East County News Service

April 23, 2023 (Ramona)-- The Sheriff's Bomb/Arson Unit is investigating a deadly fire in the unincorporated area of Ramona.

It happened on Saturday, April 22 just after 1 p.m. in the 17000 block of Voorhes Lane. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received calls about a travel trailer on fire. 

Deputies and firefighters from Cal Fire/San Diego County Fire arrived to find the trailer fully engulfed and soon after unfortunately found a deceased woman inside the trailer.

By Miriam Raftery

April 22, 2023 (Boulevard) – For more than two decades,  Donna Tisdale has been a champion for residents in San Diego’s backcountry, leading battles against massive energy projects and a dump. She started a nonprofit, Backcountry Against Dumps and chaired the Boulevard Planning Group every year since joining it in 1991. She’s filed countless lawsuits against a seemingly endless array of Goliath-scale projects and organized community opposition after San Diego’s East County was declared an energy corridor by the federal government.

Source: Cal Fire

April 19, 2023 (Sacramento) – CAL FIRE has launched a new Online Burn Permit application platform that offers the public a user-friendly way to request a burn permit. Burn permits that are available on this platform include the following:

East County News Service

Photos courtesy of San Diego Humane Society

April 17, 2023 Jamul)-- An 8 year-old horse named Dobby is safe this afternoon, after falling 100 ft off a trail in Jamul Sunday. San Diego Humane Society’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) was called to assist Cal Fire and the San Diego County Department of Animal Services (DAS) near Honey Springs Ranch Truck trail yesterday afternoon.

“Eight members of our ERT hiked 4-5 miles down to reach the horse, who was standing on an incline,” says Nina Thompson,  San Diego Humane Society’s Director of Public Relations. “They got him across a stream, to get him on flat ground. At approximately 1 a.m., they returned a second time to provide food, water and a blanket, to keep him as comfortable as possible overnight.”

East County News Service

April 14, 2023 (Jamul) -- The Jamul Indian Village Development Corporation (JIVDC), owner and operator of Jamul Casino^® and a wholly-owned enterprise of the Jamul Indian Village of California,announce that on March 29, they closed on $515 million of Senior Secured Credit Facilities with a syndicate of commercial banks led by KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.  The other lenders included Western Alliance Bank, Nevada State Bank, U.S. Bank, PNC Bank, CIT Bank, and Columbia State Bank. 

Proceeds from the Credit Facilities will be used to refinance existing debt, fund hotel construction, and pay transaction-related fees and expenses.

Restocking with fish could take up to two years;  severe erosion on trails means a bridge may need to be built, district reveals

By Miriam Raftery

View video of hearing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQW0avdKyE8&t=2165s

April 9, 2023 (Alpine) – A crowd of more than 100 angry residents turned out at the Alpine Community Planning Group hearing on March 23, where Sweetwater Water Authority officials addressed concerns over damage at Loveland Reservoir after SWA drained it to dead pool status. Audience members and planning group members peppered SWA officials with questions in the at times contentious session.

By Chuck Westerheide, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo:  Ramona grasslands

April 5, 2023 (San Diego's East County) - Disasters and wildfires threaten lives and businesses in San Diego County each year.  Often, people are forced to gather up their most important possessions and evacuate to safety.  But commercial livestock operations may be too large to evacuate all their animals immediately and need to return as quickly as possible to care for animals. Farmers also must abandon their operation, leaving crops and critical infrastructure unattended for extended periods.  Now, operators can apply for an Agricultural and Livestock Pass (Ag Pass) program to return to an evacuated area to help when the threat diminishes.

East County News Service

April 1, 2023 (Boulevard) – The Boulevard Community Planning Group will hold a public scoping hearing Wednesday, April 12 at 6 p.m. on the proposed 565-acre Starlight Solar project. County staff will present information and public comments will be accepted at the hearing at the Backcountry Resource Center,39919 Ribbonwood Rd., Boulevard (in the old fire station equipment bay).

It would be located south of I-8 and Old Highway 80 and east of Tierra Del Sol Road.  The project has proposed eight solar array areas with approximately 300,000 PV modules on support structures. It would connect to the Boulevard Substation.

The proposed 100 megawatt industrial-scale solar facility would include a battery energy storage system (BESS), collector substation, transformers, inverters, gen-tie line, and 24’ internal roads, water tanks for fire protection, security fencing, lighting, and signage.

By Mimi Pollack

Photo courtesy San Diego Animal Sanctuary

March 19, 2023 (Alpine) -- An East County animal sanctuary is in trouble and needs the community’s help. Local humanitarian Agnes Barrelet heads up The San Diego Animal Sanctuary and Farm in Alpine, a nonprofit, where she and her crew tend to a varied menagerie of animals in need.

