By John Miller, U.S. Forest Service
Volunteers are needed to help count bald eagles for the annual winter bald eagle counts in and near the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains on Saturday March 14th.
Concurrent Bald Eagle counts are held at Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead, Lake Silverwood, Lake Perris, and Lake Hemet. Volunteers are stationed at vantage points around the lakes, where they watch for bald eagles during a 1-hour period on the count mornings. Volunteers record their observations on maps and data sheets. This is a wonderful opportunity to catch a glimpse of our breath-taking national symbol. Brief orientations are conducted prior to the count so volunteers know where to go and what to do. Eagle counts at some of the sites have been conducted regularly since 1978.
On the February 14th count, over 275 people scanned for soaring or perched bald eagles and 17 bald eagles were observed.
Signing up ahead of time is unnecessary – just show up at the designated time and location, dress warmly, bring binoculars and a watch (or device with a clock).
•Big Bear Lake area volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Forest Service’s Big Bear Discovery Center on North Shore Drive for orientation. Contact Rari Marks (rariemarks@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2600 x4022) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled. Contact the Discovery Center (909-382-2790) for information about Eagle Celebrations. There will also be a free slideshow about bald eagles at 11:00 after the counts.
•Lake Arrowhead/Lake Gregory volunteers will meet at 8:00 a.m. at the Skyforest Ranger Station for orientation. Contact Rari Marks (rariemarks@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2600 x4022) for more information. Please call 909-382-2832 for cancellation due to winter weather conditions – an outgoing message will be left by 6:30 am on the morning of the count if it has to be cancelled.
•Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Visitor Center at 8:00 a.m. for orientation. Contact Kathy Williams or Mark Wright for more information about volunteering or taking an eagle tour (760-389-2303 between 8:00 and 4:00; or email: khwilliams@parks.ca.gov).
•Lake Hemet volunteers should plan on meeting at the Lake Hemet Grocery Store at 8:30 a.m. for orientation. Contact Heidi Hoggan (hhoggan@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2945) for more information.
•Lake Perris State Recreation Area volunteers should plan to meet at the Lake Perris Regional Indian Museum at 8:00 for orientation. Contact the office for information at 951-940-5600.
The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The best time of year to see bald eagles in Southern California is during winter months when there is an influx of eagles. Migrating eagles typically begin arriving in the area in late November and leave in late March or early April.
Bald eagles are usually found close to water because their diet is primarily made up of fish and ducks. As winter approaches in those northern regions, lakes freeze over and waterfowl fly south. For bald eagles, that means that the food they eat has become scarce. Therefore, they head south looking for areas with abundant food supplies and end up wintering in sunny southern California.
During the winter, Southern California bald eagles are typically found at many of the lakes, including Big Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, Silverwood Lake, Lake Arrowhead, Green Valley Lake, Grass Valley Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains and Prado Dam, Lake Perris, Lake Hemet, Lake Skinner, Diamond Valley Lake, Lake Matthews, and the Salton Sea to the south.
Through radio-tracking bald eagles, biologists learned that some of the same individual eagles return to the San Bernardino Mountains year after year. It has also been determined that there is a lot of movement of eagles between the different mountain lakes and that the lakes do not have distinctive separate populations—the eagles regularly move between the mountain lakes.
Radio-tracking and/or banding also revealed that the eagles that winter in the San Bernardino Mountains migrate to Southern California from Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Canada. Breeding populations of bald eagles in Southern California were wiped out by the late 1950s. Until reintroduction efforts began in the 1980s on Catalina Island, the southern-most nest site known in California was in Lake County. Since 2003, several pairs of bald eagles have decided that our Southern California neighborhoods were too nice to leave – they built nests and have successfully raised families. Nesting bald eagles are now found at Lake Hemet, Lake Skinner, Lake Matthews, and Big Bear Lake. As the populations continue to grow, more bald eagles are in our future.
In 2012, the first successful bald eagle nesting ever recorded in the San Bernardino Mountains happened in Big Bear Lake. To protect that nest site and help ensure a successful nesting attempt this year, the Forest Service has closed the area to all public entry. This includes Gray’s Peak Trail and Grout Bay Day Use area as well as the undeveloped forest area around the nest tree. The closure will remain in effect until the chicks leave the nest or the nest fails.
