Ascon cleanup needs to be done The...

Ascon cleanup needs to be done

The Ascon landfill needs to be cleaned up now! No matter the

inconveniences. It is important to current and future residents. I’m

sure care would be taken to minimize exposure to residents while

clean up is in progress.

Prior to clean up, careful removal of the wildlife should be given

top priority also. I live less than a quarter mile from the site I

know for a fact that there are foxes and coyotes that are current

residents there. We must be conscientious of this, after all they

were here before we and must respect there being.

Lastly, after clean up is done what will the developer put there?

Hopefully a proportional amount of open space, i.e. golf course, park

or some other free community space will be realized to preserve some

sense of nature.

GARIN PAYNE

Huntington Beach

Southeast isn’t against plan

In reading the article written by John Scott (“Southeast committee

doesn’t represent area residents”), I was filled with the

disappointment that only comes with knowing that only half the story

has been told. And in this case, it is truly half of the story. When

the Southeast Huntington Beach Homeowners Assn. board was voting

whether to endorse redevelopment for the southeast or not, that board

deadlocked at eight votes per side. And that’s OK. That sort of thing

can happen. That’s why they call it a democracy.

But Scott (who I have the utmost respect for since he

single-handedly put Southeast Huntington Beach on the map in City

Hall) makes it look like the vast majority of people living here are

opposed to redevelopment or how it is being administered. That is

simply not correct.

Had Scott been at the March 27 meeting, he would have experienced

what I imagine is all too rare in city politics -- politicians asking

what the people in attendance want and then making those the

priorities to shoot for. If you ask me, that seems pretty responsive.

If this is a matter of some people simply having a distrust or

dislike for redevelopment, then they should become involved in it.

The time has passed to be asking “if” redevelopment should be

implemented but rather “how” it should be implemented. As I have

commented before, look what the southeast part of Huntington has

without redevelopment; Ascon/NESI , AES, Cenco, Orange County

Sanitation District. An alphabet soup of toxics and pollutants. Does

it not stand to reason that with the additional controls

redevelopment offers us, that redevelopment can be the catalyst for

the changes that are so badly needed here?

And the priorities made at the March 27 meeting? Things like

improvements to storm drains and pumping stations to keep our homes

from flooding in heavy rains, the widening of Newland Street and

additional traffic signals which are major safety issues. I believe

it is prudent to improve the foundations of the area before starting

in on anything else. Once those types of needs are met, there will be

plenty of time to start on the visionary things.

DAVID GUIDO

Huntington Beach

EDITOR’S NOTE: David Guido is president of Huntington Beach

Coastal Communities Assn. and a board member of Huntington Beach.

Funding comes from Surf City

During the City Council meeting Monday night, the mayor introduced

an agenda item that would authorize her to send a letter on behalf of

the city to the state Coastal Conservancy to support funding

requested by the Huntington Beach Wetland Conservancy to purchase 45

acres of land to be “restored to a salt marsh.”

One letter deplored the waste of tax money at a time when layoffs

and cut in humanitarian programs was forced due to the state’s

enormous deficit. Boardman, with a sardonic smile, said the objector

did not understand the situation as her action would only cost a

postage stamp.

Boardman should tell the taxpayers where the requested funding,

asked for by a postage stamp, was coming from. As I see it, the

creation of a salt marsh, to satisfy the wetlands wackos would

require the California Coastal Conservancy to allocate tax dollars to

protect our coast, not to create a salt marsh as requested by a

minority in our city.

Using Boardman’s philosophy, we should be able to pay our debts

with just a postage stamp. With her expertise in economics she should

be conducting courses in how to convert postage stamps to money. As

usual, her group is using smoke and mirrors to mask the truth and

keep valuable land for the birds and let the people “eat cake.”

BOB POLKOW

Huntington Beach