Foothills Sentry January 2020

Foothills Sentry Page 10 January 2020 Hair Stylists, Colorists, Facials and Permanent Makeup, Sugaring, Hair Extenstions, Hair Loss, Lashes, Mani/Pedis and Massage! PLUS an Amazing Array of Quality Products including Alter Ego, Saphira, REF, Leaf and Flower CBD, Alkali and ColorWOW just to name a few! Your Full Service Salon and Spa right here on Chapman Ave! Platinum Strands 3443 E Chapman Ave, Orange, CA 92869 714-562-2633 CALL TODAY to schedule a time for our Complimentary Treatment Day on January 29th for SAPHIRA to begin at 11AM CANYON BEAT By Janet Wilson By Scott Breeden What takes 10 minutes to put up, but over two months to take down? Some might say “Christmas tree,” but the answer for certain Silverado residents seems to be “street light.” Back before Halloween, a little truck went around town replac- ing pole-mounted street lights with LED versions. This included two lights on Grundy Lane and Anderson Way that had been nonfunctional for decades. But current residents liked that, since they could enjoy the stars and holiday lights better. So when the new lights came on, people com- plained. Grundy homeowner Melanie Flegal contacted the County of Orange and Southern Califor- nia Edison (SCE), and was told that the county had ordered LED lights in 2016, when the pole near her house was replaced. Three years later, SCE was just getting around to installing the lights. Pat Buttress, aide to Supervisor Don Wagner, provided an update at the Dec. 3 meeting of the In- ter-Canyon League (ICL) in Sil- verado. “Nobody knew it was pri- vate property,” she reported. SCE would take those two lights “off the county books” and remove them if residents signed a peti- tion. Flegal, along with Anderson resident Paul Dixon, promptly began gathering signatures that evening, which ICL President Geoffrey Sarkissian then attached to a letter to SCE. That may be the end of one problem, but Buttress agreed that the other Silverado replacement street lights seemed too bright, like one that now reportedly shines right into someone’s house just around the corner from the Grundy light. Buttress suggested trying to get SCE to use lights like those near the Palomar Ob- servatory in San Diego County. Switching to LED lights is ac- tually a good idea as far as saving money and energy. The problem comes from assuming that all light is basically the same, and that more is always better. But the American Medical As- sociation concluded in 2016 that “white LED street lighting pat- terns [may] contribute to the risk of chronic disease in the popula- tions of cities in which they have been installed.” Birds, fish, in- sects and other animals are also adversely affected by artificial light. Bluish light pollutes the night sky much more than amber light. And statistics indicate that increasing light does not reduce crime. If Silverado’s street lights are indeed brighter than before, one advantage of LED is that it can be dimmed. LED lights are also now available in amber, similar to the older lights. Lighting“upgrade” sparks complaints The Silverado-Modjeska Spe- cific Plan actually states that “curbs, gutters, sidewalks and street lights shall not be allowed unless necessary for safety pur- poses.” If glare from the new lights makes driving in Silverado at night more dangerous than be- fore, then perhaps their use needs to be curbed. Additional light information is at darksky.org. Snow job Since it almost never snows here, some of our native shrub- bery tries to make up for it by pro- ducing fluffy white pseudo-snow to simulate the winter scenery de- picted on calendars and postcards from regular America. One plant that does this is scale broom. It is a rounded, spreading bush up to six feet high, and twice as wide, that grows in gravelly, sandy, and occasionally flooded spots in California, Arizona and Baja California. Scale broom usually appears to have no leaves — just clumps of green twigs and branches that Na- tive Americans reportedly used for brooms. On the branches are tiny bumps, or scales, no more than a couple of millimeters long. Those are the leaves. They start out grayish-white, fuzzy, and rounded, but shrivel in the first hot season and hug the branch tightly. Scale broom is covered with small yellow flowers in late summer, but these turn into seed- bearing white fluff later, just like on dandelions. In spite of its fuzzy benign winter appearance, though, scale broom is still a wild plant. That is why OC Public Works constructs stout timber and steel barricades around known infestations like the one near the bridge, just west of the Silverado Community Cen- ter: to protect motorists from ma- rauding gangs of scale broom. No, not really. Of course scale broom does not attack cars. It at- tacks houses. From Pam McK- ay’s book “Mojave Desert Wild- flowers: A Field Guide to Wild- flowers, Trees, and Shrubs of the Mojave Desert, Including the Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, and Joshua Tree National Park”, page 205: This is the plant that ate Co- rona! A wash with scale broom in Corona was filled with dirt to make a level pad on which nu- merous homes were built. This plant lives in washes, so it is ac- customed to being flooded and buried. It responded to burial as usual, sending up shoots that pen- etrated through concrete founda- tions of garages, living rooms, sidewalks and driveways, causing millions of dollars worth of dam- age. Newer laws require scale broom surveys before construc- tion. Orange street fair good to go The Orange City Council agreed to sign a three-year con- tract with Orange International Street Fair (OISF) to continue producing the annual event, as it has for more than a decade. The City of Orange partners with OISF, the nonprofit that produces the annual Labor Day weekend food fest held around the Old Towne Plaza, because it provides a lucrative fundraising opportunity for local charities. OISF has been organizing the street fair under temporary one- year extensions since 2018. The city did not want to sign a longer- term contract until a third-party audit was done and several identi- fied shortcomings were corrected. The audit was completed last year, and city staff negotiated a new contract with specific amend- ments included. Council concerns addressed by the amendments were, primarily, that the fair give priority to Orange-based nonprof- its for food and alcohol sales; that alcohol sales be rotated between organizations; and that OISF’s books be open for city review. Time and tippling OISF agreed to the spirit of those amendments and requested a five-year contract for consider- ation at the Dec. 10 city council meeting. It also asked to increase its liquor licenses from 16 to 18, to allow alcohol sales to be ro- tated evenly among the 36 street fair vendors. The council balked at a five- year term, because, as Council- man Mike Alvarez noted, street fair contracts were usually three to four years, and a longer con- tract would lock in a future city council. “There will be four new council members after next year,” he noted. “They’ll go through four fairs before negotiating again.” Alvarez also stressed the “Or- ange first” theme. OISF had identified five non-Orange-based nonprofits that it believed should be grandfathered into future street fairs. The “legacy” groups, as OISF calls them, serve Danish and Greek food, and are the best sources for that cuisine. The fifth legacy group, OC High School of theArts (OHSA), sells beer. Alva- rez objected specifically to Santa Ana-based OHSA. “They are not based in Orange, and they are not unique,” he said. “OHSA doesn’t provide anything that couldn’t be provided by another group.” Overserved OISF’s request for two ad- ditional liquor licenses was ad- dressed at length. The council noted that there were already 25 licenses in play among restau- rants and bars in the Old Towne Plaza area. Police Chief Tom Kisela said he preferred to keep the fair li- censes at 16. “We don’t have a lot of alcohol problems,” he re- ported. “But that’s due to man- power. You get that many people together, add heat and alcohol and it keeps the police and fire departments busy.” Mayor Mark Murphy motioned for a three-year contract with 16 liquor licenses and an option to extend it for two years when it expires. The vote was a unanimous 3-0. Councilman Chip Monaco was absent. Learn more at eocwd.com SAVE WATER