Just ahead of a pension vestment that pays him over $200,000 annually, Escondido City Manager Clay Phillips, 58, suddenly resigned on Wednesday. Coincidentally, Phillips’ 3-year city manager contract that made him the highest paid city manager in San Diego County was set to expire next year. Dec, 18 would be his last day on the job, Phillips said. It was unclear if the pension and…
Escondido’s Grand Avenue Festival, aka Escondido Street Faire, held Sunday, Oct. 18 might be the second-largest single-day festival in California, but as they used to say in the old Avis rent-a-car commercials, they try harder. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people flocked to Grand Avenue and block after block of 500 vendors, food and music from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Escondido’s first street…
‘The goal is to be the Balboa Park of North County.’ — Jerry Van Leeuween, Executive Director, California Center for the Arts Melissa Etheridge comes to town on Nov. 6, playing the only North County venue large enough for such a major act, the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. The center has had a troubled financial past. However, nobody can deny it…
The Grand Tea Room Thinks Pink Care for a little sympathy with some tea? Grand Tea Room is hosting “Think Pink” to raise money for breast cancer research. It’s part of this weekend’s Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Awareness walk, and at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. Afternoon Grand Tea is $35, all included. It features tea sandwiches, “savories,” fresh fruit, desserts, scones and,…
Hawthorne Veteran and Family Resource Center is opening in a few days at 250 N. Ash St. with the lights much brighter there for Escondido and North County vets and families. As one of only five recuperative care providers in the nation certified to work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Interfaith’s Veteran and Family Resource Center is establishing a much needed state…
With each side spinning a victorious tale Wednesday, a long-simmering and sometimes outright smelly dispute over the re-development of the once-proud Escondido Golf Course property seems to have been settled. Controversial property owner of said former 110-acre golf course site, Stuck in the Rough, L.L.C. reached and agreement with the Escondido City Council to drop its lawsuit against the city over the property’s zoning. Stuck…
Escondido political and civic leaders this week continued to try to find a way to get someone to build a hotel next to the California Center of the Arts. Just that this latest version of the quest for a Holy Grail of a hotel has been downsized from 4-star luxury to 3-star business class. Clay Phillips, Escondido’s city manager, last month acknowledged that a two-step…
Escondido’s Cruisin’ Grand car show never truly ends. Like the day after Christmas or Mardi Gras for some, planning immediately began for Cruisin’ Grand 2016 after the 2015 version ended on Oct. 2. That 2016 event will be the 17th incarnation of the annual rite of spring and summer. Swaying with the rhythms of spring and summer, almost in sync with the Major League Baseball…
Continuing to confound family and friends, Skylar Peterson “Sky” Tosic has gone missing and can’t be found. Despite numerous efforts to locate the Escondido lad in the last 30 days, he seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth, friends and family say. The mild-mannered 20-year-old Palomar College student disappeared on Sunday, Aug. 30. He was last believed to be near the Wild…
Escondido Police have just announced the arrests of five men who approached undercover operatives to try to buy sex at downtown motels. The sting targeting individuals soliciting women for the purpose of prostitution occurred on Friday, Sept. 25 around the motel district in central city, according to Escondido Police Lt. Greg Kogler. As a result of this enforcement effort, five men approached the undercover personnel…