Hello Rialto Now Readers hos is everyone on this fine September day? Who went to Rialto’s Family Festival? Well we did and it was quite an amazing time 2nd only to National Night Out. There was literally something for everyone. There were 2 stages, over 50 vendors, kids fun zone, carnival style food court and police K9 demonstrations.
Rialto Police K9 Cars
With the election so close this event was full of people looking for your vote in November. From Rialto Unified School Board, City Council, Community College Board and even congress the vote stumping was in full force. We were able to put together a nice collage for you of some of the VIP action at the event.
Included in this photo are David Phillips, Joseph Williams, Deborah Robertson, Lynn Hirtz & Cheryl Brown
This event was full of cool and interesting vendors and they were spread wide and far. This event took over the entire Civic Center.
From the top running right to left we have Market Solutions Services, Russell Silva for School Board, Kiwanas Finger Print Station, Joe Britt for City Council, Mad Jakes Kettle Corn, It Works & Shred Fest.
These were not all of the vendors but just a taste. It was an amazing afternoon of information, resources and fun! Our hats go off to the City Clerk’s Office for pulling this one off.
Mayor Robertsons Trees of the Rialto Civic Center Map
Mayor Robertson still had her massive mini tent with seating and tables but she added some healthy games and a map of the many different types of trees and their uses. It was interesting and we can only guess that this was an attempt to silence critics of her hospitality booth last year. Many questioned the need for it or why it wasn’t a joint effort with the entire council? I too wait for the day when we can pool resources and work together to make a great representation of our local government. Maybe next year, with that being said the mayor was very nice and hospitable.
Rialto is lucky to have a Chief of Police like Tony Farrar. Chief Farrar really wants to hear from you the community he is one of those gems in law enforcement that really cares.
So come out tomorrow August 12th at Coffee Nutz on Foothill at 8am and have some coffee with the chief of police and get some awesome updates on the Public Safety environment here in the city.
Number 1 is the proposed location of the new stop light. Number 2 is where the city is looking to extend the existing road median. MC is where the 4th Mc Donald’s will be and the GAS is the proposed location of the Food 4 Less Gas Station
Hello Rialto residents if you didn’t follow us on twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/rialtosnow ) on Tuesday night you missed a couple interesting agenda and consent calendar items. Below we have them listed out for your reading enjoyment.
Consent Calendar D. 10
So normally consent calendar items are rarely ever discussed the consent calendar is meant to approve a block of items that have minimal importance, low dollar amount or lately a way to slide an item by the public without any response from your elected officials. The only way these items are discussed in the open is if they are pulled by one member for separate consideration or a separate vote meaning someone has a issue, question or problem with any particular item.
So on this occasion there were three items pulled for separate consideration. The first two were uneventful and took minimal time D. 10 was not so easy. Councilman O Connell was the one that placed this item on the agenda and Mayor Robertson pulled the item. So what was D. 10? D. 10 was a request that council direct the clerks office to provide detail minutes versus ACTION minutes. What’s the difference? The difference is action minutes merely report the overall final vote 3-1, 4-0 ect. Over the last 6 months the Clerk has given the city ACTION minutes only. So when the Mayor was accused of giving preferred treatment to one security contractor over another. their is no record, or the funny way the money from the sale of our water company for 30 million dollars has been allocated and many other examples.
Mayor Robertson issue was that the city council was directing one elected official to do something? She went on about different branches of government and not over stepping boundries. It sounds good right council cant direct the City Clerk to do something right? Well if our City Clerk was only a City Clerk it would be that way. Our City Clerk is also a Department Head she makes a nice yearly salary department heads report to the city council and mayor as well as the city administrator. Councilman O Connell came prepared for the item to be pulled because he came with a power point that really drove the point home about why he was concerned about the ACTION minutes. There was a lot of back and forth where even the City Clerk tried to blame her lack of reporting on the moving of her offices, lowered staff and being ill. The city attorney said that the way this issue was handled was if the city had a Municipal Code directing what type of minutes were to be generated which Rialto does not have, so they fall back to state law which states that ACTION minutes were the bare minimum. The outcome was the City Attorney would draft a Municipal Code that would direct the Clerk to produce more than ACTION minutes. So this one is TO BE CONTUNIED……
Visit our twitter account and get a picture of Barbara McGee’s body language during the Councilman’s power point.
