“ARMY” OF OHV’ers ATTEND CAL-CITY COUNCIL MEETING

March 3, 2009 - In a terrific display of support and cohesiveness, over fifty OHV’ers showed up impromptu to give their input why California City should maintain its OHV Trails and Cal City OHV License programs.
Supporters of the OHV programs put an ad-hoc group together in a very short time, and although the subject was not on the City Council’s agenda for the night, Lou Peralta apologize for taking the extraordinary time of the Council’s meeting to present the hundreds of e-mails he had received and the people, whose input he felt would give the Council members, the Mayor and City Manager and excellent opportunity to know who are the people supporting the OHV programs, and why they think it’s important to continue such programs.
Peralta had scheduled four individuals, some who traveled over 200 miles to get to the meeting, to make their statement in one minute or less. Most kept their statements under three minutes, but then a plethora of others, who had just arrived, stepped up to present their statements. Among the twenty or so there were two or three detractors who also grabbed the opportunity to state their case. One gentleman in particular, Wally Melendez, said that "Lou brought his army, so we must bring our army to keep off-roaders out."

In all, it was a very exciting, provocative and informative meeting that the City Council thought was significant, as the time approaches to vote whether to extend the programs or not. They thanked everyone and continued on other city business.

Outside the council room, many gathered to congratulate each other and promised support for the Cal City OHV programs.

Noteworthy was that during the meeting, former Mayor, David Evans presented information regarding SB-615 sponsored by State Senator Ashburn, which would give cities the power to work with the OHV community and in certain cases, open streets for licensed OHV’ers. City Manager asked Lou Peralta if he could gather a similar group of supporters to go to Sacramento, when the time comes to vote for the OHV Bill (SB-615). "Of course," said Peralta.

The City of California City is pro OHV use, more so than it has ever been before. However, they, too, are very cautious not to loosen the reins. Their main concern is the quality of life for those who reside and are retired in the community, and don’t necessarily care about OHV’ers. Those present understood and agreed that they should leave as little impact on the community as possible. In fact, several speakers pointed out that they own homes or are in the process of purchasing homes and establishing businesses in Cal City because of the proximity of the desert and being able to ride and camp out. Many pointed out that since the Cal City OHV Trails were initiated, they don’t have to bring all their food and drinks with them. The access to the City allows them to purchase locally and take advantage of the restaurants and local businesses.
Many of the speakers spoke about better signage so that people don’t make the mistake of not following the signed trail. Peralta introduced larger arrows that will point riders to the correct path. Ed Waldheim, who has already done incredible amount of work on the trails along with Wayne Nosala and others, has already initiated and is re-signing many of the trails, with larger placards and markers. Jim Woods, President of CORVA spoke eloquently about the enforcement of the rules by local authorities. Police Chief, Steve Colorick, an avid off-roader, agreed that they have already started clamping down on violators, especially those who ride the streets where they are not supposed to.

In all, it was a terrific first meeting between the City of California City and OHV’ers. They all felt that the real work is about to begin: to inform, educate and enforce the rules.

We will announce in plenty of time when the matter becomes part of the City Council’s agenda, which will be in the next couple of months and also when we’ll have to travel to Sacramento to push for SB615.