The San Bernardino County Department of Public Works is seeking a $30 million grant to assist it in the rehabilitation of 27 timber bridges that were constructed prior to or in the early stage of the completion of Route 66 through the Mojave Desert.
Department of Public Works Director Brendon Biggs this week was given clearance by the county board of supervisors to make a digital submission of a grant application to the United States Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant Program.
If successful, the county’s reception of the money would require that it venture at least 20 percent of the estimated $79 million cost toward completing the project.
The 27 timber bridges, all of which are of a length of no more than 20 feet, are located at various spots on the National Trails Highway, between Daggett/Yermo Road and Amboy Road.
The National Trails Highway, also known as the National Old Trails Road or as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, was established in 1912. At 3,096 miles, it stretched from Baltimore to California. In the Southwest, it traced much of the old National Road and the Santa Fe Trail. Much of the road, from Colorado west became Route 66 in 1926 and from Colorado east became U.S. Route 40 in 1926.
Route 66 for nearly 60 years was a primary travel route from Los Angeles to Chicago. In 1985, it was decertified as a national highway and has been supplanted in large measure by Route 40. Continue reading →

A confluence of events and circumstance has resulted in San Bernardino County’s top ranking staff member being placed on an involuntary extended vacation leave, by the end of which it is anticipated his not quite three-year reign as the chief executive in the largest geographical county in the lower 48 states will draw to a close.
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Leonard Hernandez’s steep and dramatic rise from what originally seemed a studious librarian with relatively humble aspirations to what was arguably the county’s most domineering administrator in its 170 year history now appears to be on the brink of being matched with a no less dramatic and even more abrupt plunge into premature retirement.
Primary factors in the turnaround include his inability to put a cap on the forceful nature of his personality that at first had so impressed his political masters on the board of supervisors with his can-do attitude and a classic entanglement with a femme fatale he unwisely welcomed into his administration.
In September 2020, Hernandez was promoted to assume the post of county chief executive officer and replace Gary McBride, his predecessor, the following month.
Hernandez, 45, has now spent a quarter of a century employed in government, having begun in 1998 at the age of 20 as a part-time library assistant at the Chino Branch Library while he was attending Cal State Fullerton while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in history. Upon graduating from college, he obtained a full-time position at the James S. Thalman Chino Hills Branch Library. He then earned his Master of Science degree in library science through Pennsylvania’s Clarion University’s online learning program and promoted into the position of the Fontana Branch Library manager within the San Bernardino County Library System. In 2008, he became the director of libraries with City of Riverside, but in 2010, anticipating the retirement of San Bernardino County Librarian Ed Kieczykowski, returned to San Bernardino County. In 2011, upon Kieczykowski’s departure, Hernandez moved into the position of San Bernardino County librarian. Continue reading →

A confluence of events and circumstance has resulted in San Bernardino County’s top ranking staff member being placed on an involuntary extended vacation leave, by the end of which it is anticipated his not quite three-year reign as the chief executive in the largest geographical county in the lower 48 states will draw to a close.
San Bernardino County Chief Executive Officer Leonard Hernandez’s steep and dramatic rise from what originally seemed a studious librarian with relatively humble aspirations to what was arguably the county’s most domineering administrator in its 170 year history now appears to be on the brink of being matched with a no less dramatic and even more abrupt plunge into premature retirement.
Primary factors in the turnaround include his inability to put a cap on the forceful nature of his personality that at first had so impressed his political masters on the board of supervisors with his can-do attitude and a classic entanglement with a femme fatale he unwisely welcomed into his administration.
In September 2020, Hernandez was promoted to assume the post of county chief executive officer and replace Gary McBride, his predecessor, the following month.
Hernandez, 45, has now spent a quarter of a century employed in government, having begun in 1998 at the age of 20 as a part-time library assistant at the Chino Branch Library while he was attending Cal State Fullerton while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in history. Upon graduating from college, he obtained a full-time position at the James S. Thalman Chino Hills Branch Library. He then earned his Master of Science degree in library science through Pennsylvania’s Clarion University’s online learning program and promoted into the position of the Fontana Branch Library manager within the San Bernardino County Library System. In 2008, he became the director of libraries with City of Riverside, but in 2010, anticipating the retirement of San Bernardino County Librarian Ed Kieczykowski, returned to San Bernardino County. In 2011, upon Kieczykowski’s departure, Hernandez moved into the position of San Bernardino County librarian. Continue reading →

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE
NUMBER CIVSB 2316335
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner: JOSE JAIME GODINEZ JR filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
JOSE JAIME GODINEZ JR to JOSEPH JAMES MARTINEZ.
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: 09/01/2023
Time: 08:30 AM
Department: S24
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the SBC Sentinel in San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: 07/21/2023
Judge of the Superior Court: Brian S. McCarville
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on July 21, 28 and August 4 & 11, 2023.

