skypark at santa’s village: county approves temporary … · skypark at santa’s village: county...
TRANSCRIPT
11/8/2016 SKYPARK AT SANTA’S VILLAGE: County Approves Temporary Use Permit (UPDATE) — ROTWNEWS.com
http://rotwnews.com/2016/11/08/skyparkatsantasvillagecountyapprovestemporaryusepermitupdate/ 1/8
HomeWeather »Contact Us »InlandToday
Subscribe
SKYPARK AT SANTA’S VILLAGE: CountyApproves Temporary Use Permit (UPDATE)in News, Ticker / by Michael P. Neufeld / on November 8, 2016 at 12:59 am /
Santa and his helpers at SKYPARK At Santa’s Village have been notified San BernardinoCounty’s Land Use Services Department has approved the Temporary Use Permit (TUP)allowing the park to open. (Contributed Photo)
<< TOP STORIES >> SKYPARK AT SANTA'S VILLAGE: County Approves Temporary Use Permit (UPDATE)
Facebook 0 Twitter Google+ 0
11/8/2016 SKYPARK AT SANTA’S VILLAGE: County Approves Temporary Use Permit (UPDATE) — ROTWNEWS.com
http://rotwnews.com/2016/11/08/skyparkatsantasvillagecountyapprovestemporaryusepermitupdate/ 2/8
By Michael P. Neufeld
UPDATE: Tuesday, November 8 – 8:59 a.m.
Skyforest, CA – SKYPARK at Santa’s Village has just been notified that a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) hasbeen approved by the San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department.
ROTWNEWS.com will announce additionaol details shortly.
ORIGINAL STORY
Skyforest, CA – The Temporary Use Permit (TUP) application submitted by SKYPARK At Santa’s Village isstill making its way through the San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department as of late Wednesdayafternoon.
The multipage application — submitted by general manager BillJohnson — requests permission to open the original portion of the park for the holiday season while issuesrelated to the undeveloped portion of the property are being addressed.
COUNTY RESPONSE
ROTWNEWS.com contacted County spokesperson David Wert for an update on the TUP that would allow thefacility to open a portion of the 153acre park prior to the start of the Christmas season.
“County Land Use staff is currently working with the applicant to resolveissues that stand in the way of granting the application,” Wert explained.
“The park has been closed for nearly 20 years and requires some work, including many inspections, to verifycode compliance for public safety,” he emphasized.
“Plans for traffic management, pedestrian safety and parking are also under review,” according to Wert.
“As soon as the County has enough information to place conditions on the Temporary Use Permit, the TUP willbe issued,” Wert continued.
‘It will clearly define what has to be completed prior to opening the attraction to the public, as well asrequirements for operation,” Wert’s response stated.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
11/8/2016 SKYPARK AT SANTA’S VILLAGE: County Approves Temporary Use Permit (UPDATE) — ROTWNEWS.com
http://rotwnews.com/2016/11/08/skyparkatsantasvillagecountyapprovestemporaryusepermitupdate/ 3/8
68 °
WED66 °
THU68 °
FRI65 °
SAT66 °
SUN
61°clear sky
humidity: 26%wind: 3mph ENE
H 91 • L 55
A visit to the park’s website at SKYPARK AT SANTA’S VILLAGE reveals a message that states, “advancetickets will be available very soon.”
(511)
0
Tweet
Like 0
Comments are closed.
Search
LOCAL WEATHER
Weather from OpenWeatherMap
Real Estate
Facebook 0 Twitter Google+ 0
11/8/2016 Valley Voices: Time to rethink how we use firefighters Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161106/valleyvoicestimetorethinkhowweusefirefighters 1/3
SundayPosted Nov 6, 2016 at 6:34 PM
By Tom PinardWrightwood resident
We need to revise our thinking in California, if not the USA, when it comes toidentifying our firefighters. Recent wildland fires, across our mountains, canyonsand High Desert underscore that the idea that we can have firefighters paid on ayear-round basis to fight fire is a luxury too soon gone in 21st Century America.
The cost of fighting fire has gone through the roof, what with these huge firesraging out of control from within minutes of the spark generating the fire,engulfing thousands of acres of wooded lands that are just begging for fire toconsume them, AND the tremendous cost of wages that we pay our firefightersin today’s market.
We have to make some sane changes to this 20th, if not 19th, century way ofdoing business.
While the cost of our wages for firefighters is never going to go down, witnessthe Cal Firefighters Union petitioning the Legislature for higher salaries, wehave to look to the one area where we can do a better job at reducing the threatof fire.