Because of the population rebound, bald eagles are no longer in jeopardy of going extinct. While bald eagles are no longer protected under federal Endangered Species Act, they still have full protection under the Bald Eagle Protection Act and under the State of California’s Endangered Species Act. These laws make it illegal to harm or harass bald eagles. It is also illegal to possess bald eagle parts, even a feather.
Remember that human presence may distract or disturb the eagles – so, try to limit your movements and do not make loud noises when they are nearby. If possible, remain in your car while looking at eagles – the car acts as a blind. Stay a respectful distance of at least 200-300’ away from perched bald eagles. Do not get closer than ¼ mile away nesting bald eagles – trying to get a closer look may result in eagles becoming agitated and knocking eggs or chicks out of the nest. It is illegal to harm or harass bald eagles. Please do your part to help protect our national bird!

By Grace Bernal

There many things to consider as the weather changes and we start seeing the colors of spring. But this week I’m giving it to the hope and the beginning of the young people. They know how to form together and they are clever and creative with art. Their trends are looking creatively unique. As always a joy to watch young people be off the wall and full of ideas. This new generation is full of fresh air and they want nothing to do with branding. It’s all about the fresh air of spring and it all happens with them. The audience is young and they don’t want to be forced into fashion from within the box. They’re all about thinking for themselves and express it by wearing lacey sneakers, custom made boots, and surprisingly made in America. All the prepackaged fashion doesn’t make it with these kids because they enjoy making their own pieces. Some the hairpieces are also very creative and its fantastic to see the ladies get creative with their top. With that said, get out of the box and let your fountain of creativity come together. You can really create contrast art with your outfits. Enjoy the week believing that the hope that people are thinking very much outside of the box in the fashion and art world is going strong.

“Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.”
~Ralph Lauren

By clicking on the portal below, you can download a PDF of the March 6 San Bernardino County Sentinel

Sentinel 03-06-15

By Mark Gutglueck
(March 3) The Argus coal burning electrical plant in Trona has ceased operating and is being decommissioned.
Currently owned by the ACE Cogeneration Company, which is owned by a partnership composed of ArcLight Capital Partners, DCO Energy, and Northern Star Generation, the Trona plant was the last coal burning electrical plant in California.
Known as the Argus Cogeneration Expansion (ACE) it is a coal-fired circulating fluidized bed power plant located on the northwest side of Searles Lake in Trona at the extreme northwest corner of San Bernardino County.
Originally the project was permitted and constructed by the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation, which filed for permission to build the plant with the California Energy Commission on January 29, 1986, seeking a special dispensation to utilize circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustion in the design. Coal fired circulating fluidized bed systems had not been commercially demonstrated in California at that time, and Public Resources Code section 25540.6(a)(5) was used to allow ACE to be exempt from a demand conformance finding so that the CFB technology, air pollution reduction techniques, alternate solid fuels, and their operational and economic performance characteristics could be ascertained. Proving out of the design, it was thought, might accelerate the deployment in California of large coal facilities that could meet California’s stringent air emission standards. The cogeneration plant was intended and eventually did produce steam for use by the Kerr McGee Chemical Corporation’s Argus chemical production plant near Trona. The plant also generated 96 megawatts of electricity for sale to Southern California Edison.
The project was permitted by the California Energy Commission (CEC) on January 8, 1988 and began commercial operation in January 1991. Over the years the plant was owned and operated by Kerr McGee, Searles Valley Minerals, Constellation Energy, Nirma – an Indian multinational chemicals and minerals corporation, and most recently ARCLight Capital, DCO and Northern Star.
ACE Cogeneration Company’s existing Power Purchase Agreement with SCE will expire in November 2015.Under California’s greenhouse gas emissions requirements, the project will no longer be economically viable using coal as a fuel once the power purchase agreement expires.
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the SCE service territory, ACE Cogeneration Company signed an agreement with SCE to terminate operation of the ACE project in December 2014. The plant ceased operations as of October 2, 2014 and has been placed in an outage condition.
