December | 2016 | rialtonow

A Force For Change In Ontario

27 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

By Councilman Ruben Valencia

ONTARIO – The City of Ontario is facing trying times and I am honored to have been chosen by the residents to represent them on the dais. I raised my two daughters here and am proud to call Ontario home, but the main reason I desired to be a Councilman is because a lot has changed since we moved here 20 years ago.

Both violent and property crime is up – like it is across California and San Bernardino County – our businesses are struggling, and our children are having a difficult time finding quality jobs once they graduate. These represent the status quo and the reason that my experience as a seasoned law enforcement veteran will be an invaluable tool in helping move the city forward.

After speaking with residents from across the city over the past year and a half, I have compiled a comprehensive list of issues that need to be resolved. During my first term, I am going to do everything in my power to take care of the entire list; however, I will outline the first three here:

Revitalizing Downtown – A city’s downtown area should be its crown-jewel. It should be a place that attracts residents to not only conduct business, but also to relax and build the sense of community. Ontario’s downtown has become plagued by increased crime and loss of jobs. Where there were thriving businesses in downtown Ontario, it’s more common now to see empty storefronts and our police stopping suspicious people.

We need forward thinking on the Council and I look forward to working with the residents of Ontario, as well as my colleagues on the Council, to attract new developments and businesses to downtown. I will fight to make sure we have a downtown worthy of Ontario’s residents.

Promoting Ontario Airport – After a long and arduous fight we finally won control of Ontario International Airport (ONT). Local control is exactly what the airport needed and what the residents of Ontario wanted. Now we need to look to the future and to making ONT the busiest and best airport in Southern California.

To do this, we must incentivize the carriers to create more flights in and out of ONT. I look forward to working with the newly formed Ontario International Airport Authority to analyze the fees being paid by passengers and carriers in hopes of reducing them. It’s simple economics – when you give companies or individuals more money, they will spend it, which invigorates the regional economy further.

Create Youth Programs – Our youth are our future and we’ve been failing them. Youth unemployment and underemployment is disastrously too high and our kids aren’t learning the skills they need to achieve success once they graduate. It’s up to us to make sure they have a quality education and that there are real jobs waiting for them.

I will work with local businesses to set-up privately funded programs that benefit our youth before and after school. Specifically, providing subsidized or free sports and technical programs for underprivileged youth in our community. Growing up, I learned invaluable lessons from playing team sports – it’s one of the main reasons I have had a successful career in law enforcement.

We need leaders who are going to put the safety and needs of those they represent first. I will do whatever is necessary to improve the lives of Ontario’s residents over the next four years. Together we will be a force for change in Ontario.

Councilman Ruben Valencia is a 28-year veteran of law enforcement in Southern California. He was recently elected to the Ontario City Council, coming in first place, and has lived in Ontario for over 20 years.

Nominate the person you think made Rialto great in 2016.

27 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in #CA31st, and the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy, Ca, City of Rialto, Colton, Family, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Rialto, San Bernardino

Last year we asked you the readers and residents to vote for the Most Influential Person of 2015 in Rialto.

https://rialtonow.com/2015/12/24/top-three-most-influential-people-in-rialto-2015/

Last year went so well that our plan is to make it a regular thing. So now we want to know who is that person in 2016.

This year were changing things up a little bit, here is how the process will go:

Email the person you wish to nominate to rialtosnow@gmail.com include their name and a why your nominating them (deadline is December 31st at midnight).
Each name will be added to a online poll on our website.
The people with the top three votes will be highlighted the last week on January.

Last years winners were Councilman Shawn O’Connell, Former Police Chief Fararr and Vibe Fitness Owner Gino Garcia. All three men qualify if anyone chooses to nominate them.

So if you know someone that made Rialto great or worked hard on the greater communities behalf be sure to nominate them so we can give them the recognition that they are due.

5th grade student gives hope again for Christmas

19 Dec 2016 2 Comments

Tyler Nguyen is keeping the true spirit of Christmas and his annual toy drive alive and well again this year as this awesome young Simpson Elementary student looks to help those in need this year with his own toy drive. With the assistance of his family and the Rialto Fire Department this young man is reaching out to those kids that may not receive anything this holiday season. It’s not only the kids he is helping but those parents that would love to buy toys for their kids but must choose food and bills as money is tight.

You can read the story we did on Tyler last year to learn how this all began for this awesome young man.

http://wp.me/p1Otmn-Kr

Here is what Rialto Fire had to say about Tyler on their Facebook Page:

“Meet Tyler. Tyler is a 5th grade student at Simpson Elementary in Rialto. After a successful toy drive of his own last year, Tyler and his family once again showed their generosity and spirit of giving. They hosted a Christmas Party/Toy Drive for Spark of Love. They have already filled two boxes and plan on collecting more before Christmas! They also treated Rialto Firefighters, family and friends to a wonderful homemade Christmas dinner. Thank you Tyler and family for your humble spirit and community service!”

Image by rialto-now

Rialto Firefighters respond to a structure fire

19 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, Inland Empire, John M. Blodgett, paramedic ambulances, Rialto, Rialto, Rialto Fire

Photo credit: John M. Blodgett SB Sun

Rialto Firefighters responded to a structure fire on the 200 block of N. Palm last night. Firefighters found heavy fire conditions on arrival and intense wind conditions. A 48 year old male was found unconscious in a rear bedroom on a primary search. Paramedics rushed him to ARMC where, sadly, he later passed away. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this tragedy. San Bernardino County Fire assisting

Information Pulled from the Rialto Fire Facebook page.

Eisenhower Varsity Basketball Makes Quick Work of Lakeside

12 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by rialto-now in Ca, City of Rialto, david phillips, Inland Empire, Rialto, RUSD, youth

On Thursday Eisenhower High School put a hard tournament behind themselves with a win against Lakeside High. Eisenhower made quick work of Lakeside with an 81-63 win.

