Despite Cost Uncertainty, Agency Board Reinitiates Big Bear H2O Reclamation Program
The Replenish Big Bear water reclamation project which appeared to be on the ropes if not down for the count entirely since August recaptured its potential viability pursuant to a key reversal by Kendi Segovia at the January 22 Big Bear Area Regional Wastewater Agency Board of Directors meeting.
The community of Big Bear Valley, including the City of Big Bear Lake, the even larger unincorporated county area of Big Bear City, the local tourist industry, locally-based commercial enterprises and the lake itself face serious existential challenges from drought conditions and intensifying demands for water as a consequence of development and population growth.
The Replenish Big Bear program is an innovative proposal to utilize what is essentially a bundle of advanced technologies to process the communities wastewater to recover a large enough volume of purified water to offset the loss of water from the lake from diminished natural rain recharge, evaporation and use. While that approach has the enthusiastic support of a fair number of the community’s members, some but not all of its elected officials and what appears to be the overriding majority of the area’s water infrastructure and sewage/sanitation district professionals, there is yet reluctance to go along with and resistance to the proposal, based upon the project’s cost and skepticism over whether what is, in the final analysis, an unproven technique to reclaim sewage that might end up failing spectacularly and leave the lake and its environs in a putrefied state that would destroy Big Bear’s image and reputation and from which it and the local community might never recover. Continue reading
Un Modesto Consejo Para Los Sabios
Se recomienda a quienes tengan razón, o necesidad, de acudir al Consulado de Guatemala o Consulado de México en San Bernardino que sean prudentes antes, durante y después de sus visitas, ya que se sabe que los agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Naturalización están monitoreando tanto los accesos como las vías desde ambos lugares en el centro de San Bernardino.
Esos empleados del gobierno de los Estados Unidos están acumulando y recopilando información sobre sujetos que creen que están en los Estados Unidos sin autorización. Los agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Naturalización (INS, por sus siglas en inglés) tienen la costumbre de rastrear a aquellos que han entrado en cualquiera de las instalaciones y, una vez concluidos sus asuntos allí, se van. Los agentes observarán a los sujetos mientras se dirigen a sus vehículos y luego, finalmente, regresarán a sus domicilios. De esta manera, los agentes del INS determinan dónde viven sus objetivos. Continue reading
Never Tried Deranged 77-Year-Old Accused Of Murderous Assault Dies In Jail Cell
Kept On Ice Without Treatment For 230 Days
A 77-year-old man arrested in May 2024 on attempted murder charges after he began fighting with a co-resident of a senior citizen care facility in Hesperia and was held in sheriff’s custody for nearly eight months without release died on January 22 from a cause or causes that have yet to be disclosed.
According to a member of the department working the detention detail, Stanley Eugene Brabant had mental health issues that were apparent from the time of his booking and which were not being adequately addressed or addressed at all while he was under the supervision of department. Both the district attorney’s office and the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health dropped the ball in following through with proper evaluation and treatment for Brabant, according to the individual who saw him on a continuous basis, four to five days per week for months.
San Bernardino County Superior Court records indicate that Brabant languished in custody for months on end and was not given proper medical care and mental health treatment his condition required at least partially because of the discontinuity in his legal processing, as an inadequate concentration of attention to his circumstance attended the suspension of criminal proceedings against him and what ultimately proved to be a drawn-out and unresolved determination of his placement in a facility that could properly deal with his physical and psychological issues. Continue reading
Fritz Montoya’s Killer In Custody Following Arrest In Hollywood
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on January 28 arrested Ronalee Barrett Stanberry, who has been identified as the assailant who killed Fontana business owner Fritz Mendoza by clubbing him about the head with a decorative miniature baseball bat.
After Stanberry’s apprehension, he was turned over to the Fontana Police Department, which had issued an all-points bulletin in the aftermath of Mendoza’s slaying.
On January 10, the 79-year-old Mendoza and his son went into their Allstate Insurance office, located at 9782 Sierra Avenue around 8:45 a.m. Stanberry had gained access to the premises, it is believed, the previous evening, having come through the roof. He dropped through the ceiling and once inside could not leave as the doors were locked and he had no key.
When Mendoza’s son went to the back of the office, he saw that ceiling panels were on the floor. Moments later both Mendozas saw Stanberry, who by that point had donned a white and blue pinstriped United States Postal Service button-up shirt that Mendoza had at the office. The younger Mendoza confronted Stanberry and sought to escort him out of the office. As he was doing so, Stanberry seized a baseball bat was imprinted with the Allstate insurance logo and Mendoza’s grandchildren’s initials. He then used it to inflict a fatal blow to the elder Mendoza’s head, according to police. Continue reading
In Twentynine Palms, Fifth And Sixth Graders To Graduate This Year From Elementary To Junior High
The Morongo Unified School District in August will transition all of its sixth graders to its middle school/junior high campus.
Currently, elementary schools in Morongo Unified consist of grade levels kindergarten through sixth. Traditionally, upon graduation from sixth grade, students in the district move into junior high, which covers the 7th and 8th grade levels.
The Morongo Unified School District has 16 schools, including 11 elementary schools and five junior high and high schools. Four of the elementary schools – Condor Elementary School, Oasis Elementary School, Palm Vista Elementary School and Twentynine Palms Elementary School – are in Twentynine Palms. Twentynine Palms also hosts Twentynine Palms Junior High School and Twentynine Palms High School.
According to the district, “Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, all sixth-grade classes in Twentynine Palms will transition to Twentynine Palms Junior High School. This change will expand the junior high to serve students in grades 6 through 8, creating a more cohesive and enriching learning environment for middle-grade students.” Continue reading
Cost On The Remodeling Of The Sheriff’s Colorado River Station Reaches $10.3 Million
The already pleasant work conditions a select group of county employees are experiencing will become even nicer and safer pursuant to a vote of the board of supervisors at their meeting next week.
On Tuesday, February 12, the board is scheduled to approve upping the amount of money being spent on the remodeling of the sheriff’s department’s Colorado River Station in Needles from $10,071,989 to $10,361,650.
The increase in the contract amount by $289,661 will cover a third amendment and a sixth change order to the county’s contract with Angeles Contractor, Inc., which on August 22, 2023 was warded a $9,115,000 construction contract after an open bid process that had been called for by the board of supervisors, which then invited proposals/bids from construction companies with the experience and expertise to perform public improvements of the type being requested within a construction contract term of 393 days. Three companies made bids and Angeles Contractor, Inc. was determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, for the construction contract term of 393 days.
After the three sealed bids submitted by the May 3, 2013 deadline were opened, it was learned that Angeles pledged to complete the sought-after work for $9,115,000.
The Sheriff’s Colorado River Station was built in 1974 and was previously co-manned by the Needles Municipal Police Department, which in 1989 was dissolved, its function taken over by the sheriff’s department, pursuant to a contract between the City of Needles and the sheriff’s department/San Bernardino County. Continue reading