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Today in S.C.V. History July 3
1925 - By letter, Wyatt Earp beseeches his friend William S. Hart to portray him in a movie, to correct the "lies about me." Hart never did. [story]
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Celebrate the Fourth of July in Santa Clarita with a full day of festive events including a run, pancake breakfast, parade and fireworks.
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In an effort to prevent vehicle thefts or thefts from vehicles, remember the following simple safety tips.
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The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority annual Point-in Time count of residents experiencing homelessness revealed a 22.9% reduction in the level of homeless veterans.
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the County’s Department of Economic Opportunity kicked off its award-winning Youth@Work program, announcing the availability of up to 10,000 paid employment opportunities for local county youth.
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The city of Santa Clarita’s The Big I Do event is returning on Valentine’s Day, 2025, with chances to win big.
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More than 17.7 million Californians now have a REAL ID, an increase of 137,929 from the previous month, according to California Department of Motor Vehicles data.
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Those who own rental properties or mobile home parks, it’s time to complete the Rent Registry 2024-25 registration.
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SCVEDC recently participated in two major investment conferences: SelectLA hosted by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, as well as the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington D.C.
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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today applauded the passage of AB 1955, Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act).
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The Los Angeles County Health Officer has issued an excessive heat warning as high temperatures have been forecast for the following areas:
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As the Fourth of July holiday approaches, accompanied by dangerously hot temperatures and excessive heat warnings in portions of Los Angeles County’s Fifth District, Supervisor Kathryn Barger is reminding residents to do their part to lessen the threat of wildfires. She issued the following statement today:
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1925 - By letter, Wyatt Earp beseeches his friend William S. Hart to portray him in a movie, to correct the "lies about me." Hart never did. [story]
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With an excessive heat warning in effect this week, the city of Santa Clarita strongly urges residents to prioritize heat safety and preparedness during the Fourth of July Parade and the holiday weekend.
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California State Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) has announced his bill to make wildfire settlement payments tax-free cleared its first hurdle in the Assembly, passing out of the Committee on Revenue and Taxation.
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Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) recently presented deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with the highly esteemed MADD Award. This award recognizes their unwavering commitment to road safety and dedication to preventing the devastating consequences of drunk driving.
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The First Presbyterian Church of Newhall is hosting an eight-week grief and loss recovery group, scheduled to run 2-3:30 p.m. on eight consecutive Sundays, Sept. 15 through Nov. 3.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles has introduced a new online case management system that provides faster response times. The modern digital system provides drivers, as well as their attorneys, with a more convenient way to interact with the Driver Safety office at the DMV.
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The city of Santa Clarita has issued a traffic alert for residents traveling to Central Park, 27150 Bouquet Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.
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As an excessive heat warning descends upon portions of North County this week, including the Santa Clarita Valley, Los Angeles County officials remind SCV residents of county resources that bring free or low-cost heat relief.
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The Santa Clarita Valley opera company, Mission Opera opens its seventh Season Oct. 26-27 with "Cold Sassy Tree" by Carlisle Floyd, an American opera in English, based on the 1989 historical American novel by Olive Ann Burns.
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Thanks to the cooperation and diligence of Santa Clarita Valley area residents and local agricultural officials, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, working in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner, has declared an end to the Tau fruit fly quarantine following the eradication of the invasive pest.
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The Hello Auto Group has announced its third annual Back-to-School Backpack Drive. This year, the Hello Auto Group will partner with three Santa Clarita Valley school districts, Sulphur Springs Union School District, Newhall School District and Castaic Union School District, to support students preparing for the upcoming school year.
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The Regal Summer Movie Express is underway offering family movies for $1 a ticket now through Aug. 7.
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Missing Persons Unit investigators are asking for the public’s help locating At Risk Missing Person Tim Paul Hood.
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12 Comments
Mr. Manzer the percentage of people who showed up or were able to even vote is extremely interesting. In today’s world it is amazing that people take the time show and voice their opinions. Thank you for your opinions and opening important discussions. Here’s to a beautiful windy day!
Thank you for continuing to highlight this important issue. I hope more and more residents of the Santa Clarita Valley will educate themselves about what the landfill expansion would truly mean and the potential hazards and will make their voices known. It will take a large number of residents making it clear to Michael Antonovich’s office that we don’t want this expansion to keep it from happening.
Thank you for bringing more light to this entire situation. It is sad that more of the Castaic proper residents had no idea of the vote for the CATC nor are they aware of the landfill expanding in their direction. All those expensive signs for certain candidates did nothing for them. I wonder who exactly paid for those wonderful expensive banners that were placed all over Castaic proper for incumbents that lost on such a small percentage of voters.
I actually sat and watched the voting for CATC reps for about three hours. The process amazed me. Two young people were paid by a CATC member to sit and do the intake of the voters, mark them off the register and hand them their individual ballots for their area. They had no experience in verifying actual residents versus those who claim to live in the area. They only had printed lists of registered voters for the three areas that had more than one candidate. I could have said I was a friend of mine who lives in Castaic and voted. I didn’t see anyone asking for verification or proof of who you are.
There were only three boxes to place your votes. There were four openings on the board. I was turned away and not allowed to vote simply because my rep was running unopposed. I wanted to show my support and vote for me rep no matter what, but they wouldn’t let me. I heard from a few of my neighbors they were denied their voting rights based on the same reason.