The ACE Cogeneration Company has formulated a decommissioning plan that was submitted to the California Energy Commission. On November 24, 2014, ACE Cogeneration Company reached an agreement to transfer the ground lease for the ACE site and sell some of the equipment and sructures, as well as the property occupied by the ash landfill, to Sabco Inc., a California corporation.
In compliance with the decommissioning plan, the power plant and other facilities will be demolished and removed and the license terminated.
While ACE Cogeneration Company intends to sell the landfill site, lease, and related facilities, ACE Cogeneration Company will continue to hold the CEC license and be responsible for
compliance with the CEC’s conditions of certification until decommissioning is completed and ACE Cogeneration Company surrenders the license to the California Energy Commission. ACE Cogeneration Company will be responsible for implementing the decommissioning plan and complying with any conditions required by the California Energy Commission until the decommissioning is completed and the license is surrendered.
Based on the intended future use of the site, Sabco, Inc. will obtain any required land use and environmental permits from the appropriate local or state agencies.
In a typical year, the plant had 987,241 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 110 of sulfur dioxide emissions.

(March 2) With the outcome of Ontario’s lawsuit brought against the city of Los Angeles for the return of ownership and control Ontario International Airport yet in doubt, two members of the assembly representing those warring parties have cosponsored legislation aimed at giving Ontario the financial means to purchase the aerodrome back.
In 1967, when the airport had fewer than 200,000 passengers pass through its gates, Los Angeles and Ontario entered into a joint powers agreement that gave Los Angeles managerial and administrative control of the airport. Los Angeles used its leverage with the airlines relating to gate positions at Los Angeles International Airport to induce more and more airlines to fly into and out of Ontario. As ridership steadily increased, Los Angeles through its Department of Airports and later the corporate entity it formed to run them, Los Angeles World Airports, made major improvements to the airport in Ontario, paving its parking lot, lengthening and improving its existing east west runway and constructing another, such that Ontario Airport became the home to the longest commercial runway in Southern California. In 1985, after all of the performance goals specified in the joint operating agreement were achieved, the Ontario City council in a 4-0 vote with then-mayor Robert Ellingwood absent, voted to deed the airport to Los Angeles for no consideration. Further improvements were made to the airport thereafter, including the construction of two modern terminals and a concourse in 1998. The airport continued to grow and in 2007, 7.2 million passengers passed though its gates.
Following the economic downturn that gripped the nation, state and region economy late that year, however, ridership at the airport began a six-year decline, slumping steadily to 4.03 million in the year ending in July 2014. In June 2013, Ontario initiated a lawsuit against Los Angeles, alleging it has purposefully mismanaged Ontario Airport to increase passenger traffic into Los Angeles International Airport. In the suit, Ontario is seeking to take back ownership and control of the airport.
Ontario officials, led by councilman Alan Wapner, have aggressively asserted that Los Angeles has given Ontario Airport short shrift, maliciously intending to damage the local economy. They have publicly insisted that as a public benefit asset, the airport has no value as real estate in the common sense, and that Los Angeles should simply deed the airport back at no consideration. Privately, however, the city of Ontario tendered a $250 million offer to Los Angeles World Airports for transfer of the airport’s title and operational control. That offer included Ontario assuming $75 million of the outstanding bond debt obligations for past improvements to the airport, $125 million in future passenger facility charges to be realized at the airport and $50 million cash.
Los Angeles maintains that more than $550 million in improvements have been made at the facility since 1967. At one point Los Angeles city officials indicated they would take $450 million for the airport.
In its lawsuit, Ontario sought to bull its way past the 1985 deed transfer and the terms of the 1967 joint powers agreement, maintaining, through its law firm, Washington, D.C.-based Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, that the terms of those commitments are not binding. Riverside Superior Court Judge Gloria Connor Trask, however, last week confirmed two tentative rulings issued in January that the 1967 joint-powers agreement is enforceable and that Ontario’s opportunity to rescind the transfer of the airport once existed but elapsed in 1989 because of the statute of limitations.
Ontario has three other claims remaining intact in its suit pertaining to the contention that Los Angeles breached the terms contained in the joint powers agreement, but the smaller city’s prospects of forcing Los Angeles to forsake ownership of the airport without compensation appears dim, at best.
