It is decision time for the families of approximately 3,300 Poway Unified School District bus riders.

The district has set a deadline of this coming Monday to see whether 85 percent of those families feel that keeping school buses on the road is worth $575 out of their pockets.

If 2,800 passes are sold by Monday, bus service will not be eliminated. Otherwise, the 3,300 elementary and middle school students will have to find other ways to get to and from classes when school resumes Sept. 8. Loss of the service will also mean that 35 bus drivers and five other transportation employees will lose their jobs.

Firl’s stance ‘fantasy’

In columnist Gerold Firl’s July 22 column where he suggests that no member of the military is financially responsible, his assumptions about what Admiral Mullin and the Pentagon “recognizes” are pure, unfounded fantasy.

Firl’s attempt to label the military as an “Evil Empire” shows his true colors. His bigoted statement, “Anybody who has ever been in the military . . .” is a pathetic attempt at denigration of the military to rationalize his failure to serve.

About Duke Cunningham: Unlike Firl, Duke Cunningham served his country as a career naval officer. Unlike Firl, Duke Cunningham is a combat veteran, a fighter ace and a genuine hero. Unlike Firl’s suggestion, Duke Cunningham never made it into the higher echelons of the naval service.

After his retirement from the Navy, Cunningham was elected as a U.S. Congressman and while serving in that capacity, he transgressed and is now in prison where he rightfully belongs. Cunningham’s behavior, however, does not validate Firl’s assertion that all or any members of the military are inherently corrupt.

In Firl’s myopic view, the military is the only problem, and he is profoundly silent about the other 76 percent of the national budget.

Firl reminds me of a fine, upstanding liberal who, while I was on active duty, told me, “Anyone stupid enough to join the military deserves to be killed.” I’m sure Firl concurs.

Perhaps in Firl’s rabidly anti-military attitude, he believes we would be better served to dissolve the military and turn the country over to the Taliban/al-Qaida.
Carl Dotson
Poway

With professional design, the desires of both the business community and residents of Rancho Bernardo can be fulfilled to revitalize the appearance of our downtown business district.

A skilled architectural designer will honor the original architectural design vocabulary consisting of tile roofs, stucco/brick walls and heavy timber rafter details. By introducing more color, water-saving landscaping, graphic signs or banners and other design elements, the appearance of our business district will be more attractive to residents and draw outsiders to do business here.

As the design process begins, it is critical to gain input from business owners and residents alike. Thanks to the efforts of project organizer and City Councilman Carl DeMaio and the volunteer committee, an illustrative photo album can be assembled showing good ideas from other communities. Newer developments like Santaluz and Del Sur may be inspiration for natural, water-saving landscape design, which will replace our existing lawns with colorful, native, attractive plants, gravel, rocks and other interesting features. Older communities such as Rancho Santa Fe might provide direction for adding more of the old California charm to Rancho Bernardo’s business district.

Recently, I decided to move in with my boyfriend of three years. Friends and family:

A) congratulated me on the big move;

B) questioned why I’d give up independence;

C) prayed for my salvation, or

D) asked “when’s the wedding?”

Let’s just say that making a home with the person you love leaves people wanting and waiting for you to take the “real” big step: marriage.

The docents at the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center at Pauwai (KIIC) just wrapped up another successful year touring third-graders from local schools.

Seventy-seven tours were conducted that included 1,170 students and 540 adults. Every school within the City of Poway participated, plus a number from Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, Scripps Ranch and Escondido. The study of local Native American history is included in the third-grade state curriculum and the hands-on tours provided at the local village archeological site fit perfectly into lessons planned by teachers.

If you are not familiar with this city park, it is located just off Poway Road across the street from Perry Ford. It is at 13104 Ipai Waaypuk Trail (formerly Silverlake Drive). The site is staffed by members of the “Friends of the Kumeyaay” and is open to the general public every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for guided tours.

Property owners typically start thinking about the wildfire season in the fall, when dry Santa Ana winds kick up the fire threat a notch or two.

In reality, fire is a year-round threat in San Diego County, a point driven home last week with a handful of lightning-started brush fires in San Diego County’s back country and a 3,000-acre, weapon-started blaze aboard Camp Pendleton.

Local fire officials are saying that the past wet winter has helped germinate a whole new generation of grass and weeds over land that has previously burned in the Cedar and Witch Creek wildfires. This thin, low-growing vegetation accelerates a fire’s progress, the experts say.
Other portions of our community still have 30- and 40-year-old brush growth that, if ignited, would be a serious threat to homes and businesses.

