Video | Formats | rialtonow

Parents Concerned Over Traffic at Werner Elementary

05 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

One of the most difficult issues to tackle in Rialto is traffic. Our schools fall victim to traffic issues more than other areas because of the flood of pedestrian traffic mixed with vehicle traffic. Community Advocates constantly harp on leaders slow response to community issues. Normally it takes tragedy to move leaders into action. Community leaders like David Phillips who is also running for city council have worked to move change before we suffer any tragedy. Below is a video of Rialto Unified School District Safety Chief praising Mr. Phillips for his work in regards to safety.

Werner Elementary has not been so lucky in the area of skirting tragedy in regards to traffic safety. Even though parents have been advocating for more safety measures the best that could be done was a public safety officer twice a week. Well that clearly wasn’t enough because on September 13th a parent was involved in a major traffic collision that totaled out her car. The accident was so severe that her vehicle was pushed into oncoming traffic nearly colliding with a big rig truck. The parents vehicle was a total loss and there were children inside the vehicle.

Werner Elementary has been impacted because they are located on a very busy street that has the following issues:

People use Rialto Ave as an alternative to Foothill.
The area is mainly used for industrial uses.
Heavy traffic from large amount of big rig truck traffic.

Reports are that the parents have been requesting a stoplight in front of their school but have been net with opposition. The claims are that the another stoplight would be too close to the stoplight at Larch and Rialto Ave. This made us think of last year when the Flores Park Community Group worked to reverse a decision to put in a stoplight between Linden and Cedar on Foothill Blvd. The community thought that the lights would be too close and create a traffic nightmare. The city moved forward anyway under the guise of SAFETY.

Now we have a safety issue and the city is saying that the situation can’t be helped. Parents have told us that Mayor Robertson have told them that the city didn’t want a school there but the school didn’t listen. The Mayor also said that there are already lights at Cedar and Larch and any other lights would be too close. We walked the distance between the light at Cedar to the middle light and the distance was 316 paces. What is ironic is that this is the same distance from Larch to the middle of the school 316 paces. What is ironic is that the Mayor would make such statements especially in an election year.

The parents have collected 540 signatures to show city hall that the community is serious about wanting a stoplight in front of the school. The parents were disappointed to find out that the city council meetings have been canceled for the month of October leaving them with no opportunity to reach out to there city leaders. They were happy to know that our commissioners are still working and plan to attend tonights Transportation meeting tonight along with Werner Principal Mrs. Roman. The meeting tonight is at 6pm at city hall 150 S Palm.

Video by rialto-now

Where Is The Integrity With Election Signs?

27 Sep 2016 1 Comment

If your not aware it is Election Season & Rialto is knee deep this year. With two City Council seats open with no incumbents and some serious races for Mayor and City Clerk this is one of the most turbulent elections in quite a while. As a resident and a community advocate I have always had an issue with the way our city has been treated when candidates come calling for our vote. A majority of our leaders pay a private company to plaster thousands of signs all over our poor city and then fail to remove them after the election is over. These campaign signs become a canvas for graffiti, mobile trash due to our Santa Ana winds and another eye sore in our little town. Another issue that we have noticed is the failure of city leaders to make sure that our empty businesses don’t become a dumping grounds or public eye sores. Well today’s post brings both of these issues to the same place as Deborah Robertson thinks that plastering the old MC Donald’s building on Foothill with her campaign signs.

It’s bad enough that our Mayor thinks that it is OK to plaster her largest allowed signs on the sides of buildings that are vacant and currently being marketed for lease. What worse is that the area has very quickly become an area where trash is dumped, the building is broken into and vandalized and graffiti has found its way onto the walls. It shows a lot about how Mayor Robertson feels about the way our city looks and her dedication to making Rialto a place that businesses can thrive and survive. The Mayor and her two fellow councilmen Joe Baca Jr & Ed Scott seem to think that the city has zero control over the look of Rialto’s businesses and our main city streets that connect us to the rest of the Inland Empire.

Mayor Robertson is not the only culprit others like Assembly Woman Cheryl Brown have attached signs to every wooden surface that possibly exists in Rialto. What is worse is that her signs are attached to areas where the land is for sale or lease and is full of graffiti leaving this writer to wonder if she cares what her assembly district looks like? Others Like Rafael Trujillo and Pete Aguilar have been accused of removing other signs and placing their signs where they removed another sign.

So the real question is the one above do you think that Rialto should be the land of as many signs as one can possibly get on every surface to blanket Rialto?

