The Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group (BSCSG) held its regular meeting on March 3.

John Wells gave the Group an update on the La Casa Del Zorro Solar Project, which has begun build-out, and said he had taken Sponsor Group Member Judy Haldeman’s suggestion to hire landscape consultants Coastal Sage, the consultants for the library’s landscaping, about how to beautify the fencing for the project with vegetation. He’ll be back with more updates next month.

There were two resignations last month from the BSCSG – Bonnie Petrach and Clint Brandin. Those vacancies were noticed and an election was held to fill them. The applicants voted to fill those seats are Arnold “Bruce” Durbin and Julie Gerson. Since the meeting was held, Chair Rebecca Falk has been notified by County Supervisor Jim Desmond’s office that those appointments will be at the April 5 Board of Supervisors meeting agenda for confirmation.

The Group also voted to affirm our previous request to the Supervisor to add an additional two seats to the BSCSG, increasing our number of community members serving from seven to nine. A vote was held on filling those seats if the Board of Supervisors agrees to expand the Group and applicants Nancy McRae and Jim Dax were chosen. As of March 11, Supervisor Desmond’s office has indicated that they are researching how to proceed with this request.

Chair Falk announced that she had become aware the day of the meeting that the Dollar General Store permit application was back at a new site on the east side of Palm Canyon Drive, west of DiGiorgio Road. Building materials appear to have been delivered to the site. After the meeting, she determined that a permit application had been submitted to the County but no grading or building permit had yet been issued.

The County was asked to look into why building materials were delivered with no permit in place and a report back on this will occur at the next Sponsor Group meeting. Building on the new site is within the current C36 commercial zoning so there are no requirements to consult the community, but Chair Falk will contact the developer and invite him to attend a meeting to discuss plans with the community.

Also announced were two County programs that may be of interest to the community.

A Mobile Crisis Response Team is now operating and is available for our town. They will respond to a mental health crisis or drug use crisis where no violence is involved. The purpose of the team is to provide aid where no law enforcement participation is needed, with professionals trained to help. The hotline phone number to call is 888-724-7240 and the web page for information is: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/bhs/BHS_MCRT.html. In its earliest days, the team had already helped 600 people countywide.

On March 1, the Board of Supervisors voted to implement a Doula Pilot Project to help pregnant women have better health outcomes throughout the county and to train more doulas to bring that about. Doulas help women through pregnancy, labor and delivery. Here’s the initial announcement with more details: https://www.supervisornathanfletcher.com/content/d4/en/newsroom/newsfeed/2022/news-202231.html.

The next regular meeting of the BSCSG is 5 p.m. on April 7 and will be held virtually. For an agenda and link to the meeting, send an email request to rebfalk7@gmail.com.