City Makes Plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the 4th

HARVEST FESTIVAL: Bring the family for a day full of fun and games at the Harvest Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 23-24 at the Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano. Admission is free for the event; parking is $5. There will be $20 wristbands available for all-access to games and fun events such as laser tag, mini golf, an obstacle course, and more for the family to enjoy. Concessions will be on site for food purchases. The park is located at 30753 La Pata Ave. Please call (949) 234-1696 or visit www.sanjuancapistrano.org for more information.

ONLINE REC CLASS REGISTRATION: − Our new class registration website is up and operational! If you are interested in registering for any of our wonderful classes, go to the city’s webpage, click “What’s New,” click “Online Classes” and then click the “Class Registration” button, and you can easily and conveniently sign up to register for all of the fun classes we offer.

THE 4TH OF JULY: Staff received approval by City Council at the Oct. 16 meeting, to move forward with fundraising for 2013’s 4th of July celebration aerial fireworks display. Staff is gearing up to start the fundraising campaign to acquire sponsorships for the display and has already received a title sponsorship donation from SDG&E, so we are off to a good start. A request for proposals for the aerial fireworks display will be sent out at the end of the month.

CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING: Preparations continue to be made for the annual tree lighting celebration that will be held on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Historic Town Center Park, beginning at 4 p.m. This special holiday event features a live stage production, orchestra performance, and the official lighting of the Christmas tree. Immediately following the ceremony, guests can follow the procession through downtown to the Mission San Juan Capistrano and Historic District for additional activities such as: face painting, a marionette show, free photos with Santa, a free Christmas train ride, hay ride, petting zoo, free craft, live nativity and much more. For more information call (949) 493-5911.2

SURPLUS PROPERTY: The city held a bidders conference on Oct. 30 for people interested in purchasing Lot 217, a vacant lot in Marbella across from the Marbella Shopping Plaza. It was well attended. The business community has expressed significant interest in the 4.79 acre parcel with a variety of tentative proposals.

HIGHWAY BEAUTIFICATION: The I-5 High Occupancy Vehicle Lane Aesthetics Subcommittee has conducted three meetings to identify recommended aesthetics treatments to walls and landscaping along the I-5 Freeway between San Juan Creek Road and Camino Las Ramblas. The Orange County Transportation Authority will provide draft view simulations based on city comments.

SADDLEBACK VALLEY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS: The Phase 2 classroom building, two-stories in height totaling 20,050 square feet in area, has been completed and signed off. Final landscaping is being completed.

DEL OBISPO STREET BRIDGE WIDENING: In the past week, the contractor placed concrete for curbs at the southeast corner of Alipaz Street and Del Obispo streets from the curb return to the bridge sidewalk. The workers removed falsework from the concrete construction on the south side of the bridge. They performed concrete finishing of the south side bridge outside face. They also constructed steel plates under the bridge joint, and the remainder of AT&T conduit bracket supports and conduits under the bridge approach.

The traffic signal subcontractor installed traffic signal wiring and conduits. They also pulled wire through the conduits. The project is scheduled for completion this month.

LIBRARY REPAIRS: Bids have come in for the repairs to the entry of La Sala at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. Work shall commence in December and should be completed before the end of the year. In the meantime, the La Sala Auditorium will remain closed for the public’s safety.

I-5/CAMINO CAPISTRANO INTERCHANGE: The project construction is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2013. Completion of this phase will allow additional through and right turn traffic lanes to be opened for northbound Camino Capistrano south of the I-5 ramps. In addition, the extended auxiliary off-ramp deceleration lane on the freeway will be opened. The barricades will also be removed on San Juan Creek Road under the freeway. Phase 2 will shift construction to the west side of Camino Capistrano to construct an additional southbound lane from south of the ramps to the widened portion of Camino Capistrano. This work will be performed at night. For more information, contact the Caltrans project manager, David Richardson, at (949) 724-2341.

I-5/ORTEGA HIGHWAY INTERCHANGE: This project will reconfigure the existing I-5/SR-74 interchange and will facilitate traffic flow and improve travel times, alleviating congestion along Ortega Hwy and the I-5 freeway on/off ramps, and reduce congestion-related collisions. The Ortega Highway bridge will be demolished and reconstructed one half at a time. The bridge will remain open to the traveling public except for intermittent nighttime including demolition and falsework construction. There will also be several long-term full closures during the construction. Intermittent and long-term full closures will include I-5 Freeway (intermittent only), Ortega Highway, Del Obispo Street, and the on/off ramps.

Specific closure and detour information will be available on the project website (www.ortega.dot.ca.gov) once the work begins. A link to it is also available at the bottom of the City website homepage. Construction is expected to begin in January/February 2013, and be completed in Spring 2015.

REPLACEMENT OF TIRADOR, KINOSHITA, AND SJBA4 WELL PUMPS: Solicitation for bids for these projects is still ongoing and will be completed soon. The pump replacements work is scheduled to occur the last week in November.

WATER PRODUCTION: The goal of local groundwater to be produced from the Groundwater Recovery Plant (GWRP) for this fiscal year (July 1 through June 30, 2013) is 4,545 acre feet. Thus far for the month of November, the GWRP has produced 68 acre feet. The total fiscal year-to-date production through today is 1,327 acre feet which is 29 percent of the annual goal of 4,545 acre feet. Historical monthly production is as follows:

For the month of November the plant averaged 3.2 MGD (9.8 acre feet). While we continue to work on the reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to minimize head loss through the filters and bring production up, the quality of water coming from the greensand filters continues to limit production out of the plant and the effectiveness of the RO membranes. The media in the greensand filters is targeted for replacement the last week in November 2012.