Nine people turned out early on an April Saturday morning to spend a couple of hours picking up trash along Temescal Canyon Road. Pictured above, from left, are Martin Lange, Spanish Hills; Tracy Davis, Wildrose Ranch; Bob Hafner, Horsethief Canyon Ranch; Rob Mucha, The Retreat; John Watson, Wildrose Ranch; Jack Wyatt, Trilogy; Jerry Sincich, Sycamore Creek, and Dave Davies, Spanish Hills.

Hafner, chairman of the We Are Temescal Valley Beautification Committee, said many more mini-cleanups will be held in the future. The area cleaned was along Temescal Canyon Road, from the I-15 south to Trilogy Parkway. Hafner said the effort netted two truckloads of rubbish estimated at 400 pounds.

The Beautification Committee meets at 7 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the second Wednesday of each month at Senor Tom’s Restaurant at Tom’s Farms.

Pictured at right, Bob, Tracy and Rob display some of the trash they found, plus a shopping cart and a couple of tires.

If you’d like to learn more about the committee, contact Bob at Bob.hafner@verizon.net. (Read related story HERE)

Bob Hafner

BY BOB HAFNER
Beautification Committee Chairman

 I, like you, are a proud member of the community we know and love — Temescal Valley. This is the 20-plus square miles that run from Weirick Road down the I-15 to Lake Street. We consist of several planned communities, private residences, mines, light industry, local and county parks, national forest land, and a rich, historical past involving Temescal Canyon Road and the citrus industry.

 One common thread among all of this is the pride we have in our community. This was clearly shown when we received the vote of six of the seven LAFCO board members to stop the annexation process by the city of Corona. After working with the community in defeating the annexation process, the core group of individuals who helped spearhead this action had learned what a wonderful cross-functional group of residents we had from all walks of life. This diversity demonstrated that when we put our minds to it and use the political and legal systems we have available, we can create a better good for all.

 Even though we won on the annexation issue, our group did hear some major concerns from the residents of Temescal Valley. When we ended our “no annexation” efforts, we felt as a group we had a lot of wonderful resources here. Why not use them to further improve the community we all fought hard for, embrace and love? Several committees were formed. The group I selected to lead is the Beautification Committee.

 The goal of the committee is to unite the community with some common components. Some of the ideas are around signage, plants and design criteria. Our goal is to put the “Wow” factor in the Valley and to make this a very desirable place in which to live and conduct business.

 Our first success we can share with you is getting the trash cleaned up along the I-15. We worked with Caltrans and Waste Management – and within a week results started to happen. We hope you have noticed how clean and weeded all the exits are, as well as our stretch of I-15 on both sides. We have found when areas are kept clean it is less likely that people will litter.

 We have much to do and lots of ideas. However, the current team members and I don’t know everything and can’t do everything. We would like to get as much representation from all areas of the Valley to create the most unifying efforts and theme for this community.

Our next meeting is 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 6 at Senor Tom’s restaurant at Tom’s Farms. If you can make this meeting, feel free to contact me at Bob.hafner@verizon.net. If you can’t make the meeting and have some ideas, please drop me an e-mail and I’ll share them with the committee. We look forward to seeing you.