Last week, just as the ink on Judge Trask’s confirmation of her January was drying, assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Chino, and assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, submitted legislation, since identified as Assembly Bill 1455 that will authorize Ontario to issue bonds to finance the airport’s purchase.
The effort by Rodriguez and Gomez with their legislation submitted February 27, follows by ten days a bill introduced by Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, Assembly Bill 360, that imposes on Los Angeles a mandate that it transfer ownership of the airport to Ontario.
Pundits have not given Melendez’s bill high marks and it has little prospect of passing.

SAN BERNARDINO—(March 4) San Bernardino County’s transportation agency this week approved the environmental impact report for the Redlands Passenger Rail Project, clearing the way for the final design and construction of the undertaking, which is estimated to cost about $242 million.
“After years of studying alternatives to reduce San Bernardino County travel congestion, we have approval to move forward on a passenger rail solution that will connect residents and businesses with systems across the state,” said SANBAG Board President L. Dennis Michael.
SANBAG, an acronym for San Bernardino Associated Governments, is the county’s transportation agency, the 29-member board for which is composed by a representative from each of the county’s 24 municipalities and all five members of the county board of supervisors.
SANBAG explicitly referenced the specific concept of a rail connection between the cities of San Bernardino and Redlands with a 2004 ballot measure to extend the existing half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements in San Bernardino County. Projected population growth and increased congestion, along with physical barriers like the Santa Ana River and Interstate 10 led SANBAG to look at alternative cost-effective travel options for communities along the Redlands Corridor. The Redlands Passenger Rail Study became a key selling point in the appeal to voters for continued support of Measure I, the half-cent sales tax measure to support transportation projects countywide first passed in 1989.
The environmental impact report accepted at the SANBAG meeting on Wednesday, March 4 outlined SANBAG’s detailed process of reviewing and eliminating alternatives based on environmental and social impacts. SANBAG studied significant potential effects like land use and planning, air emissions, noise levels, visual aesthetics, floodplains, and hydrology. Other transit alternatives, like light rail and bus rapid transit, were removed from consideration due to additional property acquisition requirements and longer travel times.
SANBAG came up with what was designated as a locally preferred alternative, which runs along the existing railroad right-of-way from E Street in San Bernardino east to the City of Redlands, roughly a nine-mile extension of passenger rail service ending at the University of Redlands. Other features of the environmental impact report include passenger rail service of up to 25 average daily trips, connecting to other regional transit modes with access to Los Angeles, employment and shopping centers throughout the Inland Empire, and destinations in the San Bernardino Mountains and high desert; majority use of existing right-of-way already acquired by SANBAG; new track and replacement/retrofit of existing bridges; passenger boarding at four new stations, with station stops at five locations; the use of existing train layover and maintenance facilities; safety improvements at 22 at-grade crossings, including quiet zones determined by memorandums of understanding with the cities of Redlands and San Bernardino on February 4, 2015; and five public at-grade crossings closures for added safety.
Funding for the project will include local, state and federal contributions.
Three of the four stations would be constructed in Redlands — where the line crosses New York Street, downtown and at the University of Redlands. The fourth station will be at either Waterman Avenue or Tippecanoe Avenue in San Bernardino.
SANBAG is estimating that between 720 and 820 daily riders will use the Redlands route in 2018 and between 1,120 and 1,340 daily riders in 2038.
In the early portion of the 20th Century, The Pacific Electric Railway had established the Red Car system, a network of rail lines which included a line that ran all the way from Los Angeles through San Bernardino to Redlands. That system reached its zenith in the 1920s when it was the largest electric railway system in the world. It declined with the rise of the automobile era and met its demise as the Southern California freeway system was established.
A revival of the rail link between Redlands and San Bernardino was considered and given at least nominal promotion at the time of the campaign on behalf of Measure I – the half-cent sales tax proposal for county transportation improvements – in 1989
SANBAG in 1992 used Measure I funds to purchase the historic Redlands Loop from the Santa Fe Railway.
