A Sincere Thank You From Jerri to the Community

Thank you Jonnie, for your kind words.  It has been an emotionally exhausting

day, and a "thrilling" day as well....as all the supporters who were there today

will tell you. If I misspelled anyone's name, please help. If I left out anyone,

please add. I feel like I am "rambling" below....so many deserve recognition.

 

WE   WON !!

First, the Riverside Supervisor's meeting today.....where the final

vote was taken. I felt that we were on the "edge of our seats the

entire time the supervisors were discussing and debating the issues.

Aside from Supervisor Bob Buster, I couldn't get a "feel" for where

the others stood (except for Supervisor Benoit, who obviously loved

Granite.) Supervisor Buster made a point, several times, of bringing

up Rainbow as a community with "no help from the San Diego

County Supervisors, and "Who will protect Rainbow?" This is due, I

am positive, to the efforts of several members of the Rainbow

Planning Group who spoke at several of the meetings.

Supervisor Jeff Stone launched into a lengthy talk about all aspects

of the quarry which turned out to be a wonderful legacy to the many

opponents and ended with an emotional statement of why he was

voting "NO" on the project.  Benoit bored us with reasons the quarry

was necessary (straight out of Granite's "handbook") and voted "YES"

Supervisor Buster was a consistent, emotional "NO" as we expected.

Supervisor Ashley (I have forgotten his reasons now) voted "YES".

By the time it was Supervisor John Tavaglione's turn, I think everyone

was somewhere between scared and having a "meltdown" (At least,

I was.) The media was all over the place with their cameras, especially

in Gary Johnson's face (he sat immediately in front of me.)

After starting out his talk as if he were for the project, all of the

sudden Supervisor Tavaglione began talking about the reasons he

couldn't approve the quarry.  They took the vote. It was 3 to 2 against

the quarry and the crowd went CRAZY! People were all over the place;

hugging, crying, talking, congratulating, HAPPY! a media frenzy!

 

To Rainbow, and Fallbrook:

 

For all of you who either drove or carpooled to Riverside today, you

ALL made a difference. You made a difference at the first 3

Supervisor's meetings and you were the reason the Riverside Planning

Commissioners voted 4-1 to oppose the quarry.

Over the last 7 years, so many people in our communities have helped

in one way or the other:

The members of RCPG, RPOA, Bill Harding with the newsletter, Jonnie

Fox with her incredible Blog, "Rainbow Against the quarry", "Save Our

Southwest Hills", Duke and Jonell with the support of the "Rainbow

Oaks".

Remember when this all started over 6 years ago and we held several

passionate meetings at the Grange that brought hundreds of residents

out? Guess we "roasted" Granite.

There were a couple of meetings at FPUD as well.

You have put on your "orange" and gone to the "Living Signs, "Walkin'

Rallies", the "Run For the Hills", attended meetings all over both

counties, written letters, signed petitions, passed out fliers and put out

signs, and on and on and on......

Everyone deserves a piece of the "credit" for stopping this quarry.

 

It's over...now Pechanga can work on getting AB742 through the

legislature and protect this mountain forever.