Spring is almost upon us…but you wouldn’t know it looking at the white topped mountains…

Here are some upcoming dates for your calendar:

Feb 25th – Work Party at Boucher Hill Lookout – We will be working on the grounds around the lookout. Plan for a 10 am arrival at the Boucher Hill parking lot. Bring your shovels, hoes and other ground moving instruments. We will have a specific course of work planned. The event is weather dependant – Snow or rain cancels.

You will need to fill out State Parks Volunteer paperwork in order to participate. Please let me know if you plan to work and if you have filled out the needed forms. Additional work parties will be scheduled as new courses of work are approved.

March 17th…yes, St Patty’s Day! A required State Parks Volunteer Lookout Training - Here are the details from Ranger Bob Hillis:

“I will be doing an orientation for new volunteers at Cuyamaca and Palomar State Parks on March 17^th from 0900- 1100’ish. It will be at the Cuyamaca Visitor Center (12551 Highway 79, at about mile marker 6, in Descanso)    I need as many of the Boucher Tower volunteers as possible to attend. I’m going to try to have Jessica there so she can do a make-up session for anyone who can’t make this session. Please get the word out to everyone.”

You will need to attend this training in order to volunteer in the State Park – A make up session is not assured…please plan to attend!

April 7th – Reconnect Training for Veteran High Point Volunteers – Plan for 0900-1300 at the Cleveland National Forest, Palomar Ranger District Office in Ramona. Please contact me if you served less than 5 shifts last year about your training plan.

April 14th – New Volunteer Training, Part 1: Orientation and Interpretation – 0900-1700 at the Cleveland National Forest,Palomar Ranger District Office, 1634 Black Canyon Road, Ramona CA 92065

April 21st – New Volunteer Training, Part 2: Tower Operations – 0900-1700 at the Cleveland National Forest, Palomar Ranger District Office, 1634 Black Canyon Road, Ramona CA 92065. In-Tower Training may be scheduled after completing both sessions. High Point will open Mid-May. Hopefully, Boucher Hill will open in a similar time frame.

Despite the recent weather, we appear to be looking forward to a dry year…your Fire Detection skills are appreciated and needed! Please plan to attend the appropriate training and work parties. Please invite any friends or peers to join you!

A personal note – My knee surgery in January went well and I have almost completed my course of Physical Therapy. I will be hiking trails and climbing tall towers without reserve very soon!

Please contact me with any questions.

Cheers,

Brad Eells,

San Diego – Riverside Chapter Chair

Cal Fire Liaison

Forest Fire Lookout Association, Inc.

www.ffla.org

www.socalfirelookouts.org

highpointlookout@yahoo.com

661-747-5517

 Very sorry about the last State Park post!  I read between the lines, and wrongly assumed it was open, so posted the headline incorrectly.  Palomar Mountain State Park is NOT out of the woods yet!  

From: “Michael J. Walsh”

We do not have an agreement with the State of California yet !   There is no guarantee that we will keep the park open, until we reach and sign an agreement.  The funds raised are an impressive show of support from the community, and that has helped us convince the Dept. of Parks and Recreation that we are serious, committed, and working hard to meet our objective of providing the funds necessary to keep the park open.

We hope to keep the Park open, but we can not state that until we have an agreement.  Unfortunately there are still a number of scenarios that could derail our plans.

Our work has only begun for raising the funds Palomar needs and deserves.  Please keep pledging and spreading the word. Here’s why:

THREE YEAR COMMITMENT – The agreement with the state will require funding for three years.    Our first year pledge goal was based on an extremely lean, bare-bones budget… and for just one year. We’ll be making a three year commitment to keep Palomar open…a minimum of $180,000 for the full term.

Let’s keep working hard together and Save our State Park.  Please click for the details: http://palomarsp.org/cc/02_13_2012.htm

Thank you,

Michael Walsh
858-213-4115

 A huge THANKS TO ALL who worked hard to with the goal to keep the Palomar Mountain State Park OPEN for another year!  Hooray!!!

Click to read about the latest development and see how YOU can help too!

PS – The snow photo is NOT current.  Just wishful thinking! 

From: Rick Barclay and Michael J. Walsh
http://palomarsp.org/cc/02_13_2012.htm

And, here are your Snow Tips and Pix too!