Agenda Tab 4
Welcome to Rialto the Home of Liquor Stores, Indoor Swap Meets & Mc Donald’s fast food chains. On Tuesday the City Council made this more of a reality. Apparently on the corner of Cedar & Foothill where the Verizon Store is and the empty video rental building is will now house Rialto’s 4th Mc Donald’s chain. But wait there is more that very busy and dangerous shopping center is also getting a Food 4 Less Gas Station Yay?????? But wait there is more to make matters worse the city is extending a median on Cedar North of Foothill & putting another stop light between Linden and Cedar on Foothill???????
Neighborhood Watch Liaison for the Flores Park Neighborhood Watch addressed his concerns on Tuesday that the city was spending a total of $150,000 on a project that is only going to make traffic worse not better yet Flores Park Can’t get 1 single stop sign in front of their park to slow down traffic and help the RUSD traffic guard assist the children across this dangerous street. Council Members were un moved by the pleading from the community because the new gas station and Mc Donald’s brings in revenue. So I guess street safety is only important as long as the city can make money off it. The sad part is that this new Mc Donald’s is less than 50 feet from a Head Start Pre School that is already flanked by a wienerschnitzel so much for healthy Rialto. Anyone that uses this area already knows its a mess inside the shopping center traffic wise now that the city is going to force people to turn south onto Cedar which will be further backed up by an additional light on Foothill is a recipe for a disaster.
As to Flores Park and their desire for a stop sign on Etiwanda no one on the council seemed to care. Especially Public Works Director Marcus Fuller who increased the speed limit on Etiwanda by 15 MPH from 25 MPH to 40 MPH. When asked why he stated that 80 percent of the people were speeding on the street so they increased the speed to accommodate the speeding public. There seems to be no law preventing turning our local streets into legal drag strips. Both Cactus and Cedar that run parallel to Etiwanda have speed limits of 50 MPH just 15 MPH shy of a freeway. Flores Park said the will continue to push on the issue and look into legal avenues to force the city to offer protections for our neighborhoods and community streets.
On Friday April 4th the Rialto Community Coalition held a Substance Abuse prevention forum at Eisenhower High School. The event included a vendor resource zone with education a resource tools for attendees, speakers from Rialto Police Department, Rialto Unified Public Safety, Principle Scott Sparks, Key note speech from Prevention Specialist Ray Lozano and a Q&A Panel.
Speaker Ray Lozano gave a riveting presentation on the dangers and effects of drugs and alcohol on a young persons system. Ray Lozano used props and audience participation to make sure the information was interesting and hit home.
Jennifer Ariza from The Rec Center came with videos and tools to educate parents and students of the effects and dangers of substance abuse. Farmers Insurance Services came out and showed event attendees the dangers of alcohol use and driving. The African American Health Coalition came with resources and training event attendees could utilize at the event and after.
99.1 KGGI with Diana Wehbe and KC were on hand and Laniea Dominguez from Comedy for Causes was the event MC.
Campus Security Officer Juan addressed the public on a incident where a student was almost dumped by his FREINDS by the side of a building after giving the teen synthetic marijuana which resulted in the teen experiencing cardiac arrest. If the campus security officer had not found the teen he may have met a dire consequence.
All throughout the event the message was driven home to parents and teens that if your depending on your friends to notice when your life is in danger your depending on the wrong people.
Ray Lozano said that the #1 reason teens use drugs for the first time is because they are bored. This drove the point home to youth and adults to help us find other ways to curb boredom and make better choices.
Don’t Go There a Community forum aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of drug and alcohol consumption among our youth.
Rialto Community Coalition brings this informative forum working with Rialto Police Department & Rialto Unified School District.
This event will include A resource zone where Students, Parents and Educators can obtain information on how to deal with Drug and Alcohol Consumption, start the conversation or deal with use that is ongoing. We are also proud to announce that Ray Lazano the highly popular world wide drug and alcohol counselor will be our keynote speaker. We will also have a Panel where people in attendance can ask questions of Coalition members, School District personnel, Rialto Police dept. staff and more……
Check the event listing for an up to date list of everything that they will have going on.
Come early and meet Diana Wehbe and the 99.1 street team who will be doing a live remote.
Rialto Unified board VP: Superintendent fate to be decided soon
Rialto >> The top two administrators in the Rialto Unified School District being out on paid leave for the past five months have cost taxpayers the equivalent of three veteran teachers during that time. But the pair won’t be in limbo much longer, according to one board member.
