Top county officials insist that there is nothing legally or ethically wrong with, and the county’s taxpayers will suffer no loss by, bypassing a competitive bid process on the sublease of 314.21 acres of Army Corps of Engineers land at Prado Regional Park where independent entities for nearly 50 years have operated two 18-hole golf courses.
In April, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is on a trajectory to roll over the existing sublease arrangement with the current golf course operator, who in 2023 bought out the successor to the first company that developed the property, which represents just under 16 percent of the land at the 2,287.7-acre park. In addition to the golf courses, Prado Regional Park offers other recreational options, which include fishing, a shooting range, archery range, camping, hiking, biking and nature trails, a splash pad, disc golf, soccer fields, a softball diamond and an equestrian center along with picnic facilities and a meeting room.
A set of golfing aficionados and investors who have put together their own proposal say they have been rebuffed by the county consistently over the last year as they have sought to get officials to not just consider their alternative but put the sublease out to bid entirely to allow for competing offers and extract from those with the talent, expertise, experience and wherewithal to operate a golf course the best option to benefit those using the facility while returning the most revenue to the county.
Prado Dam, which lies on the Santa Ana River near Corona in Riverside County and was built by the Army Corps of Engineers, entails an impoundment area of over 10,000 acres that also extends into San Bernardino County. In 1972, after the California Water Commission gave its approval, San Bernardino County entered into a lease arrangement with the federal government/Army Corps of Engineers to lease more than 2,000 acres in that impoundment area at the southernmost extreme of San Bernardino County south of the Chino City Limits for the development of a regional park. In 1975, the county entered into a sublease of roughly 314.21 acres with a consortium of medical and dental professionals, El Prado Golf Course Management, LLC, led by Leo Kenneth Heuler, DDS, who undertook to develop the property as two 18-hole golf courses, situated around the intersection of Euclid and Pine Avenue.
The entirety of the golf course, as indeed the entirety of Prado Regional Park, just about three miles north of the Prado Dam, lies well below the 100-year flood plain, that is, at a level which is lower than that which is statistically likely to be completely covered by water generated by a major deluge once every century. Thus, even in years which do not experience heavy rains, the land is subject to flooding two to three times annually on a continuous off-and-on basis during winter and spring months. Consequently, the Army Corps of Engineers conditioned the lease such that anything beyond minimal construction of structures was restricted on the property, requiring that it remain undeveloped as open space or for recreational use. Continue reading →

The efforts by a Newport Beach-based development company to construct an apartment complex that is three times the density of any residential facility currently existing in Chino accompanied by equally intensive land uses on an adjacent property has triggered considerable alarm among residents who live in the area that will fall in the shadow of those proposed developments.
Moreover, the projects, which have been presented as a package deal under the guise of a single project to the City of Chino, stand at the forefront of a wave of development proposals seeking to use the leverage of state efforts to facilitate the construction of affordable housing to transform San Bernardino County from a landscape featuring suburban-oriented bungalows and two-story single-family residences to one indistinguishable from inner city settings in which multi-story and densely packed structures predominate.
There has been considerable frustration among those who are baffled by the fashion in which Chino city officials appear intent on withholding from the public information about the nature and features of the project, giving them a minimal amount of time to assimilate what the development is to entail and thus preventing them from reacting to it in any meaningful or effective way before it is to be provided with go-ahead by both the planning commission and city council.
Nearly two-and-one-half years ago, on September 19, 2022, Orbis Real Estate Partners of Newport Beach acquired the 451,281.6-square foot – 10.36 acre – Zivelonghi property at the northwest corner of South Euclid Avenue and Schaefer Avenue within the confines of the now-defunct Chino Agricultural Preserve. Continue reading →

