HERITAGE TOWNE CENTER UPDATES

Think about Heritage Towne Center the next time you are looking for a quick dinner, a relaxing manicure or a cup of hot brew. Many of our merchants also live in Otay Ranch and are eager to provide a personal and neighborly welcome.

Pizza and Pasta Express to Open Soon. A new eatery, Pizza and Pasta Express, will be opening its doors at Heritage Towne Center towards the end of May or early June. Menu items will include a wide variety of pizzas, delicious pasta dishes and appetizers such as buffalo wings, bread sticks and French fries. All items will be made fresh, on a daily basis. A catering menu will also be available for parties and get-togethers. Store hours will be from 11:00am to 9:00pm, seven days a week. Delivery service is being planned for residents living in Otay Ranch. Store owners, Mario and Blanca Barajas, are Otay Ranch residents and they look forward to meeting and serving their friends and neighbors within the community. Watch for their Grand Opening flyers!

Bambinos Salon for Kids is a family owned & operated business that is dedicated exclusively to providing hair salon services for children. The salon is celebrating its second year at Heritage Towne Center, across from Heritage Park. Bambinos’ experienced stylists guarantee a quality haircut and a warm, welcoming atmosphere for every child. Children can have their hair cut while “driving” in a car chair, playing video games or watching a movie. Clients getting their very first haircut receive a “first haircut” certificate with a lock of their hair as a keepsake. Bambinos also carries a great selection of children’s hair and skin care products, clothing, hair accessories and toys. Let Bambinos’ friendly staff show your child how much fun getting a haircut can be! Call (619) 656-4887 today to schedule an appointment.

Fairlane Cleaners has been serving the Otay Ranch community for over two years, providing high quality garment care services to Otay Ranch’s most successful business men and women, professional baseball players, politicians and many of our local law enforcement officers. Fairlane provides drycleaning, wetcleaning shirt laundry, repairs and alterations, shoe repair service, bedspread/blanket cleaning and wedding gown preservation. Turn around time varies depending upon the service being provided, but most drycleaning orders can be done next day if received in the morning. With over 20 years of drycleaning experience, owner Robert La Fave and his staff can handle almost any of your garment care needs. Feel free to call Robert direct on his cell phone if you have any questions about his services at (619)254-0998.

Our merchants are here to be of service. Stop by and get to know the quality service and merchandise being offered, along with a smile!

Happenings at Heritage Center
By Tony Ramos, Recreation Supervisor II

Registration is now underway for Winter Classes at Heritage Center. The Winter Session will begin the week of April 17th and run through the week of June 23rd. We offer a variety of arts & crafts, dance and fitness classes for all ages.

During the months of May and June, we will be providing special events free to the public. Our Mother’s and Father’s Day craft days will offer a variety of arts & crafts, games and more. On May 13th, we will host the local competition for the Pepsi Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run. This is your youngster’s opportunity to display fundamental skills including pitching, hitting, and running. Please bring proof of age upon registration. Movies in the Moonlight will return on June 9th. Pack your dinner, bring a blanket and enjoy a G or PG rated movie in the park. Also, look for our summer intersession camps beginning in June. We offer a variety of arts & crafts, games, guest speakers, field trips and more. Camps fill up quickly, so register early.

Other ongoing activities include our “CATCH Recreation in your Parks” program offering a variety of games and sports, Monday-Thursday from 4-6pm. Also, sign up for our “100-Miles at Heritage” walking program. Upon completing 100 miles around our park, participants will receive an “I Walked 100-miles at Heritage Park” T-shirt. Both programs are free and open to all ages.

Looking for a place to hold a party, event or meeting? We have space available for rent that can accommodate up to 100 guests. We have hosted everything from birthdays to weddings.

For more information regarding classes or special events, please call (619) 421-7032.

Mayor Visits Otay Ranch

On Thursday, March 2, City of Chula Vista Mayor Stephen C. Padilla, Deputy Mayor John McCann and principal planner Rick Rosaler met with residents of Otay Ranch in a city sponsored community forum. A slide presentation focused on the new regional shopping mall and the new design district, both located in eastern Chula Vista, along with an update on the South Bay Expressway. This was also a great opportunity for residents to speak directly with city officials on a wide variety of topics, both in and around Otay Ranch.

The new lifestyle mall, named Otay Ranch Town Center, is now clearly visible at Olympic Parkway and EastLake Parkway, with plans to have Phase 1 open for the 2006 holiday shopping season. The mall will open with a Macy’s department store as well as eagerly awaited sit-down restaurants. Phase I restaurants include Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Changs and Nestle Tollhouse Café. A Barnes and Noble bookstore is also in the first phase. Phase II of the shopping mall is anticipated to open up 18 months later.

