During the rain storm Saturday, the Town of Yucca Valley received between 2 and 2.6 inches of rain, depending on the area. Due to the significant damage and expense of cleaning up after the storm, the council added and passed a resolution for an emergency declaration to its agenda last night. The emergency declaration could help the town in obtaining financial assistance to pay for the clean-up of mud, debris, and damaged infrastructure if the county or state declares the area a disaster area. Managing editor Tami Roleff was at the meeting, and says council members also voted on the sign ordinance’s amendment for electronic signs and heard a report on the automated license plate readers…
Pastor Jerel Hagerman of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel once again made his pitch for a larger electronic sign for his church. The planning commission had increased the size of electronic signs in residential neighborhoods from 24 square feet to 32 square feet, and allowed the changeable electronic message to be 35 percent of the total square footage. The signs also have to be turned off between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Drozd said he supported the changes to the sign ordinance made by the town’s planning commissioners.
“I trust our planning commission; we appoint planning commissioners to do a job; we do not need to nitpick them. I see nothing wrong with this [revised ordinance].”
The council voted 5-0 to approve the amendments to the sign ordinance. The council also recognized two members of the Planning Commission who have left after years of service: Jeff Evans and Steve Whitten. And then the council welcomed two new employees: Brooke Vrhovnik, an administrative assistant in the Public Works Department, and Greg Watkins, a new code compliance officer.
Next, the council voted unanimously to allocate the entire $122,000 in community development block grant funds to improving North Park. Non-profit organizations that had applied for funds from the CDBG were encouraged to submit a request for funds from the Town’s general fund or Measure Y.
Lieutenant Luke Niles with the Sheriff’s Department said the first phase of the automated license plate readers—which have been installed on five patrol cars—is very successful in allowing deputies to identify, locate, and recover stolen vehicles. However, the second phase—which was to install the readers on Caltrans infrastructures, has hit a snag, in that Caltrans will not permit the readers on any of its signs or poles, and placing the readers outside the Caltrans right-of-way is too far away from the vehicles to be able to read the license plates. So the Sheriff’s Department is considering placing the readers on the movable electronic signs.