Dr Edward D’Souza’s tenure as the Rialto Unified School District’s acting superintendent turned out to be a simple parallel consequence of Superintendent Cuauhtémoc Avila’s suspension from the post overseeing the district, as the school board this week voted 3-to-2 to remove D’Souza as the district’s interim leader and replace him with former Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Judy White.
D’Souza’s time as acting superintendent – nine months and thirteen days – lasted two days longer than Avila’s nine months’ and 11 days’ suspension. Avila was put on administrative leave on May 8, 2024 and fired on February 19, 2025. D’Souza was selected to serve as acting superintendent of the district on May 14, 2024 and was relieved of that post yesterday, February 27, 2025.
Intrigue and mystery yet attend the circumstances around Avila’s departure, and the pertinent facts that precipitated it are known only to a handful of people. What has leaked out is that there were a succession of sexual scandals that plagued the district – entailing members of the faculty being concupiscent with one another; members of the faculty being concupiscent with students, resulting in at least one known pregnancy brought to term and which was consummated in a marriage; teachers attempting to engage in “tag team” sexual encounters with students; and one principal seeking to use a safety center on a middle school campus as a “grooming grounds” to lure female students into heterosexual assignations.
Those discreditions, apparently, did not directly involve Avila nor D’Souza, but proliferated under their watch. To move beyond them and prevent the unseemly details they involve from becoming public, the district determined the best course of action was to end its employment of Avila and return D’Souza to a lesser assignment than that of superintendent to limit or eliminate inquiries about activity that had taken place under his watch or his knowledge about it. Continue reading →

The 45-day ban the Rialto City Council imposed on the consideration of newly filed warehouse project applications within its city limits that was approved on January 28 will be extended to 6 months and 29 days, the Rialto City Council unanimously decided on February 25.
At its final meeting in January, the council voted 4-to-1 with Councilmember Andy Carrizales dissenting, to impose a 45-day moratorium on the acceptance of any further applications for the construction of warehouses.
A cross section of Rialto’s residents has come to believe that the city has a glut of warehouses or distribution centers/logistics facilities, and that too many existing ones are located much too close to or within residential neighborhoods and that others are unacceptably proximate to schools. In response to those complaints, city staff began examining the city code and the Rialto Development Code to ascertain what leverage city officials possess to prevent the further proliferation of warehouses into areas deemed incompatible with them and their function.
There are more than 934 million square feet of warehousing in San Bernardino and Riverside counties at present, with more being built. That includes 3,034 warehouses in San Bernardino County. In 177,961-population, 50-square mile Ontario there are 289 warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet. In 213,000-population, 43.07-square mile Fontana there are 142 warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet. In 92,988-population, 29.6-square mile Chino there are 118 warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet. In 174,453-population 40.12-square mile Rancho Cucamonga there are 109 warehouses. In 223,728-population, 59.2-square mile San Bernardino there are 75 warehouses larger than 100,000 square feet. In 73,280-population, 36-square mile Redlands, there are 56 warehouses larger than 100,00 square feet.
Rialto, with its 104,380 population, is, at 24.1 square miles, more compact than those other cities and thus more densely populated. At present, it has 47 warehouses of more than 100,000 square feet. Continue reading →

A Rancho Cucamonga resident pleaded guilty yesterday to illegally possessing sensitive technologies that he downloaded from his Southern California-based employers and marketed through his own competing company to a China-based manufacturer.
Liming Li, 66, of Rancho Cucamonga, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of trade secrets. “Protecting U.S. companies’ sensitive intellectual property is critical to our country’s success in a global economy,” said acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. “The defendant here stole intellectual property in order to benefit companies in China. Stealing proprietary information undermines our economic security, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will aggressively prosecute individuals that engage in this conduct.”
“Mr. Li’s greed allowed him to be used by a Chinese company without regard for the negative implications to the economy or national security of the United States,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI is well-aware that China is actively seeking and stealing American intellectual property at a rapid pace and those who willingly hand it over, as Mr. Li has done and now acknowledged, will face serious consequences.”
According to his plea agreement, from 1996 to 2013, Li worked for a Southern California-based business identified in court documents as “U.S. Company #1,” which specialized in precision measuring instruments and metrological technology and equipment. The company designed and sold a range of products such as micrometers, calipers, coordinate measuring machines, and optical measurement systems. Continue reading →