Video by rialto-now

Eisenhower Wins Over Rialto High School

18 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

On Friday night two Rialto rivals took the field to kickoff what seems to be a great season ahead for Eisenhower High School. Eisenhower coming off a bye week after splitting the two games of their post season came in to prove that new head coach Al Brown’s system was not only producing quality young men but a football team the is laser focused on one of the best seasons in a long time for the once famous school.

Eisenhower and Rialto were close during the 1st quarter but once the 2nd quarter began it became very clear that this game was pulling away from Rialto. The Score of 35 to 19 proved that at halftime that unless Rialto could slow Eisenhower’s momentum the gap was only going to get worse.

We spoke to Eisenhower Athletic Director Gilbert Pulido about how he liked the first half. Mr. Pulido said “he was very happy with what the team had accomplished and was wanting to skip halftime and keep playing so to not loose the momentum.”

The players proved that they were equal to the task and came out to start the third quarter like they never took a break. Standout Players were Wide Receiver #5 Nick Freeman finished the game with four touchdowns & Wide Receiver #7 Lamario Howard had two touchdowns. Quarterback Joel Ayala was masterful running the plays and dropping passes into the hands of his hungry Receivers. Number ten Sebastian Seguro had a masterful running touchdown that had everyone talking especially Wet Paint Larry that was talking to the crowds of people at the Rialto Family Festival today. He said “I was on the Rialto side of the field and #10 juked those guys and walked right in untouched.”

For Eisenhower this season has a certain set roadblock that they won’t have a home field to play on due to the construction. Local advocate and candidate for city council David Phillips is working to tackle this by making every game feel like a home game. Through promoting the game and reminding people what High School Football is really like when everyone is ready to have an awesome season.

Video by rialto-now

Rialto Police Honor Two More Officers

08 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

Rialto Police Chief Randy Deanda had the honor of promoting two more officers that have been promoted to the ranks of Cpl and Sgt. Both men have strong family ties to Rialto and the surrounding region. As this writter comes from a family of law enforcement professionals we know the stress a family can undergo having a father, husband, mother or wife woring in Public Safety. These two men take the the day in and day out work of a Public Safety officer to another level by taking on assignments in Traffic, Gangs and Narcotics assignments. These men also have strong wives and families that support the work they do in our community without support the work these our public safety officer do could eat them up from the inside out.

Cpl Palmer has been awarded by MADD not once but multiple years for having over 100 DUI arrests in a given year. Because of Cpl Palmers hard work the streets of Rialto are made safer and more pleasent to drive. It is the work of Cpl Palmer and the rest of rialto’s newly beefed up Traffic Division that took Rialto from 10 deaths due to driving infractions to only 1 this year. Eisenhower Alumni and Staff remember Cpl Palmer as a dedicated Eisenhower Alumni, Athlete and supporter of the Eisenhower Football team. Cpl Palmer was part of the glory days of High School football when Eisenhower was the team to beat in the region.

Sgt Morales has worked on many units that have worked to remove dangerous criminals from our streets as well as acting as a visable community representation for Rialto Police Department. Sgt Morales worked with the SCAT team that worked to bring the gang restriction programs that have worked to cripple gangs that had terrorized Rialto residents for decades. Sgt Morales has also worked with the confines of Rialto Police Departments youth Programs that had a goal of stopping youth crime before it got out of hand. Also as you can see in the picture above Sgt Morales does not shy away from a young ladies request for a photo. Sgt Morales seems to have a goal of wanting the youth to see him and his co-workers as a source of help and comfort and not be afriad to come to them when they need help. Sgt Morales also has a sports background as a boxer in the battle of the badges competitions.

Video by rialto-now

Is Rialto City Council Lying to Residents?

06 Sep 2016 1 Comment

We have been told by staff and city council that the truck traffic that is soon to increase once the newly built warehouses are filled will not impact residents and that measures have been put into place to push traffic towards Laurel Ave and not Ayala where the area is more dense with family homes. The result so far with just a few of the newly built warehouses in place is that the truck traffic is engulfing the Ayala & Baseline intersection and tucks are making the area very dangerous because they seem unable to obey the traffic signals or fit into the poorly designed separation medians that only allow for three cars maximum to turn left on Ayala let alone massive Big Rig Trucks.

Well after a recent community outreach meeting where residents were asked to show up and voice their concern about the Retail project that is finally kicking off the topic wasn’t the new shopping center it was the damage that the increased truck traffic was causing. Due to the widening of Ayala the grass trees and bushes at the top end of Cedar were removed. This with the increase in truck traffic has residents unable to open their windows for fresh air and some residents are forced to wash down their homes exterior walls due to all the soot and road dust that now rains down over family homes.

