By Miriam Raftery

December 20, 2018 (La Mesa) – Nearly 1,800 residents who signed a petition opposing a state parole office in La Mesa got an early Christmas present.

Today, City Manager Yvonne Garrett received a message from Jerry Powers, director of the state’s division of adult parole operations, advising that the agency has determined that “due to functional and logistical issues this site is unworkable for our needs at this time.  We will continue to review other locations in the eastern San Diego County area in our efforts to provide services more directly to the parolee population and the citizens of East County.”

The state had proposed the facility at 9400 Grossmont Summit Drive, next to homes on Mt. Helix and the Brigantine Restaurant and within a quarter mile of Grossmont High School. The closest trolley stop would have been shared by high school and middle school students, with violent parolees and sex offenders walking directly past two schools.

By Miriam Raftery, Editor

December 20, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – It’s been a turbulent year across East County.  Some of our top stories were purely local issues – a fire that ravaged Alpine, battles to stop sand mines in Lakeside and Rancho San Diego, debate over the future of Julian’s fire department, the controversies embroiling El Cajon Councilman Ben Kalasho, the indictment of Congressman Duncan Hunter, growing pains in Santee, and protests over a proposed parole office in La Mesa, to name a few. 

Other top stories reflect local impacts of national  and statewide actions, such as  impacts of marijuana legalization, concerns over a child migrant detention center in El Cajon, protests over gun violence in schools, the e-scooter craze, homelessness, and new faces swept into office during the election.

Here are the issues and events with the biggest impacts across East County that East County Magazine has covered in 2018, from January 1st through year's end.

Source: City of El Cajon

December 19, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The City of El Cajon has been awarded $4.8 million in grant funding from Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration. The grants will fund a number of improvements along two busy El Cajon roads—Jamacha Road (which turns into North Second Street) and Madison Avenue. The grant awards aim to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety at these two locations in El Cajon, which has had a high rate of pedestrian injuries and fatalities in recent years.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via New York Attorney General's website: Trump Foundation raised funds for veterans but failed to deliver the money to veterans' charities, a Washington Post report found.

December 18, 2018 (New York) –President Donald Trump has agreed to close down  his Donald J. Trump Foundation after New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed suit over “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation – including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,” Underwood announced today. 

Her office’s investigation into Trump and his three oldest children, all officers on the Foundation, will continue.  According to the NY Attorney General, “none of the foundation’s expenditures or activities were approved by its Board of Directors” which had not met since 1991.  “Mr Trump alone made all decisions related to the foundation.”

Trump has agreed to have the charities’ remaining $1.75 million in assets dispersed under court supervision to legitimate charities.  Underwood is also asking the court to order Trump to pay over $2.8 million in restitution and to ban the President and his children from serving on boards of any other charities in New York.

East County News Service

December 14, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce today announced that it has accepted the resignation of chief executive officer Eric J. Lund, effective January 11, 2019.  Lund who has servedfive years with the Chamber, Lund has accepted an opportunity with another organization.  

Action comes after Union-Tribune reports seven children missing from Southwest Key facility

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Photo: Ana Babudar, Southwest Key Programs Inc., addresses City Council

Watch video testimony here

December 14, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The El Cajon City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a proposal asking staff to prepare letters to the California Department of Social Services and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services asking for a review of Southwest Key Programs, Inc, The Texas-based company provides extended care for undocumented immigrant children. Its El Cajon facility, known locally as “Casa San Diego,” contracts with the federal government to provide care to children who show up at the U.S.-Mexico border without any parents, as well as some children who were separated from their legal guardians by U.S. immigration officials.

Co-sponsored by Council members Steve Goble and Gary Kendrick, the proposal stems from a November 18, 2018 San Diego Union-Tribune article that revealed discrepancies with Southwest Key reports to the El Cajon Police Department and California Department of Social Services.

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Photo, left to right: Linda Charry, Jimmie Parker, Donald Wolf, Jessica Kalasho, and Ben Kalasho  

By Miriam Raftery

December 13, 2018 (La Mesa) – Developers of Jefferson La Mesa, a proposed multi-family apartment project proposed at 4949-4999 Baltimore Drive, invite the community to a meeting to hear about project plans.  The meeting will be held on Monday, December 17 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the La Mesa Police Department (8085 University Ave.).

