‘County, Victor Valley museum merger…’

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The public is invited to a free presentation Thursday night on future changes at the Victor Valley Museum and Art Gallery, which was recently acquired by San Bernardino County after nearly closing its doors. Struggling to stay afloat amid declining revenue, the Victor Valley Museum Association donated the Victor Valley Museum, just south of Bear Valley Road in the Jess Ranch Marketplace, to the county in November with support from 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. … (Continued below) …

From Staff Reports, Daily Press, Feb. 24, 2010 (Continued below) …

… County officials have since closed escrow on the property and approved about $330,000 toward museum improvements and other expenses. Mitzelfelt’s office has said the merger will require a temporary closure of the museum to catalogue memorabilia and artifacts, renovate the building and develop new displays to bring the museum up to accreditation standards.

Thursday night San Bernardino County Museum Director Robert M. Kernan is set to deliver a presentation on the merger and field any questions, comments and concerns. Victor Valley Museum Director Carol Carr will also be at the meeting, which is hosted by the Mojave Historical Society.

The public meeting begins 7 p.m. Thursday at Victor Valley Museum, 11873 Apple Valley Road in Apple Valley. For more information call the museum at (760) 240-2111.

To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755.

Feb

24

‘Fire station planned for lonely 150-mile stretch of Mojave Desert’

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The owner of the remote Mojave Desert town of Amboy has donated two acres for what would be the only fire station along the lonely 150 miles between Barstow and Needles, according to San Bernardino County officials. “Response times in the Amboy area are a minimum of 1 hour 15 minutes,” county Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said in a written statement. “A fire station (there) could provide emergency services … along the I-40 corridor, which would shorten emergency response times by 30 to 45 minutes to such unincorporated communities as Ludlow, Cadiz, Bagdad and Essex.” … (Continued below) …

… From PE News, February 24, 2010, By Richard Brooks … (Continued below) …

… County supervisors accepted the donation Tuesday from Albert Okura, owner of the Juan Pollo rotisserie chicken restaurant chain, who bought the 500-acre town along Route 66 in 2005 for $700,000. Okura soon began restoring the town – including Roy’s Café, the gas station, a motel, a post office, and a church building – in hopes of capitalizing on Route 66 nostalgia.

Link to online article: http://blogs.pe.com/news/digest/2010/02/fire-station-planned-for-lonel.html

Feb

19

Businesses’ Regulatory Burdens Aired

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Victor Valley business owners recited a laundry list of complaints against government rules and regulations Friday morning, telling lawmakers or their staff that state, county and city bureaucracies are breaking . … (Continued below) …

… From the Daily Press, Feb. 19, 2010 … ‘Local businesses hit the breaking point’, By David Keck, Special for the Daily Press … (Continued below) …

For about 90 minutes owners and representatives from local insurance companies, auto parts stores, pizza restaurants and other businesses repeated grievance after grievance, often using colorful examples to illustrate what they see as waste, duplicity and hidden taxes.

The mood sometimes sounded like a meeting of the rising Tea Party movement. The word “revolution” turned up more than once as speakers addressed Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, Drew Mercy, a field representative for Republican state Sen. George Runner, and Brad Mitzelfelt, San Bernardino County 1st District supervisor.

Runner had a scheduling conflict and could not attend, Mercy said.

The state legislators were at the Victorville City Council Chambers in the second of a series of town hall meetings around their districts to identify the regulations and taxes hurting businesses most. The first meeting was in Santa Clarita last month.

They knew their audience well. Part of a package distributed at the meeting included reports from Forbes magazine, The Tax Foundation and the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council relegating California as one of the worst places in the nation to do business.

Topping the list of concerns for business owners were AB 32, the new state law mandating strict rules to combat climate change, California Air Resources Board regulations and workers’ compensation.

Others blasted overtime laws, state mandated rest and meal periods, and “frivolous” lawsuits and regulations that outlawed selling some products in California because they were deemed hazardous. County and city regulations and fees also took heat.
“We would like to open another restaurant,” said Freddy Rosales, owner of La Casita on the Lake restaurant in Victorville, summing up the comments of others. “But what stops us dead in our tracks is the cost of doing business.”

