Home Care In San Clemente, CA

San Clemente leaders posed the city as a willing partner and local activists pleaded for sand nourishment during a listening session organized by the Orange County Transportation Authority on Wednesday, March 20.

A few dozen people gathered at the San Clemente Community Center to make their voices heard after OCTA officials made a presentation about their ongoing Coastal Rail Resiliency Study. Attendees included Mayor Victor Cabral, City Manager Andy Hall, and representatives from Bring Back Our Beaches, Capo Cares, the California Native Plants Society, Save Our Beaches San Clemente and the Surfrider Foundation.

“Placing sand on the beach would accommodate and, I think, address several concerns, including some of the landslides,” Hall said. “Also, the cost of doing that would be comparable, if not less than, building up the revetment.”

The City of San Clemente would eagerly participate in such an action, Hall continued, as residents have expressed critical concern for rebuilding the city’s beaches. Pursuing sand would also placate residents frustrated by OCTA staff’s proposal to do emergency work that would add a half-mile-long wall, a half-mile’s worth of rock placement (riprap), and a revetment three-quarters of a mile long to San Clemente’s beach.

While the city understands OCTA’s need to protect its assets, the riprap is believed to have caused sand to be washed away and thus needs to come with sand whenever it’s placed in the future, Hall said.

During last week’s listening session, the sixth of 10 scheduled and one focused on hearing from “Coastal & Marine Habitat Community-Based Organizations,” OCTA officials presented the audience with the results from the CRRS’ Initial Assessment. The information was the same as that presented to the OCTA Board of Directors at their March 11 meeting.

OCTA identified seven monitoring areas stretching from Doheny State Beach to the OC-San Diego County border that need various levels of continuous monitoring.

It also marked four potential reinforcement areas to place riprap, construct a revetment and do other work to address the impacts of erosion and poor surface drainage. The stretch from North Beach to Linda Lane and the northern end of the Cyprus Shores area comprised the reinforcement areas.

“These are the four areas that we have identified as being an imminent threat to the continued operation of the railroad, and, in fact, (the Linda Lane area) has already set in motion,” said project manager Dan Phu. “That underscores the importance of needing to get something done sooner rather than later.”

Suzie Whitelaw, a member of Save Our Beaches SC, cited a peer review of OCTA’s request for proposals (RFP) and work plan completed by Brett Sanders, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. The peer review discovered a lack of an emphasis on sand in the documents, Whitelaw said, calling out OCTA for not meaningfully looking into sand nourishment as an option to protect the railroad.

“This is not a short-term solution to your problem,” she said of constructing seawalls comprising rock. “This is a long-term destruction of our beaches. This is death to our beaches.”

Mandy Sackett, Surfrider’s Senior California Policy Coordinator, expressed Surfrider’s opposition to the proposed projects and stated the projects should be undergoing the California Coastal Commission’s full permitting process.

Rock placement will do serious damage to public resources, she continued, adding that any plans to establish seawalls should come with an “extremely robust mitigation package” and substantial placement of sand.

“We also wish to see the extension of the coastal trail south of the railroad and a firm commitment to relocating the rail by 2035, similar to Del Mar’s commitment,” said Sackett.

Capo Cares’ Toni Nelson cautioned OCTA against destroying South Orange County beaches for generations to come and echoed Surfrider’s request for OCTA to submit to the full CCC permitting process.

“This is not an emergency; when you have an emergency that keeps happening over three years, it’s now normal,” Nelson said. “This is your new normal, and you need to go through the normal litigation.”

During the meeting, Project Manager Phu stated that OCTA staff are looking into placing sand in addition to other concepts, and that the reluctance with sand is more related to the timeframe required to place it.

“Sand is definitely going to be part of the solution,” Phu said.

The public listening sessions will continue as the CRRS enters the phases of drafting evaluation criteria and initial project concepts this spring. Christina Byrne, OCTA Public Outreach Department Manager, said the objective of the sessions is to gather and document community feedback as the organization seeks to maintain the rail line and minimize service disruptions.

The next session, concerning homeowner associations and residential groups, is scheduled for April 3. A virtual meeting for the general public will occur on April 11, followed by a roundtable for elected officials on May 10 and an in-person meeting for the general public on May 30.

