All Menifee teams have advanced to the next bracket. The Major(11-12) Team won 6-2 and the Juniors won 20-0, on Monday Night. All 4 teams play again on Monday July 6th.
Juniors play Murrieta at 6pm
Majors play Temecula American at 7:30pm
10-11 play Canyon Lake at 5pm
9-10 play Wildomar at 5pm
Check out the leagues website for locations.

Fallball sign-ups are now going on. Check websites for dates and times. You can also print out a registration form and mail it in.
Prices are: 1 Player $60.00~ 2 Players $100.00~ 3 Players $150.00

The little League is now able to except players League Age 4 (as of April 30th 2010) for the T-Ball Division.

Robyn Rogers, Executive Director of Aberdovey Charter School, a new charter school in the works for Menifee, says things are progressing quite well with their petition. They're almost finished and are starting their community outreach in full force.

The school will be holding free hands-on childrens workshops on Tuesday and Saturday mornings in a couple of local parks during the month of July.

The workshops will be a free opportunity for school-age kids, ages 4-11, to try out project-based learning and for parents to learn more about the new charter school's endeavor. Schwans has also offered to be at most of the workshops to offer free ice cream sandwiches (along with their sales pitch). Any way you look at it, it's a free event for kids.

For more information, contact Robyn Rogers at 951-246-9410 or
rrogers@aberdoveyschool.org.

Tuesdays at La Ladera Park in Menifee from 9am-11am:
July 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th.

Directions:
http://parks.menifee247.com/la-ladera-park.htm

Saturdays at La Paloma Park in Menifee from 9am-11am:
July 11th, 18th, and 25th.

Directions:
http://parks.menifee247.com/la-paloma-park.htm

Labels: Aberdovey-School

The Eastern Municipal Water District sent us a press release earlier this week announcing that the water conservation efforts it had once suggested to residents and businesses are now mandatory.

The EMWD board of directors at it's June 17 meeting declared Stage 2 conservation measures in its water shortage contingency plan effective immediately.

As examples, hosing down hard surfaces, daytime lawn watering, allowing runoff and leaks will now be prohibited, rather than requested.

In the case of allowing water to runoff into the street, for example, penalties will start at $25 after one warning for excessive water runoff at single-family homes. Penalties can be increased to $50 or $100 for subsequent violations within a year of the first violation warning.

The same types of comparable waste at multi-family, commercial, industrial, institutional and landscape accounts are subject to penalties of $100, $200 and $300.

But the EMWD doesn't expect shifting to mandatory conservation efforts will make much of an impact, because they said the vast majority of their customers are already making efforts to monitor how they use water and eliminate waste. For the most part, EMWD customers are doing what the district has asked of them and are staying within their first two billing tiers.

The district is also keeping it's four-tiered rates where they are. They had once considered doubling the highest tier-4 rate for flagrant waste.

The complete list of mandatory water efficiency requirements are:

• Refrain from hosing down driveways and other hard surfaces, except for health or sanitary reasons, and then only by use of a hand-held bucket or similar container, a handheld hose equipped with a positive self-closing water shut-off device, or a low volume, high-pressure cleaning machine equipped to recycle any water used.



• Repair faucets, toilets, pipes, and other potential sources of water leaks.



• Irrigate landscape only between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. This provision does not apply when:
  
  • Manually watering during the establishment period of a new landscape;
  • Temperatures are predicted to fall below freezing;
  • For very short periods of time for the express purpose of adjusting or repairing an irrigation system.


• Refrain from watering or irrigating of any lawn, landscape, or other vegetated area with potable water using a landscape irrigation system or watering device that is not continuously attended unless it is limited to no more than 15 minutes watering per day per station. This 15-minute limitation can be extended for:
  
  • Landscape irrigation systems that exclusively use very low-flow drip irrigation systems when no emitter produces more than two (2) gallons of water per hour.
  • Weather-based controllers or stream rotor sprinklers that meet a 70% efficiency. But runoff or over watering is not permitted in any case.


• Adjust and operate all landscape irrigation systems in a manner which will maximize irrigation efficiency and avoid over-watering or watering of hardscape and the resulting runoff.



• Refrain from watering or irrigating any lawn, landscape, or other vegetated area that causes or allows excessive water flow or runoff onto an adjoining sidewalk, driveway, street, alley, gutter, or ditch.



• Do not use decorative fountains unless they are equipped with a recycling system.



• Do not allow water to run while washing vehicles. Use a bucket or similar container and/or a handheld hose equipped with a positive self-closing water shut-off device to avoid runoff into gutters, streets, or alleys.



• When installing new landscaping, plant low-water demand trees and plants. Do not incorporate non-functional turf areas.



