Well if you were unaware National Night Out the nationwide event to snuff out crime and to foster positive relationships between the community and Law Enforcement was on August 4th. Many cities locally took part in this years event but not as many as years past.
Rialto, Fontana, Grand Terrace, & San Bernardino all had National Night Out festival events this year. Cities like Riverside & Upland encouraged their communities to hold individual block parties and public safety personnel traveled from event to event.
On the large festival side Rialto came out as a top performer with the amount of items offered all in one area. Two of the biggest draws every year are the rides in police cars (no handcuffs required) and the Gourmet Food Trucks secured by Market Solution Services.
Probably the best music all night was the live music preformed by All Star National Anthem Performer Alexa Capelli who not only sang the National Anthem see it here but also preformed some awesome music for the crowd (see her performances on our Youtube Channel). Once she began to sing the crowd came up to the stage Leslie Parks of Rialto said “I have never heard such a powerful voice in my life” and little Stephanie Ramirez age 8 said “one day I want to be as pretty as her and sing just like her”.
Other awesome live performers brought by Lil Saint Productions were Elizabeth R Estrella and Christian Rapper Carl Fontaine. Rialto Police appear to spare no expense in putting this event together. We heard that the planning meeting was a all hands on deck type of feel.
Close on Rialto’s heels was the Lydo Apartments & ATAP After School Program that held the only large National Night Out program in San Bernardino August 4th. The San Bernardino program offered a lot of what Rialto offered and promised to step it up and put San Bernardino on the map.
Other large events were in Grand Terrace, Montclair and Fontana. Fontana held their event at Fontana Park in the area known as Summit. They had vendors, food and Mc Gruff the Crime Dog. Kids got to get there face painted and take pictures with police officer and many different vehicles. See a great photo from Edward Ornelas below.
Held on August 8th was the National Night Out event in Perris Ca. Perris Mayor Daryl Busch said residents will gain a new appreciation for law enforcement and public safety at National Night Out.
“It is a great, and I want to emphasize great, outreach effort on the part of our public safety folks to show all the varied aspects of their jobs,” Busch said. “Most people only see police on motorcycles or in patrol cars, but this event provide the chance to view the full spectrum of services they provide to our community.”
Perris officials we’re on hand to accept a plaque for their continuing support of law enforcement and public safety. The day’s activities included static displays, food and drink vendors, as well as games and jumpers for children. Taken from http://www.cityofperris.org/news/2015_stories/08-04-15_national-night-out.html
There were cities that went with the smaller block parties but Riverside had over 20 block parties going on all over the city. Upland also went the block party route and Councilwoman Carol Timm posted on Facebook pictures of her and public safety officials going from block party to block party.
Some remarked that it is vital that Upland gets in and around the community as the Pro Drug Lobby is currently working to attack the Ordnance that Upland has to ban Medical Marijuana shops in the city of Upland.
No matter what city your in one thing is true we need to stop fighting our Public Safety officers and we need to collaborate together to help make everyone’s life more enjoyable.
A large group of city officials, elected officials, community members and family gathered at the Johnson center meeting room to honor Mike Story city of Rialto City Administrator for his recognition of Mr. Story’s dedication to the community of Rialto.
Story after story was told about the Rialto Man of Distinction award recipient and they all spoke to a man of high moral character and a work ethic that never made Mr. Story feel like he was too good to help out his fellow city employee. Mayor Deborah Robertson spoke about Mr. Story and his dedication to making sure that Frisbee Park host site for the Rialto Jazz Fest be kept looking nice. Something very odd happened at this event that you would not normally see. Elected official after elected official gave Mr. Story the credit for bringing Rialto into a functional balanced budget something not all cities can say in todays climate.
As each speaker came to the podium a slide show played in the background showing Mr. Story in his various roles around Rialto. Many of the speakers spoke of Mr. Story wearing many different hats in his employment with Rialto and looking at the pictures he has worn a lot of aprons too!!!!
Mike story speaking to Greta Hodges long time Rialto resident and chair of the Friends of Rialto K9 Association.
