Mailbag - Dec. 2, 2001

School board needs more trustees like Leece

I’m so glad the Daily Pilot still publishes the community standards of

Steve Smith, Ila Johnson and Wendy Leece.

We need more school board members like Wendy Leece. She has stated

(“Personal lives are community’s business,” Oct. 25) that we need to

consistently conduct our lives with honor and responsibility. For years,

she has read the fine print and analyzed the long-term consequences of

reams of curriculum. She has not just rubber-stamped all the educational

bureaucracy. She has always stood up for what was best for the children’s

education, and there are many parents who need to get involved in school

board elections.

Parents, you have until August 2002 to file for school board

candidates. You could make a difference in raising your children’s moral

and educational standards, as well as their friends’ for a lifetime. Just

call the Orange County registrar of voters. There is a lot of help for

those who have a high level of leadership and moral standards.

BARBARA WHITACRE

Costa Mesa

Chamber selfish in using Sept. 11 to support Koll

I’m responding to the Nov. 8 Community Forum, specifically the

Community Commentary (“Chamber urges community to rally around local

economy”) from Richard Luehrs, president of the Newport Harbor Chamber

Area of Commerce. What a cheap, weak shot to use the Sept. 11 tragedy for

a lead-in to his support of the Koll Center expansion project and Measure

G.

Is there a development that the local chamber would never support?

PAT GREENBAUM

Newport Beach

Pilot should have covered celebration

I looked and looked in the Pilot for any information about the

marvelous 17th Street Walk that the merchants and a lot of people were

really very excited about on 17th Street in Costa Mesa.

A lot of energy went into it. Most of us -- I have my office on 17th

Street -- are delighted that the road widening did not go through, and

this was a celebration. There were so many people and so many kids and

such a wonderful feeling for so large a space that I’m truly concerned

that you did not give that any more publicity.

Before, there was some but not that much. Then you didn’t write about

it at all -- at least not that I could see.

IRENE KANE

Lido Isle

Newport Beach should go after sewage spillers

Newport Beach’s environmental-conscious City Council has done it again

(“Newport Beach examining duck-feeding law,” Nov. 8). Let’s fine feeders

of the ducks because of the pollution problem they are causing.

The way I look at it, if they fine someone $500 for feeding 50 ducks

who in turn decide to stick around for a year, we have added about 50

pounds a week of fertilizer to the waterways, or 250 gallons of waste per

year. However, recently, 50,000 gallons of raw sewage escaped into the

Newport Shore Channel, Santa Ana River and Pacific Ocean in just one

spill (“Sewage spill closes West Newport beaches,” Nov. 16). At $500 per 250 gallons of duck waste, simple math tells me that the sewage spill

culprit, Orange County, owes us about $100,000 for that one spill.

I think our town fathers had better get their act together and

seriously fine those responsible for all sewage spills, which indeed have

a serious impact on all of our lives, instead of wasting time on their

Daffy Duck waste laws.

RICHARD DE TERESA

Newport Beach