Park for skating may nix Fish Fry

Longtime Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club member Mike Scheafer is known around town as “Mr. Fish Fry.”

Scheafer has helped with the Lions annual fish fry and carnival at Lions Park since he was 8 years old, and his dad was a Lions Club member.

“It’s the only event in Costa Mesa that is really a tradition,” Scheafer said.

The Lions Club used the proceeds from the first fish fry to build the softball field at the park 60 years ago, Scheafer said. The club has donated about $2 million in fish fry proceeds to benefit local groups and charities since its inception, he said.

The tradition could be lost if plans go forward for a new skate park in Lions Park at the corner of Park Avenue and 18th Street.

The Costa Mesa City Council will discuss Tuesday awarding a roughly $70,000 contract to RJM Design Group to plan and design a skate park on the site.

Council members voted 3-2 in August to put off hiring a design firm for the Lions Park project after hearing from residents who opposed the plan.

Scheafer said he and other Lions Club members feel the park would be better suited for another location like Fairview Park and that the fish fry could be lost if the event is forced to move.

The council will also discuss adding a large skate park and dog exercise area at Fairview Park Tuesday.

“The tradition has always been at Lions Park,” Scheafer said. “We’re comfortable there because we’re used to the site. We just about lost it when we tried to move.”

The club tried hosting the event at Orange Coast Community College about five years ago and ended up getting sued when a woman who didn’t attend the fish fry was injured on the campus.

To host the event at the college, the club had to sign an agreement to take legal responsibility for the entire campus the weekend of the fish fry.

Moving the event would break the long tradition of the annual spring celebration at Lions Park, Scheafer said. It also would make it harder for people to find the event, he said.

Councilman Eric Bever, who voted against delaying design plans in August, said Lions Park was the best place for a skate park and that he was against any plans for a skate park at Fairview Park because it would create traffic and parking problems.

Councilwoman Wendy Leece said she believed there could be a compromise on the issue and that a smaller skate park for younger children at Lions Park would be the answer to residents’ concerns.

The skating area would take up less room and preserve more green space in the park, she said.

“This would be a place for younger children to go,” Leece said. “By putting something smaller in, it would keep the green area, because it is used a lot.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.