City collects $15 million in grants

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- City officials boasted this week about $15 million

they managed to collect in state and federal grants.

The money will provide much-needed equipment and services ranging from

improving infrastructure to adding police officers.

“It’s terribly useful,” City Councilman Tom Harman said. “This would come

out of the taxpayers’ pockets if we didn’t have this money.”

The top dollar grants captured by the city, according to city officials

and a city memo dated Monday:

-- Slater Flood Control Channel: $3.3 million for repairs and upgrades to

the channel, which runs mostly along Slater Avenue.

-- Waterfront Hilton expansion: $2 million to clean up remains from

abandoned oil wells and a landfill at the Waterfront Hilton expansion

site along Pacific Coast Highway and Beach Boulevard.

-- Downtown sewers: $1.9 million to replace slip lining of old sewer

lines.

-- Storm drain pump station: $1.6 million to improve an old and

undersized pump station serving the northwest part of the city.

-- Traffic safety: $1 million to install reflective lane markers on the

streets and changing signals at five intersections to better accommodate

left turns.

-- Police officers: $750,000 in partial funding to hire 10 additional

police officers for three years.

-- Libraries: $750,000 to add staff and replace the main library’s roof

and heating system.

-- South beach improvements: $500,000 to renovate beach trails,

restrooms, parking and landscaping between Beach Boulevard and Huntington

Street.

-- Police technology: $434,000 to upgrade data terminals in police

cruisers and computers for dispatch services, including 911 calls.

-- Emergency response: $425,000 in reimbursement by the federal

government for past years of the fire department’s handling of floods

caused by severe storms.

-- Murdy Channel: $425,000 to realign a flood control channel by Murdy

Park to improve the water flow into the East Garden Grove Wintersburg

Channel.

-- Central Park Sports Complex: $350,000 to help clean up an old landfill

that contains methane gas.