US Race Walking Championships Here on Nov. 22

America’s best race walkers will be in Santee Nov. 22 to compete in the USA Track & Field Race Walk National Championship.  The fast walkers will vie for the national title as well as a chance to represent the USA in international competitions.

The competitors will walk a 1.25 kilometer loop course on Mast Boulevard between Magnolia Avenue and Jeremy Street, which is south of Santana High School.

Race organizers are expecting about a dozen athletes to compete in the 50-kilometer (31-mile) race, which begins at 7:30 a.m. and will conclude around 2 p.m.

 Santee was previously the site of the U.S. national championship race walk in 2009 and the US Olympic race walking qualifying trials in January 2012.

To accommodate the upcoming race, the westbound lanes of Mast Boulevard between Magnolia Avenue and Jeremy Street will be closed.  The eastbound lane will remain open. Watch for detour signs on Jeremy Street and Second Avenue.  Race organizers will have amplified sound during the event from 7:20 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information on the event is available on the USA Track & Field website at www.usatf.org

Recycle Your Christmas Tree in Santee

Help divert green waste from the landfill by recycling your Christmas tree at the end of the season.

 

Trees will be picked up for recycling the first two weeks following Christmas through Jan. 11, 2016.

Residents with curbside collection can recycle their Christmas trees by placing the trees in their yard waste bins on their regular pick-up day. Trees must be cut into maximum four-foot sections and must fit into the green yard waste container. Ornaments, tinsel and tree stands must be removed before being recycling.

Flocked trees cannot be recycled, but will be collected if cut into four-foot sections and placed into the regular trash cart.

Santee residents without curbside collection, primarily those living in apartment complexes, can drop off trees, from Dec. 26th through Jan. 11, 2016, at the Waste Management Recycle Center in El Cajon, located at 925 O’Connor Street, one block south of the West Bradley Avenue and Johnson Avenue intersection. The recycling center will be open 7:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday, and 7:00am to 12:00pm on Saturday.

For more information contact Senior Management Analyst Ed Ruiz at (619) 258-4100 ext. 128.

 

Santee Awarded Major Grant for Mast Park Upgrade

Santee's Mast Park

The City of Santee has been awarded a grant of $1.2 million to aid in the redevelopment of Mast Park, including drainage, stormwater treatment and habitat improvements.

The grant reinforces the city’s commitment  be an integral part of a 52-mile-long river park and trail system envisioned to someday parallel the San Diego River from the Cuyamaca Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

The funding was approved Nov. 13 by a unanimous vote of the board of the San Diego River Conservancy, a state agency charged with enhancing the river’s ecology and to help create the crest-to-coast trail. The grant funds originated from Proposition 1, a ballot measure approved by voters in November 2014 to pay for water infrastructure and ecosystem and watershed protection projects.

The grant awarded to Santee will supplement city funding earmarked for a $7.2 million project to upgrade facilities, parking and other amenities covering 31 acres of the park on the north side of the San Diego River. The city plans to begin engineering and design work in 2016.

The grant funds are specifically targeted to pay for water quality, habitat and public access improvements. These include:

·        Replanting 13 acres at the east end of the park with low-growing native vegetation to create a stormwater infiltration area;

·        Creating a dry retention basin to capture and treat stormwater runoff that enters the park from adjacent residential uses;

·        Re-grading the park to create a system of bioswales and vegetated creek beds to capture runoff, reduce flooding and improve drainage;  

·        Removing an existing asphalt path and replacing it with a pervious, decomposed granite surface;

·        Moving the trail away from the river and planting a vegetated buffer consisting of 5.1 acres of riparian habitat;