This Week In Fire #2
Pacific Grove police arrested a 15-year-old boy Saturday on suspicion of setting a fire near Forest Grove Elementary School.
The fire was reported about 4 p.m. Friday in the Rip Van Winkle Open Space in the 1000 block of Congress Avenue, police said in a news release.
Being stupid may reduce his lifespan, though
A judge has ruled that a former Soledad man charged with the 1997 slaying of Monterey High School student Kristopher Olinger is competent to stand trial.
Judge Mark Hood ordered a mental evaluation for Angel Ruelas on May 4 after a bizarre verbal standoff over Ruelas’ efforts to represent himself in trial as a “sovereign citizen.”
Ruelas, who is in Salinas Valley State Prison on an unrelated carjacking conviction, somehow latched onto the theories and has had a series of nonsensical exchanges with Hood in recent months.
By order of the state. Make way for ugly native weeds.
Scraped earth is all that remains of a well kept mini golf course that was once prominent in the front of Robert and Maureen Feduniak’s house not far from Cypress Point. A bulldozer ripped out the lavish greens over the past two weeks.
The seemingly innocuous golf course — which looked like little more than a well groomed lawn to passersby — first drew the ire of the coastal commission in 2001 when the state agency was notified by a Del Monte Forest Foundation forester the novelty course violated a conservation easement limiting landscaping on the property to native plants — a condition of a 1983 permit for the home.
Capped. Sounds like shooting it dead. Who makes up that labor board?
CalPERS allows a police officer to retire at 50 with a substantial pension. Police argue that it will be difficult to recruit and retain officers if their pension plan is capped.
The PERB complaint follows a lawsuit the PGPOA filed on Nov. 3, 2010, against the city over the pension issue. “The retirement contribution ordinance exceeds the initiative power of the people and violates the city’s charter and is therefore invalid and unenforceable,” according to the suit filed in Monterey County Superior Court.
Tommy has a public defender?
The trial of former liquor store worker Tom Pollacci — who was convicted last year of raping a woman before being charged with three more rapes — will not be moved to Madera County as his public defender had sought.
Though Pollacci’s attorney, Michelle Wouden, had argued the trial should be moved because it would be difficult to seat an impartial jury considering the extensive news coverage of Pollacci’s criminal cases, Superior Court Judge Terrance Duncan ruled May 20 the trial will stay in Monterey County.
The Pine Cone is now publishing P.G. Police logs – check it out
A 75-year-old male on Presidio Boulevard was arrested for striking another person in the head with a hammer. Landlord was upset that the tenant below was using the hammer. He entered the tenant’s room, told him to stop, grabbed tenant and took hammer from him. Tenant’s friend tried to intervene. Landlord then struck tenant’s friend in the face and on his back with hammer, causing multiple injuries. Medical refused by all parties. Landlord arrested for ADW. Held on bail and transported to county jail.
Tear it down – not worth the money to preserve, especially if the habitat is meant to be a home for butterflies.
In an attempt to atone for the sins of the past, the Pacific Grove City Council signaled Wednesday that historic Brokaw Hall might escape demolition.
The dilapidated city-owned building at 263 Grove Acre Ave. was scheduled to be torn down by June 6 after the city’s chief building official, John Kuehl, declared it a health and safety hazard.
The council Wednesday was expected to authorize paying $36,000 for its destruction and to debate about what elements of the one-story wooden building, which was built in 1914 and is former home of the Del Monte Military Academy, would be worth salvaging.
This Week In Fire #1
What I wonder is “was it up to code?” hmmm.
A fire Wednesday in a storage building at Ocean View Boulevard and Asilomar Avenue forced a police evacuation of the nearby area, Monterey fire officials said.
The blaze broke out about 8 p.m. and heavy black smoke was coming from the storage structure. A poison placard was posted on the outside of the building.
A city ordinance approved in August — the Sustainable Retirement Benefit Reform Initiative — limits city contributions to police pensions.
The council took action after voters collected enough signatures to force the measure to curb pension benefits onto the November ballot.
The council did put a measure on the ballot that changed the city charter to allow the council or citizens to regulate employee benefits. The police union contends that too violated the city’s obligation to meet and confer with the association.
The complaint vindicates “our efforts to see that the city keeps its promises to its hardworking public safety employees,” said association president Sylvia Newton in a prepared statement.
Pacific Grove Police Officers Association Charges Investigated
Protesting at Asilomar.
Pacific Grove City Council member Ken Cuneo stood with the protestors on May 12 and held a sign, as did Mayor Carmelita Garcia. “I hope Aramark comes around,” Garcia said later. “It’s terrible to think people can exist for five years with no wage increase.”
Five years and no wage increase for the workers? If that’s what Local 483 negotiates for it’s members, see what wage increases the Local’s Secretary-Treasurer gets in five years- $15,652 from 2005 to 2009. The workers need to be protesting on the corner of Forest & Gibson, not at Asilomar.
The membership keeps dropping but the Union’s management gets raises. Who is left to pay those ever increasing union rep salaries?