Enjoy!

Bonnie Phelps, bundled up, on Palomar Mountain!

Snow Tips and Pix:  http://mypalomarmountain.com/snow

Valentines Day 2008: http://www.mypalomarmountain.com/valentinesnow/

This weeks weather report:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=sgx&smap=1&textField1=33.32278&textField2=-116.87778

With the current wet fuel conditions, the Forest Service will probably be burning piles only in the Fry Creek area, off Canfield Road, on Monday , Feb 13.

We will be getting another dose of rain Monday night, and will evaluate the rest of the week as we may be receiving more north east winds.

From: Michael J. Walsh
Everyone is Invited!
Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park – Organizational Meeting
Saturday February 4th,  11:30am at the Palomar Mountain Community Center

Rick Barclay sent a recent post with some very exciting news on the efforts to raise funds to keep Palomar Mountain State Park open.  Over the past couple of months, we have accomplished a great deal towards keeping the park open.  Please make your contribution today!  For those of you who have already made a donation or a pledge, I would also like to add a big, “Thank You!”

This Saturday, the 4th of February, we have a regularly scheduled PMPO meeting at 10am, which is open to the entire community.

After the PMPO meeting, we are hosting an organizational meeting for the Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park.  We will meet in the community center next to the Fire Station, and the meeting will begin at 11:30am.

We invite you to join us!

Rick and I will provide an update on the process of working with the State Parks Department to reach an agreement to keep Palomar State Park open.  The primary objective of the meeting is to reach out to the broader community of interested parties to identify additional volunteers, gather and exchange ideas, and begin to form the organization and map out strategies and responsibilities as we work together to keep our park open and operating.

Many of you are great friends of Palomar State Park, many of you have been working hard to keep the park open, and many of you have already stepped up with a financial contribution.  This is an opportunity for all of us to get together and really mobilize the efforts in an organized, comprehensive way to keep the park open.  This is the first of several meetings we will hold over the next few months, so if you can’t make this one, that’s OK but we still want to hear from you!  We are building a database of interested parties and financial supporters, so please take the time to provide your contact information and specific areas of interest at
http://www.palomarsp.org/friends/survey.htm.

And if you have not yet made a donation or pledge, please do so today!  Meeting our initial funding objective will send a strong message of strength and commitment to the Parks Department, that we can and will do our very best to keep the park open!

http://www.palomarsp.org/friends/pledge_form.htm

Thank you very much,

Michael Walsh
Vice Chairman
Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park Committee, CRSPIA
http://www.palomarsp.org/
mwalsh@pacbell.net
858-213-4115

~Everyone is welcome~

Palomar Mountain Residents and Home Owners

The next PMPO Regular Meeting will be held at the Fire Station on Saturday February 4^th at 10am

At the meeting we will have Robert Citrano from the DPLU in attendance to discuss the County Recommendations for the 2020 Plan.

Please take to opportunity to come along and hear first-hand from Robert.

PMPO Regular Meeting – 2/04/12
10am at the Fire Station

Agenda

• Meeting Opening   Mike Walsh
• Presentation – Susan Humason   Glenn Borland
• Officers Reports
  • Secretary’s Report   Michael Pique
  • Treasurer’s Report    Alan Serry
  • New Business
    • San Diego County DPLU Update   Robert Citrano (DPLU)
    • Discussion and Actions to keep PM State Park open   Mike Walsh or Rick Barclay
    • Newsletter Update   Steve Clark
    • Open Questions and Adjourn   Mike Walsh

Cheers
Mike Chesney
PMPO Chair

(949)370-6031
* chair@PMPOInfo.com

From: Alison Hamar

Friends of ours have a  3 1/2 year old daughter who has come down with Leukemia.  We hope folks from Palomar will come out and support this wonderful family at a fundraiser dinner at the Julian American Legion. Everyone is invited to click for the flyer in PDF form to post at their work, and it has information to donate for those who are interested.

Thank you so much,

Ross and Ali Hamar, on Palomar  Keep reading for information about Friday Night’s Dinner – Come join us!

