Practices are one weekday evening per week and games are on Saturday’s at either Calavera Hills or Stagecoach Community Centers. Practices start in November and games in December, with the season ending mid-February. Our leagues are designed for fun, learning, and sportsmanship. Training is also available.
All coaches must pass a background check and get fingerprinted before participating. Contact Grant Titus at grant.titus@carlsbadca.gov or 760-434-2971 for more information. Deadline for indicating interest is October 15th.
It’s not exactly a secret spot for Carlsbadistan mountain bikers, but if you haven’t been out to the Calavera Trails recently, here’s a little update from the City of Carlsbad. Which reminds us, it’s probably time to go burn some laps. . .
It’s nearly impossible to safely ride a bike in Carlsbadistan during the day, but that hasn’t stopped the City of Carlsbad from installing 20 brand new bike racks in the Village of Carlsbadistan. We couldn’t be happier.
“The racks were installed on sidewalks within the public right-of-way where we’ve seen bikes locked up to street lights, trees, fountains, and fences. We worked with the business owners when possible to identify the best places to locate the racks,” said Bryan Jones, the City’s Deputy Director of Transportation. . . . Creating more parking for cyclists expands the customer base for merchants and improves traffic congestion by encouraging visitors to ride their bikes to the Village instead of driving.
Sure, you have to lean your bike up against the racks and it’s difficult to get more than two bikes locked to a rack at a time, but it’s a great step in the right direction. Now, if we could just eliminate cars from the Village entirely we’d be getting some where. Follow the jump for the complete details. [click to continue…]
A year ago we learned Carlsbad is considering outsourcing city services, but to this date we haven’t been told why.
At a July 2011 workshop, city council members heard a presentation by Carrollton, Texas’ Director of Competition, Tom Guilfoy (“City to explore some outsourcing of government work,” NCT, 2011). He told the council his city saved at least $25 million over nine years under its Managed Competition plan.
Liking what they heard, the council directed City Manager Lisa Hildabrand to conduct an internal review to see if outsourcing could make city government more business-like.
City park landscaping work has been suggested for potential outsourcing, which added irony to Councilman Mark Packard’s warning that council members should not “let the grass grow under our feet” waiting for Carlsbad to “handle its operations the way private businesses do.” Packard is apparently not as worried about the weeds growing under his feet while he’s strolling through Aviara Park if a private contractor is maintaining it with lower paid employees.
Carrollton’s Guilfoy proudly pointed out how much money was saved by outsourcing solid waste management collection and laying off 50 city employees. Carlsbad outsourced waste collection long ago. Carrollton’s Parks and Recreation department escaped outsourcing by reducing costs of equipment replacements. [click to continue…]
The City of Carlsbad is happy to report that after “detailed water quality testing” Carlsbad Municipal Water District’s drinking water meets “all state and federal water quality standards for drinking water.”
“Our residents should feel confident in the water we provide,” said Glenn Pruim, general manager of the Carlsbad Municipal Water District, a subsidiary district of the City of Carlsbad. “People might not realize that their water undergoes rigorous testing— even more than bottled water.”
When they rolled out their 2012-13 preliminary operating budget two weeks ago Carlsbad city officials were singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” But not everyone joined in the chorus. A parade of disgruntled residents reprimanded the city council at its June 5 meeting for the city’s failure to invest in more open space. And now members of the planning commission join hotel industry experts in suggesting the city might soon be overbuilt with hotel rooms.
One land use issue that didn’t make the headlines can be found in a report on the city’s changing demographics by Community and Economic Development Director Gary Barberio.
Barberio pointed to forecasts showing the addition of 20,000 Carlsbadians by 2040, a 20 percent increase. But the number of 35 to 64 year-olds, who now make up nearly half of city residents, is expected to shrink to little more than a third of the population.
While the share of Carlsbad’s Generation X gets smaller, the number of Millennials between the ages of 20 and 34, is expected to grow by 20 percent. Baby Boomers from 65 to 80 will rise by a whopping 124 percent.
City crews are out this morning (May 14, 2012) on Garfield Street in the heart of Carlsbadistan adding four-way stops at the intersections of Garfield and Walnut Ave, and Garfield and Juniper Ave. These new stop signs will give speeding drivers the slow-down that neighborhood residents have been hoping for for years.
