PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID SAN DIEGO, CA PERMIT NO. 835
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RANCHO SFNEWS
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VOL. 6, NO. 9
THISWEEK FARM FRESH
le b a u Val pons Cou Page on 39 ADMISSION
Convicted sex offender John Gardner has pleaded guilty to murdering local teens Chelsea King and 4 Amber Dubois
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ONE SECTION, 40 PAGES
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Consumer Reports . . . . . 30 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Eye on the Coast . . . . . . . 5 Frugal Living . . . . . . . . 24 Hit the Road . . . . . . . . . 18 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Lick the Plate . . . . . . . . 22 Machel’s Ranch . . . . . . . 25 Odd Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Outside Perspective . . . . 5 Pet of the Week . . . . . . . 17 Small Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Taste of Wine . . . . . . . . . 14 Who’s News? . . . . . . . . . 15
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There’s a new farmers market in town! April 8 marked the first day of the new Thursday market at Cielo Village. The farmers market will be held weekly from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Above, Rancho Santa Fe resident Melissa Gilbert picks up some red raspberries. See more photos on Page 30. Photo by Daniel Knighton
Ranch couple funds senior center SAN DIEGO — The Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center, funded by Rancho Santa Fe residents Gary and Mary West, opened it doors April 21 at 1525 Fourth Ave. The Senior Community Centers organization received a $3 million gift from the Gary and Mary West Foundation to make the collective vision a reality. The facility is bright, colorful, energy-efficient and dispels the notion that a senior facility has to be boring. It was designed to feel more
like a thriving college campus than the stereotypical senior center. As baby boomers reach retirement age and San Diego’s cost of living continues to rise, Senior Community Centers has seen a dramatic increase in the number of low-income seniors seeking services. The new Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center will transform the traditional senior center concept into a hub of innovative services that help seniors prolong independence, enhance
quality of life and promote overall health and wellbeing. The new community center includes a nutrition center capable of serving up to 500 meals a day. It also features a center for healthy aging, offering seniors access to medical and mental health care, case management and referrals to partners in the aging network. A partnership with San Diego State’s College of Health and Human Services TURN TO SENIOR CENTER ON 34
APRIL 23, 2010
Meeting set to inform about undergrounding By Patty McCormac
RANCHO SANTA FE — The Association’s board of directors is encouraging everyone to come out for a public meeting to learn about the process of undergrounding overhead utility lines and also the possibility of adding more natural gas lines within the Covenant. The meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. May 6, at the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club. Ivan Holler, planner for the Association, said at a meeting earlier this month that the Local Agency Formation Commission gave the Association the goahead to enact its latent powers, giving its communi-
ty service district the power to help neighborhoods begin planning their projects. “It’s going to be interesting and complicated, but it’s there for us,” said Bill Beckman, board president. “Now we can wade through it.” Holler said the projects will take several years and will play out in phases, with neighborhoods stepping forward, forming assessment districts for themselves. There will be a process, which will start when property owners submit a petition to establish an assessment district to the community services district, which TURN TO MEETING ON 34
PROTECT YOURSELF Lorenzo Patino, 10, learns how to break the grasp if caught in the clutches of a stranger from instructor Jennifer Johnson. Photo by Patty McCormac
Community Center hosts timely class on children’s self-defense By Patty McCormac
RANCHO SANTA FE — On the afternoon of April 16,22 children gathered in the Rancho Santa Fe Community Center to learn a little about stranger danger and selfdefense. The children ages 8 to 11, listened to their instructor Jennifer Johnson, a former
police officer, who taught them how to recognize the dangers of being approached by someone they don’t know. The class is timely in light of the recent events of a stranger trying to lure local children into his TURN TO SELF-DEFENSE ON 31