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.