In an effort to help promote healthy lifestyles in Rialto for area teens, the Rialto Community Coalition will be holding a Substance Abuse Prevention Event at the Skate Park on Willow Avenue next to the Johnson Center on November 24, 2014 from 1PM – 4PM.
“Meeting teens where they are is vital to successful prevention methods,” said David Phillips a Rialto Community Coalition member. Many times we see Skateboarders as bad kids or trouble makers but once you get to know them and learn more about skateboarding you can see all the talent and potential that lies within”. As the Neighborhood Watch Captain of the Flores Park Group and being involved in many different other community groups, I understand that it is vital to reach out to our youth, especially starting with the skateboarders. There was a stretch where the skate parks were having issues with drugs and gangs. The key to safety was getting adults in the community to invest in a safe atmosphere for teens to skateboard. It takes more that money it takes personal time”.
The Rialto Community Coalition hopes to add to the success of their other public forum at Eisenhower High School called “Don’t Go There” where they used exhibits, media, and a powerful presentation from Ray Lozano to highlight the dangers of using drugs and alcohol. At the upcoming #SoberSkater event, participants will be asked to sign a pledge that states that they choose to be a Sober Skater. Also, the planning committee chose the name #SoberSkater to help attract teenagers on social media using hashtags since this is the way teens interact and seek out information on social media sites.
Michael Townsend, a Prevention Specialist with Central Valley Prevention Program, had this to say about the #SoberSkater event:
“The best way to prevent underage drinking and drug use is to identify the target population, develop ways to reach them, and increase enforcement during high risk times. By hosting the #SoberSkater event, the Rialto Community Coalition is doing exactly that. They have identified Thanksgiving break as a high risk time for underage drinking and drug use and they have identified skaters as their target population. In addition, they are working closely with the Rialto Police Department regarding their enforcement efforts. The Rialto Community Coalition members realize that having youth, who have made a commitment to sobriety, speaking directly to other youth, is a very effective method of getting their message out. So the coalition has engaged youth in this campaign to reduce social hosting.”
The event will include a semi-pro skateboard team called NAI (New Age Intelligence), gourmet food trucks, live music, vendors, and resource providers. There will also be a best trick contest. For more information, visit their Facebook event page at the link below.
The Rails to Trails program is explained by americantails.org as the following:
Rancho Cucamonga as the lead agency, together with San Bernardino Associated Governments and surrounding cities, is developing a multi-purpose trail along the Pacific Electric Railway line. The trail links five cities across the west end of San Bernardino County, and connects to a 7-mile rail trail project in eastern Los Angeles County, creating a 21-mile east-west trail corridor. The trail is a source of great civic pride in Rancho Cucamonga, and is credited with improving health, the environment, and the local economy; increasing real estate values along the trail corridor; providing links between the trail and mass transit systems (Metrolink, bus); and promoting historic preservation through connections to historic landmarks and historical sign displays.
As stated in the excerpt from the article Rancho Cucamonga is the lead agency in the area with the oldest portion of trail and the most expansive. Rancho also does something else very well they maintian and keep the trail as safe as possible. Can Rialto create a safe place for residents to excersise? I have been bringing this up for the last few years as the City has taken grant money to get this project started and completed. Last time I brought this up to the Police Chief and his command staff at coffee with the cheif in October I was told that the area where the trail will go is much safer than it used to be. So I was interested in this was it safer? Also if it is safer how much safer is it? We went to Crimemapping.com to see how it laid out for the last two months and this is what we saw:
Now I’m not sure what you call safe but 245 crimes in just a 2 month span does not look very safe. Also most of these crimes are violent types of crimes assults, robberies stolen vehicles. So Since Rancho Cucamonga is the case study and the reason we are undertaking this endevor lets look at a simular section of trail and the area once again using http://www.crimemapping.com what does it look like?
It looks very, very diffrent same time period same type of area where the trail dumps off into the next city 47 crimes in two months. This is why when people want to workout they go to this trail its safe.
Now the next disturbing trend on this project is that this public trail will be the first to have access gates to our schools. Yes the public and children will be able to slip onto campus through an approved back door. I spoke to Russel Silva who was an unsuccessful candidate for RUSD School Board and he shared my same concerns about access gates on the trail. Speaking to School Board Member Edgar Montes he was in favor of the gates and didn’t see a major security issue?
