9-28-18 Sec 1 pg 1-9_Edition 9/26/18 3:59 PM Page 6

6 Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 COMMUNITY Highland Community News n highlandnews.net

East Valley district is honored

for its transparent information
East Valley Water District transparency requirements, in-
has been honored for making fi- cluding creating a website
nancial reports and other infor- transparency portal, holding
mation easily accessible to the ethics trainings for its directors
public. and management, holding open
It has been presented the and public meetings for com-
Transparency Certificate of Ex- munity members to attend and
cellence Award by the Special filing financial transactions and
District Leadership Foundation. compensation reports to the
“As a public agency commit- state controller. This is the first
ted to serving our community, time the district has received
we embrace our responsibility this award.
of making district information It has also been recognized S an B ernardino Valley Water C onSerVation d iStriCt photo

readily available,” said Board by the Government Finance Of-

Chairman Chris Carrillo. ficers Association for trans- Rocky donation
“We are honored to be recog- parency in financial documents. the Wildlands Conservancy in oak Glen is using 322 tons of rock donated by San Bernardino
nized with this award.” For additional information Valley Water Conservation district staff from its Mill Creek property to enhance the gardens used
To receive the award, the dis- visit eastvalley.org. by the organization for public education. More than 100,000 students have participated in the oak
trict met essential governance Glen outdoor education program since its inception in 2002.

Sterling
Continued from page 1
cycling projects to the basin.
Board Chairman Chris Carril-
lo declared it a historic mo-
ment. Earlier, Director James
down the Santa Ana River to- Morales read prepared com-
ward the ocean. Agencies down-
ments, declaring this the most
stream siphon off some of the important meeting in his five
water. years on the board.
“In addition, this project will “It always seems impossible
enhance the district’s connec- until it’s done, yet here we are
tion with the community by tonight,” Morales said. “This is
providing meeting space and a vision whose time has come.
partnerships that will provide This project will safeguard our
educational opportunities,” community far into the future
Nolte said. and enable us to be self-suffi-
The district selected the de- cient. Self-sufficiency makes us
sign-build partnership involving the envy of Southern California.
six firms because of the com- “We are geographically locat-
plexity of the project, he said.
ed at the mouth of the Santa
San Bernardino Valley Mu- Ana River, top of the water food
nicipal Water District will chain and we should take ad-
spend $18 million to construct a vantage of that. This project
pipeline to carry water from does that.”
the Sterling plant and future re- Perennial critic Anthony Ser-
rano was the only opponent who
spoke against the plan and al-
leged the agenda packet was
not posted online. It was. He
also questioned a $15 million
“loan” for the project.
General Manager and CEO
John Mura explained that it was
an allocation from the capital
improvement program.
“It seems like this is a recur-
ring theme to undo this confu-
sion,” Mura said, questioning
Serrano’s motives. The board
approved the $15 million to be
spent as needed to support con-
struction at the Sterling site on
Del Rosa Drive between Fifth
and Sixth streets, he said.
After the board approved the
guaranteed maximum price it
approved a resolution to ask the
State Water Quality Control
Board to increase its funding
request from $126 million to
$132 million.
Chief Financial Officer Brian
Thompkins said three things
have changed since the loan re-
quest was made in March 2016:
• The district settled a law-
suit with the city of San
Bernardino.
• The Local Agency Forma-
tion Commission granted waste-
water treatment authority to
the district.
• And it dissolved the frame-
work agreement with the Valley
District, allowing East Valley
autonomy to build the project
using the design-build process.
The increase will cover the
cost of the Sterling contract
with the Beatty/Arcadis team.
East Valley ratepayers will be
on the hook for $125.3 million
on the 1.8 percent interest loan.
It is $6.7 million less than the
loan request because of a
Design-build team
Design-build is a construction
process that brings together several
companies to work together on a
complex project, such as the Sterling
Natural Resources Center, which has
six team members.
The customer manages only one
contract with a single point of respon-
sibility, according to the Design-Build
Institute of America website.
“The designer and contractor work
together from the beginning as a
team, providing unified project rec-
ommendations to fit the owner’s
schedule and budget. Any changes
are addressed by the entire team,
leading to collaborative problem-solv-
ing and innovation, not excuses or
blame-shifting.”
Sterling’s six team members are:
n Balfour Beatty: Industry-leading
provider of general contracting, at-
risk construction management and
design-build services for public and
private sector clients across the Unit-
ed States. Performing heavy civil and
vertical construction, the company is
part of an international infrastructure

Welcome to Our Town! Proposition 1 Water Bond grant.

