Summer Band Camp returns to Ramona July 11

Eighty students from Ramona in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh grades will be participating in the sixth annual middle school and elementary Summer Band Camp starting July 11.

All sessions of Summer Band Camp will be held on the Olive Peirce Middle School campus in Room P101. Students will meet Monday through Friday, July 11 to 22, for 90 minutes of intensive instruction. They will be working their skills on wind instruments such as flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bassoon, and oboe. They will also be learning fundamentals on percussion and bass guitar.

Ramonan gets 11 years for using rifle in attempted robbery

A Ramona man who tried to rob the Ramona Chevron Food Mart with a rifle in 2009 has been sentenced to 11 years and four months in state prison.

Bud Henry Shelton, 22, was given credit for already serving 442 days in jail and a $2,000 fine by El Cajon Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh on May 11.

Pertussis immunizations required

All students entering or advancing into the seventh through twelfth grades are required to have proof of a Pertussis (Tdap) booster immunization before attending school.

Officials warn: “No vaccine, no school.”

Mussey Grade light fails to garner enough support

A proposed traffic signal at Mussey Grade Road and state Route 67 drew a mixture of comments from residents and did not receive enough support from members of the Ramona Community Planning Group (RCPG) at their May 5 meeting.

The traffic signal was proposed as part of an overall plan to improve traffic flow half a mile east at the Route 67 and Highland Valley/Dye road intersection. The proposed design also includes additional through lanes and turn lanes at that intersection and at Mussey Grade. The RCPG wants to have an approved plan to present to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and to the county.

Public transit district to host community meeting in Ramona

Responding to Ramonans’ concerns about proposed public transportation services and costs, the North County Transit District (NCTD) will host a meeting from 3:30 to 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 17, in Ramona Community Center to collect more input from residents.

In February, the transit district unveiled proposed changes to its service throughout North County. On April 21, the NCTD Board held a public hearing at the district’s headquarters in Oceanside that drew a roomful of people, including 10 representing the bus line between Ramona and Escondido.

Forum will discuss Ramona evacuation topics

Improvements made since the 2007 wildfires are among topics that will be discussed at the Wildfire Evacuation Community Forum the sheriff’s Ramona Substation will hold in Ramona Library at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 16.

A quick-moving brush fire that threatened homes in Santee on May 3 is a reminder that fire season is here, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department representative said, and the department wants everyone to be ready.

McWhorter Jewelers celebrates 30 years in business

With only a $500 wedding check in their pocket, a workbench, a set of tools and an office desk, Art and Mary Ellen McWhorter set up their small jewelry shop at Sixth and Main, though Mary Ellen had serious misgivings about the future.

Today, 30 years later, the McWhorters want to step back and say “thank you” to the Ramona community for helping McWhorter Jewelers, now at 1140 Main St., Suite 108, to become a successful and longstanding member of the local business scene.

Judge sentences Ramona man who fired shots to one year in jail

A Ramona man was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail after he pleaded guilty to negligently discharging a firearm in his house, sparking a standoff with sheriff’s deputies in February.

Carl Wayne Jones Jr., 43, has a projected release date of Aug. 27, according to the sheriff’s department. He received credits of 132 days already spent in jail including time off for good behavior.

Roll, Rope, and Stretch

“I’m just not flexible! I wasn’t born that way.” Ever heard that before, or thought that about yourself? By and large that just is not the case. You may not be flexible now, but I bet when you were a wee lad or lass, you had your toes in your mouth. Now you can’t even get your hands to your toes. What in the world happened?

Status of county road projects planned for Ramona

At the Community Revitalization Committee meeting in Ramona on Friday, Ed Mananzan from the county’s Department of Public Works (DPW) provided the status, as of April, of Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) for Ramona’s roads.

The schedule shows several date changes from DPW’s list provided at the October 2010 revitalization meeting. At that time, the design for the Ramona Street extension was estimated to be completed this spring.