The people in attendance at yesterday's community meeting voted unanimously to endorse this report, with two additions, to the MAC meeting last night.
July 13, 2015 MAC
Report on Wonder Valley
We started a Neighborhood Watch in Wonder Valley last month,
and on June 17 we joined NextDoor.com, a private online social network and an
enhancement to the Neighborhood Watch program. Since we started 33 people have
signed up. We’ve invited the Sheriff’s Department to join our group so we can
receive notices from them.
There have been a few arrests in Wonder Valley recently, and
residents have mentioned seeing the Sheriff’s Department out here more often.
We want them to know we appreciate them keeping on top of problems here.
We had our monthly Monday Meeting this morning with 19 people
in attendance. San Bernardino County Sherriff’s Specialist Robert Anderson
attended and spoke to us about crime in the area, the Neighborhood Watch and
NextDoor. Reese Troublefield, the Interim Divisional Manager, and John
Bradford, the Assistant Regional Manager, of San Bernardino Special Districts
presented on the budget summary and gave a road report.
I added three local cooling stations to the website – 29
Palms Senior Center, the 29 Palms Branch Library, and Hi-Desert Medical Center.
Our temperatures have hovered around 110 degrees lately. I spoke with Southern
California Edison about opening our Community Center as a cooling center. SCE
told me they couldn’t provide funds as San Bernardino County had not contracted
with the Public Utilities Commission to receive money to fund cooling centers. Star
Javier, who works at the Wonder Valley Community Center said SCE has been
closing centers throughout the Morongo Valley, including Joshua Tree.
We also discussed illegal dumping.
On July 6 Kip’s Desert Book Club met at the Glass Outhouse
to discuss the book Vermillion Sands by J.G. Ballard. There were 28 people
attending. We’re grateful to Kip Fjeld and High Desert Test Sites for
continuing to site their projects in Wonder Valley.
Several local artists are working with Laurel and Frank from
the Glass Outhouse to produce the Wonder Valley Art Fair on October 24 &25,
to run concurrently with the Art Tour. We’re working with local businesses to
be open at the same time.
We’re publishing a one-sheet, hard copy newspaper called the
Wonder Valley Sand Paper. It’s designed to reach people in the area who might
not be online.
There are two new Wonder Valley post cards. The website
address is listed on the back if you’d like to see what we’re up to.