The musicians of the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band and C.P. Construction Company will present “Music From Far Away Places” on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
The concert, to be held at Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium located on the campus of Chaffey High School at 1245 North Euclid Avenue in Ontario, will celebrate St. Partick’s Day.
The Woodwind Celebration Ensemble will present a pre-concert recital in the auditorium lobby at 7:00 p.m. Complimentary coffee and cookies will be served in the lobby prior to the concert. The performance is free to the public.
The March concert is to feature a repertoire of music from around the world; included are the countries of Ireland, France, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Korea, Japan, and the United States.
Special guest artists are Dr. Sylvia Mann, director of the Southland Symphony Orchestra and University of La Verne Orchestra, and professional harp soloist Ellie Choate. Show Band soloists include dancer Kathy Soderlund and clarinetist Neil Vargas.
Dr. Sylvia Lee Mann – composer, conductor, violist, educator, and performer – appears with many musical ensembles in Southern California and across the nation. Currently a faculty member at Chaffey College and the University of La Verne, Dr. Mann is the pastor & minister of Music at Bethel Congregational Church, UCC in Ontario. She is the music director and conductor of the Southland Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Temecula Valley Jr. Youth Symphony, La Verne Symphony Orchestra, and a popular guest conductor throughout Southern California. In addition, Sylvia is honored to be a featured guest conductor at Carnegie Hall in New York City Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage for the 42nd season of MidAmerica Productions International NY. She will be conducting a special concert in the Spring of 2025.
Sylvia completed undergraduate studies at Chapman College and graduate studies at the University of Southern California and London University. As a violist and violinist, she studied with many distinguished teachers. As a composer, her mentors include William Kraft, Gunther Schuller, and Samuel Adler. Her conducting studies included such notable teachers as Daniel Lewis, Gunther Schuller, and Neville Mariner.
Sylvia’s music is heard on the concert stage, in film, television, and media outlets. Her works have also been commissioned and performed by many orchestras, and she was featured in the Culver City Symphony’s historic concert, “The American Beat – Women Composers.” Dr. Mann will conduct her composition entitled “Heritage Suite.”
Harp music is capable of enhancing the elegance and elemental beauty of life. Harpist Ellie Choate’s touch with that instrument has been credited with reach the musical soul with a magical ambiance.
From the multiple Grammy award winning CD, Genius Loves Company with Ray Charles, to the Ojai Festival with Pierre Boulez; from the motion picture scoring stage to daytime television; from weddings and corporate events to a healing and therapeutic session of bed-side harp, Ellie Choate brings her professionalism and deep understanding and love of the harp to listeners throughout Los Angeles, Orange County and all of Southern California. She will perform Spanish composer Joquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez, Movement 2.”
Also featured on the program is Show Band 1st Clarinetist Neil Vargas who will perform a solo in a composition written by American and French jazz musician and composer Sidney Bechet entitled “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere,” (“If You See My Mother”). The solo is a direct transcription of the one performed by Bechet in the 1950’s. Show Band musician Kathy Soderlund will be featured as a dancer in “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” and “Malaguena.” The outstanding musicians of the Show Band will entertain their concert goers in “Irish Folk Song Suite,” and “Tarantella and Canzone” both composed by Dr. Gabe Petrocelli, along with “Vive La France,” a medley of well-known French songs.
The performance will be narrated by Chaffey Adult School Principal Dr. George Matamala and Montclair High School English Teacher Bess Silva.
Those who wish to support the Show Band can do so by visiting and feeding the Hungry Tuba located in the lobby. The concert will be broadcast on local Ontario cable Channel 3. Check your cable listings for the date and time.
The Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band was founded in 1985 by R. Jack Mercer and is now under the direction of Dr. Gabe Petrocelli and assistant directors David Schaafsma and Pat Arnold. Band members represent at least two dozen communities throughout Southern California. Adult musicians and students are invited to participate. Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings from 7 to 9:00 p.m. at the Chaffey High School Jack Mercer Band Room. The band performs monthly concerts on the campus of Chaffey High School as well as at other venues throughout the community. All performances are free to the public.
For more information about the concert visit the Show Band website at www.showband.net or contact Dr. Petrocelli at gabe@showband.net. The “Friends of the Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band” is a registered charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c)(3); EIN # 46-1422958. Donations are welcomed. Checks may be made out to: Friends of the OCCSB, P.O. Box 1512, Ontario, CA 91762. Concert goers interested in being included on the Show Band mailing list are encouraged to fill out an information card at our events. The Show Band can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and its website at www.showband.net.