The Redlands Rail Project will utilize a portion of the Redlands Loop alignment. With county voters supporting the extension of Measure I in 2004, a commitment to actuating the earlier promise of a new San Bernardino to Redlands rail system was made, growing out of the overwhelming support of voters in the city of Redlands – more than 79 percent – for the tax extension.
In September 2010, ESRI, Redland’s most successful corporation, hosted a meeting to promote the San Bernardino to Redlands rail concept. The concept picked up steam as SANBAG held public meetings to discuss the concept in 2010 and 2011. A draft environmental impact report was drawn up in 2012. After his election as San Bernardino County Third District supervisor in November 2012, James Ramos formed the Rail to Redlands Working Group, seeking wider input from the community.
Despite enthusiasm for the project in many quarters, there has been opposition. The Redlands Tea Party Patriots and the more recently formed Inland Empire Transit Alliance in Redlands group have questioned whether the benefits of the line will justify the expense and if the benefits will outweigh the impacts such as noise, interference with vehicular circulation and congestion in Redlands historic downtown.
Regional critics say it would have been better and more logical for SANBAG to have invested the money it is now putting into the San Bernardino to Redlands line on the extension of the Gold Line from Los Angeles County eastward into San Bernardino County, getting that portion of a comprehensive rail network completed before investing in and completing the more eastward portion of the line, which ultimately would tie into the Gold Line to make it a truly regional system.
The San Bernardino to Redlands line will allow travelers to catch a bus from the Waterman or Tippecanoe station to achieve the San Bernardino terminus of the MetroRail System, which runs to Los Angeles.

TWENTYNINE PALMS—(March 2) Frank Luckino, the well-traveled public official whose professional ambition three times induced him to leave high level positions with public entities along the Route 62 Corridor, is returning to take up the top staff position with a fourth. Last month the Twentynine Palms City Council unanimously voted to hire him to replace acting city manager Larry Bowden, effective March 23.
Some saw the hiring as a perfect marriage between a public administrator on the rise with a reputation for leaving his employers in the lurch to move on to other positions in the public sector and a city that has burned through four city managers in the past four years and eight in the past eleven years.
Luckino earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from West Liberty State College in West Virginia in 1992. He worked as a controller for several companies, including PACE Entertainment, Planet Hollywood International, and Gordon Biersch Restaurant Group. He also handled portfolio investment activity as an associate with Resource Connection.
His first significant venture into the public sector came a dozen years ago when he was hired as the director of fiscal services at Copper Mountain College in 2003. He bought a home in Yucca Valley and, with his wife Shannon, opened a mortgage loan office, Mojave Mortgage Group. He joined the Rotary Club and in 2004, he was elected to his first term on the Yucca Valley Town Council.
His experience on the politically powerful but only tokenly-remunerated town council exposed him to a multiplicity of governmental administrative issues. Newly alive to the possibilities of a career in public administration, he used the accruing leverage he had obtained to vault into a position as finance officer with the Hi-Desert Water District. In 2011, when he was offered a promotion to the position of assistant general manager/chief financial officer paying $139,000 in annual salary plus benefits, he resigned from the town council. At that point, he had enrolled at
Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was pursuing a Master’s Degree in public administration.
In May 2013, Luckino learned that the position of finance director with the city of Blythe, which paid between $94,000 and $117,000 per year, was open. He was further informed that the city manager’s position in the same Riverside County city on the banks of the Colorado River was also likely to open up later that year and that the finance director would stand a decent chance of assuming the city manager post. Luckino took the pay cut, resigning from the Hi-Desert Water District.
Luckino’s departure from the water district came as that entity was struggling with the financial challenges of having Yucca Valley comply with a state mandate to convert from its traditional septic systems to a sewer system in several phases over the next decade. Town voters in 2012 had voted down a sales tax measure put forth by town officials which those officials said would be primarily devoted to funding the sewer program.
Though his abandonment of Yucca Valley left the town in a bad way, his gamble in departing for Blyth paid off for him personally. By October 2013, he had his Master’s Degree in public administration and the Blythe City Council, torn over elevating him or city clerk Mallory Sutterfield to the position of interim city manager, in a closely split 3-2 vote chose Luckino.
