First taste of the new school year

Eli Young, Adam Young and Griffin Greenberg help Solana Highlands Elementary School kick off the new school year with an Ice Cream Social Sept. 3. The event included sweet treats, music by “Party Sounds,” ’50s costumes and more. See page 20 for additional photos.

Roundabouts: A new twist to plans

By Karen Billing
Staff Writer

The developers of the Rancho Del Mar senior living facility planned for Via de la Valle have adjusted their plans to accommodate potential traffic circles, even axing an entire three-story, 30,000-square-foot wellness center. As the four new traffic circles, part of the plan to widen El Camino Real, appear to be the preferred direction of the city and Carmel Valley Community Planning Board, the planning board asked the developers in April to move forward with a design that makes room for the roundabouts.
Project representative Ali Shapouri, of Shapouri and Associates, presented the altered plans at a meeting with the Carmel Valley planning group’s regional issues subcommittee last week, showing how they will adjust if the traffic circles take 2.55 acres from their 23.88-acre slice of land.

Del Mar school board ‘Election Candidate Forum’ to be held Sept. 20

The Del Mar Union School District School board will hold an “Election Candidate Forum” on Monday, Sept. 20, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Del Mar Hills Academy (14085 Mango Drive, Del Mar, 92014-2990). Attend the event and learn more about the candidates running for the three open DMUSD board seats. Bring your written questions for submission to the candidates.

Bus relief unlikely for busy route

Parent suggests adding city line to Del Mar Heights Road

By Karen Billing
Staff Writer

As school started last week, so did the traffic on Del Mar Heights Road as students went back to the three schools located on the road and the handful of others accessed directly off it. As busing options are not available for Torrey Pines High School and Canyon Crest Academy, at least one mother/chauffeur wondered if a city Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) bus route that traversed the length of Del Mar Heights could be a solution.

Finishing on Top

ZZ Top performs to a full house Sept. 4 at the Del Mar Summer Concert Series as the racetrack wrapped up another successful season this week.Photo/ JON CLARK

With a passion for promoting
academic excellence, 'Dee' Rich is concluding 29 years as a school trustee

By Arthur Lightbourn

In her family, it's been like a good seed passed from one generation to the next — working to earn the best education possible and sharing the results of that good fortune through community service.
For Deanna “Dee” Rich, nurturing that seed resulted in her attending one of the top public high schools in the nation, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts University, teaching disadvantaged kids for three years in a federally-assisted public school in New York City, and devoting the past 29 years of her life, as a district school trustee, to improving the quality of education in North County.

Local author and actor Walter Carlin has never quite retired

By Lee Schoenbart

First there was his successful career in the commercial airline industry. Then his commercial success as a published author. Now, at 71 years young, this Del Mar Heights resident is appearing successfully in television commercials.
Walter Carlin’s advice is simple with a caveat.

Canadian author Charmaine Hammond brings ‘PAWsitive Inspirations’ to Earthsong Books in Del Mar on Sept. 11

By Lee Schoenbart

The misadventures of Marley the loveable golden Labrador retriever in “Marley & Me” was a heart-warming tale for moviegoers. It was inspired by journalist John Grogan’s autobiography “Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog.”
“In Toby’s Terms,” publisher Bettie Youngs of Del Mar described the adopted 5-and-a-half -year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever as a holy terror, beset by severe anxiety and destructive behavior that would take a miracle to curb. Toby routinely opened and emptied the hall closet, turned on water taps, knocked over the water cooler, pulled and ate things from the bookshelves and spent his days rampaging through the house, knocking down everything in his path. Oddest of all was his penchant for locking himself in the bathroom and then pushing the lid of the toilet tank onto the floor, smashing it to pieces.

Dr. Youngs noted that after a particularly disastrous encounter with the knife block in the kitchen and discovering Toby’s blood and paw prints on the phone, his owner and author of “In Toby’s Terms,” Charmaine Hammond, decided Toby needed professional help. Little did Hammond know that in spite of trying to teach him how to be the dog she wanted, it was Toby who laid out the terms of being the dog he needed to be.
On Sept. 11, Hammond and Youngs will be at Earthsong Books in Del Mar where the author will be speaking and signing books.

“When we adopted Toby, we soon learned that people could relate to the many lessons we learned about ourselves through this dog,” said Hammond, a former correctional officer and mediator who resides in Alberta, Canada. “I published a short story about Toby in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned From the Dog” in 2009.”

Crimes and arrests in August

The numbers of crimes other than domestic violence with valid addresses and selected arrests/citations that were reported to the San Diego County’s Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) by Sept. 4 for the month of August 2010 in Carmel Valley, Del Mar Heights, North City, and Torrey Highlands, four of the seven San Diego City neighborhoods covered by the SDPD’s Northwestern Division, are shown below for the various incident types that can be selected in ARJIS Crime MAPS at www.arjis.org. There you can also get a map of incident locations and a report with incident hundred-block addresses, dates, and times.
Carmel Valley

Duo Zelo at the CV Library on Sept. 15

September’s free family music program sponsored by The Friends of the Carmel Valley Library will be presented on Wed., Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. in the library’s community room. It will feature Duo Zelo in a program of contemporary Latin music. The performers will be flutist Joyce Hayutin and guitarist Anthony Cutietta. The program will last 45 minutes.
Joyce Hayutin received her B. A. in flute performance from Towson State University in Maryland. She also attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She has been performing professionally in symphonies and ensembles, and teaching since the age of 16. Hayutin currently lives in Carmel Valley where she teaches in her home studio. She is an active member of several organizations and is a founding member of San Diego Coastal Flutes.
Anthony Cutietta received his B. A. in classical guitar performance from San Diego State University. He performs throughout Southern California in various venues and also teaches. He is a member of the Music Teachers Association of California and the Guitar Foundation of America.
The library is located at 3919 Townsgate Drive in Carmel Valley. For more information call (858) 552-1668.

CV resident Anisha Mudaliar named State of California Distinguished Young Woman for the Class of 2011

Carmel Valley resident Anisha Mudaliar, a senior at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, has been named the first Distinguished Young Woman for the State of California, following three days of competition among 39 other women in Bakersfield, Calif. Previously known as the Junior Miss competition, Anisha joins only two other San Diego women since 1958 to win the top honors at the state level. In June 2011, Anisha will travel to Mobile, Ala., to compete in the Distinguished Young Women of America program.

RSF Democratic Club to hold editors’ panel on elections Sept. 15

The Rancho Santa Fe Democratic Club will host a special editors' panel to discuss the upcoming November elections at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 6:30 p.m.

Local cancer survivor and athlete
finds — and gives — unique support
through LIVESTRONG Foundation

By Marlena Chavira-Medford
Staff Writer

Julie Tyson Westcott is an avid runner, so when her back started hurting, she assumed it was a sports injury and went to see her doctor.
What the doctor found, however, was far more serious.
“I found out that I had a malignant tumor on my spinal cord,” she said. “I was in shock. Here I was, 31 and in good shape, and suddenly I was facing cancer. My entire life changed at that moment.”