In case you missed last week's e-blast: December 30 Eblast See more past email blasts here.

This past year has certainly shown the strength and resilience of our business community. You all accepted the challenges and reinvented yourselves. Each of you tried new ways to serve your customers, from changing your hours of operation to modifying the shifts of your employees. Many of you rolled up your sleeves and got back in the “trenches” and began working in your businesses by yourself or with family members to keep your doors open. Each of you are amazing and we are humbled to serve you.

Your support throughout this year was extremely gratifying to our Chamber team, our Board of Directors, and our tireless volunteers. It has been our pleasure to work with so many of you. We were very happy to see so many of you last year at our 7th Annual "Summer Bash" Business Expo. We continue to look at ways to add value to your membership. We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new “Member Liaison Committee.” We have a team of members that will be visiting member businesses and capturing those visits via Instagram and Facebook in our efforts to help promote you and your business. They will be working in tandem with our new social media vendor and learning how to become highly proficient in the social media arena. They will be visiting many of you during the next few months.

Another new activity will be the addition of a column for our email blasts called, “Applause and Accolades.” This column will highlight great things that people are doing locally and/or nationally that will put a smile on your face. These acts of kindness will remind us that there are wonderful people and organizations that are truly heroes.

I am honored to serve you,

Mary England

President & CEO

Join us and welcome Deano’s Pub to our business community and join in the fun-filled day on Saturday, February 5th. This remodeled pub is the perfect place to join friends and unwind after a busy day. This Grand Opening and ribbon will be held on Saturday, February 5th. The pub opens at 6am that day, however, our “official” ribbon cutting, and ceremonies are scheduled for 4pm. Deano’s Pub serves a top-notch selection of craft beer and cocktails while you enjoy your favorite band, sing Karaoke, or watch your favorite match/sporting event with friends.

Join us and meet owners Dean and Erika Velasco and welcome them to our community. Happy Hour pricing is being offered for beverages on this special day.

Time of "Official" Ribbon Cutting: 4pm

Saturday Pub Hours: 6am-2pm

Location: 5286 Baltimore Dr., La Mesa

The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce welcomes San Diego Living Real Estate, located at 8504 La Mesa Blvd. in La Mesa to our Chamber and our business community. To celebrate this new member, you are invited to an open house, mixer and ribbon cutting on Wednesday, February 23rd between the hours of 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. with the “official” ribbon cutting taking place at 6:00 p.m.

Join us as we welcome San Diego Living Real Estate to our Chamber and meet Jan Farley, Owner-Broker, and her team. Jan has held various positions and received awards in the real estate industry such as: 2018 was President, Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, in 2019 recipient of the Broker of the Year, Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, 2019 recipient, REAL awards (top 10%of REALTORS in all of San Diego County) and in 2021 served as Treasurer, Women’s Council of Realtors of Realtors, San Diego. Jan and her team have the expertise to assist you in all your real estate needs.

Bring your business cards and join us for great food and delicious beverages. Don’t be left out - register now to be a part of this celebration! To promote a healthy environment, this event is limited to the first 50 people that RSVP.

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Three days after Christmas, Michael Gartner summoned the employees of the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team a staff meeting at Principal Park, the team’s stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. The team’s sale to a global sports and entertainment company had closed that day, and Gartner,83, said he wanted to give the employees their new business cards. But there were no business cards in the envelopes that Gartner handed out. Instead, inside were checks worth $2,000 for every year each employee had worked for the team - $600,000 in total for the 23-full time workers. Employees who work in maintenance, accounting, marketing, and other areas received checks for $4,000 to $70,000, said Gartner who was the team’s majority owner for 22 years until the sale closed. This was a life-changing gesture for some longtime staff members.

The Omicron Variant is more easily contracted & to help keep San Diegans safe we’re increasing testing capacity at our sites by making more appointments available. You can also contact your primary care doctor, or visit a local pharmacy in your neighborhood.

In an ongoing commitment to providing quality open spaces and parks, the City of La Mesa will begin some required tree removal work for the Collier Park Renovations Project, which will require closure of portions of the park from January 10-14, 2022.

The City’s tree contractor, West Coast Arborists, will remove roughly twenty-one (21) trees within the work area for the proposed improvements. The large Magnolia tree, near the Spring House, will remain. The timber from the Eucalyptus trees will be recycled and repurposed as site furnishings and nature playgrounds elements at Collier and other City parks.

This tree removal work must be completed prior to the start of the bird nesting season on January 15, to avoid delays to the much-anticipated start of construction for the park’s rehabilitation this summer. These trees will be replaced as part of the project.

