County needs help getting out the vote

With an election just two months away, Orange County is struggling to

find enough poll workers to help facilitate this year’s vote.

Dennis White, election coordinator for Huntington Beach and

surrounding areas, said he won’t have exact numbers until the final

poling places are established. Estimates show the city will require

several hundred workers.

“We’re always in need, not just of poll workers, but of polling

places as well,” he said. “Huntington Beach has always been one of

those areas that is difficult to fill.”

The county is beginning to recruit workers to help out on election

day, and is offering to pay about $100 a piece for 15 hours of work.

High School students are welcome to apply, Renock said, and he

encourages other “civic-minded citizens” to get involved in the

election process.

Those who sign up will be commissioned as precinct officers and

will be charged with setting up the polling place, locating voters’

addresses on a street index, issuing voters an access code to enable

them to vote on an electronic ballot and following the closing

procedures at the polls.

Precinct officers will receive training to help them get through

the day. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

To work at the polls, residents must be U.S. citizens, registered

to vote in California and able to read and speak English fluently.

Orange County also needs precinct officers who are bilingual in

Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean.

To sign up, call 714-567-7580 or visit www.ocvote.org.

Home Depot to replace K-Mart

Good bye blue light specials. Hello home improvement.

Home Depot is set to take over the city’s only K-Mart retail store

on Magnolia Avenue, just four miles from the Home Depot store on

Warner Avenue. The move will take place once the store finalizes its

liquidation sale, which is going on now. K-Mart will close its doors

in October.

“Once we have sold most of the assets, we plan to actually move in

and close the store,” K-Mart spokesman Steve Pagnani said.

In June, K-Mart announced its plans to sell up to 24 of its stores

to Home Depot for as much as $365 million, but later scaled down the

proposal to just 12 outfits. In Southern California Homes Depot will

also take over stores in Seaside, Orange and Thousand Oakes.

While no specific numbers are available, about 100 Huntington

Beach K-Mart employees are expected to lose their jobs following the

sale.

The deal is a proposal to help K-Mart emerge from a 2003

bankruptcy. In a separate deal, K-Mart also plans to sell 54 of its

stores to Sears, Roebuck and Co. for as much as $621 million. K-Mart

stores will still operate in Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange.

Candidates show what’s in their wallets

Financial information for City Council candidates who waited until

the Aug. 11 deadline to file to run has been released.

In total, five Surf City residents have completed the reports,

which require candidates for office to disclose all their sources of

revenue within the municipality they seek to represent.

Only two candidates, Planning Commissioner Steve Ray and

substitute teacher Rex Ricks have reported earning any income within

city limits. Candidates Robert Kliewer, John Earl and Tim Reilly all

report not earning any money in Huntington Beach for 2003.

Ray’s form shows that he works as an environmental consultant for

Ultra Systems and makes less than $100,000 a year. Ricks wrote that

he works for Pasha Maritime as a superintendent, earning less than

$10,000 a year. He also works a substitute teacher in the Northern

California town of Gilroy.

Farmers & Merchants Banks opens new branch

A new Huntington Beach bank threw itself a grand party Tuesday to

celebrate the opening of its newest branch.

Farmers & Merchants Bank recently opened an office at the corner

of Yorktown Avenue and Goldenwest Street with a grand Hawaiian-themed

soiree, complete with ukulele music, luau dancers and a raffle for a

Farmers & Merchants surf board.

“Huntington Beach now has a new partner in community service with

the opening of this newest branch,” marketing executive Linda Coss

said. “We’re looking forward to working with our neighbors and

providing the highest level of service available.”

The bank has operated in Southern California for more 90 years and

offers traditional checking, savings and market accounts.

Sanchez praises defense contractors at fair

U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) asked

executives from major defense firms gathered at Boeing Huntington

Beach on Tuesday to continue outsourcing the production of weapons to

smaller U.S. firms to reduce costs and provide weapons for the war on

terror.

Companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and

United Technologies are adopting strategies to outsource between 80%

to 90% of their production to smaller firms, many which operate in

Orange County, Sanchez noted.

“In the north and central parts of Orange County, there are over

1,000 mostly small companies that supply to the nation’s defense,”

she said. “We’re beginning to find two important things about these

companies that make them stand out against the larger firms. Often

they’re more innovative because they don’t have the red tape and

bureaucratic pressures that bigger firms face, and they’re also

usually faster, turning out products at a quicker rate.”

Tuesday’s conference, the Aerospace and Defense Supplier Fair,

featured the first face-to-face meeting of senior-level defense

executives with members of the Department of Defense, the House Armed

Services Committee and the Select Committee on Homeland Security.