The proposed four-story project would include 230 residential rental units, including some designated as affordable housing on-site. Though designated officially as mixed use, only four of the units are designated as work/live apartments.  The developer is listed as South Baltimore LLC/The Forties Challenge.

By Miriam Raftery

December 12, 2018 (La Mesa)--  Following the swearing in of newly elected Councilwoman Akilah Weber and reelected Councilman Bill Baber, the La Mesa City Council heard public comments last night from numerous area residents concerned about a state parole office proposed in a new building on Grossmont Summit Drive next to the Brigantine restaurant, other businesses and home.

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

December 10, 2018 (San Diego) - It could be mealy bugs in that homemade fruit basket, gypsy moth eggs hidden in the wreath you got from grandma’s house, whiteflies in those hand-picked poinsettias, or a dangerous plant virus in citrus picked from the backyard.

East County News Service

December 9, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) - They were prominent in business, government, nonprofit, educationand community activism – beloved local leaders who passed away in 2018, though their legacies live on. Click each name for a full obituary.

Flows from Tijuana River mouth may be moving north

East County News Service

December 8, 2018 (San Diego) - The County of San Diego Department of Environmental Health has extended the existing water contact closure area at the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge and Border Field State Park shoreline to include all of Imperial Beach, Silver Strand and Coronado shoreline. 

By Miriam Raftery

December 6, 2018 (Ramona) – Savor the season along the Holiday Wine Trail in Ramona, which this year features 18 different wineries.

The event continues the next two Saturdays and Sundays, December 8-9 and 15-16.   Some wineries are offering “extras” including live music, arts and crafts for sale, spiced mulled wine and even an appearance by Santa –in a wine cave!

I hit the trail last weekend, stopping by several locations along the tour, each offering a unique and special experience.

County denies request for health impacts of turbines, even as more are proposed

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: New proposed turbines would be much taller and produce more energy than these older Kumeyaay Wind turbines, also broadening the areas that could be impacted by noise, vibrations, and electromagnetic interefence with devices such as cell phones

December 6, 2018 (Campo) –Tonight, the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a scoping meeting on a notice to prepare n environmental impact statement for a proposal to build 60 wind turbines up to 586 feet tall (taller than the highest skyscraper in San Diego) on the Campo Indian reservation. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Campo Tribal Hall, 36190 Church Road (BIA 10) at highway 94 in Campo.  Written comments can also be submitted by December 21^st. Find details at www.CampoWind.com.

The new Campo Wind project is proposed for most Campo reservation ridgelines from north of I-8 to the U.S./Mexico border, each 4 megawatts.  Neighbors and the Boulevard Planning Group have raised concerns over the large turbines including noise, sleep disruption, health impacts and lost property values.   View flyer.

Minutes of the Boulevard Planning Group meeting from November 1, 2018 reveal numerous residents’ complaints about problems reportedly associated with similarly large-scale wind turbines recently installed at the Tule Wind project in McCain  Valley as well as turbines at the Kumeyaay Wind facility in Campo. Those complaints range from noise and vibrations to interference with cell phone service, a vital concern in an area prone to wildfires where communication is critical.

By Miriam Raftery

December 4, 2018 (La Mesa) – Residents are raising objections over a proposal by the state to open a parole office at the base of Mt. Helix next to the Brigantine Restaurant in a mostly residential neighborhood near Grossmont High School.

The city of La Mesa received notification in a letter dated November 5^th from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Division of Adult Parole Operations about plans to lease a building at 9400 Grossmont Summit Drive for use as a parole office. The facility would have 65 staff members, including 52 parole agents meeting with potentially hundreds of parolees a month who served time in state prisons for serious crimes. The building has only 41 parking spaces, according to the city.

A petition opposing the project has been started online at https://www.change.org/p/mr-steve-lamirand-stop-adult-parole-operations-from-opening-in-mt-helix-la-mesa.  So far, 186 people have signed. An analysis (p. 1, p. 2) created by project opponent Daniel Boethin, a real estate consultant at Trifold Properties claims the site is incompatible with allowed uses under current zoning, is incompatible with surrounding residential and business uses, and would endanger minors due to the close proximity to schools.