Palomar Mountain News

Our State Assembly Member Marie Waldron, and her District and Sacramento staff visited Palomar a August 6.  When her Principle Field Representative, Tom Stinson called to arrange the visit, he asked what concerns we might have as a community. We talked all along the way to our different stops.

The first issue mentioned was the drought.  With several dry wells up here now, it is so important to conserve.  It was pretty easy to spot dead and dying trees, especially on the north side of Crestline where they are in the ‘shadow of the storms’ and typically get less rainfall.

We had a great ‘behind the scenes’ tour at the Observatory, thanks to Steven Flanders. (You can take a tour most Saturdays). We were all impressed with the computer room pictured above with Marie and Steven, where the astronomers view our starry sky.

The 360 degree views are spectacular from the catwalk, 50 feet above the ground.

Yummy lunch at Mother’s Kitchen, drove many of our little roads and spoke of real estate issues, the need for plotted easements and ‘Road Maintenance Agreements’, now required by lenders.

We stopped in at the Fire Department which is pretty impressive here in our very small community of only a couple hundred folks.

Boucher Lookout was manned by volunteer John Clark, keeping a watch out for ‘smokes’. The goal of the lookout is to have it staffed daily through fire season.  When the door is open, you are welcome to go up and visit with the volunteer. There are about 120 volunteers now who have often been the first call reporting a fire. Thanks to all!

A visit to Palomar wouldn’t be complete without a stop in the State Park at Doane Pond.  We’re sorry the School Camp had to close for all the 6th graders that is such a fond memory for so many 6th graders for many years.  the facility is now available to rent for groups.

We also visited the Christian Conference Center, another well-kept secret up here.  They are just finishing up summer camps and had 3500 campers for Horse Camps for Girls, Adventure Camp for the guys, and a Base Camp for both. The camp can sleep 320 people so they really packed it out the past few weeks.

Thanks Marie, Tom, Angelina, Andrea, Bethany, and Cameron for taking your day to visit, a mile nearer heaven on Palomar Mountain!

Bonnie Phelps