“For 41 years, the City of La Mesa has earned the designation as a Tree City USA, which underscores our commitment to the urban tree canopy and the crucial role green spaces play in our Climate Action Plan,” said La Mesa City Manager, Greg Humora. “We want to reassure the public that these trees will be replaced, as we look forward to the continued growth of our urban canopy.”

Collier Park is the oldest of La Mesa's parks. The planned renovation of this neighborhood park is part of a long term project to improve and update the park based on community input through a master plan, adopted in 2013, with additional input gathered in 2018. For the next phase of improvements, the proposed $3.5 million project is being completed with funding allocated from various sources.

These planned renovations will bring Collier Park into the 21st century, as a premier park, complete with construction of recreational facilities and other important improvements, including: new restrooms, lighted tennis/pickleball court, shaded playground/fitness area, looping ADA compliant access path around the park; security cameras, site lighting, new parking, a picnic shelter, sidewalks, enhanced plazas; upgraded landscaping, including a mix of turf, trees, low water use vegetation, and storm water quality enhancements.

Construction is anticipated to begin in the summer of 2022, which will require closing the current park and courts. The project should be completed in late 2023.

For more information, please visit the project’s webpage or email the City of La Mesa’s news desk at news@cityoflamesa.us.

Federal COVID-19 relief dollars have already helped more than 140,000 California renters pay the debt they accrued to their landlords during the pandemic.

Now, the state is offering similar relief to qualified homeowners who’s fallen behind on their mortgages. Th new The California Mortgage Relief program will pay as much as $80,000 worth of mortgage, property tax and insurance bills for qualified applicants. This program is designed to help low to moderate-income Californians who have lost their jobs or experienced financial hardships due to COVID-19 and fallen behind on their payments get caught up and start fresh. The program is funded by a $1 billion grant from the federal government, which allocated $10 billion for mortgage assistance in March as part of the American Rescue Plan. The money was divided up according to each state’s population of unemployed workers and borrowers with delinquent mortgages. You must apply online, at camortgagerelief.org. If you don’t have access to a computer, you can ask a housing counselor to assist you. For help finding a counselor certified by the federal Department of Housing and urban Development, call (800) 569-4287. Source - The San Diego Union Tribune – Jon Healey.

In order to meet eligibility, you must be at or below 100% of San Diego County’s Area Median Income, own a single-family home, condo or permanently affixed manufactured home and have faced a pandemic-related financial hardship between January 21, 2020, and December 27, 2021, and also meet at least one of the following qualifications:

Applications will be accepted through an online portal on a rolling basis. To view additional eligibility criteria and to apply: Who is eligible

Already pushed to the brink due to their own workers testing positive, hospitals appear to be in for an even more difficult ordeal next week, according to the latest statistical analysis of the pandemic in San Diego.

Numerical predictions that consider a range of factors, including the transmissibility of the virus, local vaccination rates and the likely average length of hospital stays, indicate that last year’s peak of roughly 1,800 COVID-related hospitalizations may soon be overshadowed. The prediction came as the region again posted a new case total, hitting 10,198 on January 11th. It was the fourth-straight number over 10,000 though also significantly better than on January 7th’ which was 19,009, which was inflated by delayed reporting of positive test result to the county health department. Source – The San Diego Union Tribune – Paul Sisson.

The City of La Mesa continues work to shape the future of MacArthur Park. Please click here to view a recorded presentation of the draft plan and take a survey to provide your feedback. The survey will close January 30, 2022. For additional information visit the City's website.

[On January 11, 2022] members of the La Mesa City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract with San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) to become the City’s full animal services provider. San Diego Humane Society has been providing sheltering and medical care for La Mesa’s animals at its El Cajon Campus since October 2020. With this new contract, which goes into effect immediately, SDHS will provide Humane Law Enforcement (animal control) and licensing services as well.

In addition to all the specialized programs San Diego Humane Society offers, such as the Kitten Nursery, Behavior Center, Pilar & Chuck Bahde Center for Shelter Medicine, Bahde Wildlife Center, Community Support Services and community education, residents in La Mesa will see an added benefit with extended animal control and dispatch hours. Residents can call 619-299-7012 (press 1 for Humane Law Enforcement Dispatch) or visit sdhumane.org for more information about San Diego Humane Society’s services.

“San Diego Humane Society is our county’s largest animal welfare resource, serving 14 cities in the region. We’ve been providing sheltering services for La Mesa animals for the past year and are excited to now offer humane field services to the residents of that community,” said Gary Weitzman, president and CEO of San Diego Humane Society. “We appreciate all the work City staff has done for us to expand our high level of care into their community, which will translate into more animal lives saved, and more families served, the core of our mission.”