He was subsequently made full-fledged city manager and Sutterfield was made assistant city manager. With his scheduled arrival in Twentynine Palms later this month, Luckino will shortly be making, on his own initiative, an abrupt departure from Blythe, the fourth such exodus in his public career.
He is moving into a position in Twentynine Palms where most of those holding it have limited longevity.
In May 2011, Richard Warne assumed the city manager’s post. One month shy of his two-year anniversary with the city, Warne was terminated without cause and given one year’s worth of pay to depart. The city brought in Joe. Guzzetta, the former director of the Joshua Basin Water District, to replace Warne. Guzzetta lasted only about half as long as Warne, until May 13, 2014. He too was given one year’s worth of pay as a severance. The city’s finance director, Ron Peck filled in for Guzzetta. On June 19, 2014, Andrew Takata, who was up to that point working as the interim city manager in Calexico, was hired to serve as Twentynine Palms City Manager. In November 2014, Takata abruptly resigned as city manager to become the chief of staff for San Bernardino County Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford. He was replaced by former Twentynine Palms High School Basketball Coach Larry Bowden, who was serving as the city’s recreation director.
Luckino will replace Bowden.

(March 3) The county of San Bernardino is investing in the ongoing revitalization effort aimed at reversing the deteriorating economic and physical condition of the county seat. Once proud San Bernardino, which remains the county’s largest city population wise, has been in eclipse for a generation. In 2012, the city of 209,000 filed for Chapter Nine bankruptcy protections, and a pendency plan has been formulated but has yet to be fully approved by the federal bankruptcy judge, Meredith Jury, hearing the case.
Efforts to resuscitate the city through the redirection of government resources have been ongoing for some time, as was evinced with the construction of the 11 story San Bernardino Justice Center, which is located at 247 West Third Street in downtown San Bernardino and into which San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Marsha Slugh last year transferred the lion’s share of the 20,000 square mile county’s civil cases.
This week, the board of supervisor leapt once more into that effort, agreeing to loaning $1.81 million toward the project’s $26 millionfirst phase of what has been dubbed the Waterman Gardens revitalization effort. According to county officials the gamble is justified by the consideration that the county’s participation will coincide with the city of San Bernardino’s own $1.5 million loan stake in the effort as well as an even larger federal show of faith in the form of a $10.45 million loan.
According to Dena Fuentes, the county’s director of community development and housing, “This project, located at the corner of Valencia Avenue and 9th Street in the city of San Bernardino, is the initial phase of the Waterman Gardens revitalization effort. The borrower’s managing partner is National Community Renaissance of California and is coordinating with city of San Bernardino (City), County of San Bernardino and the Housing Authority of the county of San Bernardino to finance this project.
The total budget for construction and fees for this development is $26.6 million. The borrower received an allocation of $1,139,951 of 9% low income tax credits over a ten-year period from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee to assist in financing the development of the project. Currently the borrower is securing all funding resources in order to commence construction in March 2015.
Fuentes continued, “Through this loan agreement, the county will be underwriting four units to remain affordable with a 20-year HOME affordability term and an additional county-imposed 35-year affordability term, for a total of 55-year terms from completion of the project. The remaining 72 units will also remain affordable for a period of time, as required by the
other affordable funding sources.
The project’s proposed financing sources are a tax credit investor equity contribution
of $12,424,223; a Housing and Urban Development, Title 24 Section 221 (d)(4) Loan of $10,447,263, an estimated city of San Bernardino HOME Loan of $1,500,000; a loan of $1,000,000 from the housing authority of the county of San Bernardino; an additional $810,000 county HOME Loan from the county and a deferred developer fee estimated at $438,665.
Fuentes said, “The project’s proposed financing sources are estimated, Fuentes said, adding, “It is the responsibility of the borrower to secure all commitments from the proposed financing sources. Failure by the borrower to secure all required commitments will not allow the project to move forward and may result in an item being brought to the board of supervisors for consideration of its commitment of the funds to the project. The HOME funds will be disbursed in three progress payments. The first two payments will be disbursed over the course of pre-development phase when all pre-development conditions are met by the borrower. The final payment is to be released after receipt of the project’s certificate of occupancy, issued by the city at construction completion, which is estimated to be Spring 2016.”