• Refrain from watering during rain.

EMWD depends on The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) for 70 to 80 percent of the water served for 135,000 customers in Riverside County.

Beginning July 1, MWD sets mandatory reductions to its 26 member agencies. Although these upcoming reductions affect regional and local water agencies differently, the net result is an about 10 percent cut in water supply, with a nearly 20 percent rate hike beginning Sept. 1, 2009. In addition, hefty penalties will be levied against water agencies that exceed their allocations.

Since water sales peaked for EMWD in 2006-07, the demands by domestic water customers—meaning residents, businesses, and institutions—have declined by 17 percent.

EMWD's board believes continuing reduced customer demands will keep EMWD within MWD's allocations. They have also made a commitment to leave rates alone at least until January 2010 through additional internal budget cuts and project deferrals.

MWD's allocations on regional water agencies were agreed to last April as a way to address state-wide water shortages caused by record dry conditions in Southern California and court-ordered water pumping cutbacks from Northern California's Bay-Delta into the California Aqueduct.

You can read the EMWD's water shortage contingency plan at...
http://www.emwd.org/news/ordinances/Ord117.2.pdf.

You can also learn about the tiered rate structure at...
http://www.emwd.org/water_service/UnderstandingTieredRates.html#Tiers

Labels: Eastern-Municipal-Water-District, Water

Yesterday the City of Menifee held a workshop forum on creating city council district lines. I wasn't able to attend.

But there are two more workshops scheduled...

• Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. – Menifee City Hall, 29714 Haun Road, Menifee, CA


• Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 7 p.m. – Heritage High School Theater 26001 Briggs Road, Menifee, CA

I won't be able to attend tommorrow's either. But I'll shoot for the last one.

The forum will include an informational presentation by Douglas Johnson of NDC, on the process of drawing districts. It'll then shift to audience participation, where listeners will be given forms to show their possibilities for districts, and definitions of their own community's identity.

The City also plans to announce a webinar with the consultant that will allow those who wish to hear the information presentation online. The date and sign in information for that webinar will be released later in the week.

Labels: City-Council-Districts

Movies in the Park continues on this Summer at La Ladera Park with the following movies...

Thursday, June 25th, "Hotel for Dogs"
Thursday, July 9th, "Madagascar 2"
Thursday, July 23rd, "Kung Fu Panda"
Thursday, August 13th, "Star Wars, Clone Wars"
Thursday, August 27th, "Bolt"

Looks like I got the word out too late for June 25th.


Click on the flyer to see the full size.

Labels: La-Ladera-Park, Movies

Jay Glasser, president of the Hemet Valley Dolphins swim team writes to us wanting to let Menifee families know that they're welcome to enroll their kids into their swim team program.

He has some Menifee kids on his team right now, and their parents mentioned to him that there's no public swimming pool in Menifee.

Hemet Valley Dolphins is a year round, non-profit, competitive swim club, as opposed to a "learn to swim program".

They currently use the pool at West Valley High School, on the corner of Domenigoni and Sanderson Ave.

Visit them online at:
http://www.hvdaswim.com/

Labels: Swimming-Pool

Ted Wegener, who leads a group called "Conservative Activists" based here in Menifee, sends us the following announcement about an upcoming appearance by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson...


Click on the flyer to see the full size.

Peterson is a conservative speaker, radio personality, and author, and will be speaking on the subject of President Obama.

The meeting is open to the public and is free.

Saturday, July 25th, 2009
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ce'sar Chavez Library
163 East San Jacinto Avenue
Perris, CA 92570

Labels: Conservative-Activists

On Tuesday, July 7 2009 at 10 AM, Members of the Sun City Model Railroad Club will meet to draw up plans to create tables/modules for the purpose of promoting model railroading and will be using these plans for demonstration at schools, senior living centers, fairs and the like.

The club has been invited to visit other model railroad clubs in Southern California, and will have their layouts ready to present to local youth.

The Sun City Model Railroad Club meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 10 A.M. in the Provident Bank Community Room located at 27010 Sun City Blvd. in Sun City, at the intersection of Sun City Blvd. and Cherry Hills Blvd.

The club adopted this location as it new meeting site in hopes of attracting model railroading enthusiasts from all over Southwest Riverside County.

Contact: Chuck Reutter, 951.679.3752 or greenchuckr@hotmail.com

Labels: Sun-City-Model-Railroad-Club

Mike Adams of Menifee Pop Warner football sent in this flyer for signups tomorrow, Saturday, June 27, at Heritage High School, 8:00 am - 12:00 pm...


Click on the flyer to see the full size.

Labels: Football

Deputy Chris Varela of the Menifee Police Department sent us this list of robbery prevention tips for local business owners...

