Q & A -- Will the Lions roar no more?

Lions Club member Mike Scheafer has had a busy few weeks, but he

hasn’t been tied up as usual this time of year. Instead of making the

final preparations for Costa Mesa’s beloved community tradition, the Fish

Fry, Scheafer has been scrambling to try to save it.

He, and others in the club and in City Hall, failed. There won’t be a

Fish Fry.

The reasons? A lawsuit filed by an Irvine resident, who claims she

suffered injuries after tripping on a curb at Orange Coast College after

stopping by the Fish Fry, made it impossible for the college and the club

to reach agreement over who would be responsible for similar, future

incidents.

Scheafer is no stranger to the limelight. As a city parks

commissioner, he resigned last year over the way the city was handling

plans for a skateboard park at Charle and Hamilton streets.

He will stay busy enough, though. He’s an insurance agent in the

community and will become the Lions Club’s next president, a position he

has already held.

Scheafer sat down with Pilot City Editor S.J. Cahn to discuss what

happened with this year’s Fish Fry and what the future might hold for

both it and the Lions Club.

Is there any possibility of a last-minute solution or new location

to save this year’s Fish Fry?

No, really not. And probably the biggest reason is we’ve canceled the

carnival. And there’s no date for that.

Traditionally, we’re that first weekend after Memorial Day. We don’t

mind bucking that tradition, but after that, there’s the Fourth of July,

the Orange County Fair and everybody’s gone for summer. We’ve had good

offers, but they’re basically all too late.

Until we got the phone call that the [Costa Mesa] Special Events

Committee wouldn’t allow us at Lions Park, I thought we would have it at

the park. We had the carnival people waiting. We actually had the people

who make the fish batter waiting.

Were you surprised there was not more community outcry when initial

stories were published that the Fish Fry was in jeopardy?

I’ve had probably half a dozen phone calls. And we got one letter from

a gal who said she will miss it.

I was somewhat surprised.

Probably the biggest surprise was from the mayor [Libby Cowan], which

was she wasn’t there [to help save it].

What, if anything, might the Lions Club have done differently to

secure a location for the Fish Fry? Who’s to blame for the Fish Fry’s

demise this year?

In all of our discussion, we always felt that we didn’t want to point

fingers.

The biggest fault we had was we didn’t have a backup plan. We had a

rainout in ‘92, it was our first rainout. But by Saturday, it cleared up

and we went on to have a successful weekend. That [no backup plan] was a

horrendous mistake.

Everyone wants to blame the woman [who filed the lawsuit]. But it’s

not her fault. She didn’t even sue us. It’s not her fault. I don’t agree

with the lawsuit, but she didn’t sue us.

What the lawsuit did was clarify our relationship with OCC, and what

they want us to do.

We’re lucky somebody wasn’t hurt worse. The worst incident was a kid

was killed. It was during the parade in the ‘60s. The Lions Club was

responsible. It was our event. We paid that, even though you can never

repay that.

Has the Lions Club lost any membership in recent years, and if so,

did that contribute to the Fish Fry’s apparent loss of appeal?

Very much so. The service-type organizations have lost a lot of their

appeal.

At one point, we were over 100 members strong, and now we’re down to

46, and only half of them make it to all our meetings. That has a lot to

do with the loss of the Fish Fry.

The guys are getting older. Over the last couple years, we’ve lost

some really strong members of our club.

This [the Fish Fry’s cancellation] wouldn’t have happened five years

ago, let’s put it that way.

What is the Lions Club doing to ensure the Fish Fry happens in

2002? Are efforts also underway to revitalize the Lions Club?

Over the years, our Lions Club has just done the one event: the Fish

Fry. We’re going to start doing some others. For one, the La Habra Corn

Festival, the first weekend in August. We’re going to be selling fish,

the same fish as the Fish Fry. We’re going to call it just “Fish and

Chips.”

2002 is also the 75th anniversary of the Lions Club. I’ll be the first

repeat president [in the club’s history]. We’re going to go on a severe

membership drive.

Hopefully, without having the Fish Fry this year, when people call

about how they can help, we’re going to ask them to join. The club is by

invitation, and it’s time we start inviting people.

BIO

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Family: Wife, three sons, daughter-in-law, one granddaughter

Education: Estancia High School, Orange Coast College, Cal State

Fullerton

Community involvement: Lions Club, including past district governor;

former city parks commissioner; former Costa Mesa Sanitary District board

member; founder of Costa Mesa Little League; past AYSO board of

directors; board of directors for Harbor Area Boys & Girls Club