I propose that we do away with firefighter job description when it comes to allthose that are in the employ of Cal Fire and re-set their job description and titlesto be Fire Prevention personnel. In their new job description will come the firstresponsibility to prevent wild fires, those same fires that they roll out of theirstations to “fight.”
Valley Voices: Time to rethink how we usefirefighters
11/8/2016 Valley Voices: Time to rethink how we use firefighters Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161106/valleyvoicestimetorethinkhowweusefirefighters 2/3
Fire Season in California is about six months of the year. Statewide monitoringof major brush/wild/forest fires shows that to be true. That leaves five or sixmonths of the year when these full time Fire Prevention personnel are availableon the regular work schedule to get down and dirty in the forest, brush andgrasslands of California coming up with adequate fuel and fire breaks, defensiblespace (as they like to tell us individual property owners we need to create)around communities, using everything from D-8 Cats to weed wackers to makeit happen.
A re-evaluation could also be made of the structural fire departments operatingwithin the state as well. If the station crew is not in the business of responding tohealth emergencies (many are turning that over to specialized ambulance crews),then these firefighters could be re-categorized to be Fire Prevention personneland their daily job would be doing fire prevention in their respectivecommunities.
Weed wackers could take the place of routine polishing of the fire enginesbetween the infrequent actual fire calls. The local on-duty fire prevention squad,if not performing those defensible space duties, could also resume the yearly orsemi-annual fire inspections of businesses and public buildings. They used toperform those tasks but bureaucracies at the county or city “seat” have taken overthose jobs (those personnel could come back out into the “field” to prevent fireon a daily basis).
We have allowed our fire departments and agencies, from local residential unitsto the county, the state and the federal (Forest Service, BLM and even now theNational Monument gang) to become more and more this elite force that rollsout when a fire breaks out, but then disappears during the almost 50 percent ofthe year or more, when there are no fires to fight. By the way, when thosepresent firefighters show up and work the fires for days at a time, they are beingwell compensated for the extra time they spend on the job.
The idea that we could prevent the multi-million dollar wildland fires, with theiradditional cost to individual’s property (homes), by re-constituting our fireservices and making them into pro-active fire prevention agencies is an idea wellpast doing. When the news broke recently that the “Old Cajon Fire Crew” wasgoing to be put on a full-time basis, I dug out my notes following the Pilot andBluecut fires. This is a good first step, but it has to be applied to everyone who is
11/8/2016 Valley Voices: Time to rethink how we use firefighters Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161106/valleyvoicestimetorethinkhowweusefirefighters 3/3
an employee of Cal Fire (the spin-off to the California Division of Forestry,chartered to fight wildland fires in California during fire season but nowexpanded into year-round Cal Fire crews).
The Forest Service — Congressman Cook are you listening? — should be re-configured so that their fire crews become full time and they too are designatedas fire prevention crews, full time in the forest doing timber management/treefelling, along with extensive fuel and fire break efforts.
We can’t afford to sit back and allow our state burn every fire season, we need toget out in front and come up with defensive foliage that will provide fuel and firebreaks to prevent the next Pilot or Bluecut Fire.
Tom Pinard is a Wrightwood resident.
11/8/2016 Ontario airport authority agrees to bring Ontario PD on board
http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/ontarioairportauthorityagreestobringontariopdonboard&template=printart 1/2
San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
Ontario airport authority agrees to bring Ontario PD on board
By Liset Márquez, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Monday, November 7, 2016
ONTARIO >> Travelers at Ontario International Airport can expect tosee a greater presence in Ontario Police Department personnel in thenext 21 months as public safety staffing transitions from Los AngelesWorld Airports to the local authority.
The Ontario International Airport Authority unanimously agreedMonday to have the Ontario Police Department eventually providelaw enforcement for the airport.
Although the contract was approved Monday morning, Ontario policeofficers have been policing the airport since the takeover Nov. 1,
Ontario police Capt. Dean Brown said. Brown will be overseeing the airport bureau.
“We are augmenting what they currently have. We are not quite supplanting anything,” he said. “My personnelare working alongside of them during this transition process. As Ontario PD increases their presence there, thenLAWA can start reducing their numbers.”
For security reasons, Brown declined to state the precise number of officers who will be stationed at the airport.Local officers have been onsite since July for training.
“There’s a lot of federal and regulatory issues that we have to be familiar with,” he said.
Officers had to take an aviation security course to learn such things as driving in and around the airfield, he said.