Eisenhower took a couple trips down the hardwood to find a groove but once they found it they never gave up.

The key to this win in our opinion was Eisenhower establishing that their shooters could hit the 3 pointer at will. What helped was big man Dorian King who finished the game as the top scorer with 24 points followed by Eric Milner who had 20 points to round out top scorers for Eisenhower.

One major key to Eisenhower’s win was using the full court press from tip off to the final buzzer. Lakeside seemed to struggle with this and never really figured out how to move the ball down court. One way that Lakeside got down the court easy was off of Eisenhower turnovers where a quick point guard would cherry pick the other end of the court.

Eisenhower’ next game is against Cajon High School in San Bernardino at 6 pm.

Rialto Street Artist Opens His Own Retail Shop This Weekend

08 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

Larry “Wet Paint Larry” Jones is a Rialto resident and former tagger who turned defacing public property into a painting and clothing line called “Sloppy Parlor”. Wet Paint Larry told us that he looked at his life of tagging and saw no upside “I couldn’t claim my art on a wall that didn’t belong to me. I couldn’t get anything but silent props from others breaking the law, when I was given the opportunity to paint my art on school walls (Morgan Elementary) that I found my next hustle”. Wet Paint Larry a self described urban entrepreneur always looking for his next “side hustle”

Wet Paint Larry was doing his art on the side while working with the homeless in San Bernardino. Larry was one of the many people that fell victim to massive cuts to city funded programs. Larry looked to his faith in God and saw this as a way to make a serious run at selling his clothing line and going into business for himself. Now Larry isn’t going into this blind as Schools, Small Businesses and even Cities have paid Larry to paint various locations. On top of that Larry has been blessed to have Dollar Deals on the corner of Sycamore and Foothill stocking his hats, shirts and other various art items.

So needless to say Wet Paint Larry is just as excited for this Saturday as his fans are as he will have his first ever Art Show and Pop Up Shop:

“Can’t wait to have a Pizza Party photo shoot in the new store 💛🍕✨! #foreclosureartshow Pop shop this Saturday come check out the spot it’s so fire 160 s riverside ave Rialto CA 92376 we in the alley … 🙏 #sloppyparlour #wetpaintlarry #toetakeover #toebizz #blessedup it’s Lit”

For those of you that are not familiar with this location Larry will be set up in the back of Shift 6 Apparel arrive early as this is going to be a can’t miss event that because of the winds last weekend will now have the Rialto Christmas Parade to compete with.

Larry is a great artist and great role model if your buying a gift for a teenager or young adult this will be a great way to mark off a gift and make someones day.

Image by rialto-now

Wrapping Up Eisenhower High School Football 2016 Season

08 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

It has been a long time since Eisenhower has seen the winning glory days of the 90’s. The hiring of Varsity Head Football Coach Brown is the hope that those days are around the corner. In our interview with coach brown this summer he laid out a program that brought back the student athlete culture that many past Eisenhower graduates remember. Eisenhower boys Varsity Football 2-8 overall they split the two preseason games and won only one game against local rival Rialto High School. (See highlights below)

The game against Rialto High was a great game that really highlighted Eisenhower’s strengths. Eisenhower would suffer some injuries that would prove to make the remaining regular season difficult. Loosing their starting center and some other players to season ending injuries would be the beginning of a ruff season for Eisenhower High School. As Eisenhower prepared to face off against power house football team from Redlands School Citrus Valley High School learning to use back up players in a role as important as center would prove to be too much.

Eisenhower Star wide receivers and running back would prove to have some break out moments but Citrus Valley’s offense would prove to be too much for Eisenhower’s defense. Another constant throughout the season was the officiating crew as Eisenhower had to play against each opponent and the referees. Bad call after bad call seemed that the refs had a personal vendetta against Eisenhower. It wasn’t just one game it was every single game.

Cajon was a different beast and Lamario Howard had some replay worthy plays returning a kickoff for a touchdown and laying down some timely hits on defense. One thing that seemed to keep our players out of closing the gap in the 2nd half was the fact that some of the best players were playing both ways.

Eisenhower played AB Miller with much of the same results……

It was clear that Redlands is doing something right because even though their city is split three ways with three separate high schools they have teams that compete at the highest levels and win. Redlands high players were all bigger and stronger than Eisenhower players and at time drug our defensive players for additional yards as they tried to tackle them.

The game against Carter was played at Rialto High as Eisenhower’s field was closed for use. Eisenhower hoped to at least claim the city bragging rights for this season with a win against Carter. This proved to be a unreachable goal as Eisenhower lost to Carter as well. One bright spot in the 2nd half was the emergence of freshman QB Cesar Ayala taking over the helm from his senior cousin Joel Ayala he preformed well and showed some great promise. We also saw a few more freshman get some serious time in this game showing us what a developing team Eisenhower should be bringing to the field next season.

The final game of the season ended like the others but we were able to see how our future players will pick up next season. Freshman QB Cesar Ayala started the final game and his cousin the senior QB Joel Ayala came in to run some wildcat plays trying to throw off the highly developed Yucaipa High players. Yucaipa had twice as many players on their roster than Eisenhower showing that they were one of the last true football towns in the Inland Empire.

One thing that rang true was Coach Brown’s dedication to developing his players and making sure they learned as much as they could from their time on and off the field. It seems to be translating into a great run at next season with coach brown already working on developing his team for next season. Word around campus is that administration is happy to have coach Brown and his staff and can’t wait to see what nest season has in store. Other notable standouts this season were Nick Freeman at WR and Charles Matthews at RB.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Eisenhower football.

Video by rialto-now