We hope you've all enjoyed the lovely weather as summer melts into fall and the children return back to school.
There are several milestones coming up related to the Winery so we prefer to put our energy into moving the project along and will not be holding a meeting this fall.
Our plan is to have a wonderful time at a Spring groundbreaking ceremony for Monserate Winery in our cherished Gird Valley! We will celebrate the progress we have made and look forward to the completion of the elegant new winery and restaurant which will replace the former Fallbrook Golf Course Clubhouse (1960s through 2017) and will serve the community for decades, if not the next few hundred years.
Every day, we pass the vines as they grow, mature and fill with fruit and ponder the empty spot where the new building will stand, asking ourselves, "So, when will that be?"
The Fallbrook Community Planning Group's (FCPG) Land Use and Design Review Committees both approved the project in December 2018, as did the full Fallbrook Community Planning Group.
All votes were unanimous in their support of the concept and design!
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Images Courtesy of Jade Work, Monserate Winery, September 2017
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From recent conversations with Jade Work, the owner of
Monserate Winery
, and staff at San Diego County's Planning & Development Services, we understand that all the key reports will be finished this fall. I
n order to make this process as simple as possible, w
e'll work to combine comments on these documents into one coherent document from
SaveGirdValley.com
. Please contact us if you'd like to be involved and submit comments.
Once all the paperwork is done, the owners will move on to building the structure and, finally, focus on running the business and making a living.
The plan is to gather in the Spring of 2020 to celebrate the official groundbreaking with Supervisor Jim Desmond and everyone else who is helping make this project a reality!
In the Spring of 2021, we'll be inside the gorgeous new building and, with a beer or glass of wine (Monserate Winery, vintage 2019?), we'll toast to the perseverance of our neighborhood. To Gird Valley!
Politics
Other news affecting us in Gird Valley includes the troubles with our elected Congressional representative, Congressman Hunter. While the accused Congressman awaits his day in court (which has now been pushed back to 2020), he has been stripped of all his committee assignments and so we have no voice in DC. The official campaign season for the 2020 election has begun and several candidates are running: Ammar Campa-Najjar, Sam Abed, Matt Rahn, Larry Wilske and Carl DeMaio. We'll need to meet these candidates and get to know them better.
To this end, Carl DeMaio of Reform California is holding an event in Fallbrook on September 22 (5:00 to 6:30 PM) focusing on agriculture and the future of our community.
As you may recall, Carl was very engaged in discussions about the pros and cons of Measure EE, the
sixth failed attempt
to build a large high school in Gird Valley (1978, 2x in 1990, 1992, 2016, 2018). Measure EE lost by an overwhelming majority, with
57.49%
of the District's voters voting NO on EE.
Thanks to Carl for holding this special meeting in Fallbrook. We'll be there on September 22, listening carefully to what Carl has to say and you should be too!
Back to School
Beyond Monserate Winery and the beginning of the election cycle, Measure EE has come and gone and, as is the case with many schools in California, enrollment at our Bonsall Unified School District (BUSD) has declined. BUSD is now struggling with its budget, is on the State's fiscally challenged list, and staff and teachers have been laid off.
After these cutbacks, the BUSD Board voted to extend Superintendent David Jones' contract with a pay raise.
Superintendent Jones accepted the contract but
passed
on the pay raise, stating, "
We want to get into a better financial situation for the district."
Kudos to him for that!
If you'd like to financially support our public school teachers and students, contact
Bonsall Education Foundation
. To support a private school or mentor a student, ask a neighbor with kids or visit
GreatSchools.org
.
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone working to create a strong community in Gird Valley, to revitalize and preserve this special little valley!
We look forward to hearing from you all soon and seeing you in the Spring of 2020 at the Monserate Winery Groundbreaking!
The Volunteers at
Monserate Winery's vineyard, to Gird Valley's western ridgeline,
morning February 1, 2019.
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