Finally are we creating a fee path for criminals to further and easier victimize our community? Before the area had trash weeds and uneven ground making it more difficult to traverse. Now we are going to give criminals clear free access to homes back yards, ability to go from one city to the next and remain off the beaten path, easier access to schools and a new area to tag and sell drugs at.
Don’t believe me are you still buying the load of garbage we have been fed by those at city hall that agree with this project? Right now the walls of the construction site have large graffiti tags from one end to another. The construction crews see it everyday and don’t do anything, Mike Story has been advised 4 times by me (David Phillips) personally and I have called the graffiti hotline twice on this spot. I even spoke directly to the graffiti removal person over the phone and alerted him to the issue and nothing has been done. Here are some pictures of the tags from Cedar behind Rialto Middle School.
Rialto Police Department has said they will re-staff the bike patrol unit but this has happened before and the unit keeps getting shut down its almost the first thing to go. What we have here is a lot of people ignoring the issues to feed some self serving political agenda. Here are a list of the issues one more time:
Cost – The City Council would like for you to take their line that its grant money and not your money being spent on this project. That is untrue grant money is your money just in a different form. Also general fund money is being spent on this project now. We are paying people salaries to oversee and manage the work being done and this trail will need maintenance and repairs. Rialto does not have a strong suit maintaining public facilities.
Safety – Don’t let anyone fool you the areas that this trail will extend to are not nice areas. You would not sell your home and move into the area most of us wouldn’t even drive through. On top of that we are going to give additional access to two schools and further stretch safety measures. Not to mention this is prime drug trafficking area and it appears that the people tasked with completing the project cold care less about what the area looks like.
Since the city has been so dead set on this project no matter what issues people bring to their attention we need to make sure they deliver on what they promised. It’s time for campaign promise’s to be real life promise’s
The final candidate forum of the 2014 election year is today and will only highlight two of the may areas up for grabs on November 4th. The two areas that will be covered are City Council ( two seats open out of four candidates ) and Rialto Unified School Board ( two seats open with six people for the seats ). One interesting portion of this event is it appears Ed Scott will poke his head out and finally speak publicly on the race which he has primarily done through private fundraisers and mailers & signs. It will be nice to see a majority of the candidates out together and we can hear their view points at the same time. The event is at the Rialto Senior Center on South Riverside Ave. See flyer below for more info.
The room was full of people looking for information on a wide variety of offices
Have you heard of the FELLAS? I had not until just recently, but I knew a couple of the members that make up this group. Some of the most powerful African American Men here in the Inland Empire make up the core of this group one of which now lives in Rialto. Some of the core members are Terrance Stone of Young Visionaries, Joseph Williams of The Youth Action Project (Rialto Resident) and Hardy Brown II of The Black Voice News.
It was powerful to arrive early and see these men in action and see the passion for the community they have. My group Flores Park Neighborhood Group was asked to be a co-sponsor of the event and help with administrative functions of the event. This Forum was the best multi candidate event I think Rialto has ever had. The diverse array of canidates as well as the information that was given was priceless.
The slection of rotation was interesting and seemed to work out well. If anything was accomplished yesterday it was showing off who was ready to start on day one if they won the majority of votes in November.
The powerful stand out were the following and why:
Lynn Hirtz Rialto City Council – Lynn came prepared and blew away the audience with her list of council accomplishments and background working in Rialto and commitment to make sure we didn’t shut down the airport for nothing that we will have a beautiful development in the Renissance area of Rialto.
Paul Chabot speaks with community members. Here he is speaking with a Sara Garcia a Representitve with Assembly Woman Cheryl Browns office.
Paul Chabot Congress 31st District – Paul came out explained that their are big issues here in the Inland Empire and he is the true voice of the Inland Empire. As a Naval Officer, Reserve Deputy and a small business owner he had the knowledge and passion to best represent the 31st.
Dina Walker RUSD Board – Dina Walker came out prepared to let the parents know they would have a voice with passion, knowledge and experince in implementing created policy. She even went as far as to tell people she wasn’t and expert in everything with left many feeling like she was going to be a straight shooter something that has been missing for years in Rialto.
