Bring back volleyball, surfing, sand castle contests
The city council should be commended for listing their accomplishments and writing down their vision for the future. With that being said, their accomplishments are miniscule and their vision of the future is shortsighted at best. The main priority of the council and the city manager should be to reduce taxes and increase revenues.
Concerning their vision statement, it is wonderful that they finally have one, but a vision statement should and must be meaningful. A city of 28,000 is small but cannot aspire to have a small city feel if it is located between two of the larger cities in the state of California.(Long Beach and Huntington Beach) Additionally, the 405 freeway dissects Seal Beach and millions of cars pass through our city each day and spew pollution and noise that cannot be ignored. The city should work with the OCTA to mitigate sound pollution and decrease pollution in the future by introducing means of transportation down the middle of the freeway that are not fossil fuel dependent. Spending money on litigation is wasteful and counter- productive.
The city in the past has been given good recommendations by the board of supervisors that it has yet to enact. Their recommendation has been to unite with smaller adjacent cities so it could eventually get a population of roughly a 100k which is the population needed to have a real city and take advantage of economies of scale. Doing this would also enable the city to eliminate the electric tax which the city is dependent upon and abuses.
An admirable goal would be to restore the annual sand castle competition and the surfing championships. Both of these events added revenues and excitement to the city. The city eliminated the sand castle competition because of toxic glue. Other cities still have their competitions, but contestants must utilize non toxic glue. The city eliminated the surfing and volleyball competitions because of crowd unruliness. The city has a police department which is highly paid and should be able to handle crowd control.
Lastly, the city would like to entice someone to establish a restaurant at the end of the pier. To date, it has not been able to do so. The city of Seal Beach was recently ranked in a business poll 477th out of 482 cities as being the 5th worst city to do business with in the whole state. This business poll tells a lot about the people who run the city. This problem was not on the city’s list of things that have to be remedied and should have been.
Dennis J. Dill
College Park East
Many programs to attend
St. Mary’s Low Vision Center’s 40th Anniversary celebration and Showcase Luncheon held recently was terrific. The huge crowd—members and visitors—had fun socializing. Testimonials and guest speakers in the field of optometry were fascinating. Delicious-nutritious catered meals were served; highlighted with good entertainment in the background and lovely and colorful bouquets on round tables. The delightful atmosphere was enchanting. Surprisingly, a young employee who won the bouquet gave it to me.I was delighted being the recipient of a beautiful elegantly-arranged bouquet. Lucky me.
I think the event was a tremendous success.
Lisa A. Dickson
Leisure World – Mutual 1
Kudos to Terri Epps
I very much enjoyed the article in last week’s Sun about the amazing Pageant of the Arts at McGaugh Elementary. I loved the beautiful colorful pictures of the children who participated in the show. It is an experience that they will never forget. I know my children will always remember that unique, special time that they spent being a part of the pageant. I would like to comment however, that I saw no mention of a person who’s involvement in the pageant is so crucial to it’s success. It is the art teacher at McGaugh, Terri Epps, who orchestrates the entire evening and brings the show to fruition. Terri Epps does this out of her love for art and children. Her heartfelt dedication, enthusiasm, and creativity, is what makes The Pageant of the Arts such an unforgettable evening for all the families, friends, and community guests who attend. On behalf of all parents who’s children have been lucky enough to have you as their art teacher, thank you, Terri Epps for all you do for our students, and the art program at McGaugh School!
Joanne Levin
Seal Beach