As the economy continues to decline more and more people may turn to supplementing their income through illegal means. A problem for most businesses has and always will be robbery. In the city of Menifee there have been approximately five incidents of robbery occurring at local business since the beginning of 2009.

Below is a list of simple prevention tips every business owner and employee should implement.

• Greet every person who enters the business in a friendly manner. Personal contact can discourage a would-be criminal.


• Keep windows clear of displays or signs and make sure your business is well-lighted. Check the layout of your store, eliminating any blind spots that may hide a robbery in progress.


• Provide information about your security systems to employees only on a "need-to-know" basis. Instruct your employees to report any suspicious activity or person immediately and write down the information for future reference.


• If it all possible install security cameras that can store video footage for more than one week. If cameras are installed have them view the entrance and exits of the location as well as the cash registers.


• Place cash registers in the front section of the store. This increases the chances of someone spotting a robbery in progress and reporting it to the police.


• Keep small amounts of cash in the register to reduce losses. Use a drop safe into which large bills and excess cash are dropped by employees and cannot be retrieved by them. Post signs alerting would-be robbers of this procedure.


• Make bank deposits often and during business hours. Don't establish a pattern, take different routes at different times during the day. Ask a police officer to escort you to the bank whenever possible.


• Ask local law enforcement what to do in case you are robbed. Make sure your address is visible so emergency vehicles can easily find your business.


• If you or your employees are confronted by a robber, cooperate. Merchandise and cash can always be replaced—people can't!

Most robbers have already inspected the business they intend to rob. Keep a vigilant eye for returning customers who appear to be looking for security cameras, security guards or who ask a number of questions regarding common practices of employees and security.

In the event that a robbery does occur remember a good witness is the best tool Law Enforcement can use to apprehend the suspect. Do not get confrontational with the robbers. Try to remember the best description possible of the suspects: race, sex, clothing worn, any facial hair or tattoos.

How many there were, what direction they took when leaving the location, whether they left on foot or used a vehicle and if they had any weapons.
If you are a victim of a robbery or a witness dial 911 as soon as possible.

The tips provided may not completely prevent a robbery from occurring but will help in deterring criminals from attempting to rob a business.

Submitted by:
Deputy Chris Varela of the Menifee Police Department

Labels: Police, Theft

Menifee Junior All American Football is looking for players age 11, 12 and 13, 140lbs. maximum weight.
If interested call 951-639-0238 or 951-246-0536

Majors, 10-11 and the 9-10 team all won their games on Saturday June 27th to advance to the next round. Majors play Monday night at 7:30pm and the Juniors play Monday night their first game at 7:15pm. 10-11 and the 9-10 teams don't play again until Monday July 6th at 5:00pm.





CLICK ON IMAGE FOR A LARGER VERSION

Doug Otterson of the Menifee Wildcats Baseball Club reports that the team won the Purestats Sports Group baseball tournament last Sunday, June 14.

They are in the 11 and under division.


Congrats to Brett Virgil, Andy Otterson, Ryan Hudkins, Trevor Forster, Nate Raia, Joey Lively, Noah Rosa, Connor Gillette, Brandon Castaneda, Andrew Ramos, Mario Arroyo.

Mario Arroyo was the team MVP with 3 base hits, 2 doubles and a home run. Mario's batting average for the tournament was .750.

Labels: Menifee-Wildcats

There's a group in Menifee forming a new Democratic Club to represent like-minded voters in the City of Menifee.

They are calling on Democrats throughout town to assemble and help the club get going.

A meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 2, 2009 from 6:00 to 9:00pm in the Provident Bank's Community Room located at 27010 Sun City Blvd.

Leaders of other Democratic Clubs throughout the area will be in attendance, along with Brady McCarron, candidate for the Perris Union High School District.

Contact Chuck Reutter (951) 679-3752 for details.

Labels: Politics

Jeff Ortiz, who's leading an effort to put in some improvements at Aldergate Dog Park, says he and his group have enlisted the help of Friends of Valley-Wide Foundation to get a fundraiser going.

Last May I published a report on what improvements they're seeking, and that while Valley-Wide has agreed to pay for half, Jeff and his group will have to kick in the other half.

He says they've been busy working behind the scenes with Valley-Wide to get a fresh water line and safety-gate entry area to be added to the dog park.

The safety gate is a double gate entry, that allows for dogs to enter without the risk of other dogs escaping. This gate will replace the existing gate, and will include a concrete path from the parking lot.

Below is a donation form if you'd like to help out...


Click the form to see the full size, and print out.

Jeff notes that this fundraiser is authorized by Valley-Wide.

Labels: Aldergate-Park, Dog-Parks