In January, the board of supervisors considered but held off on a recommendation by Fuentes to approve a “sub-recipient revenue agreement” between the city of San Bernardino and the county in the amount of $834,999, pursuant to the federal HOME Investment Partnership Program. Fuentes had requested that the county assume the city’s investment and risk in the project, she said “because the city is in the process of restructuring its financial position.” Fuentes said that “the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) asked the county to assist the city in investing its Fiscal Year 14-15 HOME funds towards a project that meets HUD’s national objective of providing low and moderate income housing.”
In January, the budget slated for the project followed the schedule initially laid out for the undertaking, which was $23 million. That cost has been reassessed and now stands at $26,620,151. While the city of San Bernardino’s economic circumstance remains bleak, city officials have agreed to participate in the project.
The developer involved in the Val 9 Apartments rehabilitation is National CORE, I.e., National Community Renaissance, a non-profit corporation founded by Jeff Burum to provide affordable housing to low and moderate income home buyers. Steve PonTell is currently serving as its president and chief executive officer.
“In October 2014, National Core Renaissance and its development partners received an allocation of $1,139,951 of 9% low income tax credits over a ten-year period from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee to assist in financing the development of the Val 9 Apartments,” Fuentes said. “The project consists of 70 affordable housing units on 4.65 acres at the corner of Valencia Drive and 9th Street in the city of San Bernardino. This project is the initial phase of the Waterman Gardens revitalization effort sponsored by the Housing Authority of the county of San Bernardino.

(March 3) The county of San Bernardino will use a $3.94 million grant it just received from the state toward the construction of a crisis residential treatment facility in the city of San Bernardino
According to CaSonya Thomas, the director of the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health, the funding will be adequate to construct and furnish the facility, and there is no requirement that the county put up money of its own to obtain the grant.
The board of supervisors this week complied with Thomas’s recommendation to “accept a grant award from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority for capital funding for construction of a crisis residential treatment facility in San Bernardino for the expansion of crisis residential treatment services, in the amount of $3,945,906, for the period of December 4, 2014 through June 30, 2016.”
Thomas told the board “The Department of Behavioral Health will use the California Health Facilities Financing Authority grant to fund construction of a new facility in San Bernardino to provide crisis residential treatment services to individuals throughout the county. The department of behavioral health anticipates the expansion will serve approximately 332 individuals through the residential facility annually. The construction of this facility will assist the department of behavioral health in implementing statewide goals by expanding access to crisis services within the County, minimizing law enforcement involvement, and reducing costs to local law enforcement and hospital emergency departments. The use of grant funding will provide for the health and social service needs of residents throughout the county and fulfill county goals and objectives by: 1) increasing access to crisis residential services; 2) effectively meeting the needs of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis in the least restrictive manner possible; and 3) working collaboratively with local law enforcement, hospitals, and community based providers. The department of behavioral health intends to sustain the proposed expansion of services indefinitely, past the two-year grant funding term, through the use of Mental Health Services Act and Medi-Cal funding. In order to secure the California Health Facilities Financing Authority funding,
Thomas said, “The majority of grant funding ($3,397,500) will be used for capital costs to build a new facility, housing a new Crisis Residential Treatment (CRT) program. The remaining grant funding will be used for furniture/equipment ($500,000), information technology (IT) software and telephone infrastructure, computers and other IT equipment ($48,406).
The crisis residential treatment facility will contain 16 beds, specializing in providing crisis intervention for individuals diagnosed with mental health and/or co-occurring substance use disorders. Services will include, but will not be limited to, assessments, treatment plan development, collateral services, crisis intervention, medication support services, and individual and group therapy. The goal of the program is to improve the appropriateness of care, increase access to community based mental health crisis services, reduce recidivism, and mitigate the burden on hospital and law enforcement resources.”
Thomas said the county applied for a grant in 2013, but that “the department of behavioral health did not receive an award for that submission; however, on July 9, 2014, CHFFA announced it would reopen the filing period for the programs” The county reapplied and was given preliminary notice on November 6, 2014 that it would get the grant. Official notice from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority came on February 4, 2015.
