By Mickey Zeichick

At our Jan. 3 meeting, our guest speaker was Sal Castillo, project engineer for the city of San Diego Public Works Department. Castillo spoke to us about a rehabilitation project of sewer mains, manholes, and sewer service laterals in the Navajo community. (You can contact me for an email copy of the map.)

The estimated start of construction is June 2018, and the estimated end of construction is November 2019. The construction company performing the work will provide area residents notice prior to the work being performed in their neighborhood by letter and/or door hanger.

Fire fighting

We hear from many of our local governmental agencies, and our new Fire Battalion Chief Dave Seneviratne met with us, I believe on his first day at Station 34. Welcome Battalion Chief Dave Seneviratne.

Victoria Floyd represents County Supervisor Dianne Jacob’s office wonderfully. Not only is she articulate, she is very approachable and knowledgeable about the workings of the supervisor’s office. There is a new fire station coming to the wildfire-prone backcountry of Pine Valley.

Recently, I have been spending time in the areas of Pine Valley, Descanso, and Guatay and the area is beautiful. I always knew Jamul was, but I didn’t venture much in these other areas until recently. There is so much natural beauty with the mountains, boulders, trees and clear air, but unfortunately it is also prone to wildfires especially with the Santa Ana winds, drought, and natural brush combined, and then lightning strikes when there is stormy weather. Well, I am pleased to inform you that SDG&E is doing something to better the conditions in that area (and elsewhere). Stay tuned for more information on this from our March 7 SDG&E guest speaker.

Mayor’s office

Speaking of future speakers: Darnisha Hunter is a staffer for Mayor Kevin Faulconer. While I have been inviting the mayor’s office to our meetings since former Mayor Filner, none have appeared. Hunter called me a few days before the meeting and said she would be attending. I am amazed at the good things she told us about the mayor’s office’s efforts to find shelter and help turn around the lives of our homeless, some of whom are veterans. Her passion, enthusiasm, knowledge, expertise and easy way of talking with our group kept us spellbound. Unfortunately, because of time constraints I had to cut her off after 15 minutes. But she will be our guest speaker at a future meeting.

Dog park?

In previous months I mentioned dog poo, leash laws, and now I am going to address a different subject – same topic. What about San Carlos creating a dog park? I welcome your thoughts on this and then maybe we can put some pressure on our Councilmember Scott Sherman to actually create a park for our pooches in the San Carlos neighborhood — a place where our dogs can walk, run, and jump free of leashes.

Fireworks

Plans are underway for the wonderful Fourth of July fireworks display like we had last year. If you would like to make a financial donation to the nonprofit organization that funds the event, please make your check payable to “Lake Murray Fireworks” and send it to: Lake Murray Fireworks C/O SCAC, Attn: Tracy Dahlkamp, PO Box 19246, San Diego, CA 92159. San Carlos Area Council is a very proud supporter of this event.

Dues

SCAC dues are due ($7 per household). Please send your check for Membership to: SCAC, P.O. Box 19246, San Diego, CA 92159-0246. If you wish to be added to The Interested Persons List please contact me at: [email protected]. If you have a topic you would like to hear more about, please let me know and perhaps we can have this be our guest topic of our bi-monthly meeting.

— Mickey Zeichick is president of the San Carlos Area Council. Reach her at [email protected].