Christina Gangier Congress 35th District – This young firey passionate young business woman is ready to take Washington by the horns and advocate for the Inland Empire. Her big focus was job readiness of our youth and older unempolyed. She refereenced her work with preparing people to be able to use technology to obtain careers not just jobs. She unlike her opponetnt Norma Torres will not forget who she represents and promised not to have special interests tapping her on the shoulder while she is advocating for the IE.
The elected hopefuls that were in attendance:
Rialto City Council: Lynn Hirtz, Joseph Britt
Rialto Unified School Board: Lillie Houston, Russel Silva, Dina Walker
Congressional District 35: Christina Gagnier
Congressional District 31: Paul Chabot, Pete Aguilar
Valley College Board Trustee: Joseph Williams
San Bernardino County Schools Board: Hardy Brown II
Join us and other strong community members as we are coffee and go over crime stats and upcoming events tie to our police department. Join us with Rialto PD’s top cop at Carrow’s on baseline.
So apperently some of the candidates are going around town saying that thier are 2 odd front runners? Well I’m not sure which poll they are using but many of us here in Rialto have not been polled in any fashion. Needless to say it was time to put out our poll and see where our readers and fans fall on this issue.
Dont worry about your answers your information is not being stored and we are not tracking you in any way. I am just curious to see where our fans fall on this election and these 2 seats. Vote away and better yet share away!!!!!!
Hello Rialto Now readers hope everyone is doing well as we close out September and move into October. Our last council meeting had some high points and low points. First let’s start with the high points.
High points came in the beginning of the meeting when Rialto PD displayed the Rialto PD Breast Cancer patch that officers will be sporting on both their shoulders. The design and implementation of this patch was funded from donated work and money meaning no tax payer money was used for this program. You can buy one of these patches for yourself and the proceeds go to a charity called Michelle’s Place http://www.michellesplace.org a Breast Cancer Resource Center. Find the Pictures below for an example of the patch and how you can purchase your patch.
Another high point was the celebration of a well-known business and their 30 years in operation here in Rialto. Brothers Pizza is the best pizza joint around and that has to be attributed to the details that Maria and her staff put into every meal they produce. Brother’s pizza may have moved around the city having three different store fronts in 30 years but they never left Rialto. Below is a picture of Maria at the meeting next time you’re in congratulating them on all their success.
Now onto the Low Points, it began with TAB 1 when on the face it looked like the city was allocating money to a street widening project harmless right? Wrong TAB 1 was a attempt to take money from existing projects to funnel those monies into the Bud Bender Park rehab project. The money grabs consisted of:
Taking money from the painting of the community center project.
Taking money already allocated from CBG monies for the Maple street widening project.
Money left over from a community block grant that didn’t meet the council’s targeted goals for this year.
Councilman Joe Baca Jr. appeared to be the driving force behind this money shuffle and his colleges were not on his side. June Hayes, David Phillips & Parks & Rec Commissioner Joe Britt all spoke out on this issue. Councilman Baca kept referring back to major safety issues at the park and even stated that the park was not safe and full of criminal activity resided there. Two million dollars of CBG money has already been allocated for this project. David Phillips gave the council the live within your means speech and it worked because council moved to keep everything the way it was and look at ways to stretch the money and make the park safe. It’s just sad that we still have some that are trying to do a back door shuffle of money but it was nice to have Council Members like Shawn O’Connell & Lynn Hirtz that have the cities best in mind.
The next low point was TAB 2 which was Client First the cities IT company looking for the last year extension on their contract and to add a $14,000 a month project manager to the contract brining the third year just over $500,000 for IT services. The first issue was with the services the company was providing. This was in reference to lost content on the city website, lost emails for city officials and the complication of getting information to the general public. City council did extend their contract for the last year but didn’t take on their project manager. Instead they directed George Harris to put out an RFP and look for an outside project manager that is separate from Client First.
The last low point of the evening was city councils decision to change the Renaissance plan from a beautiful residential/retail/community center area to a big collection of Industrial buildings. So city council sold away your water company, jacked up your rates, shut down one of the last airport hubs in the region all to build more warehouse space and drown the city in truck traffic. If you would like to know what the north end of rialto will look like just drive down cherry and see what it looks like at Cherry & Valley. As it is now the trucks are unsafe they run lights and drive way to fast and it seems we are powerless to stop them. This is one low point with no upside.