“There’s a lot of things my officers were required to do before we started performing a law enforcement role,”Brown said. “We are still allowing LAWA to take the primary responsibility under the augmentation agreement,as I build up staffing to an adequate level.”
Ontario City Manager Al Boling said the city has budgeted $3.5 million for the services, although that figure canchange by the end of the fiscal year.
“We came up with an estimation back in June, but the actual costs will depend on the number of officersprovided and billing rates,” he said.
The police department has 356 fulltime positions, 266 of which are sworn officers. The budget for 201617 is$82.4 million, Boling said.
City leaders are expected to approve a more comprehensive services agreement, which will include fire services,in December. That agreement will ultimately go to OIAA commissioners for approval.
At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Lucy Dunn was initially uncomfortable with voting on the contractbecause the terms of the agreement were not included in the agenda packet.
11/8/2016 Ontario airport authority agrees to bring Ontario PD on board
http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/ontarioairportauthorityagreestobringontariopdonboard&template=printart 2/2
“Our CEO is asking to approve an agreement that the public hasn’t seen and I haven’t seen,” Dunn said.
After getting a copy of the contract, which was approved by the Ontario City Council, Dunn reviewed it andagreed to sign off on the document.
Dunn’s concerns was echoed by Commissioner Curt Hagman.
“You’re inheriting a complete business overnight, but I’m wondering the same thing,” Hagman told CEO KellyJ. Fredericks. “We have been in contract with outside consultants and outside attorneys — all these things thecity of Ontario has been in contract with — now we’re taking over those bills from the city of Ontario. Thisboard needs to review those and approve those as well.”
URL: http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/ontarioairportauthorityagreestobringontariopdonboard
© 2016 San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
11/8/2016 Time for city to do something about homelessness Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161107/timeforcitytodosomethingabouthomelessness 1/3
MondayPosted Nov 7, 2016 at 11:02 AMUpdated Nov 7, 2016 at 11:02 AM
By David BruceContributed Content
I was so glad to see George Will's commentary in a recent Friday paper. Hepoints out something I have experienced as a growing concern for the last threeyears. The fact is that huge numbers of men in the 25 to 54 year age range areout of work and not seeking work.
It isn't that they can't find work, they do not want work. Many are homeless andlike it that way. It is a matter of choice. They feel that it is more rewarding tospend their time idle than to work for a living. They wear this "nonworking"title as a badge of courage. They will admit that they are on the street by choice.They sit and drink with their fellow "nonworking" friends and laugh at thesquare working people.
What has this country come to? Of course to keep the beer money coming inthey beg.
Main Street here in Barstow is thick with these "non-workers" panhandling-begging for money. Alcohol costs money. Now, this "nonworking" career path iscatching on with people who are not homeless. They think, "Why should Iwork, when I can go down to Main Street or Wal-Mart and beg for money?"Even teenagers are catching on. "Why should I get an education, when I canmake more money panhandling?"
These free wheeling "no work, no interest in work" folks will get into anargument with you if you tell them panhandling is illegal. They have pride intheir career path evidently. OK, we have pretty well established the problem.
Time for city to do something about homelessness
11/8/2016 Time for city to do something about homelessness Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161107/timeforcitytodosomethingabouthomelessness 2/3
You may say that there is nothing we can do about it. But, there is somethingthat can be done. But, first let us take a look at where this problem can lead.
A number of years ago the mayor of Chicago had a bright idea to reduce the"nonworking" throngs on the streets of his city. He made a public offer. The citywould give any homeless person a one-way bus ticket to Las Vegas. That waythey could continue as "nonworkers" in a warmer climate.
This population of loafers has grown to an estimated 11,000 people. Thesepeople sleep on the ground, in cardboard boxes, on bus stop benches, indumpsters, etc. They are some of the dirtiest people you will ever meet. Theywander the streets looking for handouts and seeking alcohol. Their numbershave grown so large that the three major cemeteries bury 400 of these homelesspeople each year.
Of course, the city pays the bill for the burial of the 1,200 nameless people eachyear at a cost of nearly $1,000 per person. That is a total of a whopping $1.2million per year. These "non-workers" don't carry identification. They are givennames by where they are found. These names include "John Doe gutter", "JohnDoe dumpster," etc.
This is where Barstow is headed, if something is not done. We cannot afford thiskind of expenditure. Now, let us look at the solution.
Las Cruces, New Mexico had a homeless problem a number of years ago. A far-sighted councilman suggested, "Let's make it illegal to be homeless in our faircity." So, they passed an ordinance against homeless people in the city limits.Now, you never see a homeless person on the streets of their city. You might seeone, but you will not see him again. Within a few minutes of their arrival thepolice will stop them and escort them out of town. They do not harass them orjail them. They just tell them not to come back.