There were CATC reps watching the boxes and a hired county employee to watch also. Not sure who paid the county employee.
Granted this was not a vote for the Governor or the President, but it seemed to me to be run a little loose, leaving the opening for various illegal voting activities.
Didn’t hear a word about it. How come?
This coming Wednesday the Castaic Town Council will vote to change their bylaws. The one thing they want to change it the two thirds vote required. They would like it to be a simple majority.
At the last meeting a lawyer informed Val Verde residents why the two thirds did not count when it came to voting for the contract with the landfill. The president also informed Val Verde residents how the two thirds vote had never been used before for any decisions. Even when they voted to buy shirts.
That sent a strong message to me as a resident of Val Verde. Shirts must surely outweigh the quality of life for any resident of Val Verde.
The votes in section 1 and 3 of Castaic sent a different message. The quality of life for residents near the landfill is much more important than shirts. I want to thank Castaic voters for that message.
I would like to also that the Val Verde residents who visited friends in the other regions of Castaic and made them aware of the issues. Val Verde is part of Castaic, and they too have a right to quality of life.
For those who don’t know, I am on the CATC Board as one of the representatives from Val Verde. I was at the CATC bylaws meeting last week and I would like to clarify the following statements:
1. The simple majority will be for contracts which pertain to services or purchases and will still require multiple bids, be fully funded, etc, so the change is from 2/3 to simple majority. The reason being that all members of the board may not be in attendance and it should not hamper the ability of the board to move forward with purchases or services. All other contracts will require 2/3 majority and will be a new section – the board feels this is important and needs to be 2/3 majority.
2. The extension from 2 to 3 consecutive terms is correct, however the first term does not count if that person took over a vacant seat. So theoretically, it could be as high as nearly 16 years. Currently it is 12 years. The reason for this is that it’s sometimes difficult to get someone to run, so if they want to serve that long, they should be allowed to.
3. The vote to accept the agreement with the landfill has already taken place. The results were 6 for and 4 against.
The bylaws were being looked into early this year and the Bylaws Committee has done an exceptional job correcting errors and confusion. There are only a few changes to the bylaws that don’t fit into the category of correction/clarification. I don’t feel that this is being rushed, because the old board is going away. I do feel that the bylaws need to be updated and I’m glad that our Bylaws Committee has done so.
Greg, when you say the vote to accept the agreement has taken place, you meant to add that it was defeated, right? Since a 6-4 vote is not 2/3, but rather 60%, so it failed, right?
45% methane levels are very scary! We know that there are lots of pipes under the trash which are full of methane. I don’t know how they interconnect, but I’m pretty sure they do, therefore if a truck ran over a rock and caused a spark in an environment where 45% methane levels existed and it caused an explosion, we could be looking at explosions in the pipe network and the entire landfill going up. We have residents who are very close to the landfill and an explosion of methane filled pipes sounds pretty dangerous.
– My question is threefold: how did the methane levels get so high, how long was it that high and why did it take so long to detect?
– There probably should be a fifth questions: What has been done to insure the residents that this will never happen again.
By the way, has anyone heard about the landfill producing those test results they promised, regarding the sludge they illegally took in? I’ve asked and they refuse to provide them. The only reason I’m asking is because John Musella made a public statement that the landfill did test the sludge. If there’s nothing to hide, then why not release the results?
Why is this important to us?
– The community asked the county to put a condition on the landfill that they would not accept sludge, which is in the CUP.
– The community asked for this, because sludge is highly concentrated materials. Much of the water is evaporated out of the material and the leftover is sludge.
– We know that any trace materials in the watered down mixture is now concentrated when it becomes sludge.
– We feel that it can’t be good for the community to have loads and loads of sludge dumped in the landfill, right next door
– We know that the sludge the landfill took in was banned from being accepted by Toland Landfill.
– We were told that Toland was not allowed to accept the sludge, because the arsenic levels were too high per Ventura County standards.
– We do not believe the composition of the sludge has changed, or else it would be okayed by Ventura County and dumped at Toland Landfill.
– We believe the landfill has not been forthcoming with us and they are hiding something, regarding the sludge and what’s in it.
– We ask that the sludge be removed from the landfill. It should have never been brought in, therefore it should be removed.
– If not, then show us the test results (all that the landfill has). We want to see the test results from Cater and from Chiquita’s testing.
– These requests should be honored by Chiquita Canyon Landfill. John Musella has been quoted as saying that they’re a good neighbor. So, be a good neighbor and show us what you’ve dumped next door to us or get rid of it.
Then it should be 2/3 of the present members at the time of the vote. It is easy to get friends for a simple majority, harder to pull a 2/3 vote. It is also easier to feel that you know what is best for the people when you become complacent on a board for such a long time. You quit talking to your constituents and assume what they want.
This term limit change is nothing more than a self serving act by the CATC. I am set to join the council in January and I do not feel I need 12 years on the council. If one cannot accomplish what they need to accomplish in 8 years, then that would make them an ineffective leader and they should move on. This is just like congress giving themselves a raise. Greg, I am disappointed you agreed with the change. The bylaws worked for 14 years and now all of a sudden need to be changed because certain council members want to keep their power? Disgusting.
Bonnie, I ask that you look at the bylaws and changes and see what you think of them. After seeing the changes, I think you’ll see that there are only one or two that are anything but clarification. A lot of work went into updating the bylaws and I think Sandia did a great job.