Mike Story speaking with City Councilman Shawn O’Connell both men were smiling and having a good conversation. Councilman Shawn O’Connell spoke about Mr. Story’s character and dedication to being ethically balanced. Councilman Shawn O’Connell also spoke to Mr. Story being a person that works to make sure that city government is transparent and fair.
Mr. Story with Councilman Shawn O’Connell and Fire Chief Matt Fratus prior to the event beginning. Rialto Fire Chief Matt Fratus said he is newer to rialto but having worked in other cities under a lot of other city administrators that Mr. Story’s character makes working for the community a lot easier.
So next time your out and about say hello to Mr. Story and tell him how thankful you are that he is working so hard to make Rialto a better place to be.
Tuesday June 9th at the regular city council meeting Robert Eizenbiez and his staff laid out a confusing and hard to understand plan on how to deal with water restrictions sent down by Governor Jerry Brown. Mr. Eizenbiez a new Public Works Director to Rialto is new to his job here but not new to public service working in the largest California city to file for bankruptcy San Bernardino as an engenier and as an interim Public Works Director. City Council moved the public works presentation up to the June 9th meeting as they were waiting for over a month to hear why they should approve harsh regulations on the community of Rialto when no presentation has ever been made? Councilman O’connell said at a past meeting that he would like to see a healthy education component before they started attacking the community. Councilman Palmer wanted to see language like no watering during high winds and no watering after measureable rain for 48 hours better outlined and Councilman Scott wanted to know why we had a green lawn ordnance if we are now telling people not to water their lawns?
Very few of these questions were answered but we did learn that the city will be asking you to do their job for them and turn in your neighbors via a mobile app that could be located online. Rialto Public Works Department is touting awesome numbers in getting the message out to Rialto water customers their first workshop in March 2015 had 45 people the workshop had 70 people. Ron a local business owner who watched the meeting online said “So a city of 200,000 people an increase of 25 people shows success?” The Rialto Public Works presentation did say that people are calling about rebate programs but are saying the the rebates are too low and don’t provide enough to accomplish the goals that were set. Local marketing professionals and Political Activists say that the rebates are just there to get you to purchase new items you can’t afford. Anthony from Rialto Watch Dogs says “take the Weather based irrigation timers they only give you a $100 rebate yet a inexpensive unit that isn’t reliable will cost you $200 and that’s not including the other materials or labor to install the unit.” Even the Public Works presentation stated that rialto water customers are saying that the $350 max rebate for turf removal doesn’t do much.
Rialto Public Works Department also stated that they will be TARGETING Schools and Local Businesses in an effort to force the 28% water reduction that the Governor laid out in his latest drought plan. The public works Department Presentation says it will begin with education but they can and will levy fines of $100 to $500 for each offense in addition to monetary fines Rialto Water can install water restrictive flow device or shut off the water.
The city of Riverside has sued a state agency over water restrictions intended to combat the drought, claiming the rules are unfair because the city has ample groundwater supplies. The Southern California city argues it has been unfairly ordered to cut water use by 24 percent even though it has groundwater supplies for four years and does not rely on any imported water, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court. Riverside, a city of 317,000 people, wants to be allowed to cut water consumption by 4 percent along with some jurisdictions in Northern California that rely on surface water supplies, the suit said. (http://abc7.com/news/riverside-sues-over-california-water-restrictions/776794/ )
Why does it appear that Riverside cares more about their residents than Rialto? Rialto’s City Attorney will attack a citizens right to FREE speech but not protect the communities right to not be unfairly attacked by over reaching legislation.
We made calls to Clarence Mansell the General Manager of Rialto Water Services & Robert Eizenbiez the Public Works Director for the City of Rialto. Calls to Rialto Water Services were not returned but Robert Eizenbiez did talk to us click here http://wp.me/p1Otmn-Da to see what he had to say.
Local people in the City of Rialto are kinda tired of rialto trying to build the plane while in mid flight. This means it seems like every project is thrown together and the community gets to suffer while they feel their way around ill conceived poorly planned ideas.
