Thank you for saving the DARE...

Thank you for saving the DARE program

Thank you, Huntington Beach City Council, for not eliminating the

Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in our schools. Though the

reduction in the budget will mean less contact between officers and

kids, particularly in the middle schools, the cut was proportional to

the overall budget crisis.

It’s great that the fifth- and sixth-grade students in our schools

will continue to learn strategies for avoiding drug abuse and will

still have the opportunity to become friends with our police officers

through DARE.

As promised, our organization, Substance Abuse/Violence Education

Task Force, will keep pursuing additional funding sources for

anti-drug and anti-violence education in our schools. Thank you, City

Council, for retaining a portion of the program as a foundation. The

kids in our community are worth it.

CELIA JAFFE

Huntington Beach

Geddes made a case against districting

I agree with a lot of what Tim Geddes wrote in Sounding off in the

Sept. 19 edition of the Independent, but with rising health care

costs and pension costs to city employees, I do not see additional

staff being hired.

I do agree with his paragraph, “The new City Council will have

less time to devote to their positions than the previous City

Council. And yet, the demands on council members’ time and efforts

are likely to increase. The job keeps on getting tougher and more

complex.”

Geddes, in the above paragraph, states why there is opposition to

creating city council districts and reducing the number of council

members from seven to five.

The council is overburdened now, and to reduce it from seven

members to five will only make it worse, not better.

Those that are pushing districting have an agenda. But once the

election is over, they will not have to do the work that the five

elected council members would.

I also take issue with those that keep using the figure of 22,000

signatures collected. The correct number is 21,443, and of that

number only 16,768 were certified. I would hope in the future they

would not include those 4,675 that were not certified, which I am

sure included Mickey Mouse, Martha Stewart, etc. If those that want

districting want to be seen as credible, then give the correct amount

of certified signatures collected.

TOPPER HORACK

Huntington Beach

Noise from copters alienating residents

As they did in response to a tidal inlet article, Vic Leipzig and

Lou Murray should again take a normally clear-thinking editor behind

the woodshed. This time they can give that editor a crash course on

noise pollution. Lesson one would be titled, “Police helicopters are

really loud.”

The noise irritation issue caused by Huntington Beach Police

Department’s Aero Unit cannot be dismissed as casually as it was in

the Independent’s recent Editor’s Notebook. Residents in my

neighborhood are furious over the increasingly frequent and prolonged

disruptions caused by the helicopters. The police department is not

taking the actions necessary to address residents’ outrage over the

noise they are causing.

Sgt. Tom Arnold, Aero Unit supervisor, courteously responds to

complaints and always has some reason for the excessive circling. He

says they are after bad guys (and they will circle and circle until

they find one); he says they prevent drownings (even when they are

circling over residences); he says it’s probably some other agency,

such as the news media (presumably checking for sig alerts on 12th

and Acacia streets); he says they leave as fast as they can (the last

time I called, it was after 45 minutes of continual circling

beginning at 10 p.m.); he says the marine layer is increasing the

volume (then make some adjustments). Sgt. Arnold always ends the

complaint call with an upbeat message of how effective they are and

that they will try to be more sensitive to the noise issue.

Guess what, it keeps getting worse. Perhaps actions such as the

following would help:

1. Vary the flight patterns for take-offs and landings so the

helicopters are not flying over the same neighborhoods when they are

going to and from the police station.

2. Strictly regulate the amount of time helicopters can hover over

routine calls and leave as soon as patrol cars arrive.

3. In the Aero Unit’s monthly reports, include the number and

types of complaint calls received.

4. Include in their monthly reports a list of the number of times

when they had to circle over a response call for more than five

minutes, and detail the reason why any response had to last over 10

minutes.

5. Establish a well-publicized 24-hour complaint hot line,

preferably through the council office, where residents can call at

all hours of the day or night to report excessive circling.

6. Fly at a much higher altitude, or ground the helicopters

altogether, when there is a marine layer.

7. Stop telling us that the new helicopters are 30% quieter than

the older model.

Finally, I hope the Huntington Beach Police Department understands

that the helicopter issue is alienating residents who used to be

strong supporters of the department.

As for the starry-eyed editor who wrote the article, even though

she got a free helicopter ride and probably got to wear one of those

keen headsets, please revisit the noise issue.

JOHN FICK

Huntington Beach

Banning ads is a waste of time

I have lived in the Seacliff area of Huntington Beach for 25 years

and the noise has really increased from a lot of things.

No. 1 is the morning and evening traffic on Goldenwest Street,

especially on those warm Saturday and Sundays that attract our inland

neighbors (many on motorcycles) to our beaches.

No. 2 is the Huntington Beach police helicopter when it is

practicing landings on the City Hall or overseeing some emergency

activity nearby and is using its’ P.A. system.

No. 3 is jet aircraft inbound to land on runway 30 at the Long

Beach Airport on an overcast day, the noisiest is the Air Force C-17,

which is manufactured in Long Beach and, like most military aircraft,

is not equipped with noise suppressors.

No. 4 are the sirens on emergency vehicles traveling on Goldenwest

Street in route to where they are needed.

All of the noise sources listed above are signs of an area

increasing in population, services and business that we accept as

part of our life in a place with great weather and many other assets.

The low-level drone of banner-towing aircraft advertising local

businesses and showing the Stars and Stripes is insignificant. I

think the City Council has more important business to do, like sewer,

streets, water supplies, etc.

Extending its authority into our airspace is a waste of their time

and taxpayer money.

ROBERT L. BLURTON

Huntington Beach

Helicopters are noisy and a waste of money

I read the letter a couple of weeks ago from B.F. Schnel regarding

the police helicopters.

I read the letter today from V. Barrett.

Conclusions?

The helicopters are noisy, they do cost too much taxpayer money,

and 99% of residents will never need the “emergency services” Barrett

alleges they will.

We were at a beach party 10 days ago, and the feeling among the 25

adult guests there was unanimous -- the copters are a nuisance.

I’ve lived in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San

Diego. All are cities much larger than Huntington Beach, and their

police forces do not have to fly in Keystone Cop circles all night

long. In fact, they seem to be able to enforce the law through police

cars and foot patrols alone. Can you imagine anything so novel?

Furthermore, speeding is a problem on every residential street,

and the city or police refuses to do anything about it. When a child

is killed because of a reckless speeder, let her death be on yours

and the Huntington Beach Police Department’s hands.

G. RENTO

Huntington Beach

Offensive truck ads must be stopped

Thank you for publishing the letter from my friend Linda Sedivy

(Mailbag Sept. 19) concerning the truck ads. My children go to Marina

High School, and I was also confronted with the two big trucks.

They circled the school three times while I was waiting in line to

drop off my daughter. Who knows how many times they had already been

around?

I agree with Sedivy about drawing the line somewhere. These people

are sick and should not be allowed to push these issues on our

children. I hope this is not the last we hear from the public

concerning this, and we do need to stop them.

LIZ STANFORD

Huntington Beach