With the addition of this contract, San Diego Humane Society will serve 14 cities in San Diego County including Carlsbad, Del Mar, El Cajon, Encinitas, Escondido, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, Oceanside, Poway, San Diego, San Marcos, Santee, Solana Beach and Vista. San Diego Humane Society operates five campuses that are open to the public 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, in the cities of San Diego, Oceanside (two campuses), Escondido, and El Cajon. For more information about San Diego Humane Society, visit sdhumane.org.

The Chamber invites you to a fun-filled evening to meet local businesses and have the opportunity to win FREE door prizes. The evening will be filled with raffles, great samplings of delicious food from local restaurants and more!

We have moved our expo to our chamber member hotel, Courtyard by Marriot San Diego El Cajon in El Cajon. We are excited to be using the 4,500 square-foot ballroom for our vendors and raffles, the foyer for our registration activities and the beautiful courtyard to serve our food and offer beverages.

Time: 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where: Courtyard by Marriott San Diego El Cajon

141 N Magnolia Ave, El Cajon, CA 92020

Ticket Cost: $10

Please note: This is a 21 years of age or older event.

“Early Bird” Table Cost: $120 if reserved and paid for by February 4th.

To reserve a display table, please contact Mary England at (619) 251-7730 or email maryengland@lamesachamber.com.

Built on projections of a ninth consecutive year of surplus tax revenue – streak that has made California’s deficit-ridden past distant memory – the $286.4 billion spending plan Governor Newsom unveiled on January 10th builds on the state’s recent efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, home-business, and a worsening drought, while surpassing K-12 school funding records just last year. Most of the plan covers spending in the fiscal year that begins July 1. But the Governor is asking legislators for immediate action to expand the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response, seeking authorization to spend about half of $2.7 billion budget proposal to boost testing, vaccinations, and health care staffing across the state. Source – The San Diego Evening Tribune – John Myers 

For too long communities across my district have had to worry about the state sneaking around trying to release or parole dangerous sexually violent predators in unsuspecting neighborhoods. Last year, families in Mt. Helix, Ranchita, Borrego Springs, and Rancho Bernardo were jolted by the state’s attempt to put not just one but in some cases two Sexually Violent Predators in their communities. The recent proposed placements of Sexually Violent Predators Douglas Badger and Merle Wakefield fit an ongoing pattern of deceit and deception by the State and represent a broken process that needs to end.

That is why I am authoring the “Sexually Violent Predator Accountability, Fairness, and Enforcement Act” (SAFE Act) to prevent the state from continuing to try and secretly dump Sexually Violent Predators (SVPs) in East and North San Diego County, as well as other unsuspecting communities throughout our state.

The SAFE Act will require real transparency in the SVP placement process, force state officials to own up to their placement decisions and make public safety the highest priority!

If you agree with me that this process is broken, and our communities deserve better from State Government, please sign up to Support the SAFE Act! To learn more, please visit my website at senate.ca.gov/jones.

I will continue to oppose the placement of any Sexually Violent Predators in our community and this bill is the first step to protect our communities.

Sincerely,

Brian W. Jones - State Senator, District 38

P.S. We need to spread the word about the SAFE Act! Please forward this email to friends and family.

County Dashboards and Data are now updated weekdays (Monday-Friday), excluding County holidays.  

As of 1/05/22: Weekly Status Update

COVID-19 Case Rate by Vaccination Status (data as of 1/5/22)

County of San Diego COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard (data as of 1/5/22)

COVID-19 AT-HOME TESTING:

County of San Diego Health Officer Order – ISOLATION (Updated as of 1/3/22)

Isolation is required if you meet one or more of the following, regardless of vaccination status:

Quarantine for at least 5 days and up to 10 days after your last contact with a COVID-19 patient.

You do not need to formally quarantine, as long as you do not develop symptoms.

This January make it part of your New Year's resolution to Resolve to be Ready! A nationwide effort encouraging everyone to be ready for natural disasters. Disasters can occur at any time, with little warning. However, technology is available that can help mitigate damage to infrastructure and even save lives. We are encouraging Californians to have an emergency plan in place and to download free resources like the MyShake App so you’re not caught off guard by the next earthquake.

The MyShake App is available for FREE from the Apple App and Google Play stores. To receive earthquake warnings, download the app and adjust settings to receive emergency alerts by turning location settings to “always-on”. Location services allow the app technology to connect with nearby ground sensors and provide alerts to app users in the area where shaking will occur.

Go to the Department Store for Your White Linens, but Come to San Pasqual for Your White Wines!!