What are your thoughts on this ordinance? Comment below or email us at rialtonw@aol.com
At 4:39 pm on Sunday over 20 shots rang out in the Cedar Park Greens community in the Flores Park Area. Residents who were trying to report the shots fired incident were given a high call volume message and 911 calls would not connect.
The shooting was on the east side of the multi housing community. This is the same community where the two dodger fans who beat up Giants fan Brian Stow lived. Cedar Park Greens is the nasty community everyone just pretends doesn’t exist until something bad happens said Eric a local resident that walks Etiwanda daily.
“It was pretty scary happened right behind my house. We were outside enjoying this beautiful weather, I thought it was fireworks at first, until something whizzed by my friends head. Lord help us all” said Sandra.
Last reports were that there were no victims located as yet. Multiple shooters and at least three vehicles. Helicopter found couple possible shooters. Police found empty shell casings in the street. Police were checking all hospitals as parties involved left the scene.
Reports are at least three shooters according to witness statements.
So far we know that multiple “victims” were shot at and fled the scene. At least one party called police to identify that they fled the scene after being shot at and police were in route to interview them.
Three separate series of gun shots rang out through the community. With the large problem with illegal fireworks in Rialto some people were unsure at first about what they were hearing. As of 9pm no reports of injuries or arrests have been made.
The debate continues on whether the Drop In Jazz Fest is a city sponsored event or not. Mayor Robertson and Mr. George Harris say that it is not. The problem is if I told you I was not a clown yet wore clown makeup, juggled and had a red nose & big red feet would you believe me? Here is where the debate continues:
The Drop In Jazz Fest is being given airtime and production time on the Rialto Network. Something that is not available for non city events or facilities.
Most of the work to prepare for this event has come from city staff that were on city paid time. From public works leveling out a special parking lot, admin staff working on paperwork, special intervening on behalf of councilmembers Scott & Baca Jr, use of police and fire staffing, special reduction in public safety costs & ability to shut down a PUBLIC park to use it for a private use that is outside of its intended purpose.
All of the marketing has been RIALTO nothing else. Also they are supposed to repay all of the city employee time and resources would be repaid. well they have dropped the price of general admission twice now. They stared at $80 each and now they are $50 each this is more a sign of desperation most of the time a successful event will get more expensive as the event draws near not cheaper.
The newest show that this is not a private event and a de facto City Event is the massive banner that is now hung on the outfield netting advertising the “The 3rd Annual RIALTO Drop In Jazz Fest” it states that is is to benefit the Rialto Youth Collaborative but it is not being put on by the Rialto Youth Collaborative it is put on by RIALTO for their benefit.
Remember they say it’s not a Rialto event?
I am not against kids or performing arts as accused by some. As a representative for many local artists there is no bigger supporter of the arts but if the public needs to follow the rules so should the city leadership. Also shame on the East Rialto Kiwanis for presenting such a horrible example to our youth when it comes to abusing Alcohol. We need to show our kids that you can have a good time at a venue without getting drunk. Don’t forget these people will be piling into cars and driving through our city streets and the public freeways. Who will arrest all of these drunk drivers?
On January 29th the city held a community forum on a wide range of topics that matter to Rialto. The layout was different from other forums being people were given an opportunity to vote and speak on each topic. The evening wrapped up with Mayor Robertson asking if anyone from the crowd had any additional questions. The event was simple each person was given a clicker and was able to vote with multiple choice selections then make comments afterwards.
Looking back there were no questions on the failed water deal, on the distribution of Community Development Block Grants, on City Councils performance or on how the Measure “U” money will be spent. Why? Because the Mayor and her cohorts don’t want to hear what you feel on those issues. Well we want to know how you feel on one of those questions:
I was not able to attend due to my commitment to the Communities United Meeting that was the same night in Redlands but thanks to You Tube and Mr. Felton at Rialto Network we were able to see the results here:
Thanks to Mike Story you too can make your voice be heard in this online survey and answer the same questions that the people who attended to meeting did her:
Notice how none of the regular city people even gave them all excellant. Ask people this same question now that they see travel spending out of control, taxes being wasted and corruption poking its ugly head once again.