The final meeting is anticipated to occur in the Council Chambers at San Clemente City Hall, according to Byrne.

More information about the CRRS is available at octa.net.

San Clemente was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their fifth straight loss. Their rough 13-5 defeat to the Capistrano Valley Cougars might stick with them for a while. The result was an unpleasant reminder to San Clemente of the 5-1 loss they experienced in the pair's previous head-to-head fixture back in April of 2023.

San Clemente saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Emily Racine, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-3. Another player making a difference was Havyn Nekritz, who went 2-for-3 with two RBI.

On Capistrano Valley's side, Madi McDonnell made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, pitching two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (she also didn't allow any walks). McDonnell has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive pitching appearances. McDonnell was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with a home run, five RBI, and two runs.

In other batting news, Peyton Hitzler was incredible, going 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and two runs. Quinn Southerland was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.

San Clemente's defeat dropped their record down to 4-9. As for Capistrano Valley, the victory (which was their tenth in a row) raised their record to 14-3.

Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. San Clemente will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Trabuco Hills at 5:00 p.m. on April 9th. As for Capistrano Valley, they will have some time to savor their win since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Bonita at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Capistrano Valley's pitching crew has only allowed 2.3 runs per game this season, so Bonita's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps

Capistrano Valley scored the most runs they've had all season to find success on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by a 13-5 margin over the San Clemente Tritons. Considering Capistrano Valley has won six contests by more than five runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.

Madi McDonnell made a splash no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, tossing two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (she also didn't allow any walks). McDonnell has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive pitching appearances. McDonnell was even better at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a home run, five RBI, and two runs.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Peyton Hitzler, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Quinn Southerland, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.

On San Clemente's side, they saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Emily Racine, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-3. Havyn Nekritz was another key contributor, going 2-for-3 with two RBI.

The victory (which was Capistrano Valley's tenth in a row) raised their record to 14-3. Those good results were due in large part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.0 runs per game. As for San Clemente, they are on a five-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 4-9.

Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Capistrano Valley will have some time to savor their win since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Bonita at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Capistrano Valley's pitching crew has only allowed 2.3 runs per game this season, so Bonita's hitters will have their work cut out for them. As for San Clemente, they will get a bit of extra time to process the loss as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Trabuco Hills at 5:00 p.m. on April 9th.

Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps

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A $7.2 million “catchment wall” will be built at a landslide area in northern San Clemente, Calif., to hold back the slipping hillside and get passenger train service running through to San Diego again.

The California Transportation Commission has committed the funding to the Orange County Transportation Authority, which owns the railroad tracks, to build the wall and repair the area of slope that collapsed in January — first onto the city’s Mariposa pedestrian bridge and then onto the tracks below, cutting off passenger service through San Clemente.

After the rain clears this week and the site dries, the dimensions of the wall and construction schedule will be finalized, Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said in an email. The OCTA owns the tracks, and Metrolink manages the right-of-way.

The wall between the tracks and the hillside will be similar to one built below the city’s historic Casa Romantica last year after a landslide there threatened the railway and halted service for many months, Johnson noted.

The latest landslide also damaged the pedestrian bridge at Mariposa Point that is part of the city’s popular beach trail; it is unclear at this time what will happen with the bridge where it is adjacent to the tracks. A section has to be demolished because of the damage.

Discussions have taken place between the OCTA and San Clemente city officials about the bridge, “but the primary focus right now is the wall and protecting the right-of-way,” Johnson said.

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The railway is part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, or LOSSAN, and is used by both passenger and freight trains — sections run along beachfront in San Clemente.

The California Transportation Commission previously kicked in $2 million in emergency funding for debris removal and other preconstruction services, Johnson said.

The latest costs put the total price tag due to landslides in the past two years for the OCTA and the state near $37 million, which includes various cleanups, repairs, installing tiebacks with steel cables into bedrock to secure an initial landslide further south two years ago and the wall construction below the Casa Romantica last year.

In addition, the city has also spent an estimated $8.5 million to secure the slope at the Casa Romantica. Officials are expecting the removal of the demolished Mariposa bridge to cost about $70,000.

Metrolink signed a design-build contract for the new wall at Mariposa Point last week with Condon-Johnson & Associates, a construction firm that has worked with the OCTA on previous emergency rail protection efforts in San Clemente.

