Oak View Skate Park opens today

The city has built it and you can bet they will come.

Four years after Oak View teenagers pleaded with the city to build

them their own skate park, it is at last complete.

This afternoon, officials and community members will celebrate the

opening of the 1,650-square-foot Oak View Skate Park at the Oak View

Family and Community Center.

“The work is done and it’s ready to skate on,” said Luann Brunson,

a senior administrative analyst for the city, who coordinates

community block grant funding. “It’s very exciting, it’s right out in

the neighborhood for kids and we’re very pleased.”

The $105,000 park was a grass-roots effort spearheaded by a group

of Oak View youngsters.

It is the third skate park in Huntington Beach, with the first

built more than 10 years ago at the Murdy Community Center. A second

was later put in at Huntington Beach High School, where teenagers can

be found flipping their boards and sliding on the cement rails

morning, noon and in the afternoons and evenings.

Several teenagers came forward at a community meeting at the Oak

View Community Center in January 2001, and asked the city to use

block grant funds, which are set aside for community projects, to

build a third park in their neighborhood. A portion of annual

block-grant money handed out by the federal government to bolster

low-income neighborhoods was used for funding.

But budget cuts halved the park from what was originally proposed.

“We’re hoping to expand it when funding is available,” Brunson

said.

Today’s program is geared toward the community’s youth. It will

include a skateboard demonstration, sponsored by Huntington Surf and

Sport and an official dedication ceremony at 3:30 p.m. at the new

skate park, located directly behind the Oak View Community Center at

17261 Oak Lane.

Killer algae appears wiped out in lagoon

A silent killer that was detected in Huntington Harbour waters may

have been wiped out.

State and federal officials have found no trace of caulerpa

taxifolia, commonly known as killer algae, in the harbor or in the

Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad since September 2002. If nothing is

detected by fall of 2004, officials from the Southern California

Caulerpa Action Team say they will consider the plant eradicated.

Caulerpa taxifolia, saltwater algae that is native to tropical

waters and devastating to plants and marine life, made its first

appearance off Huntington Beach and Carlsbad in the summer of 2000.

“I’m really pleased that they look like they’ve got it under

control in those two locations,” said Assemblyman Tom Harman, who

introduced a bill in 2001 that banned the sale and transport of the

algae.

In the Mediterranean Sea, the invasive algae have spread for

thousands of miles along the sea bottom, from the French Riviera to

Croatia.

Despite the colder temperatures of Huntington and Carlsbad ocean

waters, the plant’s growth was phenomenal. It can grow up to 3 inches

a day sprouting bright green fronds and blanketing its marine

environment.

“Boy, once it gets started, it is very difficult to eradicate it,”

Harman said. “Literally, it has to get picked one piece at a time by

underwater divers.”

Caulerpa taxifolia is toxic to local sea life such as halibut and

bass, and eelgrass and other protected ocean vegetation are overtaken

as the algae grow.

The algae are often used in home aquariums as a filtration and

food source. When people dispose of the contents of the aquariums

into estuaries or saltwater lagoons the algae multiply, blanketing

the sea floor and destroying natural organisms.

“You don’t want to let the genie get out of the bottle and once

you do, it’s too late,” Harman said. “I’m very appreciative to the

[California] Department of Fish and Game for taking an aggressive

approach to eradicating this very noxious weed.”

Adult Day Services gets grant for therapy

A program that helps senior citizens maintain independence through

physical and rehabilitative therapy just got $7,500 from the

PacifiCare Foundation.

The foundation, a philanthropic organization established by

PacifiCare Health Care Systems, has awarded the grant to Adult Day

Services of Orange County.

“It’s going to be used to support our restorative therapy

service,” said Cordula Dick-Muehlke, executive director of Adult Day

Service.

About 45 to 50 people daily benefit from the center’s exercise

programs.

“They help people maintain their strength and their flexibility so

that they can stay more independent and be able to stay at home,”

Dick-Muehlke said. “The programs that we do actually help

participants maintain those abilities to be as physically independent

as possible.”

Adult Day Services is a nonprofit center devoted to caring for

those with Alzheimer’s disease. For 23 years, the center, which is

located at Indianapolis and Bushard avenues, has been helping

families struggling with Alzheimer’s and related memory disorders.

The center provides services ranging from health care and

rehabilitative therapies to social activities.

For more information on the center, call (714) 593-9630.

Oscar Party raises money for cancer patient

A group of Huntington Beach residents are throwing an Oscar party

to raise money for their friend, Anna Backlund, who is battling

cancer.

A three-year breast cancer survivor, Backlund thought she was in

the clear until last month when dizzy spells and headaches sent her

to the doctor, where she heard stunning news. The cancer was back.

This time, it was a brain tumor.

Over the years, Backlund has volunteered with the Look Good/Feel

Good Program, a program that helps women cope with wigs and makeup

while undergoing cancer treatment.

This Sunday, the community will give back to her. An Oscar party

and Oscar ballot competition will be held to raise money for

Backlund’s medical bills. The party will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. at

Lamppost Pizza, located at 10084 Adams Ave. in Huntington Beach, at

the corner of Brookhurst and Adams. A percentage of the restaurant’s

proceeds will be donated to the family.

For more information, visit https://home.earthlink.net/

~dodgerbarbie/oscarparty/, or call Holly Fisk at (714) 540-4993.

Nonnative plants in wetlands to be removed

Developers have started work on improving the small parcel of land

next to the degraded wetlands on the Waterfront residential site.

The effort includes the removal of invasive, nonnative plant

species from the buffer parcel. Since plants don’t respect parcel

lines, however, the Robert Mayer Corporation and its development

partners have agreed to remove invasive plants in the degraded

wetlands at their expense while working on the buffer parcel.

The removal of these plants will be done at the supervision of the

Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, and will set the stage for the

ultimate restoration of the degraded wetlands.