“When there are blackouts in the summer, there’s no air conditioning. It’s hot,” board Chairman Manuel Perez said ahead of the 5-0 vote in favor of the Cook Street Substation Project. “It makes things tough. Advancing a new substation in the Thousand Palms area is important.”

The board voted to support the project with a promised $5.6 million investment via the newly established Coachella Valley Power Fund. The county committed an initial $250,000 Tuesday, drawn from the Unincorporated Communities Initiative account, which was established five years ago specifically to provide money for projects intended to uplift underserved or economically challenged areas.

Further appropriations will be added to the power fund as the project matures. Its total cost was estimated to be $42.62 million.

In addition to the county, the cities of Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage, as well as IID and the nonprofit Berger Foundation, are parties to the funding compact.

The project will be situated in the immediate vicinity of Cook Street and Chase School Road, just north of Interstate 10 and less than a mile northwest of Acrisure Arena. The property is owned by the Berger Foundation, which will be involved in the planning stages of the substation, according to documents posted to the board’s agenda.

No groundbreaking date has been set yet, and a timeline for construction wasn’t published.

IID officials said the station will house one 28 mega volt-amperes transformer and one 50 mega volt-amperes transformer, with space for a third 28 MVA transformer in the future. Substations serve as power flow regulators, distributing electrical current to homes and businesses via the grid with safeguards. The stations don’t generate electricity independently.

“Our team has been able to draft a regional solution to the infrastructure needs of the eastern Coachella Valley,” IID spokesman Antonio Ortega told the board. “It took a lot of work, effort and diligence to get us to this point. Here we are today. But this is just the start.”

The county Transportation & Land Management Agency and other entities are also working toward the future establishment of a substation on Avenue 58 in La Quinta. That remains in the conceptualization phase.

The Cook Street Substation will fall under the purview of the Coachella Valley Power Agency, a joint powers authority set up in May to provide a forum for government and private interests to work in concert toward expanding and improving power grid infrastructure throughout the region.

The post Funds Secured For New Coachella Valley Power Station appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Jesse Ceazar Navarro of Lake Elsinore is charged with murder of a peace officer, attempted murder of a peace officer, special circumstance allegations of killing a law enforcement official and lying in wait, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations, for the January 2023 death of Deputy Darnell Calhoun.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is seeking capital punishment for Navarro, provided he’s convicted.

Based on a battery of psychiatric evaluations in 2023 and 2024, his attorney petitioned the court for a mental competency trial, also known as a Penal Code section 1369 trial, and Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson last year found there were sufficient grounds to proceed with one.

Since September, jury selection has been underway, off and on, at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

The District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday that a panel is expected to be seated Thursday, though it was unclear exactly when opening statements may be scheduled, with the Christmas break only a couple of weeks away.

If Navarro is found incompetent to stand trial on the felony allegations, his case would be referred to correctional health, and he’d likely be committed to a state hospital for treatment on a timetable determined by the court.

He’s being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.

According to a sheriff’s arrest warrant affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Calhoun went to a residence in the 18500 block of Hilldale Lane, near Grand Avenue, at about 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2023, after 911 dispatchers received a call indicating a domestic altercation at the location, without certainty because the caller abruptly hung up.

Calhoun arrived alone in his patrol vehicle and “contacted several individuals in the driveway of the residence,” according to the affidavit.

“Navarro partially concealed himself behind an open door of his (pickup) truck, holding a handgun out of sight of Deputy Calhoun,” the document stated. “Within 17 seconds of Deputy Calhoun arriving on scene, Navarro began shooting at him. Navarro fired multiple rounds at Deputy Calhoun, (who) fled on foot. Navarro then entered his truck, drove in the direction that Calhoun had fled and continued to fire at him from the truck.”

The affidavit revealed Calhoun fired back at the defendant, but “none of the rounds appeared to injure him.”

The lawman was hit several times and collapsed in the street. He was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A backup deputy engaged Navarro in a gunfight within a couple minutes of Calhoun’s “deputy under fire” call, wounding the defendant. The responding deputy wasn’t injured.

Navarro has since fully recovered.

Calhoun is survived by his widow, Vanessa, and young sons Russell, Troy and Malcolm.

The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

The post Accused Murder Suspect In RivCo Deputy’s Fatal Shooting To Face Mental Competency Trial appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.