Here nobody gave the quality of life here in Rialto an excellent this is beyond sad because when I was a kid Rialto was a great place to be and live.
Yes shopping and eating are the greatest priorities to Quality of Life here in Rialto. So what does Rialto do they shove all the eateries into one small spot creating a traffic nightmare and further frustrate Rialto residents you see our City Council isn’t happy if you’re not upset.
This result worries me because with more warehouses comes more truck traffic and trucks don’t follow the rules of the road and they do major damage to our streets that will create another fee (TAX) and punish us because they refuse to allocate the proper funds to fix our roads.
You can’t read it but sit down restaurants once again led in the voting and I guess that is fine. You can only have so many restaurants before you need other business options to feed those businesses. I don’t know about you but I will shop at Target before I ever step foot in a Walmart or even a Super Walmart. With rude shaggy staff, dirty shelves and story after story of the crime a walmart brings due to their lazy policies on Loss Prevention. Oh and don’t forget even though San Bernardino leads the IE in deadly crime and gang activity they are getting a Golden Coral Restaurant later this year. Yes a restaurant that would do well in Rialto goes to San Bernardino.
Until the city figures out how to create a sales tax base for warehouses in Rialto I agree with None of The Above. The city wants to tax the residents to death because they see us as easy marks.
Rialto is easier to work with than most other cities and recent business owners to open up shop in Rialto attest to this fact. I’m sure after the recent elected officials settle in they will change that overnight.
Yes we think you should enforce property maintenance this is a silly questions. I love how someone doesn’t want to do their job they pass it off on the community to see if they need to enforce the rules or laws.
I would like to know what the city thinks Active Adult Community Housing is? Here is what google says it is:
Active adult communities are real estate developments that offer independent, relatively maintenance-free living to residents aged 55 and over. In “age restricted” active adult communities, 80% of homeowners must be 55 and over, while “age-targeted” communities simply market to the 55+ crowd. Many of the residents continue to work part or full time, which is why the term “active adult retirement communities” is less accurate. The residents are not opposed to children (or grandchildren!) either. Rather, the 55+ component simply assumes that people at the same stage of life probably share a few leisure-time interests and pursuits.
Not surprising that the largely elderly group voting would vote this way.
Wow you mean Rialto streets need to be worked on? Well of course they do but it seems like with the balance of power shifting to the side of corruption, money shifting and lavish traveling at the cities expense. Its so bad Councilman O’Connell had to eat his words when citizens told the council that the Trash Tax would not be an addition to current money spent on roads but a way to shift road money into pet projects to pay off favors to special interests.
Once again Street Maintenance wins out but good luck getting this council to do good things that will improve our lives here in Rialto.
If the 22 people want more free community events they need to bring their friends with with them our market nights had very low turnout numbers and our city refuses to work with anyone else to help make the Market Nights more appealing. Some of the community events are awesome and some are lame the lame ones tend to be the ones where outside help is not excepted at all.
Here is Joe Baca Jr. go to place he is Mr. Parks and he was MIA. The rails to trails is underway and costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars more than originally planned.
I would agree ask me about dispatch and thats a whole different story.
NO I don’t feel safe in Rialto. We are holding onto a low crime rate by holding back a flood with a bed sheet. We need to bolster our staffing within the police department, get our bars under control and finally get serious about the issues of San Bernardino crime rolling into our city.
Yes our police department is in a much better place with Chief Tony Farrar at the helm. He is an approachable person, a good leader and a great cop. One of the things I like most about Chief Farrar is that he doesn’t seem like he is on a fast track to a cushy political career like others that have recently left Rialto Police Department he is busy making our police department the best it can be with the resources he is given. Even as a big PD Supporter there are times I don’t see eye to eye with the police but the command staff isn’t against sitting down and hashing it out and talking about issues. In the end sometimes we have to agree to disagree but the respect remains because they took the time to hear you out.
