Gains & Losses

GAINS

AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIAL

Students are learning to spin tunes during a music recording class

offered by Ocean View High School’s after-school program. Once a week,

junior James Smith, 17, and senior Roberto Tapia, 18, teach their peers

the basics of being a disc jockey. “On the first day of class, we had a

long waiting list,” James said. Funded by money from the Healthy Start

program, the class is the most popular of Ocean View’s after-school

offerings.

LEADING THE WAY

The mayors of Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley joined with Huntington

Beach Union High School District Supt. Susan Roper to talk with more than

100 student council members about leadership. It was the first time

Fountain Valley Mayor Guy Carozzo and Huntington Beach Mayor Dave

Garofalo addressed students together on the subject. The event, attended

by students from six schools, was part of the city’s and district’s

Odyssey 2000 program. “We got to see the mayors as real people,” said

Marina High senior Christina Chilleme.

LOSSES

FIRE TRUCKS RECALLED

The Huntington Beach Fire Department recalled four of its emergency

trucks in January after one of them uncontrollably leaned from side to

side during a fire. The 35,000-pound trucks, manufactured by

New-York-based Saulsbury, could have posed a danger to firefighters,

division chief Duane Olson said. Fire Department heads were warned about

the problem several months before the incident but insist they could not

have done anything sooner. “We weren’t hiding it,” Olson said. The

department is using reserve and replacement trucks until the manufacturer

fixes the problem at its own expense.

RETIRING FROM THE FORCE

After 28 years, Capt. Rod Gillman is retiring from the Fountain Valley

Police Department this summer. Gillman, 52, has been the department’s

captain since 1991. “I love this job, and I want to leave it while I

still enjoy it,” Gillman said. His last day is June 23.