By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Crest Forest Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) met for the first time this year on Feb. 4 at the San Moritz Lodge. They report to County Supervisor Dawn Rowe about the activities, problems and needs of each community. The Crest Forest MAC has representatives from the Cedarpines Park and Crestline area that can be the communication link to the supervisor. Each member is appointed by the supervisor for a two-year term.
Three new members were appointed in January and were installed into office at this meeting. The new members are community members Sara Green, Tel Preszler and restaurant owner Amber Crubaugh. Elected as chair was continuing member Steve Garcia and elected as vice chair was Gilbert Flores. Lewis Murray, Supervisor Rowe’s field representative, administered the oath of office to all five MAC members.
The guest speaker was CHP Public Information Officer (PIO) Devin Julien-Rohman, who said the office now has 19 officers. As the PIO, he posts informational items such as new laws on social media such as X, Facebook and Instagram. He explained several new traffic laws that could affect mountain residents. The first law he explained was that Mountain Transit is now able to flip open a “Yield” sign on the back of the bus to stop traffic for pedestrian safety.
The second law he highlighted was that putting stickers, reflective plastic shields or otherwise manipulating license plates to block the use of license plate readers, fast track lane cameras, red light cameras or other official devices is illegal; all those entities that use these devices legally may issue tickets to the car owners or drivers.
The new law that received numerous comments was the one that states that cars may not stop, wait or park within 20 feet of a corner with marked or unmarked crosswalks. This elicited numerous questions on houses in town that are on a corner – may they not park in front of their homes? They will not be in the neighborhoods looking for illegal parking unless it is at a major crossing area and there is a visual problem to see the opposing or turning traffic, as this should apply to active business districts. How about business district corners such as at Ace Hardware where all of their diagonal parking is located within 20 feet of a corner with a lighted crosswalk? He explained that designated parking areas are exempt.
The property theft law from vehicles has been changed; previously a person had to prove their vehicle was locked for the thief to be convicted, which at times was difficult to prove. Now the law ends that loophole and only requires that the thief entered the car illegally and without permission for a conviction to occur.
Corrine Mora from Congressman Obernolte’s office said that he is an advocate for balancing the budget and keeping the community safe. His district office is in Hesperia; contact her on any issue they can help with by emailing her at Corrine.mora@mail.house.gov. Constituents in the audience asked Mora what Obernolte is doing about the DOGE breaking into the treasury. She said the president had given them permission to do so. The audience members were concerned that now they had illegal access to all their personal information. Audience member Steve asked if Obernolte would get back to the residents of Crestline with his comment on DOGE.
Another question was on what Obernolte is going to do to protect the rights of all migrants and if the resources spent on the deportation facilities will take away from our own local agencies to protect us. Our local agencies are not responsible for immigrants. Mora didn’t have an answer and promised to ask him.
Another question was on SCE (Southern California Edison), and what Obernolte will do to get SCE to take responsibility and bury our electrical lines, after all these power outages our community has experienced. The gas company and water agencies have their lines buried, why can’t the electric company? “We know the electrical lines where he lives in Big Bear are buried, because that makes sense in this snowy weather environment,” was the comment from one audience member.
School board trustee Bill Mellinger and Superintendent Dr. Paul Sevillano thanked the community for passing Measure E, the local bond, and for supporting Proposition 2, which will bring $14 million dollars to the district, as both will greatly benefit the local school district in the repairs needed to the old school buildings.
Most schools in the state do not have generators for their schools; the Rim district now has them for all schools, except Lake Arrowhead Elementary, but it will be getting one within a couple weeks. Then, when the power goes out, schools can continue their instruction.
The Mountain Resource Lab is a joint project with Cal State San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Water Board. It will produce a hands-on project for students. At this research lab the students will be able to earn college-level credits.
Dr. Sevillano said he had sent out a letter with information about immigration and the school district. He stated that Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) states that schools are not permitted to share personal information about any student on many topics, including immigration status; they are not aware of any student’s immigration status as it is not a question asked upon enrollment.