2020 Chardonnay (San Diego County)

2019 Pinot Gris (San Diego County)

Or A Mixed Case with 6 Bottles Each

Available On-Line and at The La Mesa & Seaport Village Locations!

San Diego County Credit Union® (SDCCU®), one of California’s largest locally-owned financial institutions, has collected over $7,380 so far to help the local animal shelters and rescues in San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties through its “Presents for Paws” fundraising campaign. This is SDCCU’s tenth consecutive holiday season supporting the “Presents for Paws” campaign. The fundraiser kicked off December 1, but due to the ongoing financial strain the COVID-19 pandemic has put on our local shelters and rescues, they need our help even more. This is why the campaign has been extended through January 31 in an effort to meet the goal of raising $10,000.

“We appreciate the kindness of those in our community who have already donated to the Presents for Paws fundraiser. Thanks to the community we are more than halfway to our goal, and we are eager to extend the fundraiser to collect these necessary funds for these rescues that do so much for animals in need,” said SDCCU President and CEO Teresa Campbell. “We ask and encourage our local communities to help support the efforts of these amazing animal shelters and rescues in Southern California.”

In San Diego County, collections will benefit San Diego Humane Society; in Riverside County, collections will benefit Animal Friends of the Valleys; and in Orange County, collections will benefit the Home Free Animal Rescue and Sanctuary. Monetary donations will be accepted in-branch and online at sdccu.com/paws. Last holiday season, SDCCU’s “Presents for Paws” combined donation efforts collected a total of $10,000 for shelter animals in need.

Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went! Financial Peace University is a nine-lesson class designed to help you build a budget, dump debt, grow your wealth, and leave money stress behind."

Fridays at 6:30 – 8 pm

January 28 – March 25, 2022

Journey Community Church (Side Room):

8363 Center Drive, La Mesa.

To RSVP: journeycommunitychurch.com/fpu

As a last resort, SDG&E may need to temporarily turn off the power when gusty winds and dry conditions, combined with a heightened fire risk, threaten public safety and the electric system. Power outages can happen with little to no warning when there’s stormy weather so it’s important to be ready. Learn more about power outages at sdge.com/Outage-Center.

Check out these ten tips to help keep your business running and employees and customers safe during inclement weather.

Small Business Stimulus Grant Funding is Available from the County of San Diego – We Are District 2

The County of San Diego has received funds from the federal government’s American Recovery Plan Act. This grant is to provide economic assistance to help businesses and non-profit entities impacted by COVID-19. This financial assistance will be allocated to eligible, qualified small businesses and nonprofit entities based on the availability of funds, program guideline, and the submission of all required information and supporting documentation.

Supervisor Joel Anderson District 2 Supervisor has asked chambers to assist with the paperwork for small businesses to complete the submission application. The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce is happy to help. The La Mesa Chamber has decided to take an extra step in this grant funding process and the recovery of our businesses in La Mesa and announce immediately:

The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce believes that assisting ALL businesses in their recovery from the pandemic and ability to obtain funds from the American Recovery Plan Act should be a priority. We are ALL in this together! Chamber Members and Non-Chamber members, effective immediately, may receive help from Mary England, President & CEO of the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce in filling out all paperwork and answering any questions you may have. Mary may be reached 7 days a week –Maryengland@lamesachamber.com or 619-251-7730 to assist you.

Here is the Small Business Stimulus Grant package and the link: tinyurl.com/smallbizstimulusgrant

If you are NOT sure of how to answer questions on the application or need assistance on clarifying what documents you need to submit – contact Mary England at Maryengland@lamesachamber.com or (619) 251-7730, we are happy to help!

NOTE: If you applied for and received county funds under the other Small Business Stimulus Grant, allocated from the CARES Act funding – YES you may apply for these funds, you just need to list the amount you received from the county on the application.

February 5 - Deano's Pub Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting : 4pm at 5286 Baltimore Drive, La Mesa | Details/RSVP

February 23 - San Diego Living Real Estate Open House & Ribbon Cutting : 5-7pm at 8504 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa | Details/RSVP

March 23 - "Spring Fling" Business Expo : 5-8pm at Courtyard by Marriott San Diego El Cajon | 141 N Magnolia Ave, El Cajon | Details

July 18 - "Taste of San Diego - East" : 5-8pm at Town and Country San Diego | 500 Hotel Circle North in Mission Valley | Details

August 18 - "Summer Bash" Business Expo : 5-8pm at Courtyard by Marriott San Diego El Cajon | 141 N Magnolia Ave, El Cajon | Details

Commercial Real Estate

5565 Grossmont Center Dr.

La Mesa, CA 91942

858-549-2874