The department of behavioral health intends to use an existing county owned location in the 700 block of Gilbert Street in San Bernardino as the location for the facility.

TWENTYNINE PALMS—The Twentynine Palms community is make slow and incremental steps towards shoring up its fire department.
The Twentynine Palms City Council last month approved the first reading of an ordinance which increases the fire facilities impact fee that are already being levied on incoming residential, commercial and industrial evelopment within the city limits. The higher fees will go into effect on May 21, pursuant to the council giving approval to a second reading of the ordinance on March 10.
Thus, the fee for a single-family dwelling unit will go from $526 to $566. The fee for a multi-family dwelling unit will rise from $416 to $446.
The fees for commercial floor space will jump from $374 to $401 per 1,000 gross square feet. The fees for office floor space will increase by $19, going from $265 to $284 per 1,000 gross square feet. The fees for industrial floor space will go from $147 to $156 per 1,000 gross square feet.
In a report to councilmember, finance diirector Ron Peck stated the fire impact fees have been in place since 2011. Peck said they were intended to be revised annually.
“We haven’t increased the fee for three years,” he said.
The fire department is not a city division. Since 1958, the fire department in Twentynine Palms has been overseen by the water district. The department grew to include two fire stations and seven firefighters to cover the 59 square miles within the Twentynine Palms City Limits and the 29 square miles of unincorporated county area that also falls under the water district/fire department’s 88-square mile jurisdiction. The city does not contribute to, participate in or subsidize the fire department’s operational budget.
The city did, though, initiate the fire service impact fee in 2011. From its proceeds, the fire department was able to make final payments on the purchase of a fire truck.
Fire department operations are, or are supposed to be, funded entirely by a special tax, consisting of an assessment levied upon all of the city’s property owners. The current parcel tax is $80.
In 2012, water district voters rejected Measure H, a tax increase proposal, and the water district explored surrendering authority over the fire department to the county fire department.
That same year, the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission indicated the water district would need to find augmenting funding for the fire department or relinquish control of it.
The water district and the city of Twentynine Palms worked on a proposal to have the county’s fire division subsume the fire department but that goal was not achieved after county fire chief Mark Hartwig said that in working within the confines of the $1.244 million in available special tax funding for local fire service, he would need to close down one of the fire stations and reduce the department to no more than four firefighters.
So far the water district has maintained control of the fire department but as of July 1, 2013 the district closed out its Lear Avenue Fire Station. The water district is now leasing the station to Copper Mountain College, which is using the facility to conduct fire science courses.
All of the fire department’s operations are now run out of the Adobe Road Fire Station, known as Station 421, and its paid personnel have been reduced to five. Response times to certain portions of the 88-square mile fire protection jurisdiction have increased.
The water district last year made a commitment to keeping the fire department in place and under control, creating the Twentynine Palms Citizen Advisory Committee. The committee recommended that the city of Twentynine Palms pitch in with regard to making sure the fire department is adequately funded. Incorporated in 1987, Twentynine Palms has yet to evolve into a full service municipality. It contracts with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement service and the water district exists as an independent agency that provides water and sewer service as well as fire protection for the city of 25,768 and its surrounding area.
The Twentynine Palms Citizen Advisory Committee last year also recommended that the water district again seek voter approval of an increase to the parcel tax imposed on residents within the water district’s boundaries.
The committee advised that the district ask their customers to approve a $20.40 per year increase to that assessment on developed property and a $10.20 increase on vacant parcels. The committee has further suggested that the measure authorize the increase for three years and give the district the ability to add a three percent annual inflation adjustment in the years beyond 2018.
The district, however remains somewhat skittish about going hat in hand to the city’s residents.
The fire service funding proposal has not been brought forward and the district last week postponed a rate increase move on the district’s water customers.
Operations on the water district’s water side are supposed to be kept separate from the fire department operations. A water rate increase has been in the discussion stage for some time and the water board had tentatively set an April 1 date for a public hearing on the matter. But on February 25, with board member Roger Shinaver absent, the board voted -0, with Roger Shinaver absent, to move a proposed public hearing on the matter from March 25 to Nov. 18. This will put off implementation of the new rates from April 1 to December 1.