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Mailbag: Taxpayers not funding mesa plan

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In their hit piece about the Land Trust plan for the Bolsa Chica mesa (“More like a ‘heart attack for the mesa,’” Natural Perspectives, Feb. 10), Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray write that it “will cost $4.3 million to implement. Wow. Would that be our tax dollars that it hopes to spend?”

Apparently, rather than taking the five minutes to find out and actually inform their readers, they preferred to ask a loaded question and move on, leaving the impression that the proposed project would be some sort of tax-funded boondoggle.

For those interested in facts rather than petty political sniping: The initial funding for the project planning came from a foundation that gets its money from both government and private sources. For the next phase, the Land Trust is applying for Proposition 50 funds.

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This is a pool of money that already exists for projects such as the Land Trust’s. That money will be spent somewhere, and a lot of people think some of it would be best used here to create a world-class restoration model as well as employ staff and contractors from the local area.

Going forward, the Land Trust will be seeking private funding and corporate underwriting as well as Prop. 50 funding for the 10-year project.

Thank you for the opportunity to at least partially set the record straight.

Victoria N. Bloom

Huntington Beach

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Dog owner takes solace in spray

Hallelujah, Chris Epting!

Thank you for giving attention to this chronic problem (“Keep your dogs safe—on a leash,” In the Pipeline, Feb. 24). We used to be afraid to walk our dogs in this city that we call home. Too many dog owners in Huntington Beach are ignoring the leash laws in this city. These owners seem to have a sense of entitlement and an attitude that the law doesn’t apply to them. Our dog has been attacked four times just in our neighborhood by unleashed dogs. Unfortunately, our dog now tenses and reacts in fear when an unleashed dog approaches.

We now carry Spray Shield, which is a citronella spray that acts as an animal deterrent. When sprayed in an unwelcome dog’s direction, this spray distracts the dog and is not harmful. Now, when unleashed dogs approach, we yell and try to verbally stop them. If they continue to approach, they are quickly sprayed. After each instance, the sprayed dogs have turned around and returned to the owner. Quite often, the owners do not even know the dogs have been sprayed because they are not even nearby.

While we haven’t solved the problem of irresponsible dog owners putting other people and animals at risk; we can now walk our dogs knowing that we can protect them, as well as ourselves.

Steve and Alisa Alfano

Huntington Beach

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Church does its bit for business

I don’t know if anyone shared this nice act of kindness, but last night, I was sitting with my dog out in front of Starbucks having a cup of coffee when neighbors stopped by and we talked. They asked if I would be buying anything tonight, and I told them I usually do. They gave me an envelope and walked on. In the envelope was a card from their church and $10. It said to support downtown HB businesses. Pretty soon, another person approached me and offered the same. I told them thank you, but someone had already given one to me.

Wow, what an evening. I don’t know how many of those $10 envelopes were passed out, but what a wonderful treat when the economy is doing so badly.

The name of the church is Robinwood.

Jo Ann Arvizu

Huntington Beach

Editor’s note: Robinwood Church in Huntington Beach has given out cash to people who attend Sunday services and encouraged them to spend it at local businesses. The Independent ran a story about the program July 1.

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Citations may solve budget woes

In these days of reduced revenues to cities and the state, I wonder why scofflaws are not being sought out and fined. Every day, I see violations of leash laws, bicycles and vehicles such as no front plates, darkened windows, talking on phones, no seat belts, etc. Double or triple the fines and there would be more dollars. For a 10-week period of two hours every Tuesday, we saw on an average 63 cars with no front plate.

Now, I know it is not a priority, as officials are spending time notifying public of street sweeping days or violating Brown law on open meetings. If people complain about enforcement, tell them to move somewhere else. Either enforce laws or get rid of them.

John Johlic

Huntington Beach

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