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City of Cathedral City
68700 Avenida Lalo Guerrero
Cathedral City, CA 92234
(760) 770-0340
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 Weekly
Briefs
From Julie Baumer,
Deputy City Manager
October 13, 2005 |
ONGOING NEWS
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Water, Water: be sure it’s
everywhere
How many gallons of water
are you storing in preparation for the predicted major earthquake?
In the winter, you should
have at least one gallon per day, just for yourself. In the summer, you’ll
need three gallons a day. The Fire Department advises that each person
should be prepared to “be on their own” for 10 days in the case of a
large-scale disaster. So this winter, each member of your family will need
10 gallons; next summer, the number increases to 30 gallons for the 10-day
period.
Fire Chief Steve Sowles
revealed these and other tips at a presentation on emergency preparedness
before the City Council Wednesday night.
Although traditional
wisdom had suggested that people should be prepared to last on their own for
at least 72 hours following a disaster, that time has been extended by
emergency officials as a result of lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina.
Other tips: Spread
supplies around; you may not be at home when the Big One strikes. Form or
join a Neighborhood Watch Group, where neighbors take care of each other.
Keep small bills on hand, because ATM machines probably won’t work and
merchants will not have enough change. So unless you want to spend $20 for a
loaf of bread, start putting aside $1 and $5 bills. Don’t forget
flashlights, batteries, medications, pet supplies and plastic forks,
tablewear. (Washing dishes will be the last thing on your mind and, besides,
it wastes water.)
Oops, Sept. 30 was the last day
Just a reminder to all
contractors: The new Title 24 energy standards went into effect
Oct. 1. If you did not
pull your building permit before that date, you must meet the new
requirements, aimed at reducing energy consumption and cutting future costs
for .buyers.
Kids will flip out at pancake event
The Fire department’s
Pancake Breakfast and Open House starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at
the headquarters station will have some new features this year – including
Hazard House. It’s the model of a home which demonstrates to kids various
dangers that can lurk in households. Also on tap, winning posters in the
department’s annual candle safety contest, face painting, apparatus display,
infant safety seat check, 45-minutes CPR awareness classes and breakfast of
pancakes, sausage, juice ($5 for adults; $3 for kids under 12).
Covering our cost of services
City Council has approved
an increase in various fees for services provided by the police, fire,
finance, planning and engineering departments. Building and engineering
fees related to the Uniform Building Code were put on hold and will come
back to Council in about a month, after further study.
The new non-UBC fees will
go into effect in mid-December.
New citizen advisory committee members
Congratulations!! New
members of the Architectural Advisory Committee are: John Holt, an
architect who has worked on Riverside County Sheriff’s facilities, the Girls
Club in Coachella and numerous churches and public buildings; Alan Waters,
CEO of a commercial real estate firm, with experience in development,
redevelopment and property redesign; and Ed Southard, general manager of
Date Palm Country Club, who’s had experience in construction and community
planning. They will join existing members Kendra Culbertson and Ed Gerlach
on the ARC.
Ralph Hitchcock, a
utility consultant, has been named to the Board of Appeals.
Openings still exist on
the Public Arts Commission (2) and Planning Commission (1).
Expo in Town Square
Business will be pleasure
in Town Square on Wednesday, Oct. 19. That’s when the Chamber of Commerce
will hold its Annual Business Expo from 4 to 7 p.m. Drop by and see
Cathedral City businesses selling merchandise and offering information about
their services. This will also take the place of the Chamber’s monthly
mixer, which normally would be on the following night, the third Thursday.
Officers curb vehicle theft
Three Cathedral City
police officers were honored by the Auto Club and CHP for their work in
arresting vehicle thieves. To receive the CV 10851 awards, each of them
recovered six or more stolen vehicles (with the bad guys in them) within a
12-month period. Those receiving the awards were Officers Dan Anes and
Miguel Torres and Sgt. Scott Sharp.
Keep those cards and letters coming
Thanks to various helpful
city employees, who offer these news tidbits for Briefs:
From Deanna Pressgrove
… After a two-week run of can collecting, Rio Vista Elementary School has
won the Cans for Cash contest held for all elementary and middle schools in
the city. Residents, businesses and students saved cans and took them to
the various schools during the first two weeks in September.
Rio Vista Principal
Cheryl James received a check for $2,500 for the school’s efforts.
Pressgrove points out
that for every pound of aluminum recycled, Americans save the energy
resources required to produce about 7.5 kilowatt hours of electricity.
Coming in second place
was Sunny Sands and there was a third-place tie between Cathedral City
Elementary School and Landau Elementary.
From Warren Bradshaw …
There will be two ground breakings this month: Building Horizons will break
ground on a three-bedroom home at 68577 C Street at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct.
21. Cathedral City High School students will learn building trades while
constructing an affordable home in cathedral City.
The following day, at 10
a.m., Habitat for Humanity will start construction on a home at 32399 Canyon
Vista Road, between Coral and Ramon.
Also, Episcopal Community
Services has just finished refurbishing a duplex which the Redevelopment
Agency made available to them. In combination with two other sites, ECS can
now provide transitional housing for up to 34 persons generally dealing with
homelessness or HIV/AIDS.
From Lynn Mallotto …
Drama students at James Workman Middle School are selling tickets to
“Spooktacular” screenings at the Mary Pickford Theatre. It’s a combination
of a scary-horror film clips from 1950’s B movies, a tour of the house in
Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and an uncut version of the horror classic, “Night of
the Living Dead.” Tickets are $6. The movie will be shown Oct 20-22.
Barbara Beckley, on
special assignment to the L.A. Tomes, is writing a story on the Pickford
Theatre and Pickford Salon that will appear in the newspaper in December.
From Fire Capt. Eric
Hauser … The Cathedral City Fire Department used their BBQ to feed 180 or so
hungry bikers during the American Heat Weekend at Engine Joe’s annual Open
House and Charity Poker Run. The fire department is proud to be associated
with these types of groups that go the extra mile to generate funds to
benefit others. Hats off to Joe and Leslie Boniface (Engine Joe’s) for
contributing to our community, Eric writes.
Just imagine the possibilities
Evaluation of the city’s
Management Information System (MIS) division will start next week, on Oct.
17. Employees from all departments will offer their ideas on possible
software applications, current performance, departmental organization,
mapping, technological data that could be used by more departments and the
future of MIS.
The City Council has
hired AEF Systems to assist in formulating recommendations for improvements.
Complete access to information
City Clerk Pat Hammers
reports that within about 45 days, complete agendas of City Council meetings
will be available on the web. Residents and employees can electronically
access staff reports and any other information from the complete agenda
packet.
Then, by the first of the
New Year, everyone can watch Council meetings live over the internet.
These programs tie in
with one of the City Council’s strategic goals: to improve communication
with residents. |
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