RANCHO SANTA FE — Rancho Santa Fe Association interim manager Christy Whalen kicked off her monthly board meeting update by reminding the board and Covenant members in attendance how they were in the middle of an election season.
Although early in the process, to date the Association had not yet received any candidate nominations for the Board of Directors. Nominations will remain open until March.
“If anyone knows of someone who is interested in running, we have two seats open,” Whalen said.
One seat is held by Kim Eggleston, with the other held by Rick Sapp, whose term also ends June 30.
Last August, Sapp was elected to fill a vacant board of director’s seat at the Rancho Santa Fe Association following Ann Boon’s resignation on July, 7, 2016.
Whalen then addressed how the community weathered the powerful Jan. storms.
Prior to them landing, the Association delivered e-blasts to its Covenant members letting them know that bad weather was anticipated, Whalen said. The community was advised that both flooding and road closures were anticipated and were encouraged to use caution.
“We had quite a busy four days from Jan. 20 to Jan. 24,” she said, noting how the RSF Patrol received 88 calls during that timeframe.
Whalen said from the calls recorded, seven streets had flooded, three vehicles were stuck in the water, three power lines were down, and four collisions occurred with one minor injury. Traffic signs were also down.
“Two minor mudslides were reported and lots of high winds. When we get high winds in this community, it sets off a lot of people’s alarms so there were a lot of alarm calls as well,” Whalen said.
Another group incredibly busy during this time was the Association’s parks and recreations crew having received many calls. Whalen shared how they were responsible in helping to clear the downed trees.
“We had probably 30 to 40 trees going down in the areas of the Association is responsible for, on Association-owned property and public right of ways,” she said. “Our crew has done a great job over the past five years of identifying and removing diseased and dead trees, and so I think it could have been a lot worse.”
Whalen shared how the community was fortunate that most of the trees fell away from the roadway.
“We did have some fall into the roadway, especially on El Camino Real, that was closed for a bit, and again, an exhausting time for both our patrol and our parks crew,” she said. “But it could have been a whole lot worse had we not had our guys being so on top of it. So a great thanks to the people in patrol, and parks and recs.”
Whalen then touched upon the recent tree-planting event at Osuna Ranch on Jan. 28 that had 70 participants who helped plant a total of 35 California native trees.
“It was a nice community event,” Whalen said.
