Mailbag: In praise of panels at Dwyer

It is unfortunate that the parents of Dwyer Middle School feel that their need for community action would be manifested in preventing solar panel placements in areas that aren’t pleasing (“Parents protest solar panel site,” Dec. 23). I can only wonder at the double standards their kids are being taught as they study science and the chapter on green energy and creating a sustainable environment.

It is a shame that Dwyer Middle School, instead of being recognized as in the avant garde of promoting clean energy in Orange County, is at the forefront of backward-thinking ideology. Although I have traveled the world and have admired 2,000-year-old buildings, I would have driven past Dwyer to view the solar panels. I have never considered visiting Dwyer up to this point.

Aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder. Historical buildings are beautiful, but the paradigm is changing. This is why Europeans think we are inefficient and hypocritical. In the long run, though, it won’t matter: Necessity will replace tradition and these parents’ children will be making very different decisions in 20 to 30 years when they are parents.

Mimi Sueda

Fountain Valley

History, technology can coexist

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to run an article on such an important topic in Huntington Beach as the placement of solar panels in front of a historical landmark (“Parents protest solar panel site,” Dec. 23).

I hope that the Huntington Beach City School District remembers that Dwyer Middle School is a historical landmark. Putting solar panels in front of Dwyer will detract from it.

The residents who voted the school board members into office did so because we all knew that they would have the schools/children in their best interest, as well as the community, and we always trusted them to listen to us.

It is now time that they listen carefully to their voting residents and move the solar panels to the parking lot to look like carports. This will be wonderful for the staff, because staff members could park under the carport panels and thereby keep their cars cooler and cleaner. Putting the panels in the parking lot would also eliminate the visual blight produced by the panels on the front lawn of a historical landmark.

I trust the school board will, in light of the above, reconsider the placement of the solar panels and put them in a more productive area that reduces the unnecessary visual blight.

Su Bersch

Huntington Beach

No victory with senior center

I am not sure why the city of Huntington Beach’s attorney, Jennifer McGrath, is “pleased to report” that the city can use money from a stalled project, yet the city is still in violation of its general plan and state environmental law (“City: Park project has green light,” Dec. 16). My tax dollars are being poorly utilized by an attorney and city leaders who do not understand current laws and lack the foresight and due diligence to find a site other than open park space.

I am not opposed to building a senior center, but I am opposed to paving over open park space when alternative locations could be utilized. I am sure the city did a study and concluded that the site in question was the “cheapest” site based on 2007-08 real estate values, but the market has since corrected and there are many vacant buildings and light industrial sites that could now be used instead of open park space.

Jake Hoffman

Huntington Beach

Young ‘Rev’ had the beat

I was saddened to read Chris Epting’s column about the one-year anniversary on the passing of Jimmy Sullivan (“Drummer lives on in their memories,” In the Pipeline, Dec. 23). I was Jimmy’s sixth-grade teacher for English and social studies at Mesa View Middle School. He was an unforgettable young man at that time – so full of energy and curiosity. I’ll never forget how he would begin every day by drumming on his desk, lost in his passion of rhythm and sound until I yelled at him that it was time to talk about nouns or Julius Caesar. Everyone in my class loved Jimmy, and he loved them back.

Next to do on my list for today is to order an Avenged Sevenfold CD and hopefully hear some of the familiar beats that used to ring throughout my classroom.

Mike Goodrich

Seal Beach