By Emily Aguilar

EASTVALE– The Eastvale City Council had a busy February, with  two city council meetings and a lot of discussion about a variety of issues facing the city.

The first meeting, which occurred on February 10th, began with a quick Public Safety Commission update. It was shared that Fire Station 27 is working on their mass communication systems in an attempt to connect with over 16,000 households via phone calls, text messages, and social media for emergency alerts and traffic updates. The police department also showed interest in attaining new electronic devices, which can create documents and issue warrants and citations more rapidly upon receiving 911 calls. This topic would be discussed later. Following the update, Peggy Carbrite announced that Riverside City College will be celebrating its 100-year anniversary on March 13^th, while Norco College and Moreno Valley College will be celebrating their 25th anniversary on the same date. Bootsma handed Carbrite an award of recognition.

Before moving onto the Student Liaison Report, Michele Nissen quickly introduced Craig Bradshaw, Senior Engineer with Eastvale’s Public Works Department.

Julia Sung then took the opportunity to announce that Eleanor Roosevelt High School is looking forward to opening its STEM Academy in 2018. Current ERHS Vice-Principal Kim Lawe will be the STEM Academy’s principal. While 2018 is still far away for aspiring STEM students, ERHS is currently holding after-school clubs to prepare students interested in medicine for the school’s opening.

Next, Jeremy Hutman, a representative from California First, briefly spoke about the California First project in order to persuade the city to participate. His goal was to make the project available to property owners. The council thanked him for his presentation.

After motioning the items on the consent calendar, city staff gave a presentation on the city’s El Nino Emergency Plan. In anticipation of this year’s heavy rainfall, the plan makes sandbags available to citizens, makes sure ditches and channels are cleaned and drained, and a map to guide drivers through traffic in case certain streets become flooded will be available. The plan was filed and received.

Next, Captain Jason Horton from the Eastvale Police Department persuaded council members to motion approval for electronic citation devices. Traditionally, Captain Horton argued, writing a citation takes anywhere between 5-10 minutes. If the police department had electronic citation devices, officers would have the ability to submit the time and place of the citation, and they would also be able to record the violator’s information. The biggest benefit of the electronic devices, as Captain Horton illustrated, would be that once the violator’s information is recorded, it could quickly be sent to the Jurupa Valley Department. After the presentation turned to a Q&A discussion, Rush and other council members expressed concern that a person’s information would be automatically recorded, meaning that an innocent person may be automatically branded as a criminal. Horton explained that while a person may have their information submitted into the police department’s database, the person would still have an opportunity to have their name cleared if they abide by the next steps in the process. Another aspect that did not draw the council’s support was the fact that the citation devices would cost $14,807, which would come from the council’s budget. After an elongated discussion, the motion was passed 4-1, Lorimor having voted against the plan.

Following Horton’s presentation, the council moved on to a series of other presentations. City staff asked the council to approve a contract with Blackboard to create a mass communication system for the city. While similar to the police department’s mass communication system, this one in particular would include citizen registration to receive notification about severe weather, floods, wildfires, and police enforcement incidents. The request was rejected by a 3-2 decision. The council also rejected the recommendation to join the Safety Joint Powers Authority Study, due to the fact that the city would have to pay fees close to $32,000. The request for frontage landscape revitalization on Hamner and Jamestown was approved. The plan calls for approval of drought tolerant landscaping in order to have green spaces during the drought. The council also approved the new budget calendar and the authorization of professional auditing services.

During the city staff update, the Sheriff Department stated that the Riverside Police Department would be in Palm Desert helping to guard President Obama, who visited that weekend. The police were anticipating a heavy protester presence.

In closing, Bootsma announced that the WRCOG street project was moving forward in its progress.

The meeting held on February 24 began with a thirty-minute closed session. When the council emerged, it stated that there wasn’t any action to be reported at the moment; and thus, the regular meeting began.

Sharon Link once again announced good news regarding military banners. Currently, four are undergoing approval, and the community is also looking to extend banner posts on Schleisman Ave. because there is no longer enough space on Archibald. Link also announced that flyers will soon be passed out to promote the “State of the City” event set to occur in April.

During the Public Comment portion of the evening, resident Patty Duro spoke regarding the traffic issues near the Homecoming entrance of Aldergate. As a result of heavy traffic on Hellman and on nearby streets, cars have resorted to cutting through Aldergate to reach their desired destinations, such as the local park. Duro feels that this influx of traffic will cause accidents, especially since the street does not contain any road signs or traffic lights. Duro was then directed to a city staffer who took time to speak with her independently.

Next on the agenda list were two resolutions to collect assessments for landscaping and lighting maintenance districts for the 2016/2017 fiscal year. The resolutions were approved.

During the city staff reports, Michele Nissen announced that City Hall had applied to begin a program offering paid internships to undergraduate and graduate students. They should know if it will be approved by the summer. Also, the city received an $84,000 grant to install flashing radar speed signs near school zones.

The City Council Communications Report showed that the Eastvale Police Department and CNUSD schools had partnered to hold events to educate citizens about bicycle safety. The police department also announced that they had distributed 221 traffic citations, and addressed the fact that some neighborhoods had fallen victim to mail theft. Thankfully, one thief has been arrested, and there is a warrant for another suspect.

In closing, Lorimore stated that he will be attending a SCAG meeting on May 4th. Rush also announced that the 91 freeway project is “moving forward”. Lastly, Bootsma reminded the audience that ERHS’ “Every 15 Minute Program” would be held once more in April, and invited everyone to attend.