Gains and losses

GAINS

CELEBRATING THE NEW YEAR

Local Jewish children learned about the traditions of Rosh Hashana, the

Jewish New Year, through a special program at the Hebrew Academy-Silver

Gan Israel in Huntington Beach. The youngsters -- and adults, too -- made

shofars, musical instruments made out of ram horns. The sounding of the

horn is used to inspire repentance and good resolutions for the new year.

TAKE IT TO THE VOTERS

With the fate of the Wal-Mart project possibly resting in the hands of

voters, City Councilman Dave Garofalo saw an opportunity to get their

opinion on other hot-button issues. He proposed surveying the public at

the voting booth on issues such as how to pay for the city’s

infrastructure and library needs and gauging the interest in creating an

“urban forest.”

AMERICAN TRADER SUIT COMES TO END

While the city recovers from the latest beach pollution problem, the

Huntington Beach City Council signed off last week on a settlement

stemming from an even worse catastrophe in 1990. On a 6-0 vote, the

council approved an agreement that would pay $16 million for harm caused

by the oil tanker American Trader, which ruptured its hull on its own

anchor, spilling 400,000 gallons of crude off the coast. Huntington Beach

will receive only a portion of the money, which will be split among a

“coalition” of five cities and agencies that suffered economic loss from

the Feb. 7 1990 incident, considered Orange County’s worst environmental

disaster. The exact amount the city will recover remains uncertain but

could be as much as $4 million.

LOSSES

BEACHES REOPEN, BRIEFLY

After the beaches reopened for the Labor Day weekend, health officials

renewed their warnings about the ocean pollution that ruined most of the

summer at Surf City. Again the bacteria enterococcus reared its ugly

head, with levels of water contamination exceeding three times acceptable

standards. Instead of closing the beach, officials posted signs

cautioning people of the danger. Officials have ruled out the possibility

that a sewage leak is to blame. The “main focus” now is urban runoff --

anything flowing from homes and businesses and into city gutters.

A VIEW THAT NO ONE CAN SEE

Overlook Road has a great view, but nobody’s allowed to see it because of

a bureaucratic tiff between the city and the county. The newly

constructed road that winds along the edge of the Bolsa Chica bluffs is

blocked by locked gates.

City Councilman Tom Harman said he’d like to “take a hacksaw and chop the

damn padlock off.” The PLC Land Co. built the road as a condition to

developing the Bluffs, an adjacent upscale gated community at the corner

of Edwards and Garfield avenues that’s nearing completion. But neither

the city nor the county wants to take responsibility for opening and

closing the gates, and the public’s losing out, he said.