Thank you city of Laguna Beach Careful,...

Thank you city of Laguna Beach

Careful, well trained, cautious. No matter, accidents happen and

when they do you want the Laguna Beach Police and paramedics to

respond.

Recently, I was involved in a serious accident in the canyon. The

response of police and paramedics was exemplary. Officer Ed White was

the first to arrive, I was on the roadside in a complete daze.

For a while he seemed like a superman, trying to comfort us (me

and the other driver) and move the traffic at the same time. Shortly

thereafter, fire engines and the paramedics arrived.

Even though everything was hazy, I felt they were not only

operating in utmost efficiency and competence, but also seem to

genuinely care about us. I would like to thank and extend my

appreciation to everyone involved, starting with Officer White, the

paramedics and other members of the Fire Department, the ambulance

crew and my fellow citizens who stopped to help and called 911.

TURK TIMUR

Laguna Beach

ACT V is just too sensitive to touch

We are chagrined that the question of moving the corporation yard

to ACT V is again before us; we thought this unfortunate idea had

been scuttled long ago.

For more than 20 years the Laguna Greenbelt has worried about this

important parcel. Through the years of Irvine Company ownership, we

helped preserve it and several other Laguna Canyon parcels as open

space. Today it borders sensitive Greenbelt open space, now included

in the Nature Reserve of Orange County and Laguna Coast Wilderness

Park. The canyon walls behind ACT V are designated as a “no-entry”

zone by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California

Department of Fish and Game. This designation imposes the highest

protection and bars all human use.

The lands of the Laguna Greenbelt and the larger Nature Reserve

are islands of habitat within a much larger urban environment. Open

space adjacent to urban activity needs to be protected, thus ACT V

serves as a buffer area for the Greenbelt, the park and the reserve.

Our preference is for no use whatsoever in this canyon, but the

present low-impact parking use is certainly preferable to any major

construction such as a city corporation yard.

This issue came before our board on April 10, 2000, and the

following resolution was approved at that time:

“The Laguna Greenbelt Board of Directors wishes to reiterate its

firm position that no development should occur on the north and west

side of Laguna Canyon Road. Therefore, we urge the City Council to

abandon any plans for developing the city corporation yard at the

present ACT V site, and to look seriously at other options. Not only

will the proposed development intrude upon the Laguna Greenbelt and

forever destroy a beautiful canyon, it would draw deeply from

taxpayer-generated funds that would be more beneficial for other

projects, including acquisition of Greenbelt open space within the

city.”

At its Tuesday meeting the board reiterated its opposition. We

urge the council not to contribute to the further degradation of our

hard-fought open space, but to treat ACT V as a buffer area for the

Greenbelt, the park, and the reserve, with only low-impact,

intermittent uses.

ELISABETH M. BROWN

President, Laguna Greenbelt, Inc.

Laguna Beach

ACT V is place for corporate yard

Recently, the Laguna Beach council voted to move the corporate

maintenance yard (which is where we store, oil and gas our city

vehicles -- and where most of our maintenance workers are housed) out

of the Downtown area. The thinking behind this was to:

* Create a beautiful entryway into our city;

* Give our maintenance employees decent working facilities;

* Consolidate the maintenance functions under one roof (including

the landscape maintenance group that is now housed in a residential

neighborhood in North Laguna);

* And build a parking garage close to town that would be used by

residents and visitors.

There is a rumor that by moving the maintenance yard to ACT V we

will be eliminating parking out at ACT V for visitors and eliminating

the tram service now and in the future. This is not the case at all.

There would still be 200 parking spaces at ACT V (a pocket parking

lot, which I believe in) in front of the maintenance yard and the

tram service would continue unabated.

It is my belief that residents will not drive to the canyon to ACT

V to park at any time. What I heard on the campaign trail is that

residents prefer close-to-town parking year-round, which is why I

have always supported a parking garage at the Village Entrance.

The new parking garage, with the maintenance facilities relocated,

would provide an additional 540 to 590 spaces in the proximity of

Downtown.

The city money is available now to finance the move -- and money

garnered through parking meter revenues over the next several years

will provide the primary funding for the new garage.

ELIZABETH PEARSON

Laguna Beach councilwoman

Vision 2030 should be part of the general plan

One of the several ways in which the council can take positive

action to implement Vision 2030 is to direct that its conclusions be

incorporated into the city’s general plan. In fact, I believe that

this is both a theoretical and practical necessity, regardless of

what other actions the council may take.

The general plan is a living document which has several functions,

perhaps the most important of which is to describe clearly the city’s

goals and priorities for long-range decision making. That is

precisely what the city’s visioning process was, and should continue

to be, all about.

SCOTT SEBASTIAN

Laguna Beach

Community needs to be know about school budget

Re: “Fixing budget with school funds, really?” Coastline Pilot,

March 21.

This editorial seemed to meander through a variety of issues

without a clear focus. The first issue was the need to give out “pink

slips” to the teachers because the economy “does a dive”. There are

many that would argue that the excess spending by the state in the

past couple of years is what has caused the majority of the cash

shortfall. The pink slips in the Laguna Beach district were also

issued because the governor has decided to treat districts that are

funded through local property taxes with a much larger reduction in

funding than those who receive their funds directly from the state.

Concern was expressed for the many programs that would lose

funding, e.g. the reduced class size for kindergarten through third

grade. But then it was stated “Some say the class size reduction

wasn’t working -- maybe not when the teacher has yet to earn a

credential.” This implies that our kindergarten to third-grade

classes are being taught by teachers without credentials. This is not

correct. There are only two teachers in the entire district without

current credentials and they are in the rapidly changing special

education program.

The remainder of the editorial focused on the seriousness of the

budget crisis and the need for our residents to become informed and

to contact state legislators. This is clearly the most important

element of the serious problem and future editorials focused on this

will keep our community informed. California is currently 47th in

funding in our nation, with only three southern states below us. This

funding crisis could put us in the 50th position.

WAYNE L. PETERSON

Laguna Beach

Laguna lucky to have South Coast Medical

In response to your article on the Quality Index profile for South

Coast Medical Center (“‘A’ for South Coast Medical,” Coastline Pilot,

March 21).

I was so happy to read that they had been given this high score.

In 1997 I was a patient there and received the absolute highest

quality of care.

Being seriously ill and not in control of your faculties makes you

very dependent on the nursing staff and you can only hope that they

have your best interests in mind. This is not a policy that they have

recently adopted. High-quality patient care has been their goal for

many years.

Laguna Beach is so very fortunate to have this facility on our

town. Thank you for reporting on the kudos they have deserved for a

long time.

JEANNIE RICHARDSON

Laguna Beach

I read in the Coastline Pilot about the South Coast Medical

Center. I have lived in Laguna Beach 34 years and have been to South

Coast Medical Center many times. It is the best. The nurses and

doctors there are great. I wish I could thank them enough for their

good service.

One doctor in South Coast is Dr. (Greg) Greenbaum. He is the

nicest doctor I’ve ever had and a good one. He is great as are the

rest of the staff. Dr. Greenbaum is a doctor on night duty -- God

bless him.

WINONA LYMAN

Laguna Beach

The Coastline Pilot is eager to run your letters. If your letter

does not appear it may be due to space restrictions and will likely

appear next week.