I would agree with the 22 people that voted on this question. My question is why do we compare ourselves to other cities when it comes to safety or a justification to raise illegal taxes on the people of Rialto? Yet when you ask them to do a simple thing like figure out how to create a sales tax base opportunity from the numerous warehouses that are being forced on the community they throw thier hands up and claim they are trying their best? Well I’m sorry your best isn’t good enough anymore. If San Bernardino can get their warehouses to pay a separate tax to the city why can’t Rialto?
I believe our fire services are great. We use our own ambulances in most cases, fire fighters are kind men and women and Chief Mat Fratus is constantly working to make Rialto Fire an innovative part of Rialto.
I do believe one thing we need is a FREE class that teaches Basic CPR & First Aide because many people have no idea what to do when a friend or family member falls ill or is the victim of an emergency.
The Fireworks Enforcement in Rialto is horrible. The people we have working the Fireworks hotline could not hear or understand the callers, hung up on the callers and did not give the community confidence that our concerns were getting through. Then you have Rialto PD Dispatchers that kept pushing you off onto the deaf fireworks hotline operators it was a major fail. We owe it to our community and veterans to work much harder to:
Eliminate the use of illegal fireworks in the city by hitting our gang areas early and then looking at places where over the years there has been a constant flow of calls for service on a house or specific street. My street is a WAR ZONE every year with illegal fires, illegal fireworks and excessive drinking and drug use. Needless to say its not a family environment on my street the first week in July.
Create a major community event like Redlands does where the entire day is dedicated to family and community with a parade and fun zone ending with a massive fireworks show. We have massive stadiums at our High Schools and we can put together a quality event that people want to attend.
The Mayor made a statement that she is fine with taking the input of 22 people most of them city employees over looking for ways to get more input from more people. I can tell you why the numbers were so low:
No sense of urgency among the elected officials to get their camps excited about spreading the word about this forum. When the council wants something from you like funds for their campaign or your vote you can’t get them out of your face.
The Mayor and her council members don’t want to hear what you have to say unless its agreeing with them. If you disagree with them in any fashion they bark at you, make fun of you or try and shut you up.
It sucks but if you want people to show up you need to entice them with food and have their children involved in the event. They could have the recreation staff have a series of group activities for kids so parents could go and if we have some of our awesome young leaders involved in the process we could begin to expose them to the process and hear what they think Rialto needs.
To end it all you have Mr. Scott slamming Fontana saying that “they (Fontana) doesn’t care” he says this at 2:02 towards the end of the meeting well maybe they are not working with us because of comments like that Mr. Scott.
We need to get involved and show the Council that Rialto cares because if we don’t we will be on the fast track to being just like San Bernardino.
Hello Rialto Now readers and fans. If you were watching from the audience or watching on TV it looks like every council meeting will go on and on no matter how short the agenda may appear. This meeting had six tab items in total and even had one pulled and at 9pm they only moved through half of the tab items.
Consent Calendar
Two items were pulled from the Consent Calendar for seperate approval or vote.
C.1 the regular city council meeting minutes from the meeting January 13th 2015 had a seperate vote and Councilman Ed Palmer voted no. We plan to reach out to Councilman Palmer this weekend and find out why he voted no on these minutes and we will update so stay tuned.
E.4 was pulled to explain that the City Treasurer wanted approval from the City Council to allow a few select investments go beyond the 5 year maturity limit to retain maximum benifit and a larger profit.
