Community swim program saved

An oversized check was presented to the City Council on Monday with enough money to keep the community swim programs at the Huntington Beach High School Aquatic Facility open for the rest of the year.

The community held a swim-a-thon in December to raise the $8,500 needed to close the budget gap and keep the pool open for the residents.

“We hope that you take this as another message of how important these aquatic programs are,” said Sylvia Garrett, one of the event coordinators.

Firefighters, Junior Lifeguards, residents and more than 70 swimmers came out to support the event. It initially looked like the donations would be just shy of what was needed, but $8,970 was raised.

In other news, Huntington Beach raised $1,800 at a fundraiser lunch for the people of Haiti.

The pasta lunch was Jan. 24 at Zach’s Pier Plaza.

“I just want to personally thank everyone for showing their support,” said Councilman Joe Carchio. “Nobody can imagine the extreme pain those people are going through.”

The council also approved a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Huntington Beach Art Center Foundation.

The decision was approved unanimously, with Councilman Keith Bohr absent.

The city already operated the Art Center, but will now have a formal partnership with the foundation. The foundation has donated more than $2 million to the city for the art center in its 20 years.