Rainfall estimates for next Monday … creeping up and up.

A late winter storm on track for early spring in Southern California.

How much did those new classrooms and fancy building on Morning View Drive cost?

The Santa Monica school district adds up costs from the bond issue passed 16 years ago,. 

The mountain lion killed on PCH was a young juvenile who strangely had been crossing back and forth near Pescadero Beach. 

====

This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the Thursday edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

More Than 1 Inch Of Rain Forecast For Just After Academy Awards

A winter storm .,.. rain and mountains snow … is going to arrive just after the Oscars end this weekend. 

Right now it looks like the Oscars will be dry but the Monday morning commute will be wet. 

And rain will fall all day Monday.,

Rainfall. amounts have been upped … now a half inch to one inch amounts or even better.

Snow levels will be around 7000 feet through Monday morning but will fall to about 5500 ft later in the afternoon. 

That means decent snowfall at the resort levels like Big bear . But no snow on the Grapevine. 

====

Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Brewing Company.

Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio.

Just released: a limited, holiday-spiced Winter Ale …  a perfect fireside companion.

It makes a special gift for the beer-lovers on your list.

Find Malibu Brewing Company premium craft beer in select retailers, or order direct at brew malibu dot com

 

Young Male Mountain Lion Was Frequenting Beachfront Malibu Just Before His Death

It was on a 55 mile per hour stretch of PCH … near Decker Canyon Road… where a park ranger on his way for morning coffee spied a dead mountain lion in the middle of the road.

This was yesterday …. An hour after sunrise,.

The bloodied mountain lion had been hit during the night … the driver did not stop … or if the driver stopped … not for long. 

It is not against the law to leave the scene of a crash … involving an animal.

And the mountain lion had suffered extensive injuries.

It was P-104 … a very young male mountain lion who had been tagged and released in the mountains just two weeks earlier.

And National Park Service researchers had watched P-108 wander out of the mountains and cross back and forth across PCH …. out west of Broad Beach … where traffic is 55 plus.

This was the first mountain lion known to have been killed crossing PCH. 

It’s not unusual for mountain lions to venture close to homes… but mountain lions on the beach are pretty much unheard of.

P-104 is the 25th mountain lion to be killed by a car in the 20 years that the National Park Service has been tracking the wild cats.

And this was the first that they have documented being hit and killed by a car … on PCH.

=====

Support for KBUU radio… For eight years now… Has come from Rancho Del Cielo. Perched high above the Pacific Ocean and overlooking Paradise Cove… Rancho Del Cielo is a partner bringing public radio to the Malibu.

New School Buildings Cost $104 Million, SMMUSD Says In Accounting Summary

So how much did that new school building on Morning View Drive cost?

School officials in Santa Monica have added up the tape. 

About 70 million dollars … is the cost.

Add in other projects around the campus … like removing PCB tainted class buildings … and we;’re looking at 104 million dollars.

16 years ago… Voters in the santa monica Malibu school district approved a big bond issue called measure BB.

This week… the final accounting of that money was reviewed by the school board.

Measure BB was a 268 million dollar bond issue … it was approved by voters 16 years ago,.

A second bond issue … Measure ES … was approved 10 years ago.

The Malibu High School campus got 22 classroom and labs ..  media room … and the high tech library.

The final tally for those new classroom buildings on Morning View Drive: 70 point 6 million dollars for construction.

But another 34 million dollars for design … oversight … and a whole Buch of demolition,

Steve Massetti … the districts bond program manager … says the removal of PCB contaminated buildings was not envisioned when the campus reocnstruction project began … 16 years ago.

NEWSCART A73211 MASSETTI

“One of the factors is that it was kind of Ground Zero for PCB concerns. 

“So we got that building out of there and we got the other buildings out with significant PCB concerns out of the campus. The reality is for some of buildings B and G is that they had to come down anyway so we were able to accomplish that within this project.”

There was also big expenses in unexpected cleanup costs by the Woolsey Fire … the flood and mudslide in.

Those two earlier bond issues … Measures BB and ES … were joint Santa Monica and Malibu school bonds. 

Now … the district has carved out Malibu and Santa Monica into two separate bond district and tax districts,

And Malibu voters have approved a bond issue called Measure M … for Malibu taxes and projects only.

Measure M has kicked in 14 million dollars to complete those just-opened classrooms in Malibu. 

One point of pride for district facilities manager Cary Upton … is the district-wide window and air conditioning upgrades. 

Those have been a big factor at Webster Elementary and Malibu Elementary on Point Dume.

Upton says the new ventilation systems are a major factor in reducing Covid 19 infections in the classrooms … 

NEWSCART A73212 UPTON

“Based on our meetings with the Department of Health and they’ve come and they’ve done tests and they’ve waved this little wands and they’ve shown the air moves though their little spaces. They;ve come and they are doing all those tests and I think that it has been very clearly shown … by the limited number of spread that we seen in our classrooms and the cases that we’ve had … I think it shows we’ve done a very good job with ventilation.”