Lowe’s should build elsewhere

To clarify my previous letter regarding the proposed Lowe’s on Poway Road: I would have preferred the headline: “No ‘big boxes’ on Poway Road,” with emphasis on “Poway Road.” I have no objection to Lowe’s other than the proposed Poway Road location.

Also, I do not oppose expansion of Walmart. In fact, I have written to this newspaper supporting expansion. My point was that the objections raised by many Powegians (impact on other businesses and increased traffic) apply even more to a big box located directly on Poway Road.
Lowe’s has stated that they do not want to be in the Business Park because of Home Depot. Lowe’s supporters assure me that Lowe’s has a loyal customer base separate from Home Depot’s and thus their effect on each other would be minimal. If that’s true, there is no reason Lowe’s couldn’t be located in the Business Park.

No one disputes that having Lowe’s – or Fry’s, Best Buy or other big box – located right on Poway Road will have a major impact on traffic. For those who live east of that location, our primary access to groceries, gas, post office, library, the Business Park, I-15 and so forth is via Poway Road. Even Lowe’s acknowledges that traffic would be increased so much that yet another stop light on Poway Road would be necessary at Gate Drive.

My hope is that Lowe’s will reconsider their location before making a difficult traffic situation even worse.

Susan C. Davis
Poway

By Adam Sullivan

I think I have found a way to eliminate the City of Poway’s $1.5-million budget gap.
Tourism.

City Hall is a place similar to “The Mystery Spot” in Santa Cruz. The Mystery Spot describes itself as a “gravitational anomaly.” Marbles seem to roll uphill and everything seems to be leaning. Discriminating eyes see a cleverly built cabin that creates perspective distortions, but why spoil the fun? People who don’t look at the world critically love it and the tourist revenue helps the local economy. I think we can do the same here in Poway.

In Poway we have “governing anomalies” that are equally “mysterious.” Take the two recent investigations into the “Fire truck story” and the recall. One week the city attorney says the fire truck story is “unsubstantiated.” The next week a special counsel (hired by the same city attorney) says claims within the fire truck story were misleading and “unsubstantiated.”

The fire truck story is false when it implicates city employees and council members for furnishing misappropriated city assets and services (which would be in violation of U.S. law if true). The fire truck story is true when used to gather recall petition signatures (which would be in violation of Poway Municipal Code if the story is false). So the fire truck story is both true and false at City Hall!

Americans are justifiably concerned about our public debt. Government deficits have ballooned over the last decade, from the combined effect of the Bush tax cuts, invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and then the financial crash of 2008. The wars required massive deficit spending, and after the collapse of a recklessly speculative financial sector tolerated by lax, inept and disinterested regulators, massive stimulus spending was required to avert an even more disastrous economic collapse.

It’s not just financially responsible citizens who are concerned about the effect of U.S. debt. Adm. Mike Mullin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “I think the biggest threat we have to our national security is our debt.” He recognizes that we’re spending too much on the military.
It is a sign of the health of the American nation that senior military leaders have interpreted their oath to the Constitution in such an intelligent manner. There is a natural tendency for any human organization to acquire increasing amounts of resources and power. It’s hard to say no to more money, but even the Pentagon recognizes that we’re over-feeding the beast. Military spending is the biggest component of government spending, and we spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined. That kind of power creates a very real risk of corruption, and the development of our own Evil Empire.

The Palomar Community College District should be applauded for making a long-term commitment to education in our region by spending $38.3 million in voter-approved bond money to purchase property in Rancho Bernardo.

The new four-story, 110,000-square-foot building is on a 27-acre hilltop lot that includes a parking structure and enough room to add up to two more buildings.

The purchase, which closed escrow on June 30, ends more than two decades of fruitless searches for a site for an education center (not a full campus) to service the southern portion of the sprawling college district. That portion includes Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, Poway, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs and Rancho Penasquitos.

A big hip and hooray to the eight candidates who put their names on the line running for the seat vacated in June’s recall election. It was a clean campaign where the issues were discussed and no characters were assassinated. A big congratulations to the winner John Mullin who prevailed in a squeaker, over recall leader Steve Vaus. Service on the City Council is a very rewarding endeavor to which I can attest, but remember, John, it’s all about Poway and not you, something forgotten by the previous individual who occupied your seat.