Rialto Police Department Urges City Council To Ban Mobile Marijuana Operations
On Tuesday Rialto Police Lt. James Kurkoske presented the Issue with Medical Marijuana Dispensaries moving to a Mobile operations to circumvent Rialto municipal code laws Banning dispensaries within the city limits
Lt. James Kurkoske remarked on the law that created a Compassionate Use Act (CUA) where people that were suffering from the effects of treatment from serious illness. Rialto has a ordnance that does not allow medical marijuana shops to hold store fronts within the city limits. So what drug dealers have done is offer a delivery service to their clients in the city of Rialto. Lt. James Kurkoske said at the council meeting last night that this practice is dangerous because the drivers are a target of armed robbery for cash and drugs. This danger has brought drivers to have armed guards or even arm themselves. One community watch resident said “last thing we need is a shoot out in the city”.
Lt. James Kurkoske said that the SCAT team preformed undercover buys from these shops and had the drug delivered to a apartment where a undercover police officer was there to complete the purchase. Lt. James Kurkoske said that the undercover operations team did not encounter any armed curriers but did encounter armed guards at a store front that was shut down near Cactus and Valley.
The council went with staff recommendation and amend the current Ordnance to also ban mobile operations of Medical Marijuana within the city limits. The vote was unanimous but there were comments after the public comment portion was over. Councilman Joe Baca Jr asked Lt. James Kurkoske how possible legalization efforts would affect the city’s ability to enforce the Ordnance. Lt. James Kurkoske did say that it would become more difficult. Joe Baca Jr also asked how the police would be able to identify if someone was under the influence while driving. Lt. James Kurkoske said states like Colorado and Washington were already developing methods and technology to deal with this issue with more accuracy. Joe Baca Jr said its inevitable that Marijuana will be regulated and more available to our communities and he didn’t seem to concerned over this issue. Councilman Ed Palmer was disturbed that someone could order Marijuana like a pizza. He made reference to a potential decline in our communities is this continued. Councilwoman Lynn Hirtz said that having a lax attitude in reference to any drug use in our communities was dangerous and she thanked the police for their work on this item.
Final $11 millionsettlement reachedin water contamination suit
Wrapping up a decade of litigation involving multiple companies, of a former fireworks manufacturer agreed Friday to an $11 million settlement to help cover cleanup costs at a Rialto industrial site where toxic chemicals leached into the groundwater.
Rialto dog handlers Ivonne and Gabriel Rangel are ready to take Sky, champion wire fox terrier, into the ring Tuesday for the terrier competition at the Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show in New York.
The very successful Area Command meetings are back with a ever so slight tweak. Instead of having four meetings they have combined two areas and made two meetings. When Area Commanders were asked about this change it was done this way to kick off the program and brings the areas together as they introduce a new Virtual Neighborhood Watch Program and other items better given to large groups. This combining of groups should benefit the community because people benefit from hearing other community members concerns.
Some things to expect at the first meeting of 2014 are:
Introduction of the Next Door virtual neighborhood watch program.
Access to city department heads like City Administrator Mike Story.
Receive up-to-date crime stats for the area in question.
Network with other concerned residents and find solutions to ongoing and prior problems.
Browse through the large amount of flyers and resources available via our city, police & fire departments.
This is an ongoing successful program run by dedicated professionals that care about the city and want to see positive forward movement in the city of Rialto.
For more information please refer to the flyer and the prospective area commander or go to www.rialtopd.com
The last round of Area Command meetings are happening in September and October.
The first Area Command Meeting is this Saturday at 1:00pm at Sunrise Church in North Rialto. This is Area 1 Command meeting and its a meeting you need to attend if your in the respective area. Lt. Andy Karol always brings out the resources that the community is looking for. Area Command meetings are more than a law enforcement tool to get the word out to the community. Various city departments come out and give you the information you need and answer your questions.
Be sure to attend your area command meetings. Also follow us on twitter and be given up to date information on what is going on at the area command meeting as it happens. Our twitter address is www.twitter.com/rialtosnow
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.
We have received reports that Rialto Police Department SCAT team conducted a sweep of local businesses known to sell synthetic drugs like SPICE & BATHSALTS.
A Press Release from Rialto Police Department has now come out.
What we do know that we can release is this week at Eisenhower High School a package of the Synthetic Form of Marijuana called SPICE was found in a classroom. Pictured below is the brand of Synthetic Marijuana that was found this week in a classroom on the campus of Eisenhower High School. The three businesses that were found in possession of the banned substance for sale all were right next to Eisenhower High School. There have been talks in the community that banning these types of stores within a comfortable radius of our schools.
Found in a Eisenhower classroom this week
Last year a young male almost went into cardiac arrest after consuming the Synthetic Marijuana on campus. If not for the quick response of his teacher and campus security the outcome would have had a horrible ending.
School officials and staff have yet to comment on this issue for the drug being found once again on their campus.
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