Brooklin Butts is a local three year old who was diagnosed with Pre B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia on December 29th, 2011. She is currently in her first phase of Chemo-Therapy, which will last 28 days. After the first 28 days she will be reevaluated to determine her second phase of action, which lasts six months. After seven months of Chemo Therapy Brooklin will be reevaluated again to determine action during what is called the “maintenance phase”. She is fighting hard and has recently started loosing her hair. Brooklin has already endured three blood transfusions and three platelet transfusions thus far. She is surrounded by her parents Rory and Meghan and her younger sister Brylee. Support from family and the community is vital to the Butts Family.  

A dinner is being held at the Julian American Legion Post 468 on Friday Night, February 3rd, 2012 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm in honor of Brooklin. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated. One of the greatest advantages about being from a small community is when we find ourselves in situations like these, people tend to come together to help those in need. Please come and support the Butts family and their beautiful daughter Brooklin. We look forward to seeing you.

Sincerely,

Friends of Brooklin

Donations can be made to:

Brooklin Butts

Rabobank

PO Box 1897

Julian, CA 92036    – Thanks in advance to all!

Rick Barclay here, chairman of the Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park Committee. You may remember receiving an email from me a couple of weeks ago telling you about our First Year Pledge Drive to SAVE PALOMAR.

I want to share some exciting news with you. But first, let me recap where we stand.

In December, we submitted a proposal to the Department of State Parks in Sacramento with a pretty straightforward deal: If they’ll keep Palomar open, we’ll cover the deficit — or “the gap” — between revenue and operating costs to keep Palomar open. After much analysis, to do this prudently will require us to raise $60,000 per year from people like you. This target could change depending on the deal that we eventually work out with Sacramento.

Therefore — even though we’re still waiting to hear back from the Department of State Parks to see if we even have a deal — we kicked off a pledge drive to see how much financial support the park could get. If and when we do hammer out a deal with the Department of State Parks, we will want to hit the ground running.

I’m pleased to report that so far we’ve received $16,625 in pledges and donations, meaning that within a couple of weeks we’ve already reached 27.7% of our goal of $60,000 to keep Palomar open for another year. And by open I mean open year-round for day use… plus re-opening the campgrounds… plus money to fix some of the problems (deferred maintenance) that the park has had to let slide due to budget cutbacks over the past few years. To those of you who have pledged or donated, I say THANK YOU!

Now for the exciting news. We’ve received a generous matching pledge challenge from Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Wilson of Rancho Santa Fe: If we can raise $30,000 in pledges and donations, they’ll match that amount.

If successfully met, this challenge will catapult us to our First Year Goal of $60,000! In other words, if we raise just another $13,375 more in pledges or donations, we’ll meet our goal of $60,000!

Think about it: we have an opportunity to turn $13,375 into $60,000. I defy anyone to show me a better deal. Don’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers!

So, if you haven’t pledged, please do so on-line by visiting http://www.savepalomar.org. And remember, no amount is too small — “Little drops make a mighty river.”

If you have pledged already, please consider making an additional pledge at http://www.savepalomar.org.

As usual, you won’t be asked to make good on your pledge unless and until we reach an agreement with State Parks. And I’m encouraged by the fact that they are seriously considering our proposal and have asked questions without saying “no”.

Let’s not miss this fantastic opportunity offered by the Wilsons’ generous challenge. If you’ve been clamoring for a way to keep Palomar open, you should be clamoring to pledge. Time is running short, and this solution is our last remaining hope to SAVE PALOMAR.

PLEDGE NOW. And when you’re done, TELL OTHERS!

Do it NOW.

Thank you,

Rick Barclay
Chairman – Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park Committee, CRSPIA

The Round Up BBQ Grill is inviting you to a

 VALENTINE’S DAY CELEBRATION

Saturday, February 11^th

Live Music 6pm-8pm

Classic favorites performed by

Palomar Mountain Cowboy Musician Dutch Bergman

 VALENTINE’S SPECIAL

Sweetheart Dinner for 2

Your choice of Prime Rib or Maple Glazed Salmon with dessert to share and

a glass of sparkling wine or cider

$45.95

Also Serving Our Regular Menu!

Reservations recommended

Meriah Druliner, Owner

26439 Hwy 76

Santa Ysabel, CA 92070

PH    (760)782-2729

FAX  (760)782-9224

www.roundupbbq.com