Historic 1918 Yorba Linda Craftsman Aeroplane-style home to get long-awaited refurbishment

Although much smaller in scope than the Town Center, library and arts center undertakings, Yorba Linda has initiated action on another long-awaited project, the rehabilitation of one of the city's most historic structures, the Craftsman-style Trueblood home built in 1918.

Cost to refurbish the city-owned structure at 4801 Park Ave., some two-tenths of a mile from the Nixon library and birthplace, is estimated at a bit more than $1 million, with a projected time frame of six to nine months for preparations and another nine months for construction.

The city will foot about $545,000 of the cost from a developer impact fee account, with the developer funding the remainder, under an agreement with the non-profit Orange Housing Development Corporation and the Tustin-based C and C Development Company.

The city's now-defunct Redevelopment Agency acquired the home in 2010 from the last private owner, Sylvia Chavez, for $385,000. She bought the home in 2004, with plans to raze the structure and build a new residence.

The city's Planning Commission certified an environmental impact report and approved a conditional use permit and a design review for the project in 2008, but the latter two items were overturned by the City Council in 2009.

The 1,200-square-foot structure on the 7,362-square-foot property has been boarded up since the purchase by the agency. The city assumed ownership, placing the property on a Long-Range Property Management Plan after the agency's 2012 demise.

The property is now identified as a “governmental use site,” as approved by the state Department of Finance under the red tape involved in the years-long Redevelopment Agency shutdown process.

The home, near the southwest side of the Imperial Highway and Lemon Drive intersection on Park Avenue behind Polly's Restaurant, is listed on the City Historic Resource Element under a status indicating potential eligibility for a National Register of Historic Homes listing.

However, a report earlier this month to the council from Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager, stated the site “is not intended” to be listed as a state or national historic home, “but will remain on the city's local register and will be recognized as having local significance....”

Stoker noted a long-term lease on the property could generate $25,000 annually for the city.

First owner was H. E. Trueblood, who, according to historic references, was the first to ride the Pacific Electric from Pillsbury (north of Brea) to Yorba Linda (for 10 cents). Wife Ada was a charter Women's Club member. Later occupants were the Luther Janeways, owners of a Main Street grocery store.

Among the structure's Craftsman Aeroplane bungalow-style features: second-story slightly set back from facade, exterior wall cladding of horizontal wood boards, low-pitched gabled roof with wide overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails and wood window casings.

Elected Yorba Linda Water District directors and top appointed managers conduct self-evaluation

One consequential task carried out by locally elected governing boards is evaluating the chief administrative officer they hire to manage their agencies: City councils assess the city manager, school trustees the superintendent and water directors the general manager.

The evaluations usually occur each year and are conducted during closed-door sessions, as permitted by the state's open meeting law. Criteria used in the evaluations are not part of the public record, and results are made known through the continued employment, or not, of the official.

Now, one governing board has added another dimension to the evaluative process. The five Yorba Linda Water District directors conduct a self-evaluation to measure their effectiveness as a board, using a process that includes input from the district's top six managers.

While the cynics among us might expect the directors to give themselves top marks in all categories, and the managers, whose employment and pay depends on board actions, to offer similar high rankings, that's not the case in the two self-evaluations conducted so far.

The district, which serves most of Yorba Linda and portions of Placentia, Brea and Anaheim, as well as the Country Club, Fairlynn and East Placentia county territories, performed one of the evaluations just after the beginning of 2018 and another near the end of the year.

Importantly, the results of the evaluations became part of the public record, with rankings in each of nine categories by directors and managers included in the board's meeting agenda.

Rankings in nine categories ran from 1 through 9, with 1-2 described as “very effective,” 3-4 as “somewhat effective,” 5-6 as “somewhat ineffective” and 7-9 as “very ineffective.”

The nine categories include supportive framework, conflict management process, teamwork, roles, community rapport, staff relationships, clear sense of purpose, chairperson leadership and productivity.

The overall director average in the most recent evaluation was 3.76, in the “somewhat effective” range. Averages for four categories were in the “very effective” range, two in the “somewhat effective” range and three in the “somewhat ineffective” range.