At the new Design District on Telegraph Canyon Road at Fenton Street, the three anchor furniture stores, Bassett Furniture Direct, Ashley Furniture and Lane Furniture, are now open. More stores are anticipated to open within the next few weeks, including Foliage, Casa Divani and Consignment Classics.

New Pedestrian Bridges Set for June Opening

Two new pedestrian bridges, both spanning 6-lanes on Olympic Parkway, are quickly taking shape. The 540-foot-long west bridge, pictured above, will span the six-lane Olympic Parkway, linking Otay Ranch High School with the village of Heritage. The east bridge, at East Palomar, is a 414 foot-long bridge that will connect the villages of Countryside and Hillsborough. Both bridges are being developed by The Otay Ranch Company in conjunction with the city of Chula Vista and the Sweetwater Union High School District at a total cost of $5 million. Both bridges are planned for completion in June.

Transit Improvements Coming Soon
By Jeffrey R. Codling, Assistant Transit Coordinator, City of Chula Vista

The Otay Ranch Company is installing 14 new bus stop shelters and benches along East Palomar Street to better serve Chula Vista Transit's existing and new customers. Ten of these shelters will be a simple design that was developed to blend with the unique aesthetics and architecture of the Otay Ranch Community. Four shelters, located within the Village Centers, will be a more deluxe model. All of the shelters are expected to be completed by April/May 2006.

The Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) is also proposing some significant changes to the Chula Vista Transit System late this year. Otay Ranch will get 15-minute frequency on Route 709 all day and a new route will operate between Palomar Transit Station and Southwestern College via East Palomar Street every 15 minutes, all day. This new route will use some of the new shelters being installed now. But for the latest more information, go to sdcommute.com and click on COA (Comprehensive Operational Analysis), or contact Chula Vista Transit at (619) 397-6059.

Walking School Bus Underway!
By Marieka Yoder, Program Coordinator

Heritage Elementary is embarking on a new program to encourage more of our young children to walk to school. Launching this program has been a collaborative effort between Heritage Elementary, the Chula Vista Elementary School District and the City’s Recreation Programming and will serve as a pilot program for the entire school district.

A walking school bus is a group of children led to and/or from school by two screened adult volunteer walkers, or bus captains. The children are picked up and dropped off at pre-scheduled points in the neighborhood. One adult walks at the front of the bus and one walks at the end. The service is free. The bus operates as frequently as there are bus captains to walk, making volunteers a key component of the program’s ongoing success. Ideally, neighbors share in the walking, and the bus becomes more convenient than driving. Typical routes are 20-minute long walks.

Our first volunteers have already finished the required registration and background checks. As more volunteers are cleared, buses will be formed and parents will be made aware of the bus schedules and program details. Bus captains will be wearing yellow vests with the “Healthy Lifestyles” logo. While we plan to make the most of our paseos, we will need to cross streets, and will need drivers to watch and stop for us. We are asking for drivers to slow down, especially before and after school, and make sure that all walkers are allowed a safe passage to and from school.

Teaching children healthy habits at a young age and providing opportunities to utilize the pedestrian-friendly land plan of Otay Ranch make this a win-win program. If you can volunteer, or would like to sign up your child, please stop by the office at Heritage Elementary and pick up a survey form. Volunteers will need to undergo a fingerprinting and background check, as well as a meeting with the school principal.

Be Wise When Seeking Health Information on the Internet
By Melissa Dummar, Sharp Rees-Stealy Marketing Specialist

If you surf the Internet looking for health information, you are not alone. About half of American adults do, too. The internet is full of valuable, easy-to-access information. However it is also littered with inaccuracies.

“There is a lot of great information on the Internet,” said Catherine McDoniel, D.O., Sharp Rees-Stealy Family Medicine Physician in Otay Ranch. “However, when making decisions that can affect your health, it’s important to discuss your options with your doctor.”

Here are some guidelines to help you be a wise consumer:

• The content should be reviewed by experts
• The Web site should indicate when the content was updated
• The authors of the content – be they individuals or organizations – should be clearly identified.
• Visitors should not be redirected to Web sites they did not intend to visit.

A good place to start your internet health search is www.sharp.com. The Sharp Web site offers information on more than 1,000 health topics for adults and children in English and Spanish. All content is reviewed regularly by Sharp HealthCare staff and physicians. Sharp.com provides links only to nationally recognized Web sites that contain relevant, up-to-date information from credible sources, such as the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. At Sharp.com, you can also sign up to receive e-newsletters on heart health and diabetes as well as men’s and women’s health issues.

To learn more about Sharp Rees-Stealy’s physicians and services, call 1-800-82-SHARP or visit www.sharp.com.