FPUD approves letter of support for Fallbrook Beautification Alliance grant

The Fallbrook Beautification Alliance is seeking a $5,000 grant from the American Society of Landscape Architects to improve the South Mission Road medians, and the grant application requires two letters of support from community organizations. The Fallbrook Public Utility District board approved one of those letters of support.

A 5-0 vote Tuesday, July 28, authorized a letter to be signed by Ken Endter, the FPUD board president.

"Our board's been supportive of the efforts they've done," Jack Bebee, general manager of FPUD, said.

The widening of South Mission Road from two lanes to four included medians. The county's original plan was for hardscape mediums, but community members successfully sought planted medians. The Fallbrook Beautification Alliance was formed in 2004 – it became incorporated and was given nonprofit status in 2005 – to maintain the medians, and FPUD provides recycled water at no cost to irrigate the landscaping.

"This would not have happened without FPUD," Jerri Patchett, FBA board president, said. "When FPUD came along as a community partner, the county said yes, and they've been providing reclaimed water all these years."

FPUD provides nearly 8 million gallons of recycled water annually to the median through a six-inch meter.

"That area is maintained by volunteers," Bebee said.

The maintenance sometimes includes replacement.

"Weekly cars run over those medians and take out plants and take out the irrigation," Patchett said.

Sometimes the driver's insurance company covers the cost of replacing the damaged vegetation and irrigation.

"On three of the accidents we were able to get money," Patchett said.

If the driver is not identified, the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance must replace the vegetation and irrigation at the organization's own expense. In mid-July, a driver took out a crepe myrtle at the north end of the median which had been planted in honor of Otis Heald, who was a community leader and benefactor before he died in 2016, and the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance said it intends to replace that with another crepe myrtle to honor Heald.

Some vegetation merits replacement for other reasons.

"Vegetation needs to be replaced, and we're replacing it with more drought-tolerant material which are friendly to asphalt," Patchett said.

"The road sends off a lot of heat," Patchett said. "We're looking for low-water drought tolerant plants that look beautiful and that can thrive in the heat from the road."

Use of more drought-tolerant plants will reduce the water FPUD is donating.

"We have a promise to FPUD to use as little water as possible, and we're very careful to select plants that are low-water use," Patchett said.

The Fallbrook Beautification Alliance has expanded its scope of activity. It now, and in some cases in partnership with other organizations, provides flower pots in Downtown Fallbrook, maintains Jackie Heyneman Park and the Pico Promenade, engages in litter and graffiti abatement projects, offers household battery recycling, maintains the Military Welcome Home tribute on East Mission Road and cleans and polishes public art.

If the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance is successful, public art will join the vegetation in the South Mission Road medians.

"We are hoping to put a piece of public art at the southern end of the median at Olive Hill Road," Patchett said. "This is our entry to the community. It's the first impression people have when they are entering our community."

The Fallbrook Village Association provided the other letter of support for the American Society of Landscape Architects grant application.

"Funding is a big issue," Patchett said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].