Ahead of this week’s rain, Metrolink and OCTA project teams — in coordination with the city and private property owners — laid out more protective plastic along the hillside.

The team is continuing to observe hillside movement and daily removal of debris from the right of way, Johnson said.

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BNSF is moving freight trains through the area between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m., and the late-night trips are “expected to continue as the project team closely monitors the slope and right of way to ensure safety,” according to Metrolink.

As storms continue to batter the region, it is becoming increasingly common for California’s coastal transportation infrastructure to suffer storm-related damage, forcing closures and delays, Metrolink officials said in a recent statement.

In addition to the troubles in San Clemente, Pacific Coast Highway north of Malibu is closed indefinitely during nighttime hours due to storm damage along stretches of the roadway.

Rather than open its first California franchise at a location more well-known for retail shopping in the Los Angeles area or around San Diego, national gourmet cookie brand Chip will see its initial entry into the California market open in the San Clemente neighborhood of Talega.

That’s thanks to co-owners Greg McRath and Jeff Wellman, who sought to provide another hangout spot for San Clemente families and children living farther away from downtown.

The franchise, set to open Saturday, Dec. 2, marks the long-time college friends’ first enterprise together and McRath’s first foray into owning a business.

“Jeff and I have always loved desserts and stuff,” McRath said.

Both men have their own careers but desired to have something else in their lives they could be passionate about. It just so happens that their new venture can provide a benefit to the community, in Wellman’s words.

With the two both being San Clemente residents with children, Wellman noted that their kids and others don’t often have places to go after school outside of home, resulting in a gaggle of youth riding electric bikes to Target.

The duo’s vision is for Chip to be a “community hub,” which is why the restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating.

“We want to make it more of a place where kids can come to after school, (to) get a cookie, a soda, (and) hang out,” said Wellman. “(It’s a) kid-friendly environment and a safe place for families.”

The team did have opportunities to plant their store downtown on Avenida Del Mar, Wellman continued, but foresaw that parking would be an issue there and not in Talega.

He added that they want to participate in efforts that revitalize the surrounding Talega Village Center and bring more attention to restaurants such as Fettuccine Marcello Italian Kitchen and Kiaan’s Fine Indian Cuisine.

McRath pointed out that Chip would be a quick option for those who’d prefer not to venture too far from home for a late-night treat, adding that “(a one-minute drive) is better than 10 minutes.”

“If you’re home at 9 p.m. and you’re like, ‘I just want a cookie or a fancy soda’… this is in their backyard, so it gives them an option that they didn’t have before,” said McRath.

Before landing on Chip as their franchise opportunity, the two embarked on a “taste-testing trip” to determine what dessert business to bring to San Clemente, explained Wellman. They went to Utah, among other places, to try sweets from various chains and met with franchisees to figure out their next step.

Chip was “by far the best one,” said Wellman, adding that Chip’s cookies had the best taste and quality.

“That’s what ultimately wins, is if the people love it, it will sell,” Wellman said. “Chip cookies stood out, like, hands down, nine out of 10, the best. It wasn’t even close.”

The chain made even more sense after he and McRath learned that Chip hadn’t yet expanded to locations west of Idaho and Utah, which prompted them to sign with Chip roughly one year ago. Construction began in July with plans to open on Thanksgiving. Obstacles, however, pushed the date back.

Those are just some of the challenges the duo has faced so far in owning and operating a quick-service food restaurant, with McRath coming solely from a background in corporate work and Wellman owning businesses in the medical industry.

“It takes a lot of upfront capital compared to other investments and other businesses to own, per se, because it’s not like a plug and play,” Wellman said.

Building, permitting and following the state’s and county’s health guidelines were all part of the process, he added, in addition to ensuring they had all the required funding—particularly under the conditions of an onerous “economic landscape” in recent years.

Regardless, McRath and Wellman are looking forward to contributing to the communities of inland San Clemente and Talega by offering a place for people to spend time together and “get some quality desserts,” Wellman said.

Chip’s grand opening event will begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with the first 10 people in line receiving a wristband and free cookies for a year. The event will also feature decorations, drawings and raffle prizes, and live music. Everyone who comes will get a free cookie.

More information about Chip’s flavors, as well as delivery and shipping options can be found at chipcookies.co.