on their properties and turn them over to border agents, had a chance to share their stories with visitors from all over the United States when volunteers came to town to support better border controls.

AUGUST 4
ASTA goes to private charter school
     At a special meeting last week, the board of the Applied Science and Technology Academy in Pine Valley decided to close the school’s doors. After months of struggle with its home district, Mountain Empire Unified School District, the charter school has seceded from MEUSD and joined the Julian school district.

SEPTEMBER 1
Blindness is a challenge, not a handicap
     “It’s exhilarating! It’s invigorating! It was my leap of faith!” That’s the way Steffani Kreger describes the day when she went sky diving over Otay Lakes last Sept. 8 with Elite Adventures. Her only regret is that she couldn’t see the beautiful world below because she has been completely blind for the past 18 years. Kreger is determined to prove that a disability is only a challenge, not a handicap.

SEPTEMBER 8

Locals lend a hand during Hurricane Katrina
     East County Congressman Duncan Hunter is among the growing number of area residents who showed up in person to help succor storm victims in New Orleans. Meanwhile, Christian Dodgens, had just arrived at the home of his mother, Sandra Dodgens, after rescuing 75 elderly people in New Orleans. Three Alpine men, employees of San Diego City Fire Department, went to New Orleans as members of rescue teams working to save lives in the aftermath of Katrina.

OCTOBER 6
West Nile birds in Alpine add up to eight with Marshall Road case
     A recent case of West Nile Virus found in a bird that tested positive for the disease, brings the number of known cases among birds to eight. The bird, a Western Scrub Jay, was found by a homeowner on Marshall Road and reported to San Diego Vector Control. The latest positive West Nile case brings the Alpine total to eight. There have also been three cases found in Campo and Jamul, two cases in Pine Valley and one case in Potrero and Descanso.

OCTOBER 27
ALPS Awards celebrate area’s finest
     Hundreds of local Alpine business owners and residents gathered at the Dreamcatcher Lounge at Viejas Casino, Wednesday, Oct. 19, to celebrate the annual Alpine Leadership and Public Service Awards night. Civic awards included Organization of the Year, Beautification Award, Humanitarian Awards, Business of the Year, Citizen of the Year, and various other honorary presentations.

NOVEMBER 10
Volunteer border watchers low profile, but very serious 
     The sun set in a flurry of vibrant pinks and shades of blue below the hills to the west as two border watchers, and their visiting reporter from The Alpine Sun, sat silent, ears perked to the sounds reverberating among nearby canyons. The watchers were part of the Friends of the Border Patrol group that recently finished a border watch operation and, as residents of Campo, Boulevard and Jacumba, are continuing to watch on their own.

NOVEMBER 24
Residents offer airport authority some hard facts
     Nearly 100 Alpine and Back Country residents packed the Alpine Community Center on Thursday, Nov. 17, to question the San Diego Regional Airport Authority about its studies of over 3,000 acres for an international airport. 

The meeting was one in a series conducted by the authority to get public input and provide information about the airport site search. The Alpine Sun columnist Joe Forlenza, also an Alpine Planning Group member, served as moderator.

Jacob rejects APG appointment, cites standing rules violation
     District 2 Supervisor Diane Jacob did the almost unheard-of last week when she informed the Alpine Planning Group that she would not present for confirmation the group’s Oct. 27 appointment of Jim Easterling to the seat vacated by Scott Lamb’s September resignation. In response, APG Chairman Mark Price has added a question to the Dec. 8 final agenda that, if passed, would allow the standing rules to be suspended pending a speedier process in voting to fill the empty seat.



A nose for news: Keep your eyes on The Sun
     There are several items that will directly affect local Alpine and Back Country residents in the coming year.
     The San Diego Airport Authority continues its search for a new site, with Boulevard remaining one of the two choices. The authority plans to have a decision by April and the issue will go to the voters in November.
     Tensions remain on the Alpine Planning Group after the rebuke by Jacob, and a seat, which, as of yet, remains vacant. APG members will vote on the 2006 officers at the next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 26.
     Groundwater continues to be an issue, from Alpine east to the county line and Campo planning group members recently presented their petition for a comprehensive groundwater study for the entire Back Country to the board of supervisors.
     Development in Alpine will continue in 2006 with plans for the long-awaited Albertson’s store moving forward, to break ground in February, and the search for a new Alpine high school site in full swing after the recent hiring of a siting company by the Grossmont Union High School District board.
     These are just a few of the issues that The Alpine Sun will be following in the coming year.


                                                E-mail Christy Scott