Tab Items & Public Hearings
Tab.1 was approving the ability to move forward with the Lytle Creek Development project. the developers need approval from the City to present the anexation application to the Local Agency Formation Commission for San Bernardino County this project in its entirety consitsts of 4 neighborhoods. Neighborhoods two and three will be anexed to the city of Rialto and Neighborhoods one and four will remain in the county of San Bernardino. Now let me first say I am not a fan of this project it has destoryed Rialto’s Country Club Area & Golf Course as well as extremely reduced property values in the Country Club Area. Nonetheless the developer has spent years and money going through stall tactics and lawsuits to finally get to this point. It appeared that even though there were questions about the real intentions of the project it was going to be approved to recive county approval, that is until Councilman Ed Scott spoke up. Councilman Ed Scott stated that since the developer had not come to him and meet with him privatly that he wanted to table this vote for two weeks. So this will be the second time just two months into a four year city council term that Councilman Ed Scott wants to delay things because he is unprepared. Also why should a developer be having special secret meetings with City Council Members? I know Councilman Ed Scott took alot of money from developers to get elected and that is one of the many reasons that I feel uncomfortable with Councilman Ed Scott acting as the Gate Keeper to Development here in Rialto. Councilman Shawn O’Connell had no problem voting to continue the item for two weeks but did say that when he has a question on an agenda item he calls city staff prior to the meeting and gets answers verses dropping them on staff in the meeting and creating delays. Councilman Ed Plamer said that this action has been delayed for far to long and voted no on continuing the issue for two more weeks.
Tab.2 was to approve one of the many warehouses that will be dropped in the city of Rialto. Niagra Bottling Company wants to bring a $200,000,000.00 bottling and packing warehouse to the Renaissance plan development operated by Niagra Bottling Company. Below is a image of the many diffrent companies they bottle and create water for:
As you see they bottle water for alot of different companies and they have a history of giving back. Thier were questions if they would add language holding the city of Rialto Harmless form any actions this project would ensue. I was unsure why they said that until I began reciving phone calls apperently WVWD and City of Colton are suing Niagara becuase they are taking too much water from the Basin appreently. That dosen’t bother me much they need to get the water from somewhere so I can buy it from Costco. Makes me wonder though how can Niagara turn nasty IE water into what I love to drink???? Oh this is the Tab item where Councilman Ed Scott tried to make it sound like he was the only one that executives from Niagara Bottling reached out to. It wasn’t until Councilman Shawn O’Connell said that the Niagara Reps reached out to all of the Council and Mayor.
Tab.3 was yet another warehouse in Rialto and though its going to bring jobs its also going to bring problems like increased truck traffic large buildings that normally have empty streets that attract street racing, drug use/sales and opportunities for other elicit behaviors. What is even worse is that this warehouse will be giving extra sales tax revenue to………. ONTARIO!!!!!! Yes our city has been working on this project for almost 10 years and have yet to figure out how to work a sales tax benifit for Rialto but man o man we sure know how to send that tax money elsewhere. Maybe we need San Bernardino to come in and show us how to secure a tax base from warehouses.
Take what you wish from this weeks Council Meeting but I think its time we show up more often and keep their eye on the ball.
Can’t make the council meetings follow us on Twitter and get the high points of each meeting we cover.
In all of the turmoil since the latest officer involved actions in 2014 one local leader calls for his colleagues and the media to ACT NOW in response to the rise in the war on police officers in the united states. Councilman Shawn O’Connell from the city of Rialto penned a statement that will make you think about the men and women that keep us safe in this country. (See Below)
I agree with Councilman O’Connell and wish people would take a step back and help our police. When our police feel supported and understood they feel more comfortable to do their jobs extremely well. Also the trend of holding court on the street with a cop is a poor choice. Police officers are not the lawyers, judges or jury they are a protection and information source for our legal system. As community leaders and media sources we need to do more than a simple call for calm and turn down the rhetoric.
This coming Saturday December 20th Santa Claus will be flying in on a helicopter to greet the children of the IE. His fly in will be at Sunrise Church on Ayala & Riverside Ave at 2pm. (See flyer below)
The Holiday Parade begins at 10:00 am, Saturday, December 13th. Starting at Bloomington Av. and Riverside Ave. traveling south on Riverside Ave towards Rialto City Park. Enjoy the Musical Performance, Vendor Fair and Snow at Rialto City Park following the parade.
rialtonow 