Staff did state that the once empty land has always been zoned for commercial warehouse use. It seems that our airport was the only thing keeping people from having harmful, toxic pollutants rain down over their homes.

Staff, Councilman Ed Scott and Mayor Deborah Robertson have all said that the trucks will be diverted away from RIALTO homes. In this first video you will see that is not the case. Not one sign or road median does anything to stop trucks from heading towards heavily populated areas.

In this video you will see another view of a diffrent area of warehouses in the old airport area where truck traffic is allowed to go wherever they wish.

What this proves is that we need leaders that want to hear from the people BEFORE they drop massive development on single family communities.

Video by rialto-now

Own It Rialto Shows Up At Morgan Elementary In A Big Way

01 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

Photo of former Eisenhower High Grad Lewis pumping up Morgan Students Photo Credit Emily Rickard Photo

Written By Mr. Inland Empire

What do you get when you take educators full of passion add a little alumni from Eisenhower High School and top it off with local celebrities like Wet Paint Larry? You get Own It Rialto and over 500 empowered young people.

Own It Rialto led by Eisenhower teacher Chad Rickard and his wife Emily have one goal in mind change Rialto for the better. Chad & Emily have taken on the task of taking the energy and passion former Eisenhower High students have once they graduate from High School and have turned that energy loose on Rialto in awesome ways. With the help of the popular Street Artist Wet Paint Larry and the Rialto Police Department Own It Rialto has targeted to areas that they want to launch their efforts. Local events, Morgan Elementary Students and a better understanding of how their local leaders represent them.

As a kick off to working with Morgan Students the group made wrist bands that had the name of their group “Own It Rialto” and the year that class will graduate. Group leader Chad Rickard said “we want these kids to know we expect them to graduate so if nobody else in their lives expect it someone will”.

Own It Rialto came out with Wet Paint Larry and a Tug of War contest between Morgan Elementary students and Own It Rialto member Louis Redd. The game was crafted to teach the students if they worked together and helped each other out that they could do anything. The students were victorious in the game with a little help from Rialto Police Officer Rice from the Community Policing Program. Next Morgan Elementary students were shown what Own It Rialto is and how it is possible to overcome a bad situation and do amazing things. Main speaker Esli Brito spoke to the kids about issues that they all deal with. Esli spoke about coming to this country at a young age and overcoming cultural and language barriers. Esli is just one of the many group members that want local kids to know that they can do anything. From local celebrities like Wet Paint Larry, Rialto alum Niyi Obileye that are acting in films, Police officers like Rialto Officer Rice and even Julie Vega who is going after her passion of being a chef.

Chad Rickard had a message for Rialto that he posted on Facebook:

“Our next steps will be to start volunteering in after-school programs and develop programs to help them in areas such as reading, athletics, and entrepreneuership. If you are someone or know someone who would like to get involved, please contact me. This was a beautiful experience today; thank you to all those who made it possible.Larry Jones Emily Rickard Esli Brito Julie Vega Niyi Obileye Louis Redd David Phillips Jessica Banks Ana I. Gonzalez Thank you to Principal Vara and Morgan Elementary. Thank you Scott Sparks for letting me hang out with little students instead of my own for a morning!”

Photo Credit Emily Rickard Photography

Video by rialto-now

Rialto Fireworks and Hometown Carnival

06 Jul 2016 2 Comments

Over a thousand people came out to celebrate the 4th of July holiday at Jerry Eaves park in the city of Rialto. The Hometown Carnival featured live music, food vendors, carnival games and lots of open space to play in and set up your family’s spot to watch the 40 minute professional firework show that the city of Rialto advertised.

Our staff arrived at the park about 5:30 pm and there was already a good number of people at the park and having fun. Talking to Janet Story a Rialto resident she was really excited with the event and the turnout.

The food opportunities included:

A new Gourmet Food Food truck named Delux that is Rialto based!!!!!!!!!
Kona Ice truck.
Roasted Corn, Chilli Cheese Fries and Roasted Peanuts.

The food Lines were long most of the event. There were games for the kids and some were free and some came at a cost. The cool part was that the pony rides were free but that led to long lines all night long. If there was one constant it was that the lines were constantly long.