Before the unanimous vote,
Serrano questioned why the wa-
ter would be used to replenish
life in “Our the Bunker Hill Basin.
overing every facet of
group. balfourbeattyus.com
n Arcadis: The leading global de-
sign and consultancy firm for natural
and built assets. It applies “deep
market sector insights and collective
design, consultancy, engineering,

C e book is de- “Going back to 2011, when we

Town,” this comprehensiv started looking at the feasibility
project and management expertise,”

Our ation that

signed to contain inform will espe- study, this was not part of the
its website says.. arcadis.com
n Ruhnau Clarke Architects: Mul-

Town useful. But it plan,” he told the board. “We

present residents will find our city.
tidisciplinary planning, architecture
were told that we were going to and interiors firm that partners with
to
A GUIDE TO LIFE
IN HIGHLAND
2017-2018 EDITIO
N
cially guide residents new tical information on be drinking recycled water. We organizations to realize their vision

“Our Town” will have ac government, util-

pr did not talk about recharging through design. ruhnauclarke.com.
n Trussell Technologies Inc.: An
estate,
local schools, parks, real re, clubs and organ- the entire basin.”
Mura assured the board that
environmental engineering firm fo-
l ca
ities, newspapers, medica cused on process and water quality.
d the arts, post offices, recharging the basin was the It has offices in Pasadena, San Diego
izations, entertainment an plan from the start. “Mr. Serra- and Oakland. trusselltech.com
ing else a new person
festivals, shopping and anyth no is now 0 for 20 in terms of n WSP: Globally recognized pro-
fessional services firm employing ap-
in town needs to know.
stating the facts,” Mura said.
Community News ere. It will also have proximately 42,000 people.
H IGHLA ND

The district gets 74 percent

“Our Town” won’t stop th
Your Community. Your Newspaper.

wsp.com
story of Highland along of its supply from the basin, a n Inframark: An independent,
feature articles on the hi natural underground storage
famous people, places American-owned company widely rec-
with companion pieces on r area and its her- area made up of soil, sand, and ognized as a leader in water infra-
t ou
and fascinating facts abou
gravel and the base of the allu- structure operations and infrastruc-

2018Fr-2 d it
019 Eer 16th, 2018 itage. io n vial fan below the river. ture management services. infra-
mark.com
th a
ide to life in Highland, wi
About 21 percent of the sup-
Publishes: ida y, Novemb “O ur To wn ,” a gu ply comes from surface water
Deadline: Friday, Octob
er 26th, 2018 works all year for you.
pressrun of 16,000 copies, merce will be send- fed by rainfall and snowmelt
Serrano before the meeting.
m
y The local Chambers of Co location packets
Call Togda into the Santa Ana River water-
es reserve Serrano drew a sharp rebuke
adv ertisin representativ tion. in its re shed — and 5 percent is import-
ing out “Our Town”
to have one of our edi
for this premiere from Director Ron Coats, who
your advertising space ed from Northern California via
throughout the year.
said, “For far too long for the

Community News
the State Water Project.
H IGH LAN D r Town
Th is special distribution means that Ou When the Sterling Natural four years that we’ve actively
sure to include your been doing this there has been a
Your New spap er.

works all year for you. Be 9 special edition of

Your Community. Resource Center is complete in
concentrated effort by certain
(909) 86 2-1771 advertising in this 2018-2
01 2021, it will provide 40 percent
of the district’s water needs. people to railroad this project
Fax: (909) 862-1787et Our Town. Mura said later that he spent an into failure.

www.highlandnews.n hour explaining the project to “As a ratepayer and a taxpay-

See STERLING on page 7