“I can’t believe how happy the residents are,” said one city worker. “Everyone who has come by has been glad we’re doing this.”
These improvements were made just in time for the summer traffic rush and are set to make Garfield a much safer street for people who live in the neighborhood.
The Friends of the Carlsbad Library are hosting their Spring Better Books Sale on Saturday and Sunday April 28-29, 2012. In addition to books, there will be a special group of collectible records and CDS.
There are books of current and classic fiction, coffee table books, beautiful art books, cookbooks, travel, sports, music, history, biography, children’s and many other categories of books to choose from. And they are all very affordably priced (cash and checks accepted). . . All profits from the sale are used for Carlsbad Library programs. The Friends provide major support for the children’s Summer Reading Program, the Carlsbad Reads Together community event and the Magee Park Poetry program. We also pay for enhanced technology, extra copies of bestsellers and programs for kids and teens. Friends volunteers staff the Friends Book Store at the Dove Library and keep the bookstore area at the Cole stocked with books for all interests.
After numerous accidents and daily perilous close calls, the City of Carlsbad has finally committed to upgrading the crosswalks on Coast Highway (Carlsbad Blvd.) with medians and “high-visibility crosswalks.” This improvement has been a long time coming.
The project will improve pedestrian crosswalks at six locations along the scenic coastal roadway: Oak, Pine, Sycamore, Maple, Cherry and Hemlock avenues. . . . At five of these — Oak, Sycamore, Maple, Cherry and Hemlock — the improvements will include the installation of a raised median in the center of Carlsbad Boulevard, giving pedestrians an island in the middle of the road where they can stop halfway across. The city also will install warning signs, and some could include rectangular flashing lights that pedestrians can activate when they want to cross at these locations, to alert motorists that someone is entering the crosswalk.
We’ve always said that the most dangerous thing about going to the beach in Carlsbadistan is crossing Coast Highway. For the official word from the City of Carlsbad, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Last week Carlsbad’s city council approved an amended employment agreement with City Manager Lisa Hildabrand, effective January 1, 2012, listing her new salary at $230,000.
Communications Director Kristina Ray told me Hildabrand’s $13,000 pay hike, which became effective November 28, was based on her 2008 contract.
You could hear the buzzing of angry city worker bees in Carlsbad and Escondido when they learned their bosses were getting huge salary increases while their own pay remained frozen. Adding insult to injury, some of Carlsbad’s lowest paid workers are facing cuts in take-home pay because of an increase in what they’re required to pay into the state’s retirement system.
The salary of Carlsbad’s city manager is linked to the second highest paid city manager in the county, excluding the city of San Diego. Annual increases are limited to the rise in California’s Consumer Price Index. But additional “salary adjustments” are allowed if the price of city managers is driven up by pay increases in other cities. [click to continue…]
If you have a Carlsbad news story, press release, event, rumor, or scandal that we'd be interested in (and there are a lot of them), please click the link to send them to The Editors.
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The Carlsbad Parks & Recreation Department is looking for a few good people to coach basketball for boys and girls in first through eighth grade.
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The Riehl World: Outsourcing Why?
by Richard J. Riehl on July 12, 2012
A year ago we learned Carlsbad is considering outsourcing city services, but to this date we haven’t been told why.
At a July 2011 workshop, city council members heard a presentation by Carrollton, Texas’ Director of Competition, Tom Guilfoy (“City to explore some outsourcing of government work,” NCT, 2011). He told the council his city saved at least $25 million over nine years under its Managed Competition plan.
Liking what they heard, the council directed City Manager Lisa Hildabrand to conduct an internal review to see if outsourcing could make city government more business-like.
City park landscaping work has been suggested for potential outsourcing, which added irony to Councilman Mark Packard’s warning that council members should not “let the grass grow under our feet” waiting for Carlsbad to “handle its operations the way private businesses do.” Packard is apparently not as worried about the weeds growing under his feet while he’s strolling through Aviara Park if a private contractor is maintaining it with lower paid employees.
Carrollton’s Guilfoy proudly pointed out how much money was saved by outsourcing solid waste management collection and laying off 50 city employees. Carlsbad outsourced waste collection long ago. Carrollton’s Parks and Recreation department escaped outsourcing by reducing costs of equipment replacements. [click to continue…]
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