A question on the district’s policy on failing a student was discussed. It was explained that the district does all it can to remediate any educational holes in their learning or difficulties a student may be having. They will reach out to the parents of the child, offering the student tiered support, using high impact tutoring with academic support and interventions based on the standards for each grade level.
Captain Craig Harris from the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Station reported the station is fully staffed with 19 deputies. They are proactively working on getting drugs and guns off the streets, using pedestrian checks and traffic stops for out-of-date registrations and traffic violations.
The sheriff has extra officers assigned when there is snow, and they enforce the no trespassing and no stopping in roadways for snow play, with support from the CHP. Capt. Harris discussed State Senate Bill 54, which limits their conversation topics with ICE officers.
County Fire Battalion Chief Jerren Grundy reported a 400-service call decrease during the last year. Last month, they received 554 calls, with three structure fires in December and one in January. They sent a three-firetruck task force to the Palisades Fire, with 20 firefighters. They just underwent live fire training tactics and will receive new winter gear for the changing winter weather.
If anyone needs sandbags, Fire Stations 25 and 26 have them and sand to fill them. Stations 91 and 92 have the bags only. The bags are excellent for erosion control during heavy rainstorms and to direct rain runoff to control or prevent flooding situations.
On March 8 County Fire will be holding a blood drive. They will be using drones in San Bernardino County soon to be the first eyes on a blaze when a fire call is received. They will be talking with the water companies to verify they are checking the fire hydrants for water pressure. Also, the fire department has equipment with the ability to draft water from the lakes and helicopters to dip from the lakes, plus they carry 500 gallons of water in their tanker trucks. They work in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire on all fire calls up here. They are working with the USFS on fire mitigation projects. Fire stations are evenly positioned across the mountain for quick response among the three organizations.
The biggest fear for fire starts, stated Grundy, is the combination of wind and downed power lines. When the wind is too strong, aircraft cannot fly, allowing the fire to get a good start. The best tool is to harden homes and structures against fires when building.
Nick Calero, Senator Ochoa Bogh’s district director, was on Zoom when he reported she is working on three bills for this next session. She is sending out weekly email newsletters to all who have given their email addresses to the DMV, or you can register to receive it by going to her website.
Ochoa Bogh had held a town hall meeting on insurance in the fall and the Department of Insurance reform laws that were implemented as of Dec. 31 are on Insurance Commissioner Lara’s website. You can access that insurance meeting on her website. If you are canceled for other than non-payment, you can appeal to the insurance commissioner and then notify the senator through Nick.Calero@Sen.ca.gov so they can follow up.
The Lake Gregory County Advisory Committee (LGCAC) was created to be a go-between with the Lake Gregory Company, the county and local residents. They meet quarterly during the winter and monthly in the summer months to solve any problems that may arise. They can be reached by the public through LakeGregoryCAC@gmail.com. There are 46 water inlets into the lake. The county just awarded a contract to dredge the lake and its water channels entering the lake as it gets ready for summer. The restroom construction contracts at three locations around the lake are underway and should be finished this spring; the one at the meadow is completed, while the other two locations are still under construction.
Lewis Murray gave a report for Supervisor Dawn Rowe. He gave brief backgrounds and introductions of each of the three new Crest Forest MAC members.
“I appreciate their volunteering and the generous donation of their time to the community for this important position,” Murray said. “This helps the supervisor keep in communication with the wants and needs of the mountain communities, since her district is so geographically large. We sometimes need to focus on local ideas and let these people know what they are.”
Next month, the Lake Arrowhead MAC will meet on the first Thursday of the month, March 6, at the Twin Peaks conference room in the county building at 6 p.m. This year, the county has arranged for the MACs of each mountain community to meet alternate months, with Crest Forest meeting on even months and the Lake Arrowhead MAC on odd-numbered months. The next Crest Forest MAC meeting will be held on April 1 at 6:30 p.m.
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