Knight conceded change would be difficult. But he promised business owners that he would work on their concerns. Meantime, he said, each one of them should be trying to affect change in Sacramento. That starts by changing out legislators who are unfriendly to business. Look at the California Chamber of Commerce report card on legislators, Knight told them. Unlike a variety of report cards issued by lobbyists and special-interest groups, the chamber’s assessment considers only how legislators voted on issues affecting business. “If they cannot score at least an 85 percent voting record approval (from the state Chamber of Commerce),” Knight said of legislators, “then you’d better not believe them. They are voting against you.”

Feb

7

Mitzelfelt: Why AB 32 is ‘insanity’

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As the statewide debate rages on over a sweeping climate change law, the local air quality district is urging leaders in Sacramento to suspend or repeal the legislation.

Assembly Bill 32, passed by the California Legislature in 2006 to lower carbon emissions 30 percent by 2020, has triggered staunch opposition from the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District Governing Board, which i n c l u d e s 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. … (Continued below) …

… From the Daily Press, Feb. 06, 2010, By Natasha Lindstrom, Staff Writer … (Continued below) …

Mitzelfelt shared with the Daily Press why he fears the law’s “job-killing” regulations could devastate local industries at a time when the High Desert’s unemployment hovers around 16 percent.

Q: Why should Victor Valley residents care about AB 32?
A: “AB 32 will have zero benefit to the planet, it will have zero benefit for the state or the county or our local community. It won’t affect global warming one iota, but it will kill thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs in California and drive them to other states and countries where they don’t have these rules.
“Half of our work force drives a minimum of 40 miles to work every day. That generates way more pollutants than any industry located in our basin. We need jobs close to home so we don’t have tens of thousands of cars on the road spewing pollution every day for so many miles.”

Q: What about the argument that AB 32 is helping California become the nation’s leading state in the clean energy business, which has and will generate thousands of jobs?
A: “We may have difficulty citing even those energy jobs. These clean energy industries, because of the restrictions and the fact that they’re going to have employees driving cars to work, which generates emissions — that has to be mitigated. AB 32 could actually shoot itself in the foot by making a clean power plant like solar and wind (comply).”

Q: How will AB 32 impact local businesses owners?
A : “It’s the worst economy since the Great Depression and the regulations could really put a lot of businesses out of business, such as the cement industry, which in the High Desert is a critical industry and tax base. It’s one of the few industries and stable job providers we have, and if they’re forced to not emit carbon dioxide, there’s really no way to do that when you make cement. It’s actually kind of crazy what we’re talking about having to do, bury it under the ground, feed it to a future algae plant … we’ll be lucky if our cement industry survives this law because of the cost to comply.
“Any business that comes in and generates methane or carbon monoxide or greenhouse gas is going to have to offset that by finding another that has reduced theirs and then buying credits from them. It’s like a cap and trade kind of a system. And it’s very difficult for us to do that because we don’t have a lot of industries to choose from, and at the same time we have pollution that is blowing in from other basins that we have to account for.”

Q: If we do want to reduce carbon emissions, what would a realistic goal and time line be?
A: “I’m not an economist, but I think three years at a minimum. I’d much rather see it repealed altogether. I think it’s insanity personally because California reducing greenhouse gases will not have a meaningful impact. If anything, international bodies should be dealing with this, not local governments.
“AB 115 would wait until the unemployment hits 5.5 percent and in fact that is the best answer to time line. It shouldn’t be a time line. We should look at the economy, and the MDAQMD strives to clean the air, but also to do it in a way where we don’t chase away all the jobs.”

Q : The MDAQMD won’t take a stance on global warming. What do you think?
A : “I’m a skeptic of human-caused global warming and I just haven’t been convinced. I think there are enough credible scientists who are not sure that global warming is either happening or is other than a natural phenomenon, and I’m very worried about the economic impact of rolling back all our industrial progress we’ve made as a human race.
“It’s too political. I’m suspicious of anything with that much political impetus behind it. I mean the fact that you can’t have a reasonable conversation with a lot of, I’d say a majority of the proponents of global warming theory, without being insulted, treated like you’re some kind of Neanderthal. People roll their eyes, but the people I know, I’d say almost half of them aren’t totally convinced.”

Q: What do you want to see happen next?
A : “ We (the MDAQMD) suggested the Legislature pass that bill (AB 118), and I’m going to be sending a letter to every city and county urging them to do the same. I do believe groundswell from local governments will get attention and action in Sacramento, but if it’s just one air district, it’s not going to change anything.”

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at nlindstrom @VVDailyPress .com.