Council’s acts were standard procedure I would...

Council’s acts were standard procedure

I would be remise if I did not respond to Danette Goulet’s column

(“Retiring or leaving for greener pastures” April 7.) Ray Silver has

been in public service for 32 years.

During this time he has developed highly valued skills and

experiences. That he would want to retire, but still use his skills

and experiences to benefit the public, does not come as a surprise to

those who know him. While his retirement will give him more time to

do the things he and his wife enjoy, he is also not one to stop using

the skills he has developed over a working lifetime. Silver gave the

council ample notice, and his retirement a few weeks earlier than

planned is in no way harmful to the city.

The council did appoint Assistant City Administrator Bill Workman

as acting city administrator effective upon Silver’s retirement. It

is not at all an unusual for councils to appoint the assistant city

administrator to an acting position. As assistant city administrator,

Workman has the broad-based experience necessary to allow for a

smooth transition regardless of which candidate the council selects

as the new city administrator.

Final interviews of candidates for the job will occur on April 23,

and a new administrator will be on board early this summer. Due to

the importance of the city administrator, the council is wisely

allowing enough time to do a thorough search for the best candidates.

Despite the concerns expressed in Goulet’s column, the council is

acting in a timely and appropriate manner to fill the vacancy left by

Silver’s retirement.

CONNIE BOARDMAN

Huntington Beach

* EDITORS’ NOTE: Connie Boardman is a member of the Huntington

Beach City Council.

Close Main Street and make walkway

Yes, close Main Street to traffic and make it a pedestrian walk.

It is an idea that should have been put in place years ago and

probably would have had it not been for a few deep thinkers on the

City Council.

I have lived in Pot Hole City for about eight years and had the

misfortune of visiting Main Street five times in that period of time.

l now drive out of my way to miss Downtown and l darn sure would

never go there to eat or shop there for the same reasons stated in

the column (Editor’s Notebook, “A plea for a pedestrian walkway,”

April 15.)

Look at it this way, give it a try and if it does not work out,

the street can always be reconfigured back to it’s original use.

As for Pacific City: If the projects meets all the required

conditions yes, approve it. Why not? Or is Steve Bone concerned about

competition?

JIM BARRY

Huntington Beach

I think it would be in the best interest of the city, community

and its tourist industry to close Main Street to cars and make it a

pedestrian walkway. I love the area, but when visiting Main Street

with everyone else who comes from out of town there is barely enough

room to walk on the sidewalks with everyone else who has come from

out of town to visit. Blocking off the street to pedestrians will

allow for more foot traffic and make it more pleasurable to visit.

SYLVIA SANCHEZ

Newport Beach

I think closing Main Street to traffic and making it a pedestrian

walkway would be the greatest thing to happen to Huntington Beach.

FRED LOCARNINI

Huntington Beach

I think closing Main Street to traffic is a great idea. It’s long

overdue, and to go along with it there should be a walk overpass over

Pacific Coast Highway so that they wouldn’t have that stop signal

there that totally screws up the traffic and causes all kinds of

congestion. But anyway, it’s a step in the right direction. I am for

it.

RON HEFNIDER

Huntington Beach

I am in favor of closing Main Street and making it a pedestrian

walkway.

EVELYN BLAIN

Huntington Beach

I believe that they should close Main Street to traffic. It’s very

congested here on the weekend, it’s just a lot of people who want to

cruise Main Street in their cars and it just causes more traffic and

headaches for existing neighbors.

DENISE SANTA CRUZ

Huntington Beach

Main Street walk good, Peace pole bad

Closing Main Street to traffic and making a pedestrian walkway is

just a terrific idea, which I heartily endorse. Excepting the peace

pole was a stupid idea and should never have been done, probably

opening us up to lawsuits.

CHLOE MIECZKOWSKI

Huntington Beach

Goulet is wrong, Downtown is fine

In the April 15 Editor’s Notebook (“A pleas for a pedestrian

walkway”) Danette Goulet asks the question “Why does anyone choose to

drive that section of Main Street?”

Well, the answer is cruising, a time-honored and a unique American

(not to say Southern California) tradition.

While a pedestrian mall does have a certain ambience, an elegance,

a feeling of upscale maturity, that is not the heritage of “Surf

City.” The feel of Huntington Beach is youthful exuberance, not

mature elegance.

My wife and I ( in our early 60s ) would not like to see it

changed.

While Goulet and her friends deride the cruisers, I and my friends

go Downtown specifically for the enjoyment of seeing well-maintained

and meticulously cared for cars.

There is enough mature and elegant shopping malls and I would hate

to see Huntington Beach morphed into another.

BENJAMIN AND WILIMENA WISE

Huntington Beach

Daystar getting KOCE would be bad

The sale of KOCE to religious broadcaster Daystar is a winning

proposition for these televangelists who pay no taxes and reap huge

profits from selling God. The losers are the viewing public that will

have yet another station like Trinity Broadcast Network’s dog and

pony show.

The air ways belong to the public, not the highest bidder.

JOHN BOAG

Huntington Beach

KOCE belongs to the public. I thought that was already decided. We

do not want or need another religious group taking over public TV.

The religious right have enough influence in this country already.

Religion is nothing but big business and should be taxed as such.

This country is being run by a group of born-again religious

fanatics, and look what that has got us into, an illegal, immoral,

insane invasion in Iraq and destruction of an ancient civilization.

KOCE must not be sold to Daystar. There are more important things

than money. KOCE belongs to us.

MAUREEN SHRUBSOLE

Huntington Beach

Environmentalists against building

During the Huntington Beach City Council meeting on April 19, one

of our infamous naysayers cast gloom and perhaps doom on the proposed

Pacific City development. If our police chief will look the other way

for a time I am willing to take bets on, not if, but when the

environmentalists discover artifacts on this former oil field, such

as strange cobble stones that will bring down our states plentiful

tear-jerking you-can’t-build-here crowd. Any takers?

BOB POLKOW

Huntington Beach