Category: Op-Ed

On Tuesday night the COMET and Chamber of Commerce met by telephone conference call. Here are some highlights: 

From Scott Ward, field representative for Dawn Rowe: the County Board of Supervisors has voted to place the repeal of the fire tax on the November ballot. Some areas in the desert are not paying the fire tax but will have a vote, as well as those who are paying. Readers may access more information by utilizing this link.

Small business owners who have been impacted by the pandemic may apply for assistance at this link.

Pandemic numbers have been escalating, partly due to increased testing as well as other causes. There are over 24 locations for free testing, for which you need an appointment. The closest location to Mentone is Citrus Valley High School, he said. Chamber members stated it takes up to 10 days to hear the results, in one case even when those tested were positive. You may view more testing sites here.

Regarding fireworks: if you see something, say something. Take a picture. You may report the location at the San Bernardino County Fire website; here is the link. For more instructions, see under Sheriff’s Department below. For the latest on SB county fireworks, please see the website here.

The County has extended its contract for legal services to seniors, so those who are receiving them may rest assured they will continue for now. 

From Nohelia Orellana, field representative for Assemblyman James Ramos: the County is running a 54B deficit but is asking for help from the State for small businesses impacted by the pandemic. Bills are being introduced, mostly related to COVID-19. One asks the Legislature to make it illegal to sue a restaurant for a customer who contracts the virus. Another regards suicide prevention among Native American tribes and another tribal lands. Readers who have lost  their jobs and are having difficulty receiving unemployment are encouraged to contact Ramos’ office. 

Regarding COMET’s counsel’s February letter to Ms. Orellana, requesting that Assembly Ramos’ office re-submit the bill making it illegal to demand annexation in exchange for water, she said she was told that because it’s been such a long time (since 1996) there was not much they could do and it would be reviewable at the LAFCO (Local Area Formation Commission) level. By law, LAFCO’s duties are ministerial, only: to supervise whether new developments comply with the law; it does not supervise annexations. When assured that it was not a LAFCO problem or project, she said she would try to re-submit or re-introduce it.  As previously reported, the bill never made it past an aide in Senator Morrell’s office and Senator Leyva’s office has never responded to a similar request by COMET’s counsel.           

From Rachel Achilly, San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office: the Department has had COVID-19 cases, mostly in the jails. Regarding fireworks, the County will fine and even jail violators of the no-fireworks law in this area. Each offense carries a fine of $1,250 and can go up to $6,000. Fireworks are illegal to set off in any area where they are not sold. They can be sold only in Fontana, Rialto, San Bernardino and south of the Freeway. However, moving or aerial fireworks are illegal everywhere. Only those fireworks that are safe and sane are legal to buy in those communities, she added. If anyone sees a neighbor setting off fireworks, even in their backyard, the observer is encouraged to report it and a video or snapshot  is welcome because it is presently a misdemeanor, which means that the Sheriff or Fire Department investigator must see it in order to arrest the persons responsible. She added that a photo or video must show the address clearly visible. Some Fire Department investigators have law enforcement authority. A representative from the Red Brennan Groups shared its efforts to get the Fire Tax repealed. 

Other news: the Library may be reopening July 6 (this was before the latest shutdown news), the Senior Center later on. No meals will be served, however. The June 13 celebration of Mentone’s development and Film Festival were, of course, postponed due to the pandemic. Hopefully, in 2021 the celebrations will be able to be held. As far as the Mill Creek Casino Night, “We will see,” said Jim Lotito, co-owner/proprietor and Ways and Means Committee co-chair. He added that the Mill Creek Cattle Company was operating at  25-30% of its regular business and hoped that business would pick up by December.  Someone defined a “bar” as a place that doesn’t provide food, so it technically doesn’t fall under the definition of a “bar” and, as of Tuesday night, could stay open. 

Chairman David Wilder mentioned CalTrans and the members discussed its slowness to paint the straight-ahead arrow at the corner of Wabash and the Boulevard (westbound), which it promised to do at least two years ago; he promised to bring it up again and ask that it be done sooner rather than later. 

Op-Ed:

It is certainly a shame that, in an area that is paying the fire tax (get out and vote it down in November), those who set off illegal fireworks –  2-3 times a night between dark and 10 p.m. in Mentone – can be guilty of only a misdemeanor. That means that, unless you get a photo or video with the home’s address clearly showing, they can set one off, you report it and the Sheriff arrives but there is nothing to see and the miscreants lie so the Deputies have to leave. Then the miscreants do it again and again, each time spacing them out so the Sheriff cannot view them. It should be made a felony, which is reportable by an eyewitness and thus more prosecutable.

Those who do this in quiet neighborhoods like Mentone should be arrested and punished because of the impact on those who have PTSD from honorably serving in the military and everyone’s pets (f you’ve ever cleaned up dog poo, including diarrhea, off a rug at 3 a.m., as I have, you understand why folks want to be able to put their pets out at night).  It is incomprehensible that anyone should think it’s “fun” or “clever” to disturb everyone else’s peace simply because they can get away with it. 

It seems the misinformation never stops: first, CALAFCO, which has nothing to do with Redlands’ extortionate annexation of Mentone territory, successfully lobbied to keep the proposed legislative amendment out of the Senate, most probably because of some personal ties with someone in Redlands’ city council.

Now, Assemblyman Ramos’ office – and he did nothing to help Mentone with this problem before he went “upstairs” – thinks it has a “statute of limitations” problem.  Senator Leyva’s office “next door,” whose website requests proposed legislation, failed to respond to a similar request. Someone, somewhere, sometime, has to recognize that “little, old Mentone” has rights, too, and that time has already come long ago.

Maybe readers would start a letter-writing campaign to Ramos, Leyva and Senator Mike McGuire, chairman of the threshold Finance and Governance Committee, to demand that this legislation – which has already been  reviewed and revised by Legislative Counsel – be submitted to the Senate.

The “Donut Hole” – the businesses around the intersection of Alabama and Lugonia, was excluded from Redlands’ control by Legislature, so why not Mentone?  Of course, Redlands is receiving that area’s sales taxes, but doesn’t have to provide fire, police and other services, so that was a win-win for it. (The Donut Hole developers’ attorneys, based in Redlands, sold them a bill of goods, but that’s another story for another time.) 

Local businesses, especially restaurants, are hurting; everyone likes to eat something someone else prepared so why not patronize the local businesses, even if it means you still have to wash the dishes? So many businesses have failed elsewhere that it would be a shame to see some of our local ones also “go away,” after many years of serving the community.