School costs, new businesses, CRV fee uses, DUI arrests and traffic tickets detailed for Yorba Linda

Here's another installment of occasional columns summarizing several matters of interest to Yorba Linda residents:

--Mixed news regarding the cost of benefits for employees of Placentia-Yorba Linda public schools for the fiscal year starting July 1 has been viewed by the district's elected trustees.

Premiums for six medical plans provided by Anthem Blue Cross jump 8.8 percent for a total $24 million expenditure, while premium for a Kaiser Permanente plan dips 0.7 percent to a $6.1 million expense. Delta Dental's premium edges up 0.13 percent for a $2.8 million cost.

Meanwhile, elementary and high school lunches will cost 25 cents more, since federal law requires schools to gradually increase costs to the subsidy level for free and reduced price meals, so federal monies aren't subsidizing a district's paid meals.

New costs: $1.50 breakfast and $2.75 elementary, $3 middle school, $3.25 high school lunch.

And $750 honorariums were awarded nine employees-of-the-year: classified workers Maria Alvarado, Alfred Fonseca, Martha Mann and Martha Suarez and certificated staffers Richard Castro, Michelle De Haven, Dave Flynn, Rey Lejano and Jennifer Luchesi.

--Among recent actions by the city Planning Commission is a denial for a 10-bed care facility for elderly residents on Arbor Gate Lane, east of Lakeview Avenue and south of Bastanchury Road.

Approved were two new businesses at the refurbished Valley View Shopping Center just north of Yorba Linda Boulevard: Pawradise pet grooming and day care facility and Kim's Taekwondo martial arts studio.

And cell phone reception should be improved by an antennae array added to an existing Southern California Edison tower on vacant land west of Eastside Park and addition of a back-up generator in a screened enclosure at Valley View Sports Park.

--A portion of the cash local shoppers pay for the CRV fee – known formally as the California Refund Value – paid on the purchase of plastic and glass beverage containers is returned to the city by the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.

Some $17,381 will be distributed starting in July through November, according to Assistant City Manager Dave Christian, who reported at a recent City Council meeting that the dollar amount from this and past years is used for container recycling and litter clean-up activities.

Cities receive a minimum $5,000 or a higher per-capita amount under the program, which aims for a statewide 80 percent recycle rate tor CRV containers.

--Arrests for suspicion of driving under the influence on this city's roadways totaled 30 in the first four months of this year: 11 in January, 6 in February, 3 in March and 10 in April.

During the same four-month period, 411 citations were issued for hazardous or moving violations and 331 for non-hazardous offenses, mostly involving equipment, registration and seat belts, noted a Sheriff's report to the Traffic Commission.