East County News Service

November 25, 2019 (Santee) - Santee Lakes invites you join Santa at the Lakes on Sunday, December 8th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festivities will feature a snow hill for sledding fun, carnival rides, inflatable jumps, crafts, food, character meets and greets and Santa Claus.  

Parking is $10 and tickets are $1 each with activities and rides ranging from 1-8 tickets.

Get more information at www.SanteeLakes.com. 

By Michelle Mowad, County of San Diego Communications Office

November 5, 2019 (Lakeside) - Conquer what is arguably the toughest trail in the county this Veterans Day weekend. Trek up El Cajon Mountain in El Capitan County Preserve during the Warrior Hike Challenge on Saturday, Nov. 9.

East County News Service

October 30, 2019 (Santee) – Just in time for Halloween, someone dressed up boulders in Santee dubbed the “Santee Lady” by photographer Rebecca Jefferis-Williamson.

By Miriam Raftery

October 28 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – With the strongest Santa Ana winds of the season forecast Tuesday through Thursday,  San Diego Gas & Electric is warning over 32,000 customers that the utility may proactively shut off power to many communities to prevent lines from sparking fires, including some areas not previously impacted by outages.  The outages could begin late Tuesday or early Wednesday and last as late as Friday evening, according to SDG&E.

The communities that may lose power are:

• Alpine
• Boulevard
• Campo
• Descanso
• Dulzura
• El Cajon (portions of)
• Encinitas (portions of)
• Escondido (portions of)
• Jacumba
• Jamul (portions of)
• Julian
• Lakeside (portions of)
• Mount Laguna
• Pala
• Palomar Mountain
• Pauma Valley
• Pine Valley
• Potrero
• Poway
• Ramona
• Ranchita
• Rancho Santa Fe (portions of)
• San Clemente (portions of)
• San Juan Capistrano (portions of)
• Santa Ysabel
• Valley Center (portions of)
• Warner Springs

Steps to prepare for an outage

By Miriam Raftery

October 27, 2019 (Santee) – The Fredricks family of Santee has grown a whopper of a pumpkin, tipping the scales at 1,531 pounds.  The giant gourd is the largest ever grown in San Diego County, according to Sarah Fredricks. 

It took second place at the Pumpkin Competition weigh-off at the Irvine Railroad Park on September 21, however, missing the all-time Southern California record by just two pounds. (The largest in Southern California was grown by Chris Dunn and weighed in at 1,533 pounds. The biggest statewide was entered by Ruben Frias of Napa, who won with a 1,758 pound pumpkin.)

“I have grown giant pumpkins on and off since 2001,” says Jim Fredricks, who grew the giant gourd along with his wife, Sarah, and their boys, Andrew, 5, and Joshua, 8.

Lakeside planning group postpones action until Nov. 20 on proposal to deepen East County Sand Mine in Morena Valley to 80 feet

By Ana Nita, East County Magazine

October 23, 2019 (Lakeside) – Early in the morning on October 1st, dozens of trucks and heavy machinery traveled through in all directions on the job for the many industrial sites located (some would say “dumped” here with minimal or no county oversight) in this town. 

East County News Service

October 21, 2019 (Lakeside) – You’re invited to the first-ever Trail of Terror at Lakeside’s River Park.  This haunted trail will feature an Old West ghost town –where the inhabitants think it’s still 1850. The prospectors want their gold back, the townspeople want their town back—and they all want you OUT!

By Mike Allen

October 13, 2019 (Santee) -- Customers of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, which encompasses about 72 square miles, will see their rates for both water and sewage increase starting Nov. 1--and then go up again, starting on Jan. 1.

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor and Miriam Raftery, Editor

October 6, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – In the rough and tumble world of politics, State Senator Brian Jones has found a witty way to drive home a key advantage of his Congressional candidacy: unlike two prominent rivals, former Rep. Darrell Issa and talk show host Carl DeMaio, Jones actually lives in the 50^th Congressional district that each hopes to represent.

After Issa and DeMaio held dueling press conferences in downtown El Cajon to draw media attention to their efforts to oust indicted Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, Jones posted an open letter via the San Diego Rostra website last Friday inviting  his non-resident rivals on a tour of the district. The tour led by Jones at the wheel would include rugged backcountry terrain and a stop at a shooting range.

By Miriam Raftery

October 1, 2019 (Lakeside) – Bob Turner, owner of a sand mine located on Moreno Ave. at State Route 67 in Lakeside, has applied to expand the sand mine. The issue will be heard on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. by the Lakeside Community Planning Group (LCPG) in the Lakeside Community Center. View agenda.

The documents on the specific expansion details are not available online. However journalist and Lakeside environmental activist Ana Nita states in an e-mail to ECM tonight,  “Turner is applying to expand the mine below the aquifer level at 80 ft.” The sand mine was reportedly approved in 2017 at a depth of 25 feet.

By Mike Allen

September 19, 2019 (Santee) -- Santee and Carlsbad would seem to be strange bedfellows, given their geographical locations and the latter being twice the size in population. But the cities are moving closer to joining forces to form a new entity to purchase more of their power from renewable sources starting in 2021.