Commissioners appointed
The City Council selected five Arts Commissioners Tuesday from a
bumper crop of applicants.
Incumbents Pat Kollenda, Nancy Beverage and Dora Wexall were
reappointed. Wexall will serve as the alternate. Mary Pratt Ferguson
and Terry Smith are new to the commission.
“I have no interest or desire to replace existing members,”
Ferguson told the council. “I will continue to go to the meetings
whether I make the $60 a month or not.”
The commission advises the council on matters related to visual
and performing arts, acquisitions or policies.
Regularly scheduled meetings are held twice monthly. Additional
meetings are frequent.
“I have watched the commission go from a good group to a great
group,” said Kollenda, the only commissioner to represent the
performing arts.
Linda Dietrich switched commissions. After six years on the Arts
Commission, she applied for one of the two open seats on the Planning
Commission and was selected.
Dietrich cited an interest in expanding Laguna’s art heritage in
the Downtown area and throughout the community, a desire to
participate in the Village Entrance project, to work with the
community to increase the number and variety of resident-serving
businesses while supporting tourism and to ensure the goals of the
Vision Committee are implemented as reasons for her application.
Veteran commissioner Norm Grossman was reappointed.
“I am on the commission sub-committee for the Vision Committee
implementation,” Grossman said. “I am anxious to shepherd that
process. And later this year, the commission will start the review of
the land use element.”
The commission advises the council on land use policies and
specific projects, such as the Driftwood development in South Laguna;
reviews designs for buildings and signs in the Downtown District; and
rules on conditional use permit applications, all subject to council
approval, if appealed or challenged.
-- Barbara Diamond
Treasure waits on state for designation
The city’s April request to designate Treasure Island as a state
marine park has still not been answered by officials in Sacramento,
but marine biologist Rick Ware expects the state to intervene by the
end of the year.
Laguna Beach submitted an application in November to upgrade
Treasure Island from a marine life refuge to a state marine park,
then sent a letter requesting at least interim designation in April.
Councilman Wayne Baglin suggested sending the letter to Mary
Nichols of State Resources at an April 1 council meeting to seek
advice on how the city could save an environment “on the verge of
being lost.”
Ware, of Coastal Resources Management and employed by the city to
handle environmental reports of the area, said the state’s budget
crisis is keeping its intervention with the Treasure Island project
at a long-term level.
“The state isn’t impeding the process,” Ware said, “but it isn’t
helping much either. The city intends to manage the area with or
without marine park status.”
Ware cited the Tidewater Docent Program as a success thus far in
improving management of the area on a local level.
Designation as a state marine park would allow the city to impose
stricter beach- and ocean-use guidelines on visitors at Treasure
Island Park.
-- Mike Swanson
Bishop named for Latter-day Saints
Robert (Skip) Hellewell has recently been named as the new Bishop
of the Laguna Beach ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in Laguna Beach.
Latter-day Saint clergy are not graduates of seminaries or
divinity schools, but come from many professions and walks of life.
After high school Hellewell’s studies in mechanical engineering were
interrupted by a 2-year mission to Central America.
After graduation Hellewell worked in various engineering
assignments at Procter and Gamble, American Hospital Supply and
Target Therapeutics, where he served as an officer of the company.
Hellewell and his wife, Clare, have six children, two of which
graduated from Laguna Beach High, and five grandchildren.
They are retired, and when time permits travel between Laguna
Beach and Midway, Utah where they have restored an old family home.
Make your skate park opinion heard
Sunday is the last day to turn in surveys to help the YMCA Skate
Park Task Force determine whether there’s enough community support in
Laguna Beach for the proposed park.
Surveys are available online at www.meta4marketing.com/sk8.
Information: (949) 497-0428.
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