===

Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Foundation.

The Malibu Foundation underwrote the KBUU solar panels and batteries at the transmitter … which keeps KBUU’s FM transmitting on 99.1 during storms and blackouts… 24 seven… on clean renewable Malibu sunshine.

Drunk Driver Checkpoint – Probably At Civic Center – Scheduled For Saturday Night

A drunk driver checkpoint is going to be set up Saturday night in Malibu.

These are almost always on Pacific Coast Highway near the Webb Way signal … a preferred location because PCH is fairly wide there… And motorcycle cops can hide it on the side streets to catch idiot drivers trying to evade the roadblocks.

To repeat… The roadblocks are always announced in advance because the primary idea is to deter drunk driving… not necessarily to catch drunk drivers.

And the U-S Supreme Court has ruled directly on the issue of the constitutionality of a DUI checkpoint.

It is.

====

Support for KBUU Radio also comes the the Malibu Association of Realtors.

When choosing someone to represent you when you buy … sell or rent a house … local knowledge is very important.

Malibu zoning rules … Coastal Commission rules …

Members of the Malibu Association of Realtors are local experts.

The Malibu Association of Realtors …  supporters of our local community … and supporters of local radio 99.1 KBUU.

Bakersfield Oil Driller Spills $5 Million Into Ventura County Ballot Campaign To Evade Pollution Controls

Big oil … big political battle … just up the highway from Malibu.

A Bakersfield oil company has donated a massive 5 million dollars to a political campaign to overturn Ventura County regulation on oil drilling.

The company…. Aera Energy ,.,.. is trying to influence a public vote on a measure that seeks to overturn new safety and environmental regulations on the oil wells that we see in the strawberry fields near Oxnard … as well as the wells pumping oil in the Santa Paula and Fillmore areas.

Those oil wells are a major source of air pollution in the Malibu area.

They are a much bigger danger to people who live near them … and many of the aging oil wells are near houses and schools in Ventura County.

Many of the ol wells were first drilled 60 to 80 years ago… according tot her Ventura County Star.

The Ventura county board of supervisors last year required environmental review process… Including the evaluation and public discussion of health risks… Before any company could re-drill or deepen a well.

The oil companies cried foul … and paint to have 45,000 signatures collected on petitions to force an election on the tougher air pollution rules. Since then…Aera Energy has donated 5 million dollars to a campaign to overturn them.

Other energy companies have kicked in another million and a half dollars on top of that.

The 6 1/2 million dollar political war chest is by far the biggest political campaign ever in Ventura county… The Ventura county star reports.

There are 2800 oil wells in Ventura County… And while most of the oil has already been removed… It is still big business.

The election is this June… In the story is based on a report in the Ventura County Star.

Santa Barbara County Fire Burning Dangerous Brush

In news from up the coast … a controlled fire is planned for the mountains right above Santa Barbara today and tomorrow. 

If weather conditions permit, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department will conduct a one acre controlled burn in the Painted Cave area of San Marcos Pass.

Plans call for the burn to take place over two days, as part of efforts to reduce brush which can fuel wildfires.

The burn is being done in conjunction with the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, and pollution control districts in neighboring counties.

Medea Creek Crawfish Hunters Aim To Remove Crawdaddies From Malibu Creek Watershed

Crawdadies do not belong in Malibu Creek.

Also called crawfish … the little red freshwater lobster line creatures are foreign invaders.

Cradaddies probably got intoriducted onto Malibu Creek by fishermen … who use them as live bait.

Crawdaddies eat frogs and tadpoles … even spawning salmon.

No good.

This weekend … volunteers up along the 101 freeway will start another project to rids the upper reaches of Malibu Creek of crawfish.

There of concern is made Creek ,.,.. an upper tributary of Malibu Creek that generally runs along Kanan Dume Road north of the 101 Freeway.

A community orientation is set for 10 days from now … March 27 …for anyone interested in adopting a section of Madea Creek for trapping.

A group called Friends of Oak Park Open Space have already set out crawfish traps.

And Maea Creek Middle School’s Team Crayfish worked together to teach residents how to build artificial refuge traps to capture the crayfish. Twenty-four students and families assembled 50 traps made out of PVC pipes, rebar and wire mesh.

===

You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu.

Support for KBUU’s radio covers from Orbit Homes Inc. 

Prefabricated homes are the future of construction. Easy to get permits. Fast to build and install. Cost effective … little construction waste. 

In Malibu, Orbit Homes has a showroom between City Hall and the Malibu racquet club.

Fire victims can check them out in person … and visit them on the web at www.orbithomes.us .

You can hear the news live every morning until 9:30 on KBUU.

FM 99.1 in western Malibu.  Also: streaming at www.radiomalibu.net

Between 10 and 2 … you can hear the newscast playback loop on KBU2. That’s on FM 99.1 HD2 in your car, or streaming at s7.viastreaming.net/6500

If humanly possible, the KBUU NewsScript is usually published at around midday at www.radiomalibu.net