Active-Duty Marine's Wife is Among Those Terminated by BCV Water District

This holiday season has been trying for Eileen Cortez, 23, of Cherry Valley, because her husband is an active-duty Marine stationed in Afghanistan, and she was just laid off by the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District.

She got her on Tuesday, along with several other district employees.

U.S. Marine Cpl. Derick Cortez, 22, is serving in a truck transport unit, his wife said Wednesday in Beaumont.

"He's Motor T, motor transportation," Eileen said. "His primary job is transort, mostly on convoys. Right now I haven't heard from him in about a week, so he's probably on a long convoy right now."

The couple have been married nearly two years and they have a 9-month-old son, Wyatt.

"It was his first Christmas," Eileen said Wednesday afternoon, as she held Wyatt outside the post office on Beaumont Avenue. "And it was my first Christmas away from Derick. It was hard. But I know we'll have next Christmas together."

Eileen was at the post office to send a care package to her husband.

"This was a small care package," she said. "I sent a huge one about three weeks ago. This one, they don't have the tobacco he likes out there. That's what that's for, chewing tobacco. Grizzly mint pouches."

Derick was raised in Bakersfield. Eileen said she has been in Cherry Valley about eight years. The big package she sent a few weeks ago contained other things Derick and his comrades miss from home.

"I sent him a projector so they could have movie night," Eileen said. "I sent him a Christmas tree. Holiday stockings, Christmas gifts, they have Secret Santas out there, candy of course, a volleyball, they wanted to play volleyball, and a hand pump for the ball. Just recreational things."

Earlier Wednesday, Eileen and her nephew Daniel Vasquez, 8, of Redlands, went to the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District office on Magnolia Avenue to collect her belongings, including a photo of Derick in dress uniform.

Eileen said she learned of her impending termination last week, a few days before Christmas. She was an accounts clerk I and she was coming up on four years at the district, she said.

"I sat in part of the special meeting on Thursday, that's when I heard," Eileen said. "It was very upsetting of course. The next time I speak to my husband I get to tell him I'm laid off. . . .

"You can imagine I feel for my co-workers," Cortez said. "It's unfair to them and their families."

Cortez said she was offended by the district board's opening prayer, which included mention of military personnel, because her husband is serving in Afghanistan and the next time she speaks to him she'll have to tell him she's been fired.

"I received an email notification yesterday evening," Cortez said Wednesday. "While I was on vacation. I went in to clean out my desk this morning. I hope to speak to Derick later this week."

The district board of directors voted to eliminate 10 jobs to fund hiring of "new professional level staff."

"Two part-time /temporary positions and eight full-time positions will be eliminated under the revised staffing plan," General Manager Eric Fraser said in a report to the board before last week's meeting. "These positions no longer serve the needs of the District and are redundant."