Lowe’s submits plans to build Poway store

The Lowe’s home improvement chain has formally submitted plans to build a new store on Poway Road.

The
company proposes to build a 121,000-square-foot store, a
31,658-square-foot garden center and a 4,500-square-foot fast-food
restaurant pad on 11 acres on the north side of Poway Road where Toyota
of Poway and a auto repair shop and former Chevrolet dealership now
stand.

A preliminary plot plan was submitted by Lowe’s in May.
The company last week turned in six sets of plans, a 366-page draft
traffic impact study and other related documents. The applicant’s
representative also paid $6,566 in city fees.

Assuming city approval, Lowe’s projects a January 2012 store opening.

Bob
Manis, the city’s development services director, said Thursday his
staff will spend the next month or so reviewing the documents to make
sure the application is complete. He said that once all items have been
submitted, the staff will determine whether the proposed use will
require the preparation of an environmental impact report. If required,
the preparation of the report could take up to a year, Manis said.

New Muslim center opens Aug. 8

After a year of construction — and years of fundraising and
planning — local Muslims will soon hold religious services and community
events in their new center.

Final touches are being completed on the Muslim Community Center of Greater San Diego at 14698 Via Fiesta in Santaluz.

The almost 200 member families will be celebrating its completion at
a 1:30 p.m. Aug. 8 ceremony for members and invited guests. Its theme
will revolve around openness and being American Muslims, said Anita
Tallman, MCC spokeswoman.

The majority of members live in 4S Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Poway and
nearby Inland Corridor communities, said Tallman, a 4S Ranch resident.
She added several members recently moved to Santaluz, in part to be
closer to the center.

Rancho Bernardo RSVP leader Marie Graver dies

Rancho Bernardo Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol lost its leader Wednesday, with the death of Marie Graver.

The
Westwood resident died at home in her sleep or while reading, said
police officer Vickie Watkins, San Diego Police Department’s RSVP coordinator.

She was a 2004 Rancho Bernardo Hall of Fame inductee who was going to turn 80 on Aug. 6.

Watkins said RSVP members were shocked to learn of Graver’s passing.

Duo’s ‘Ghostbusters’ car has bumpy road

For the past five years, Bryan Fear and Eric Eseke have been building a
replica of an Ectomobile, the souped-up ambulance featured in the 1984
movie “Ghostbusters.”

Both of the men, who moved from Poway to Rancho Bernardo this week,
have been re-creating the equipment featured in the popular movies for
years and dressing up as characters for the San Diego Comic-Con.

They’ve built seven 35-pound proton packs, the ray-emitting
backpacks the characters used to lasso in the undead, complete with
sound systems to make the recognizable hum. They’ve also made ghost
traps, “Ecto Goggles” and PKE meters built to emulate the movie props.

“It’s almost like we had to build the car to use it as a box to keep
and carry all of that equipment,” said 41-year-old Fear, who started
the hobby in 2002.

Huge pot seizure near Poway

(CNS) – Authorities today were investigating who was responsible for
growing 350 marijuana plants worth as much as $1.4 million in a North
County grove near Poway owned by the City of San Diego.

Members
of the San Diego County Narcotics Task Force, which includes federal and
local law enforcement agents, seized the plants from an area off
Highland Valley Road near Pomerado Road early Wednesday.

Johnny Cash musical coming to Escondido

Fans of the late Johnny Cash might have gotten a glimpse of the man in
the Oscar-winning biography “I Walk the Line,” but the producer of a
stage show coming to Escondido said this show has a different take — it
lets the classic songs do the talking.

“Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Musical” will be staged four times
Aug. 6-8 at the California Center for the Performing Arts in Escondido.

It is presented by the Fullerton Civic Light Opera, which has staged
several shows at the venue, most recently a production of “Brigadoon.”

The show, which had a brief Broadway run in 2006, promises a revue
featuring many of the songs written for and made popular by Cash,
including “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “A Boy Named Sue,” and
“Folsom Prison Blues.”

Local artist’s comic flourishes online

In “Marsh Rocket,” a Web-based comic created by Carmel Mountain Ranch
resident Jules Rivera, corporations run amok, resorting to corporate
mercenaries to get market leads.

The story follows a group of these ruthless characters, including the
titular Rocket, whose youthful looks betray his resourcefulness as a
warrior. It’s an often violent depiction, a look a characters that have
many dark edges.

In its current incarnation, Rivera has fleshed out this universe —
based on an idea she first came up with in high school about 10 years
ago — since 2006.

Her work speaks to a dedicated pursuit of her craft. Rivera said she
draws during her free time and juggles a 40-hour work week in order to
meet her deadlines.

Editorial: Decision time on school busing

It is decision time for the families of approximately 3,300 Poway Unified School District bus riders.

The district has set a deadline of this coming Monday to see whether
85 percent of those families feel that keeping school buses on the road
is worth $575 out of their pockets.

If 2,800 passes are sold by Monday, bus service will not be
eliminated. Otherwise, the 3,300 elementary and middle school students
will have to find other ways to get to and from classes when school
resumes Aug. 25. Loss of the service will also mean that 35 bus drivers
and five other transportation employees will lose their jobs.

WEB UPDATE: Season ends for Poway American all-star team

WEB UPDATE: The season for
the Poway American 10- and 11-year-old all-stars came to an end on
Wednesday, after it fell 11-0 to Rancho San Diego in five innings.

Poway American ended as the runner-up of the Southern California
Division III South Subdivisional tournament. Rancho San Diego now moves
on to play the winner of the other Southern California subdivision for a
two-out-of-three showdown to determine the state champion.

Rancho San Diego was the defending state champion. According to Poway
American Manager Dean Weese, they returned all but one of their players
from last year’s team.

“They’re a good hitting team and came at us from the get-go,” Weese
said. “We battled the best we could, but came out on the short end.”

Letters to the Editor: July 29, 2010

Firl’s stance ‘fantasy’

In columnist Gerold Firl’s July 22 column where he suggests that no
member of the military is financially responsible, his assumptions about
what Admiral Mullin and the Pentagon “recognizes” are pure, unfounded
fantasy.

Firl’s attempt to label the military as an “Evil Empire” shows his true
colors. His bigoted statement, “Anybody who has ever been in the
military . . .” is a pathetic attempt at denigration of the military to
rationalize his failure to serve.

About Duke Cunningham: Unlike Firl, Duke Cunningham served his country
as a career naval officer. Unlike Firl, Duke Cunningham is a combat
veteran, a fighter ace and a genuine hero. Unlike Firl’s suggestion,
Duke Cunningham never made it into the higher echelons of the naval
service.

After his retirement from the Navy, Cunningham was elected as a U.S.
Congressman and while serving in that capacity, he transgressed and is
now in prison where he rightfully belongs. Cunningham’s behavior,
however, does not validate Firl’s assertion that all or any members of
the military are inherently corrupt.

In Firl’s myopic view, the military is the only problem, and he is
profoundly silent about the other 76 percent of the national budget.

Firl reminds me of a fine, upstanding liberal who, while I was on active
duty, told me, “Anyone stupid enough to join the military deserves to
be killed.” I’m sure Firl concurs.

Perhaps in Firl’s rabidly anti-military attitude, he believes we would
be better served to dissolve the military and turn the country over to
the Taliban/al-Qaida.
Carl Dotson
Poway