CARLSBAD – The Carlsbad City Council voted last night to ban smoking on its beaches and in its parks, becoming the last of the county's oceanfront cities to adopt such a prohibition.
Solana Beach was the first city in the nation to adopt a beach smoking ban, in 2003, because of concerns over health hazards and litter.
The Carlsbad ban affects its northernmost mile of beach but will have little effect on about five miles of beach that fall within the state parks system, which does not enforce such bans.
Council members voted unanimously, with Mark Packard absent, to adopt the ban.
Michael Caraglio, a Carlsbad High School junior who helped push the measure before the council after it appeared stalled, praised the vote.
“I am proud that Carlsbad will soon be on the list of cities in California that provide smoke-free areas for its citizens and visitors,” Michael, 16, told the council. “Now we can all enjoy cleaner parks, beaches and trails.”
The city will rely largely on voluntary compliance for enforcement. –M.B.
MiraCosta decides fate
of remaining palm trees
NORTH COUNTY: MiraCosta College officials hope they have written the last paragraph in the two-year saga of the palm trees.
College trustees voted unanimously yesterday to declare 1,377 remaining trees surplus – 295 to be destroyed because of disease, 791 to be sold wholesale, 196 to be offered for retail sale and 95 to stay on campus for educational purposes.
“Now it's over,” Jim Austin, vice president for business and administrative services, said at the end of the board meeting.
“I hope it's a passage to get through this very, very unfortunate episode,” he said.
Trustee Judy Strattan said, “I've got to tell you this thing has divided the board and the campus.” She said it had ended the professional careers of several people.
Among them are the former head of the Horticulture Department, who pleaded guilty to grand theft for allowing her then-fiance to profit from the sale of the trees, which had been donated to the community college.
The investigation and ensuing campus conflict eventually brought down a dean, a vice president and the college president.
It and subsequent settlements with top administrators have cost more than $2 million and brought a warning to the board that the college could lose its accreditation if the turmoil on campus doesn't cease. –L.S.
DHS, military recruiters
schedule job fair for today
MISSION VALLEY: Recruiters from U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies and the military will hold a job fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today during a national conference.
The job fair is sponsored by the National Association of African Americans within the Department of Homeland Security, which is meeting at the Doubletree Hotel, 7450 Hazard Center Drive. –O.R.S.
Affordable-housing site
fully leased at opening
OCEANSIDE: La Misión Village Apartments, an 80-unit affordable-housing project, was 100 percent leased before its grand opening yesterday, and there are 100 people on the waiting list, said John Seymour, vice president of National Community Renaissance of California, the nonprofit that built the complex.
Seymour spoke at the opening ceremonies attended by a crowd that included state and city officials.
The $26 million project is on the site of the former landmark La Misión Restaurant, on Mission Avenue east of Airport Road.
“This is not our first (affordable) project, and it will not be our last,” Mayor Jim Wood said at the ceremonies. The city contributed $6 million to the cost.
Councilman Jerry Kern said he doesn't think of the project as offering low-income housing, but rather as providing homes for people who work in Oceanside but can't afford high rents on the coast. La Misión rents start at $568 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, $681 for two bedrooms and $784 for three bedrooms. –L.S.
Reward offered for arrest
of vandals of water jugs
A group that places water jugs in the desert for illegal border crossers announced a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of people who vandalized several of the stations, including some near where four immigrants were found dead last week.
Water Station founder John Hunter said someone poked holes in the gallon water containers in seven of the 42 stations the group maintains along state Route 98.
“People use these stations as a last resort, and at some point this vandalism is going to cost lives,” he said.
According to the U.S. Border Patrol, at least 22 people have died trying to cross illegally in the San Diego sector since Oct. 1, 2007, double the number who died while trying to cross in the year that began Oct. 1, 2006. For more information, call (619) 933-6678. –H.S.
Regional fire authority
plan gets crucial support
The San Diego County Fire Chiefs and Fire Districts associations each voted yesterday to support recommendations to create and finance a regional fire authority.
Those plans are being finalized by the San Diego Regional Fire Protection Committee, which was formed after the 2007 wildfires.
The committee is expected to send its proposal to the Board of Supervisors when it meets for the final time on Friday.
The county board would have until Aug. 8 to approve the proposal and accompanying ballot language, which would ask voters in November to support a $52 annual parcel tax. The tax would generate about $50 million a year.
The two fire associations gave their support yesterday with the following caveats: that fire districts be fairly represented on the regional fire authority's board; that the county continues to spend $15.5 million a year on fire protection; and that newly consolidated rural fire districts are managed by the regional authority. –T.M.
24 more dead birds test
positive for West Nile
Twenty-four more dead birds found in San Diego County have tested positive for West Nile virus, county vector control officials said yesterday.
The birds – 20 American crows, two hawks, a barn owl and one California least tern – were found in Oceanside, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch and Ramona.
So far this year in the county, a total of 96 birds have testified positive for the mosquito-borne disease.
Last week, county health officials said that a horse died after contracting West Nile virus.
No human cases have been reported in the county so far this year.
“Effective prevention of West Nile virus involves both reducing mosquito breeding and using personal protection,” said Gary Erbeck, director of the county Department of Environmental Health.
The county has a Web site about the virus and how to fight it at SDFightTheBite.com. Information also can be obtained by calling (888) 551-INFO (4636). –S.S.
Staff writers Michael Burge, Lola Sherman, Onell R. Soto, Hiram Soto, Tony Manolatos and Susan Shroder contributed to this report.
