Chamber members come together at annual All Chamber Mega Mixer, A-10
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Prep football: 2022 season kicks off with Zero Week, B-6
Valley News • www.myvalleynews.com • August 26, 2022
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SERVING TEMECULA , MURRIETA , L AKE E LSINOR E , M ENIFEE , WILDOMAR , H EMET, SAN JACINTO August 26 – September 1, 2022
Local Area city council nominees to appear on Nov. 8 General Election ballot
VISI T
T HE NEW
AND THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES
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Volume 22, Issue 34
‘2022 Southwest Regional Economic Forecast’ sees continued economic growth
Tony Ault STAFF WRITER
With the filing deadline over for the five southwest Riverside County city council seats, more than two dozen residents have been nominated and most have qualified, according to the city clerk offices. see page A-3
Local Algae bloom prompts ‘no swimming’ alert at Lake Elsinore City News Service SPECIAL TO VALLEY NEWS
An algae bloom in Lake Elsinore prompted the city and state to suspend all recreational activity until further notice to minimize exposure to the green slime Friday, Aug. 19. see page A-4
INDEX
Dr. Christopher Thornberg walks to the stage as he is introduced for his presentation at the 2022 Southwest Regional Economic Forecast at South Coast Winery in Temecula, Aug. 18. Valley News/Shane Gibson photo
Tony Ault STAFF WRITER
The Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the UC Riverside School of
Anza Valley Outlook ........... B-1 Business ............................. A-10 Business Directory............. A-11 Classifieds .......................... A-12
Business Center for Economic Forecasting presented their annual forecast for Southwest Riverside County on Aug. 18th. The Southwest County Association of Realtors and Loma Linda
University Medical Center, as Title Sponsors, joined with educators, city officials and business owners, who focused their attention first on video presentations from each of the five City Managers
Tony Ault STAFF WRITER
Education ............................. A-9 Entertainment ..................... B-4 Faith ..................................... B-3 Health .................................. A-8 Home & Garden .................. A-7 Local .................................... A-1 National News ...................... B-9 Opinion............................... A-12 Regional News ..................... B-8 Sports ................................... B-6
VALLEY NEWS
Jeff Hitch, principal engineer for Murrieta, and financial analyst R.N. Mendoza present the five-year Capital Improvement Program budget and update to the Murrieta City Council during the Tuesday, Aug. 16, council meeting. Valley News/Courtesy photo
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see FORECAST, page A-3
Murrieta CIP budget, up $11.4 million, given final approval by Murrieta City Council
Courts & Crimes ............... B-10
USPS Postal Customer
touting the successes of each of their cities, and then listened to the University of California, Riverside economic forecaster predicting
The Murrieta City Council finalized the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Program budget and held a lengthy discussion on expanding the Downtown Market Nights during the Tuesday, Aug. 16, regular meeting. Presenting the five-year CIP budget and update for the council was Jeff Hitch, principal civil engineer for Murrieta, and financial analyst R.N. Mendoza. Hitch presented the CIP projects which were completed or nearly completed in the past year, including finishing many road slurry seal and resurfacing projects, replacing the Murrieta Community Center building roof, wrapping up the see MURRIETA, page A-4
EVMWD discusses their efforts to resolve drought conditions Ava Sarnowski INTERN WRITER
Greg Thomas, general manager of Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, with Bonnie Woodrome, community affairs supervisor, said their district is working to resolve issues brought on by the drought. “When you look back at the last 10-plus years, our water use has significantly dropped, and we want to thank our customers for all their efforts to be more efficient with our water,” Thomas said. He described the relationship between EVMWD and their customers as a partnership, one to which customers have been responding. “You look at this area and we’ve grown 8% in population since 2013, with 6% less water use since that same time,” Thomas said, adding that EVMWD knows that
the drought Californian’s are currently facing is the second serious drought in the last 10 years. “We are doing everything we can at the local level, my number one priority is health and safety,” he said. EVMWD wants to continue providing water to their customers 24/7, while also meeting or exceeding all standards, Thomas said. “Right now for Elsinore, our delivery area, we probably have 2,000 to 2,500 homes trying to be built. Let’s say three people per home. That’s another 8,000 people at X amount of gallons per day, and we’d have to meet that demand,” Thomas said. The district said it takes that demand into consideration as it plans for growth and for frequent see DROUGHT, page A-6
Valley News/Shane Gibson photo