Supervisor Is Off by a Square Mile

* Freshman Supervisor Charles V. Smith should be congratulated on his and his staff’s ability to ignore facts and practice obscurantism.

In his Sept. 28 letter to The Times, examples of deliberate vagueness prevail in his version of “correcting misinformation” of your Sept. 14 editorial.

Smith said, “The triangle consists exclusively of undeveloped land. It does not have any permanent park facilities, and it is not natural open space. Contrary to your articles and editorial, it does not contain archery ranges or soccer and baseball fields.”

In fact, the triangle has two paved roads into three paved aircraft runways. The open space also has 50 mature trees, three drinking fountains, 25 picnic tables and six temporary toilets.

Although Smith was quick to criticize your article on the location of several recreational fields not being in the “triangle area,” he pointedly failed to mention that the approved golf course does in fact destroy three existing soccer fields, two existing baseball diamonds and the only public archery range in Orange County.

Smith continues, “While hobbyists have been using the triangle for decades, they never had any long-term formal agreement to do so.” And: “Statements that the triangle contains the only airstrip for model planes in Orange County are incorrect.”

In fact, Mile Square Regional Park has many formal agreements of the triangle area use dating back to 1973. And Smith’s omission of a key word does not change the fact that Mile Square Park is the only public model field in Orange County.

BOB RICHARDS

Chairman

Save Mile Square Park Committee

* The Orange County Board of Supervisors has already failed Financial Management 101 (bankruptcy) and is well on its way to earning another failing grade in Public Trust 102 (Mile Square Park). If it weren’t so sad, I’d laugh.

It’s obvious that each of the supervisors has the erroneous perception that demographics for Orange County concerning families and children can best be represented by having three golf courses in Mile Square Park, which is publicly owned land. “Public” used to refer to we the people as a whole, not a select 4% of the population. Pathetic.

Their recent decisions make very evident that politicians in general, and Orange County supervisors in particular, do not place families and children on any priority list, and consequently fail to support family concepts.

Also, we do have very strong special interests at work, strong enough to override fairness, common sense and decency. The “good old boys” network has changed names. But it’s still in place.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, and questions to ask--before the next election. Let’s stop being the national laughingstock while being used as a bad example of government.

Maybe it’s proposition time--if they can’t govern, we must.

ROD WILSON

Fountain Valley