(951) 659-2145 - Idyllwild Town Crier

Review
Continued from page 1
said Jeri Sue Haney, Guaranty
Bank manager.
Heyman was the first of
the two to be caught. Sheriff’s
deputies arrested him on May
31 in La Quinta.
“It seemed like the sheriff
was getting close to arresting
them ever since they robbed the
bank,” Haney said after Heyman
was apprehended. “It’s good
to know that when somebody
does something wrong, they get
caught.”
Ten days later, deputies captured
the second suspect. Shaw
was arrested on the evening
of June 10 at a motel in Palm
Springs, according to Sgt. Terry
Meadows, Hemet Sheriff’s station
detective unit.
The sheriff ’s department
reported that Shaw was also
wanted on a parole violation.
Deputies assigned to the
Coachella Valley gang task force
nabbed Shaw and booked him
at the Indio jail for the parole
violation.
Then Monday, June 13,
detectives from the sheriff ’s
Hemet station added the charges
of robbery and conspiracy
to commit robbery of the local
bank.
On Nov. 16, both defendants
entered the courtroom and
pleaded guilty to the robbery.
Shaw’s conviction included the
admission of using a serious
firearm in the commission of a
felony.
Heyman’s sentence was pronounced
following his plea. The
judge imposed two years in a
state prison. He was given credit
for serving 195 days already;
therefore, Heyman had about 18
months left to serve in prison.
Shaw, still in the sheriff ’s
custody, has sentencing set for
Thursday, Jan. 26.
“We’re very thankful things
worked out and they were
caught,” Haney said this month.
“I’m very glad that chapter is
behind us.”
CDF March
“If 3rd District Supervisor
Jeff Stone has his way, next
Tuesday [April 12, 2005] the
Riverside County Board of
Supervisors will take a stand
opposing the shift of firefighting
equipment from Hemet to
Riverside. For many years, the
California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection (CDF)
has studied and considered moving
its air attack tanker fleet and
helitack base from Hemet-Ryan
Airport to March Air Reserve
Base (ARB),” began the story
on April 7, 2005.
Stone had his way. His colleagues
agreed and adopted the
resolution by a 4-1 vote. That
was the first act in a yearlong
theater that has not ended. CDF
is still pondering what action to
take and the board has opposed
the move several times, most
recently in November.
The eight months from April
to December were a virtual soap
opera of multiple-plot twists.
The public drama has involved a
cast of hundreds from Riverside
to Sacramento.
The move had been advocated
for several years. Local
CDF officials supported the proposal,
although the Sacramento
colleagues had not secured any
funding to make it happen. In
March 2003, CDF announced
that work would begin that
summer and the new facilities
would be ready in 2004. But
Hemet-Ryan is still the regional
base of air operations and has
been since 1959.
CDF favors the move because
of the longer runway and more
space at March compared to the
encroaching residential neighborhood
around Hemet-Ryan.
Hemet’s runway is currently
4,315 feet but can be lengthened
to 5,300. The runway at March
is nearly 13,000 feet.
One of Stone’s objections
is the longer response to the
Hill area from March. With a
wildfire, sometimes a matter of
minutes is the critical difference,
he argued.
Following the initial board
action, Stone went to Sacramento
in April to meet with
then CDF Director Dale Geldert.
Stone announced that Geldert
agreed to conduct a new study
of the merits of moving from
Hemet-Ryan to March.
Stone expected the study
would be completed within a
month and Geldert’s decision
would promptly follow the
study’s completion.
“I’m confident that CDF will
keep the airplanes at Hemet-
Ryan. If the decision is contrary
to our best interests, we’ll explore
other alternatives,” Stone said
after his trip.
Three months later, the study
was finished but no CDF decision
accompanied it. CDF’s
Sacramento staff were dismissive
of the study, prepared by a joint
Riverside CDF and County staff
committee. The lead CDF staff
person was Craig Anthony, the
Riverside unit chief. Sacramento
felt the study was incomplete
and needed more financial and
air-attack modeling data.
In August, Geldert announced
that CDF would perform a second
study and it would take
about two months to compete
this version. In a letter to the
board, Geldert expressed his
dissatisfaction with the report
and identified the areas he felt
were weak and needed improvement.
“The report currently being
circulated lacks significant
analysis in several key areas …
is incomplete and does not fulfill
the parameters of the assignment,”
Geldert wrote. “I have
returned the report to staff for
completion and expect to have
a final report as soon as possible.”
Stone was disappointed since
Geldert promised him a decision
by Aug. 1. In Stone’s opinion,
Riverside County, as the largest
contract County with CDF,
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Idyllwild Town Crier, January 12, 2006 - Page 9
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deserved more involvement in
Sacramento’s decisions affecting
it.
In September, several principals
in the saga met privately
in Riverside. Geldert and Jim
Wright, his deputy, came here
to see Stone. “It was a very productive
meeting,” Wright related.
“The director promised to have
a decision within 60 days.”
One of the items discussed
was what changes at Hemet-
Ryan would be necessary to
satisfy CDF’s current and future
safety needs. While the Riverside
board has indicated it would
authorize and fund the improvements,
CDF is seeking firmer
assurance if it were to remain
at Hemet-Ryan.
On Oct. 17, Geldert delivered
the new study to the board. In
a meeting with Board Chairman
Marion Ashley, Geldert did not
make a recommendation.
According to Michael Jarvis,
CDF deputy director for communication,
Geldert indicated
that he was providing the report
for the County to review. He
hoped to receive the County’s
comments by the end of November
and would make the
decision in December.
Based on criteria such as
air safety, security, success in
stopping fires, cost and time to
implement, the report found
March ARB to be the preferred
location for the aircraft.
Stone did not receive this
conclusion well and his frustration
with further delay was
obvious and public.
“I think the CDF report [on
moving air equipment from
Hemet-Ryan Airport to March
ARB] is extremely biased and
slanted,” Stone opined. “If the
report showed unequivocally
that March was better, I’d be the
first to stand in line and support
it. But we’re being bamboozled
by the State of California for
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