The overall manager average was 5.37, in the “somewhat ineffective” range. Average for one category was in the “very effective” range, with averages for two categories in the “somewhat effective” range, three categories in the “somewhat ineffective” range and three categories in the “very ineffective” range.

All of the director averages showed improvement from the earlier evaluation, with increases ranging from 19.4 to 55.0 percent. Manager averages showed declines from the earlier eval-uation, with drops ranging from 4.5 to 146.2 percent.

On another note, the district donated three surplus trucks, two Fords and a GMC, to the Paradise Irrigation District, which serves the northern town devastated in the Camp Fire.

Plenty of anniversaries on Yorba Linda calendar for 2019 for events that helped shape community

Many of the anniversary dates on Yorba Linda's 2019 calendar will go unheralded – save for a brief mention in this column – but each of the original events was a key contributor to the identity of the community nearly 70,000 residents enjoy today.

For example, two years ago, Yorba Linda celebrated 50 years as an incorporated city, but equally important is this year's 110^th anniversary of the sale of some of the first properties in the 3,500 acres subdivided by the Janss Investment Company in 1909 starting at $250 per acre.

Each of the deeds prohibited owners from selling alcoholic beverages on the property, a provision that, if violated, required the land to revert to the Janss Company, according to several oral histories conducted with pioneering residents.

A last vestige of the community's early anti-alcohol stance was a long-standing city ordinance that prohibited serving alcohol at bingo games, which the City Council finally repealed in 2017.

Several anniversaries mark the development of the present-day Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, which traces its lineage back 145 years to the El Cajon School District, formed in 1874 with a one-room schoolhouse near the Santa Ana River and Yorba Bridge.

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the merging of the K-8 Yorba Linda School District with the K-12 Placentia Unified School District. Kraemer Middle School, opened in 1959 as the first district “junior high” and now the district's magnet GATE campus, celebrates 60 years.

Other school anniversaries this year: 45^th for Esperanza High, opened in 1974; 10^th for Yorba Linda High, opened in 2009; 55^th for Rose Drive Elementary and Yorba Linda Middle, opened in 1964; and 85^th for Valencia High's first commencement – featuring one graduate – in 1934.

The Richard Nixon Elementary School opened 65 years ago and the land sold 35 years ago.

The Yorba Linda Water District has two anniversaries that shouldn't go unnoticed. The district was first founded as a mutual company to serve farmers and ranchers 110 years ago in 1909 and reorganized as a public agency 50 years later in 1959, now marking 60 years of service.

Particularly interesting anniversaries involve Jessamyn West, an author most famous for the vignettes she wrote about a Quaker family in “The Friendly Persuasion.” The versatile writer of short stories, novels, screenplays, essays, memoirs, poetry and an operetta moved at age 7 with her family to Yorba Linda 110 years ago in 1909.

Although her first paid writing was a social notes column in the Yorba Linda Star in the 1920s, her first published short story was “99.6,” written 80 years ago in 1939 during a long recovery from tuberculosis.

Her novel “South of the Angels” is set in early Yorba Linda, and “Cress Delahanty” is based on her teen years in Yorba Linda. The city's Jessamyn West Park was dedicated 35 years ago in 1984, also the year of her death at age 81.

Yorba Linda: Black Gold Golf Course, developer fees, fitness centers are top news items this week

Three reports summarizing financial matters for the most recently completed fiscal year – one at the city-owned Black Gold Golf Club and two on fees paid by developers for impacts on the city's infrastructure – have been reviewed by the Yorba Linda City Council.

And the council-appointed Planning Commission has approved three conditional use permits for fitness centers, adding to the city's healthy supply of businesses catering to residents who seek to fulfill New Year resolutions by getting into and staying in better physical shape.

Net income at Black Gold for the 2018 fiscal year was $487,000, after $132,000 was spent on improvements, on revenues of $5.8 million. Revenue totals were less than projected when the budget was adopted by $252,000 but more than the prior year by $46,000 (numbers rounded).