FBN 20230007087
The following entity is doing business primarily in San Bernardino County as
HOUSE OF PACKAGING 14880 MONTE VISTA AVENUE CHINO, CA 91710: UNIVERSAL CONTAINER & PACKAGING, LLC 14880 MONTE VISTA AVENUE CHINO, CA 91710
The business is conducted by: A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY registered with the State of California under the number 199817510112
The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on: JUNE 19, 2023.
By signing, I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime (B&P Code 179130. I am also aware that all information on this statement becomes Public Record upon filing.
s/ JOSEPH TOMA, Vice President
Statement filed with the County Clerk of San Bernardino on: 7/14/2023
I hereby certify that this copy is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office San Bernardino County Clerk By:/Deputy I8806
Notice-This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professions Code).
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on July 14, 21, 28 & August 4, 2023.

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Nearing his three-year anniversary as San Bernardino County’s top staff member, Leonard Hernandez appears to be on the brink of being deposed.
A concerted move, timed for maximum effectiveness by the county’s largely disaffected mid-level staff while Hernandez has temporarily loosened his grip on the reins of power by going on vacation, is in play now. The well-coordinated series of events, if effectuated as planned, will culminate in a decision by the board of supervisors at its August 8 meeting, at which a review of Hernandez’s job performance was previously scheduled, to hand him a pink slip.
There yet remains the possibility that Hernandez can actuate a career-saving maneuver, but such a development would likely entail a crippling mid-level executive suite bloodletting that would carry with it the potential of paralyzing the county for months and creating a schism on the board of supervisors where at present a civilized decorum in which Dawn Rowe is functioning as the board chairwoman without challenge prevails. Continue reading →

By Amanda Frye & Mark Gutglueck
Amid unresolved questions over the legality and propriety of the Arrowhead Spring Water Bottling Company’s use of water taken from the San Bernardino Forest, the United States Forest Service is, at least temporarily, refusing to renew the water drafting permit that has provided the procedural basis for allowing those diversions to take place for the last 36 years.
Over the last several decades, environmentalists and local activists concerned about the preservation of the San Bernardino National Forest have challenged the massive scale removal of water from Strawberry Canyon, located within the National Forest primarily above the 5,000-foot elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains.
For more than nine decades, several companies bottling water under brands incorporating the Arrowhead name have taken water out of Strawberry Canyon without any validly established rights to that water.
In the late 1920s, Charles Anthony, then the general manager and vice president of Arrowhead Springs Corporation and the acting president of the Arrowhead Springs resort property and its associated water bottling company, entered into talks with California Consumers Co., the parent company of California Consolidated Waters Co., regarding the sale of the Arrowhead water bottling operations. The California Consolidated Waters Company was formed in 1929 for the purpose of purchasing the Arrowhead Water bottling operation from the Arrowhead Springs Hotel. The purchase merged three Los Angeles-based companies that bottled and distributed “Arrowhead Water,” “Puritas Water” and “Liquid Steam.”
At that point, the Arrowhead Springs Corporation’s legitimate water rights extended only to water that company drew from a spring near the privately-owned historic Arrowhead Hotel as well as from the Arrowhead Springs on the east side of Arrowhead Mountain and in Coldwater Canyon at the 2,000-foot elevation below the San Bernardino National Forest. In exchange for a $100,000 commission, Anthony executed a deal with California Consolidated Waters Co. relinquishing those rights along with further rights to water the Arrowhead Springs Corporation had no claim or legal title nor any right under state or federal law to. In supplying to California Consolidated Waters Co. a warranty title of water rights, Anthony relied upon Arrowhead Springs’ attorney, former California Assemblyman Byron Waters. Continue reading →