You may remember the Lilac Fire that burned through Rancho Monserate off Highway 395, just west of Interstate 15 and South State Route 76 in December 2017. This property dates back to a Mexican land grant 1846, when Governor Pio Pico gave his brother-in-law 13,332 acres in what would become the Bonsall and Fallbrook townships. Part of this land was turned into a mobile-home park in the early 1970s and a decade later was one of the first in the state to convert from rental spaces to private ownership. In the 2017 Lilac Fire, 75 manufactured homes were burned to the ground in this mobile-home park, which was half of the total of all the structures destroyed in the 4,100-acre blaze. Before insurance could pay for a new home to be built and brought to this site, Rancho Monserate had to repair infrastructure damage by the fire. Most of that has been done but at this time to complete the “recovery” which began almost 10 months ago the landscaping has to be completed.
Cal Pac United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has taken the lead on this recovery effort. Today they are requesting our help in completing this project so the next five residents can move into their homes. All that is left to do is finishing the landscaping: Site 1 needs about 1,000 sqft of week screen and about 700 sqft of rock spread; Site 2 needs about 800 sqft of weed screen and rock spread; Site 3 needs about 200 sqft of weed screen, rock spread and about 60 interlocking blocks installed; Sites 4 & 5 need some clean-up of existing pavers and 600-700 sqft of weed screen and rock. Finally there is also some planting of Ivy on the hillsides that need to be done.
These would be great projects for PSWR Mission Teams from local congregations. You could select a single site or partner with another congregation to complete a project. All materials will be provided. For more details contact Karl Ports, UMCOR, 619-823-8424, kports@cox.net.
Norman Williams, Coordinator
PRSW Disaster Recovery Ministry
909-289-6525
ChNorm@msn.com