Total expenses were $382,000 lower than expected, mostly due to payroll savings, according to the report from Mike Kudron, the city's parks and recreation director. Green fees brought in $3 million, better than projected by $128,000 and exceeding the prior year by $223,000.

Golf shop income was 89 percent of projections and 86 percent of the previous year, while income from the catering operation was $210,000, 23 percent better than last year and 33 percent higher than the year before.

Overall, the club hosted 123,000 visitors for the year, a figure that included 49,000 golf rounds.

Projects planned for this year include renovating 7,000 square feet of green-side bunkers and re-branding Center Catering with a new name and marketing materials. Challenges: minimum wage increases and the ability to hire maintenance and food and beverage employees.

Noted a separate consultant's report: “Golf course conditions and playability continues to improve every year as kikuyugrass becomes more fully established on the fairways and rough. Ongoing programs should focus on tee leveling, bunker renovation and future upgrading of the irrigation system.”

One of the two impact fee reports notes developers paid $354,000 into a fund for storm drain system improvements that now totals $7 million after earning $94,000 in interest. Developers pay $14,000 per acre to the fund, which had no expenditures for the year.

The other impact fee report notes developers paid $261,000 into a fund for transportation in-frastructure improvements that now totals $1.2 million after earning $14,000 in interest. A key expense was $101,000 for traffic signal modification.

Newly permitted fitness centers are Fitness Success, a 2,960-square-foot facility in the Court-yard Shopping Center on Valley View Avenue, and Club Pilates, a 1,500-square-foot facility in Town Center.

Also newly permitted is Crossfit Inversion, a 4,411-square-foot facility in a light industrial zone on La Palma Avenue. The business has been operating for a year, replacing Canyon Crossfit, but a permit had not been obtained by the old or new owners.

Placentia-Yorba Linda school district trustees approve report with 'positive certification' for finances; reserves will be needed to balance budget

A state-required report on finances has been approved by the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district's five elected trustees with a “positive certification,” indicating the district will meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and two subsequent fiscal years.

The report, the first of two mandated documents for 2018-19, was submitted to Orange County Superintendent of Schools Al Mijares by a mid-December deadline, with figures “based upon current projections.”

Again this year, the district will use a portion of a fund designated as a “reserve for future deficits” to balance the budget that anticipates spending some $5.6 million more than the district projects in revenue by the end of the fiscal year June 30.

Next year's estimated shortfall is nearly $4.6 million and a bit more than $5 million the year after. The total of all reserve funds balances this year is projected to be about $33.1 million, dropping to some $27.9 million next year and about $22 million the year after.

The district estimates that a fund “designated for economic uncertainties” will remain at about $14 million, or 5 percent of expenditures, throughout the three-year period. This year's spend-ing is expected to be about $286 million and $280 million and $285 million the next two years.

Most expenses are for salaries and benefits. This year's certificated salaries are pegged at nearly $123 million, classified salaries a bit more than $41 million and employee benefits at nearly $74 million. The “books and supplies” budget line is projected at nearly $19.5 million.

The report's “summary of facts and assumptions” section notes average daily attendance for this year is estimated at 24,390, dropping a bit to 24,267 next year and 24,144 the year after.

Also noteworthy in the report are the various payroll expense rates. The district's contribution to the State Teachers' Retirement System is 16.28 percent this year, rising to 18.13 next year and 19.1 percent the year after.

The Public Employee Retirement System rate is 18.062 percent this year, 20.7 percent next year and 23.4 percent the year after. Others: 6.2 percent Social Security, 1.45 percent Medi-care, 0.05 percent unemployment insurance and 1.3 percent workers compensation.

The report was prepared for trustees by district directors Dinah Neri (business services) and Phuong Tran (fiscal services).

Although the current contract with the district's teachers runs through June 2020, the district and teacher bargaining unit are opening the wages and benefits section for negotiations this year.

The posted salary schedule for this school year ranges from $50,145 for a fully credentialed first-year teacher to $108,802 for a 28-year veteran with specific graduate education credits.

Also, trustees have renewed an incentive for teachers for early notification of resignation or retirement: $2,000 if provided by Jan. 11 and $1,000 if provided by March 1.