San Vicente Inn & Golf Resort Opens its New Par Lounge and Patio

in the San Diego Country Estates has opened its upgraded Par Lounge and outdoor patio. Improvements include a new bar, lighting, dance floor and art work. The bar is now located on the west side of the lounge. Visitors can enjoy a drink out on the sunny new deck overlooking the golf course and its water features. The restrooms at the resort also have been upgraded.

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Local realtor Scott Norton has received national recognition for his work.

“Congratulations to Scott Norton, with TL & Associates Real Estate, for being selected as a 2011 FIVE STAR Real Estate Agent,” according to a press release from TL & Associates, at 780 Main Street.

The award was announced in a special section of San Diego Magazine’s March issue. Five Star Professional is a survey firm that partners with city and regional magazines across the United States and Canada to evaluate the performance of service professionals.

The award is based on a mail and phone survey of all recent homebuyers in the San Diego area as well as San Diego Magazine subscribers. An additional 250 surveys went to mortgage and title companies. Recipients evaluated only those agents they knew through personal experience, according to the article in magazine.

Evaluations were based on nine criteria: customer service, communication, finding the right home, integrity, negotiation, marketing the home, market knowledge, closing preparation and overall satisfaction.

“The resulting list of FIVE STAR real estate agents is a select group, representing less than 6 percent of licensed agents in the San Diego area,” reads the statement from TL & Associates.

“I’m very honored,” Norton told Patch. “I thank my clients and the other professionals who were surveyed.”

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In December, Patch reported that Victoria Supply Company, a downtown store near the Town Hall for over 30 years, had closed its brick-and-mortar outlet in favor of going totally online. Owners Jan and Christy Clark told Patch they were developing a website, victoriasupplyco.com.

As of March 23, the downtown store remains open. The plans have remained the same, said Christy Clark, they just “didn’t come together as we’d expected.”

The website is still under development. On the physical inventory side, packing up the store’s lamp department, which Clark said represented a third of Victoria Supply’s business, has taken longer than expected.

In the meantime, the store continues to offer a variety of products on sale, “50-75 percent on most items,” said Clark. Among items still available: glassware for ceiling fans or wall fixtures, some lampshades (though Clark cautioned that the Tiffany style items that were their trademark are mostly gone), some weathervanes, light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, brass hardware and kerosene heater parts.

“We did a big push and got a lot of inventory sold,” she said. “Ramona has been very supportive. A flurry of people have come in to buy things and help me out.”

“I have so much stuff!” said Clark. After operating a business at the same location for 30 years, she and her husband built up an inventory that ran from jewelry to kerosene heaters to plumbing supplies. “You have to be versatile to do business in Ramona,” she said, with a little chuckle.

Yet things are moving along. Clark noted that the store’s trademark rolltop desk is gone. “We’re doing business out of a cardboard box. I’m sitting here with a computer. We’ve gotten closer than we were two weeks ago.”

Clark said they have now finished packing up the lamp repair section.

“Now that they’re ready, I can move forwar," she said.

The lamp repair business is being taken over by W.T. Kirkman’s Lanterns, Inc., another Ramona business.

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Speaking of , Patch caught up with co-owner Woody Kirkman on his plans to open a new showroom and storehouse for his kerosene and oil lamp business at 2291 Main Street.

“We’re getting pretty close,” said Kirkman. "We’re looking at a soft opening Friday, April 1, and going on from there.”

He said they’d just received a new shipment of Kosmos Oil Lamps, made by Gaudard Fine Products of France. “We’re the exclusive wholesale distributor for Gaudard in the USA,” said Kirkman.