So a while back Rialto gave Burrtec a 10 year contract to help them secure low interest loans to increase and upgrade their fleet. We were promised no rate increases for two years. In return they would take over our street sweeping at no additional cost to the city, cleaning of the catch basins and of course pick up our trash.
Less than one year later we are looking at rate increases & a special fee placed by our city.
The use of special “fees” comes from the governments requirement to take new taxes to the public for a vote. So governments all over the state had a simple answer to this problem of stealing money from the tax payers, they decided to call their TAXES “fees”. Governments also have another tactic that normally works out well for them, it is to exempt the Seniors and low income from paying the tax or “fee”, putting the entire burden on the young and working class.
So what is this fee all about? Apparently public works and the city just recently figured out that trash trucks are heavy and do more damage than a regular car. So what is their solution?
Did you know that 3 trash trucks come down your street each week?
You see a trash truck is as heavy as 11,800 cars.
So your city staff (Marcus Fuller) recommends that YOU be taxed (Fee) as an increase to your trash rates to pay for street maintenance. It starts out low and then jumps in four years.
Now I have just a few questions for our city staff (Marcus Fuller):
Wasn’t there a way we used to pay for street repairs I think it was called our normal taxes? Did they go away without my knowledge?
Why is it the residents responsibility to pay for damage that Burrtec is causing?
Are the 18 wheelers that traverse all over the city being required to pay for the damage they cause?
Since the city has recently balanced the budget why are we once again looking into the residents pockets when Mr. Fuller has been successfully getting street repairs done for less than the projected cost?
What makes matters worse is Councilman Joe Baca Jr. was overheard after the council voted to set the public hearing back in May saying, “Should we be voting on a tax in a election year?”. Really? Is this fee or tax fair? Should we be doing our jobs in an election year? It is sad that there are still people working for us (Marcus Fuller) & people representing us (Councilman Baca) that clearly don’t seem to care about the bottom line of struggling families. Nobody except for the select few financially tied to the Water deal are making any more money. It is quite the opposite, families here in Rialto are making less and being asked to pay more.
How long will Rialto Residents put up with this type of governing? I am calling on all Rialto Residents to come to City Hall this Tuesday and let our council and city government know that if this is such a big concern, Burttec should be made to pay for THIER DAMAGE.
Below you will find the public notice and the table for the trash rate increases without the special fee. You have Burttec and the city reaching further and further into your pockets every year.
Public Hearing for New Refuse Collection Service Charges
The City Council has scheduled a Public Hearing for July 8, 2014, to consider changes to the City’s current rates for refuse collection service charges. These charges are established by the City and billed by its trash hauler (Burrtec) to cover costs for trash and green waste collection and disposal, and recycling services. more
A notice has been mailed to all residents and business owners regarding the proposed rates to accommodate increasing costs for service in excess of the Consumer Price Index, as well as the inclusion of two specific items: 1) an incentivized rate structure that includes commercial recycling services; and 2) a pavement maintenance fee (does not apply to senior or disabled accounts). For residential services, the proposed monthly rate increases estimated to occur over the next five years are identified in the following table:
The Rialto Community Coalition is meeting on September 3, 2013 from 6:30PM – 7:30PM at Coffee Nutzz which is located at 119 E. Foothill Blvd. Rialto, CA 92376. The meeting agenda is attached as well as an article concerning a recent law enforcement action taken in Rialto.
Cpl. Nelson from Rialto Police Department will be out to give a presentation on the Spice Raid that the Police Department.
The Department of Mental Health will show a short informational video on the dangers of Synthetic Drugs.
Come out to Coffee Nutz in Rialto and meet with fellow community members to help create a stronger community.
So summer is almost here and we know what that means to the IE right heat and tons of events. Well we have two events I would like to highlight this weekend that I thought you might like.
This event takes place Saturday, May 18th from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm at the Rialto Racquet and Fitness Center, 1243 S. Riverside Ave, Rialto. For an appointment, please call 820-8025.
rialtonow 