There were also Watermellon and Hot Dog eating contests for young and old and true to years past they were MC’d by Mayor Pro Tem Baca Jr. As Joe Baca Jr asked the kids where they were from it was very interesting to see that this event had not only pulled people from Rialto but from sourounding cities as well. We asked Stacey who said she was from South Fontana why she chose to come to Rialto’s event verses going to the one in Fontana and she said “that with her family in town she couldn’t afford the cost of tickets for each person, Rialto made it possible for her whole family to join the event together”. Travis from San Bernardino said “my city gets more dangerous every day, I cant afford to celebrate the 4th of July in my hometown we needed a safe place to celebrate and now Rialto is that place”. Travis was right the Rialto event was as safe as any mass event could be. There were plenty of police present at the event from sworn officers on foot, bicycle and in patrol cars then there were Volunteer Police officers as well as uniformed explorers out making sure everyone had a safe time.

This is one of the many events our city sponsors that our volunteers are part of. We are always looking for new, qualified and enthusiastic volunteers who would like to join the Rialto Police Department

Councilman O’Connell was a topic of conversation as well because these events were part of his time on the council. He worked hard to bring the community events like this to the citizens and many staff members were happy to work on the holiday even though it meant that they would be loosing time with their friends and loved ones because “Councilman O’Connell would want us to do our best”!!!!!!!!! Many of the staff that we spoke to said that they were touched by his community mindset at the recent Grand Opening of the Bud Bender Park.

There were only two elected officials that decided to celebrate with the community they asked to serve.

Joe Baca Jr. was there once again to MC the eating contests which is always a highlight because he knows how to get the crowd going:

The other elected official that was in attendance with the great community of Rialto was the honorable councilman Ed Palmer with his family:

This event was a great event and the central location really brought the north and south ends of the city together. Even though this was a great event it wasn’t without it’s mishaps:

The City Expected a smaller crowd – it was clear from the begining that the city misjudged the popularity of this years event.
Parking – even though Jerry Eaves park has a large parking lot one of the biggest in the city there was far from enough room to accomidate the thousands of people that attended the event. No overflow parking was thought of and people took it upon themselves to make their own parking spot in dirt feilds or even as far away as Baseline or Easton.
Communication – there was zero communication on the cost of games or food at the event which led to a lot of confusion.

All in all the event was a great way for everyone young and old, rich and poor and blue collar and white collar to come together and celebrate our nation and the community we all live in.

Video by rialto-now

Home Strong USA Helps Rialto Military Vet Family

01 Jul 2016 1 Comment

On June 29th at 10:30 in the morning a group of local leaders and media joined together to see the second family that Home Strong USA has helped in the last year. This year Home Strong USA came back to Rialto to help the Ortiz family with safety and energy upgrades as well as water saving landscape and a special play area for the two young Ortiz children.

The last year Home Strong USA helped Maribel Chacon with upgrades and drought tolerant landscape. ABC Eyewitness News covered the story you can see it here:

This work isn’t done by just one organization. Teaming up with Home Strong USA on this project were Home Depot, State Farm Insurance and Rialto Councilman Ed Palmer and City Treasurer Ed Carrillo.

HomeStrong USA was formed in 1999 and is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Our original purpose and mission centered on providing relief to poor and distressed persons through the sponsorship, acquisition, development, and operation of low-income housing. Organizational goals focus on achieving the mission primarily through the delivery of an extensive pre and post-purchase education/counseling program, the acquisition or development of affordable housing projects, and the sharing of best practices and resources with high quality, high performing nonprofit counseling organizations.

Video by rialto-now

Rialto Fire Department Rolls Out Plans For Illegal Fireworks Enforcement

29 Jun 2016 1 Comment

So as promised by former Councilman Shawn O’Connell and current Councilman Ed Palmer along with Rialto Police & Fire the enforcement of illegal fireworks has continued to improve in an effort to make 4th of July Safe & Fun for everyone.

Above is a photo from the Rialto Fire Facebook page with these words:

“Attention Rialto residents! Yard signs available. Come and get a sign for your yard to help support our “Illegal Firework- Free Zone”. Signs are available at Rialto Fire Station 201 (131 S Willow Ave)
As a reminder: Fireworks that are not purchased from a licensed firework stand are illegal. Property owners will be issued a citation in the amount of $1000 if illegal fireworks are discharged on your property.”

Well last night we found out via Rialto Fire Chief Matt Fratus that this year along with improved dispatching of fire units using Rialto Police Dispatch the Fire Department is now adding a drone to identify where illegal fireworks are being used.

Video by rialto-now

Pedestrian Accident on Foothill

24 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

At about 4:35 on Thursday June 23rd a man ridding a mountain bike appeared to be hit by a late model black two door car. The driver did stop and was assisted by a parking officer on scene. Very quickly a SCAT unit arrived on scene to assist the victim.

As more info comes in we will update this post.

Video by rialto-now