Foothills Sentry September 2024

NEWS INSIDE A Monthly Community Newspaper SEPTEMBER 2024 Letters Page 4-5 Real Estate Page 5 Canyon Beat Page 6 Service Directory Pages 11-13 Classifieds Page 13 Community Sports Page 16 The Best News In Town Since 1969 FOLLOW US at Foothills Sentry RUNNING ON EMPTY Anyone can vie for any office and sometimes win. Performing in that position takes more that chutzpah. See Candidate, page 10 DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH Winning baseball ballplayers rise to the top — or close to it — in leagues of their own. See Community Sports Shorts, page 16 KICKED TO THE CURB Horses boarded at the OC Fairgrounds are threatened with eviction if owners don’t accede to higher rents and less property management. See OC Fair Board, page 3 IN THE LINE OF FIRE Housing projects built in high-fire zones add risk to rural and suburban communities. See Canyon Beat, page 6 ON A ROLL Locally trained freeskater earns championships by gliding, sliding and presiding on floorboards, not ice. See Local rink, page 14 See "Preserve land" continued on page 2 See "Budget cuts" continued on page 5 Cash, the steer raised by Ava Steward-Puga (second from right), was awarded Grand Champion Market Beef at the Orange County Fair, and sold for a whopping $14,000. Steward-Puga is a member of the Orange Acres Backbreakers (OABB) 4-H club. The winning bid came from Orange Park Acres' own Cole and Courtney Tachdjian, who have long supported OABB youth. See Orange Acres Back Breakers, page 15. OUSD incumbents bow out Two incumbents holding seats on the Orange Unified School District Board of Trustees have chosen not to run for those offices in November. John Ortega, having served on the board since 2002, and Angie Rumsey, finishing up her first term, did not file by the Aug. 9 deadline. Ortega served Trustee Area 2; Rumsey, Area 6. Two challengers had filed can- didate paperwork to oppose Orte- ga and Rumsey by the deadline. Because the incumbents are out, and no one else is seeking those positions, those single-candidate races will not be on the ballot. Instead, Matthew Thomas and Si- erra Vane will be seated after the election, with the trustees voters elected. Matthew Thomas, Trustee Area 6, is a 30-year school district vet- eran. He started at OUSD as a bus driver, was promoted into various districts, and is now Director of Transportation for the Garden Grove School District. He is a third-generation OUSD graduate. Sierra Vane, Area 2, is an OUSD parent and a college pro- fessor. She has a Ph.D. in politi- cal science and teaches American government at Mount San Anto- nio College. There are still three open seats to be decided by voters in Novem- ber. Incumbent Ana Page, Area 3, is being challenged by Dzung “Dan” Nguyen. Appointee Sara Pelly, Area 4, will face off against Armando “Mando” Perez-Ser- rato, and appointee Dr. Stephen Glass, Area 7, is running against Steve Rocco (see story, page 10). None of the challengers have sub- mitted candidate statements to the Registrar of Voters. Canyon ballots lack SMRPD candidates As with several other local elections, incumbents on the Sil- verado-Modjeska Recreation and Parks District (SMRPD), chose not to run for reelection. Unlike other local races, no one stepped up to fill the seats left open by departing Michelle Conklin and John Nelson, leav- ing it up to the board of direc- tors—Ted Wright, Laurie Martz and Brittney Kuhn -- to appoint replacements. This is the first time in memory that positions on the canyons’ sole governing body have not been contested. SMRPD is a California Special District, authorized to provide recreation and parks programs for canyon residents. It also oversees the community centers in Sil- verado and Modjeska Canyons, as well as the Children’s Center in Silverado. Development agreement between Orange and Chandler LLC will preserve natural land By Tina Richards Advocates for open space are applauding an agreement be- tween the City of Orange and Chandler Sand and Gravel’s OC Reclamation LLC that will pre- serve approximately 14 acres of natural open space, in exchange for permits to expand the com- pany’s building and landscape supply business along Santiago Canyon Road. The agreement was recom- mended for approval by the Or- ange Planning Commission, Aug. 5, and will go to the city council for its expected approval this month. “We don’t always see win- wins,” Planning Commission Chair Dave Vasquez remarked, “but this is an incredible win- win.” The proposal was approved unanimously by the commission. Nature’s bounty Chandler owns the Blue Rib- bon Nursery on Santiago Canyon Road., west of Cannon. It also owns the acreage behind the nurs- ery, adjacent to Santiago Creek. That land is primarily a deep de- pression, the remains of a mine pit shutdown in the 1960s. In the 60 years since, the land has been reclaimed by nature and is home to wildlife, native plants and wet- lands. Chandler had originally planned to fill that natural oasis up to street level with construc- tion debris, an exercise that would have moved 1,240,000 cubic feet of dirt over five years. Neighbors were horrified at the prospect. Chandler had been given the go- Orange council adopts more budget cuts, but balks on Treats in the Streets By Tina Richards The Orange City Council con- tinues to explore cost-cutting measures to amend the budget that was approved June 25 with an $8 million deficit. Those ad- ditional cuts, totaling $1.3 mil- lion, as well as second thoughts on previously axed items, was addressed at the Aug. 13 meeting. Cutting crossing guards at in- tersections near schools for a sav- ings of $425,000 was approved in the original budget. Councilman Denis Bilodeau objected at that time and asked that the council revisit that deci- sion again, at least for specific high-traffic intersections. “It’s not safe,” he stressed. “Pitting cars against pedestrians is danger- ous,” he added. “I will continue to advocate for this, because leav- ing some intersections without crossing guards is unsafe.” Ana Gutierrez agreed, asking if at least some guards could be brought back. No,” City Manager Tom Kisela replied. “They’ve been eliminat- ed.” Crossing fingers, not guards John Gyllenhammer suggested that the school district should contribute financially to crossing guards or encourage volunteers to fill that gap. Kisela reported that he and Police Chief Don Ad- ams had a conversation with the OUSD superintendent, and he did not want to share costs. Enlisting parent volunteers is a non-starter because the district’s liability in- surance ends when volunteers step off school grounds. Mayor Dan Slater noted that if the school district wasn’t willing to cooperate, then Orange taxpay- ers shouldn’t be paying either. He asked his colleagues if they wanted to bring the topic back for future discussion, or not. Bi- lodeau, Gutierrez, Jon Dumitru and Arianna Barrios said “yes.” He, Gyllenhammer and Kathy Tavoularis said “no.” The fate of city-paid crossing guards is ap- parently not final. After the budget was approved at the June meeting, the coun- cil considered a number of other cuts, including city events, staff- ing for those events, Tree Light- ing decorations, special event supplies and overtime and hold- ing vacant positions open. Those recommendations, approved at that time by a council vote, were the same ones brought back to the council at this meeting to be for- mally included in the budget. Vote once, vote twice That was not entirely clear. “So, none of those cuts hap- pened?” Jon Dumitru queried. “We cancelled them, but they are still in the budget?” Denis Bi- lodeau said he was shocked that the cuts they voted on didn’t hap- pen. “We went through the bud- get in fine detail,” he said, “took some very difficult votes. And they were mere suggestions?” Kisela explained that the previ- ous vote was just “giving staff di- rection"; those cuts were not ad- opted. The budget was approved with the understanding these items would be removed later. Several of the events slashed from the budget (the Tree Light- Chandler LLC is willing to help Orange protect its natural lands.