MAILBAG - Sept. 28, 2000

New gymnasiums to be ‘Junior Staples Centers’

The Ocean View [School District] school board unanimously approved a

$10-million project to build “Junior Staples Centers” at four middle

school sites in Huntington Beach. (“Ocean View district schools to

construct new gyms,” Sept. 21).

Under the guise of improvements on students’ behalf, each of the four

buildings will be almost four stories tall (38 feet), over half a

football field in length (180 feet) and one-third a football field in

width (100 feet) to accommodate commercial leasing of the facility.

The buildings will be open for commercial rental use from 5 to 10 p.m.

Monday through Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday until 10 p.m. Night

lighting and public address systems are included in the plan, but not

adequate plans to accommodate vehicles, nor ingress and egress for the

1,750 people the stadiums will seat. Summarily, the buildings will not be

available to the local school students during that time.

When asked how the school district can construct a commercial

enterprise in a residential neighborhood, the school board’s arrogant

reply is they are subject only to the state of California regulations,

not Huntington Beach nor county ordinances. Supt. James Tarwater and the

school board show by action that they believe they are not subject to the

taxpayers’ opinions either. We intend to let a court of law decide that

matter.

Some local residents stated that they had been notified of the project

just one day prior to the school board meeting and requested a

postponement of the vote to allow more time for residents to research the

project, but school board approval [proceeded anyway] and residents spent

2 1/2 hours appealing to deaf ears. The most important questions remain.

If this is such a great project, why have the plans been kept secret from

the residents it will most affect, and who is paying for the albatross?

CAROLEE FOCHT

Huntington Beach

Dissipating Garofalo coverage welcomed

I was happy to see that there was not one article, not one letter, not

one comment in [the Sept. 21] paper about our situation with [Huntington

Beach] Mayor David Garofalo. I was very happy to see this.

I hope that in the future we continue to see little coverage of the

Garofalo matter as it goes forward to its inevitable conclusions that

there was some impropriety, or at least problems, associated with

Garofalo’s involvements with all these adventures outside of his duties

as mayor.I look forward to your coverage dissipating, along with

Garofalo’s involvement with the city of Huntington Beach dissipating as

well.

KEVIN MESSNER

Huntington Beach

Nudity uproar is just another council boondoggle

This concern regarding banning public nudity is once again a nonissue

and, if passed, would be extremely difficult to enforce (“City checking

legality of public nudity law,” Sept. 14).

A few years ago, our brilliant City Council passed an ordinance

against surfers changing into their wetsuits because of the perceived

detriment to our moral standards.

Well, I surf every week in town, and myself and about 500 other

surfers change right then and there, and to my knowledge there has been:

a) no citations issued, and b) no increase of pimps at any of the surf

spots.

KEVIN BULLAT

Huntington Beach