DeVore can look in mirror for lost...

DeVore can look in mirror for lost dollars

How ironic that Assemblyman Chuck DeVore would criticize the

California Parks Department because the cost to convert the El Morro

trailer park in Crystal Cove State Park into a public campground and

day-user beach facility has continued to escalate. Actually, I think

it is mainly his actions that have caused all this.

The tenants were encouraged to illegally stay on beyond the Dec.

31, 2004, expiration of their leases largely because of his

introduction of unsuccessful legislation in the Assembly. DeVore’s

delaying actions caused the cost for the proposed conversion to

continue to rise.

At the same time, fighting the multiple lawsuits brought by the

tenants (all of which the tenants lost) has cost the parks department

a great deal of time and money.

The trailer park tenants, by not leaving, have been breaking the

law for eight months, having a wonderful time in what they think is

their summer resort, at the expense of you and me and all the

taxpayers of California.

FERN PIRKLE

Corona del Mar

Too bad Pendleton is off the airport radar

Thursday’s Daily Pilot had some very interesting letters regarding

Chris Cox’s failure to support an airport at El Toro. And the column

by Assemblyman Tom Harman on the great concerns we should all have

about the future of John Wayne Airport was very much on target as to

the future pressures that will be applied to raise or eliminate the

passenger caps. Why we never read about any possible usage of a

portion of Camp Pendleton for a commercial airport strikes me as

strange, but it’s probably politically untouchable.

DON HILLIARD

Newport Beach

Kids would benefit from God in schools

With reference to the July 21 “The Bell Curve”: As a 25-year

resident of Costa Mesa, grandmother and concerned American citizen, I

am writing to object to the implication that it is wrong to make

references to the concept of God in our public schools. This leaves

us with nothing to give our children except the influences of

individual teachers, who are subject to error and self-interest.

How else will our children be taught the seeds of spiritual

evolvement if not in the schools? Are we to forget that we are “one

nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all” and that even

our coins bear the inscription, “In God We Trust”?

America is a land in need of healing, and we must remember that we

are to put our trust in God if we are to be free.

PATRICIA SCHWENNESEN

Costa Mesa

Secret meetings, shameful decision

It is telling that the Costa Mesa Job Center advocates need to

meet in private and conceal their identities. It’s a shame that our

Chamber of Commerce would encourage businesses of this ilk, while

maligning resident input and characterizing public participation with

high-handed remarks about “inviting Dr. Kevorkian.”

LINDA NEWMAN

Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa, not Newport, to blame

I agree with Steve Smith on the subject of the lack of athletic

fields in most cities, and Costa Mesa has done nothing to solve this

problem. In the last 10 years, the city of Newport Beach has built

five youth baseball fields, two softball fields and four soccer

fields, and it is planning to rebuild two baseball fields and batting

cages in Mariner’s Park. Smith should talk to the volunteers at

Pacific Coast Softball, the Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. and AYSO

Region 97. All of these groups are made up of Newport Beach and Costa

Mesa residents. Ask them which city does a better job of providing

athletic fields. The city of Costa Mesa will give you a permit to

play soccer at Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa. But if you

want to use the restrooms, you have to pay $150 a day to open them.

At Bonita Canyon Sports Park in Newport Beach, Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa children are playing baseball on the finest youth baseball

field in Orange County. I don’t hear a bunch of whining from the

Newport Beach families about the Costa Mesa kids.

CHARLIE MASSINGILL

Newport Beach