Formerly known as the Children's Nature Retreat, this rural 20-acre property in Alpine is a haven for all kinds of animals, including zebras, horses, African cows, camels, mules, donkeys, rabbits, mini horses, mini goats, mini pigs, ostriches, emus, desert tortoises, and more. They have 200 hundred animals with over 95 domesticated livestock, 29 different species and 78 breeds from around the world. There are several animal enclosures, including Barnyard Alley, Tortoise Landing, African Grasslands, and Mini and Big Farms.

Photo right courtesy San Diego Animal Sanctary

Barrelet is known for rescuing animals in need, but that is something she is not going to be able to do anymore without the community’s help.

East County News Service

March 11, 2023 (Spring Valley) - The Saps at Sea, the San Diego chapter of the Sons of the Desert, the official Laurel & Hardy fan organization, will host its April gathering, "A Very Special Night," on April 15 at Williams Hall at Trinity Presbytarian Church in Spring Valley.

Hearing April 5 for County Supervisors to weigh the Regional Decarbonization Framework

Public urged to speak at meeting and submit comments by March 31 deadline at project website

By Miriam Raftery

Hear our interview with Bill Powers, Protect Our Communities Foundation, recorded four days before the nonprofit group filed a lawsuit against the County.  The interview originally aired on KNSJ radio. View video of  interview.

March 8, 2023 (San Diego) – The Protect Our Communities Foundation (POCF) has filed a lawsuit against the County of San Diego contending that the County hired a  biased utility industry consultant direct the County’s Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF) and that the RDF’s conclusions are skewed toward utilities’ interests over consumers’ interests based on flawed data. The suit also names the University of California as a defendant, contending that UCSD concealed researcher David Victor’s financial ties to the utility industry when it won a no-bid contract from the County to prepare the report that Victor co-authored.  

In an exclusive interview with East County Magazine aired on KNSJ radio four days before the suit was filed in late February, Bill Powers, an engineer and board member on the Protect Our Communities Foundation, discussed why the organization is taking a stand against the RDF. He contends that if approved by Supervisors as written, it could result in fast-tracking industrial-scale wind and solar projects in our backcountry, even waiving environmental impact reviews, when it would be more economical to build rooftop and parking lot solar in urban areas – without harm to local communities and environmental habitats.

By Rebecca Person

Photo, left:  Shane Marie - Boulevard

March 7, 2023 (San Diego's East County) - East County’s high desert communities saw a better-than-ever snowfall this winter and many residents have captured scenes unusual to the area in Campo, Jacumba, Live Oak Springs, Boulevard and Bankhead Springs.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Snow in Julian today, courtesy of San Diego Sheriff Media Relations unit

February 23, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Treacherous. Severe. Really dangerous conditions. Those are terms used by National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Tardy in a webinar today to describe  a slow-moving atmospheric river, coupled with high winds and frigid temperatures from an arctic jet stream, swooping into San Diego County Friday and Saturday.

The storm could dump a potentially unprecedented three to five feet of snow at elevations above 4,000 feet in some parts of Southern California, with another foot and a half forecast on Mt. Laguna atop considerable snow that's already fallen.  Also forecast are debris flows in areas not normally subject to them as snow melts. Blowing and drifting snow will impact major southern California highways, including highway 78 and the eastern portions of Interstate-8 in San Diego County.

By Jacob Pamus

February 22, 2023 (Proctor Valley) – There has been an ongoing legal battle between environmental groups like the Sierra Club and others, against developers who want to turn Proctor Valley, a large tract of land between Chula Vista and Jamul, into a housing development. A judge has ruled in favor of the environmental groups that the Village 14 site of Proctor Valley is to not become a housing development, due to severe fire hazard, as ECM previously reported..

Now, Peter Anderson with Sierra Club San Diego has said that he would hopes to see the Proctor Valley site become part of the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve, so that it may be protected in perpetuity. He could not divulge details due to ongoing negotiations.

East County News Service

Photo via ECM news partner 10 News

February 15, 2023 (Alpine) – A Kenworth tractor pulling an enclosed trailer rear-ended a Peterbuilt truck with car carrier on Interstate 8 west of Tavern Road on Feb. 13 at 6:31 p.m. The Kenworth truck caught fire and the driver died at the scene.

The collision caused shut-down of I-8 east for several hours, until 1:08 a.m. Feb. 14. Due to possible fire damage, the Tavern Road overpass remained closed until CalTrans could inspect it, reopening around 11 p.m. on Feb. 14.