The word got out and the homeless avoid Las Cruces altogether. The result isone of the cleanest small cities you will ever see. There is no panhandling, muchless drugs, less crime. It's a beautiful city, a good place for business to flourishand a great place to retire.
11/8/2016 Time for city to do something about homelessness Opinion VVdailypress.com Victorville, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/opinion/20161107/timeforcitytodosomethingabouthomelessness 3/3
The point is Barstow's homeless-beggar population is growing every year.Businesses close here all the time, teenagers are being inspired to join the"nonworking" class. Recently a nine-year-old girl was very nearly kidnapped,reportedly by a man who had holes in his pants (sounds like a homeless person).
What can we do? We can encourage our City Council members to pass anordinance against being homeless in our city. Then, we can ask the police toenforce our law against panhandling. Soon, the city will be much more attractiveto new businesses, and tourists will feel safer shopping and eating in Barstowwithout being hounded by beggars. We can put our fair city back on the map, soto speak.
David Bruce is a Barstow resident.
11/8/2016 New general manager named for Ontario’s Citizens Business Bank Arena
http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/newgeneralmanagernamedforontarioscitizensbusinessbankarena&template=printart 1/2
San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)
New general manager named for Ontario’s Citizens Business Bank Arena
By Monica Rodriguez, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Monday, November 7, 2016
ONTARIO >> The city ownedCitizens Business Bank Arena has anew general manager, facility officials announced Monday.
Ryan Northcott took over the daily operation of the 11,000seat arenaMonday, said Michael Krouse, regional vice president of SMG World,which manages the $150 million venue that opened in 2008.
Northcott, who will answer to Krouse, said programming at thefacility will be his main priority. He plans to bring a mix of events thatinclude sports, concerts, family shows, corporate events and more.
“I’m interested in collecting all that in the Citizens Business BankArena,” he said.
Northcott completed his duties as director of booking at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, an AEG Facility, onFriday.
AEG managed Citzens Business Bank Arena from the time it opened until July, when the city and the companyagreed to end their relationship.
Krause said one of the primary focus points of SMG is booking the Ontario facility, something that is alreadyhappening. The recent announcement that Faith Hill and Tim McGraw will be performing together at the ArenaJuly 22 has resulted in the sale of more than 6,000 tickets, Krause said in a phone interview.
“That’s significant that far out,” Krause said.
In addition, the organization is working on more than two dozen additional concerts, he said.
In Oakland, Northcott had a part in creating a national booking platform. Through the platform, the OracleArena doubled the number of concerts “within the first two years at the venue,” according to the statement fromthe Ontario facility.
Oracle Arena, home to the Golden State Warriors, offers a mix that includes sports, concerts and familyfriendlyshows.
Northcott said he plans to use a similar approach in Ontario that will allow him to work with other SMGmanaged facilities and collaborate to bring events to Ontario that will work well in the region, he said.
Ontario has a number of things going for it, including major facilities, such as Ontario International Airport,which will help attract acts, Northcott said.
In addition, Ontario is close enough to Los Angeles where Northcott said he can meet with promoters, such asLive Nation and other organizations that represent nationally known performers.
11/8/2016 New general manager named for Ontario’s Citizens Business Bank Arena
http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/newgeneralmanagernamedforontarioscitizensbusinessbankarena&template=printart 2/2
“I am more than excited for the potential,” Northcott said.
Even though he just started his job in Ontario on Monday, Northcott said he has already begun reaching out topromoters to “book firstclass acts,” he said.
Northcott began working in the entertainment industry as an intern for The Arena at the Anaheim ConventionCenter in 2006, according to the statement. He has worked for Anschutz Entertainment Group and AEGFacilities in various capacities the last eight years, according to the statement.
Northcott was born and raised in Orange County and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with anemphasis in marketing from Cal Poly Pomona.
Krouse, who oversees the Arena, the Greater Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau and the OntarioConvention Center, which has its own general manager, described his role as “kind of the conduit that links allthe pieces together.”
Having the different facilities along with the Greater Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau and other entitiesmanaged by SMG has allowed the company to build a marketing database that is more than 250,000 entriesstrong and which will play a part in getting the work out of the availability of the various Ontario facilities suchthe Arena.
URL: http://www.sbsun.com/business/20161107/newgeneralmanagernamedforontarioscitizensbusinessbankarena
© 2016 San Bernardino County Sun (http://www.sbsun.com)