May 21, 2009 – Daily Brief — The SCV Talk Archive

The other shoe drops: Budget cuts in “Dangerously Broke” California equal budget cuts in SCV: It looks like the City of Santa Clarita’s share of the new $21 billion budget gap will be $3 million if the state is able to raid the coffers of California cities, the Signal says. That, of course, would mean more budget cuts for Santa Clarita, something city finance wizards are working on now. As for schools? The LA Times says educators are braced for “$5.3 billion in cuts over the next 13 months.” Meanwhile Assemblyman Cameron Smyth tells KHTS that voters made it clear Tuesday that they don’t want a tax increase and now the Legislature is going to “really look at ways to control spending…and we’re going to have to make cuts.” Congressman McKeon joined in too, remarking in a statement that Tuesday’s vote was “an outstanding victory for taxpayers and [a] defeat for the state.” Finally, the New York Times reports that calls for a constitutional convention have gone from a whisper to a “cacophony” and lists some of the cuts in services Californians can expect, including a 4th of July Santa Clarita fireworks show that will be 10 minutes shorter (lol where do they get that?).
Santa Clarita Council/COC Board OK Performing Arts Center Deal: For the next two years, the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center will make about 25% of its dates available to community performing art groups under a deal approved by both the City and the College. Here’s TImBen Boydston, Canyon Theater Guild director: “I think the solution they came up with is an excellent one.” The deal will cost the city about $70,000 per year, but the contract expires in 2011. Signal
SCV Detectives get new digs: Detectives working in the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station get some more breathing room to solve cases as they move into a 9,300 sq. ft. leased facility on Citrus Drive, right behind the Sheriff’s Station. Sheriff Leroy Baca was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, as were a few City Councilmembers. Baca, like many people familiar with the SCV of yesteryear, had to comment on how much our area has grown, then he gave some useful statistics. “In 2008, deputies [in the SCV station] answered 54,000 calls for service and made 8,000 arrests. Detectives investigated 12,000 cases, without adequate space for paper work and evidence processing.” The new facility will cost $2.3 million over the next 7 years. KHTS story and photos
More conflicting messages from water agencies: KHTS reports that local water agencies are “already pulling” water from reserves due to the drought. They quote a man at CLWA named Jeff Ford, who says local residents have “done a good job conserving water” but thanks to the court-ordered situation with the Delta Smelt fish in the Bay Area, water supplies are still tight. In contrast, earlier this week, a Newhall County water district official said the SCV hadn’t conserved enough yet. “Late last year we asked people to conserve to ensure we had enough water for this year. We are asking for more conservation in case the rest of this year, and next year, turns out to be dry,” Steve Cole of NCWD said to the Signal.
Another issue of SCV Independent out today: Not sure what the main news story will be in the SCV Independent’s second issue, but I’ll have a column about Cameron Smyth. Jay Harn tells the new SCV Independent Facebook page (ahhh, so sad- the SCV Signal facebook account isn’t friends with the SCV Indpendent account :sad face:) that the paper will be available at 500 locations around Santa Clarita today after about 9am. I’m told the spots with many copies will be the newsstand by KMart, the Saugus Cafe, and COC.
Mountain Lion found dead on Interstate 5: A female mountain lion that weighed more than 90 lbs was found dead on Interstate 5 south of Calgrove the Signal says (ignore the headline on the Signal’s site). Just a few weeks ago a bear was found dead on I5 near McBean. A Santa Monica Mountains Conservation Ranger says the mountain lion “shows us that the habitat is healthy and supporting such a large predator.” If that’s true why did it wander down from the mountains?
Speaking of 4th of July Fireworks, Stevenson Ranch cancels its show: The group that put on the fireworks show -one of the more popular ones in Santa Clarita- says that a lack of volunteers, increased fire danger, and the recession have forced them to cancel the 2009 show, which would have been held at Richard Rioux Park. The fireworks show has happened in SR since 1999 and has “never [been] funded by the County but rather solely by the community and local businesses.” West Ranch Beacon
Median home price in Southern California drops to $247k: I never thought I’d see the day again when the median home price for a house in Southern California fell below a quarter million, but it has, according to the LA Times.
Adult film star Marilyn Chambers died of natural causes: The 56 year old Chambers, who starrred in a famous porn film in the early 70s, died of natural causes in her Sierra Highway mobile home the cororner’s office says following an autopsy. Particularly she had a cerebral hemorrahage and aneurysm related to heart disease. She also had two prescribed drugs in her system- hydrocodone (Vicodin?) and an anti-depressant. Chambers was found by her 17 year old daughter in April. Link
New “Train Economy” could employ more than auto sector in the future: Interesting post by a transportation researcher over at the Infrastructurist blog- the post claims that if the United States makes big investments in passenger rail, high speed or otherwise, hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of new service and maintenance jobs could be created. What’s this got to do with Santa Clarita? Well everything is still on the drawing boards, but someday we could have two additional train systems passing through town. The California High Speed Rail system would fly through but not stop in Santa Clarita, while the Orangline MagLev commuter train system would have a stop in Santa Clarita as it carries passengers as far south as Orange County. The author says that one need only look at freight rail to see the potential job-creation engine: freight rail employs 180,000 people nationwide, nearly the amount of people who work for GM & Ford. Come on Santa Clarita, do the locomotion with me
Two opinions on salty water: Two very informed women take different approaches to the $250 million chloride treatment plant albatross hanging around the SCV’s neck. Cam Noltemeyer of enviro-group SCOPE says the solution is to stop greenlighting so many developments (isn’t the cat already out of the bag Cam?) while NCWD board member Maria Gutzeit says the problem originated with the state water project and the solution might be to partner with other California cities who are affected by the salty water.
That’s a lot of Miss/Ms/Mrs SCVs: Everyone’s a winner at the Miss SCV scholarship contest. These are the girls we’ll see in the 4th of July parade. Now I know why there was so many of them last year. Anyway congrats to all the winners.
I Heart’s June Inside SCV column: I Heart, who just might be the best conservative writer in all of Santa Clarita, mentions the TeaParty in April, Kellar’s Trust in God, and even advocates outlawing all bicycling in Santa Clarita so that “people will have to buy more cars, which is great for the local economy.” Angry face! InsideSCV