Lift Off! - We Have Lift Off!

LOBDELL'S BOOK SIGNING A HUGE SUCCESS
Yesterday's official launch of former Daily Pilot Editor and Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Lobdell's new book, "Losing My Religion - How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America.... and Found Unexpected Peace", was a rousing success.

EVENT THE BEST - EVER
The event, held at Borders Bookstore at 19th Street and Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa was, based on reports from the staff, the most successful book signing event ever held at that venue. From what I saw when I arrived late in the proceedings, I can believe it.


STOCK SOLD OUT
All copies available were sold out and more than a few potential buyers left disappointed. I'm glad I bought my copy last week!

LOS ANGELES TIMES REUNION
This event was like a Who's Who of former and current Los Angeles Times employees. In front of me in line was former Director of News and Online for the Daily Pilot, Tony Dodero. He pointed out several former Daily Pilot staffers in the assembled throng. Former Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons was observed holding court following the recently-announced demise of his column in that newspaper. He's still with the Times, but his column, along with the California Section, is history after 18 years. Even occasional contributing columnist Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly fame was in line, carrying copies of his book, "Ask A Mexican!", apparently hoping to piggyback Lobdell's event.

EXHAUSTING SCHEDULE AHEAD
Bill Lobdell has had a very busy week. A quick visit to his blog calendar page will give you an idea. Over the past few days he's had nearly two dozen radio interviews, will appear on local television tomorrow and later next week and is about to jump off on a whirlwind national book tour. Although I got tired just reading his schedule, I have no doubt that tri-athlete Lobdell will handle it just fine.

JUST THE RIGHT TIME
While waiting for Lobdell to sign my copy of his book I watched him patiently chat with each person who eagerly handed him their copy for inscription. It was the end of a long afternoon, yet he took the time to calmly answer questions. As I stood in line with Dodero and others, it struck me that this may be exactly the right time for this book launch. Our country is in dire straits, with citizens being asked to have faith in our new president and his flurry of initiatives to get our country back on course. Faith is what it's going to take, because logic and reason certainly don't lead you to believe his plans can succeed without bankrupting the future of the next couple generations of Americans.

A MATTER OF FAITH
And now we have Bill Lobdell's book - the story of his journey to and from faith. If the first few lines are any indication, this will be a tough book to put down. He gets your attention with the very first sentence, "By age 27, I had screwed up my life." You have no choice except to swim right up to that lure and take it in your mouth. With the next sentence, "I had married my volatile high school sweetheart five years earlier, mostly because it was easier than breaking up." he firmly plants the hook and begins reeling you in. I'll be reading the book over the next couple days and will report back.

"The Rocky" Folds

ANOTHER TOUGH STORY
At a time when we hear story after story of businesses folding up, people being laid-off, the economy heading straight south and our new, trainee president seemingly intent on spending us out of debt, today I want to share with you one more of those sad stories.

Rocky Mountain News Newsroom, 2/27/09

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS FOLDS
Today, Friday, February 27, 2009, the venerable Rocky Mountain News published its last edition. Just 55 days short of its 150th anniversary, this institution has run the presses for the final time.

POWERFUL STORY
Here's a LINK to the Rocky Mountain News web site that tells much of the story, although I don't know how long it will be available for viewing. Here's another LINK that takes you to a powerful video produced about this closure. It was apparently begun the day last December when it was announced by the owners that "The Rocky" was up for sale and finished late last night. This video is part of the first link, but that one may disappear soon.

LOSS OF NEWSPAPERS IS IMPORTANT NEWS
The closure of this newspaper and the precarious condition of others throughout the country - including here in Southern California, where the The Tribune Company, parent of the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy - is very important news. According to information in an Associated Press story on the closure of the Rocky Mountain News, "four owners of 33 U.S. daily newspapers have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the past 2 1/2 months and a number of other newspapers are up for sale". Today, with our country in such critical financial condition and our new president apparently trying to fix all the wrongs in 100 days or less, it's important to have a strong, vital, vibrant free press to keep the citizens of this country informed.

DAILY PILOT IS OUR NEWS SOURCE
Here in our little slice of the world the Daily Pilot has been our newspaper of record for a century. We depend on the editors and reporters to keep us informed on important local issues so we can be active participants in our communities. Without the hard work, thorough reporting and careful editing so necessary to present the news to us we would be left at the mercy of less reliable, more biased sources of information - like this blog and others like it. It's important that we do not lose this source of news and information.

TACOS, NOT TURKEY DINNERS
Today the Daily Pilot, along with her sister publications in the Times Community Newspaper family, continue to keep their collective shoulders to the wheel, pumping out the hard news and stories of interest for their readers. They are trying to stay one step ahead in a changing media world, where people tend to get their "news" in nibbles rather than sitting down for a good meal presented by seasoned, competent reporters and digesting it all. Societally, we are tending to treat news like a taco, not a turkey dinner. We buy it fast, eat it fast and don't seem to worry too much if some of the important stuff falls in our laps or on the floor.

TODAY, THE DAILY PILOT...
It's important to me that our area has a strong, reliable, credible news source. Today that source is the Daily Pilot.

Want Some Magic In Your Life?

HAVE I GOT A DEAL FOR YOU?!
In need of a little "magic" in your life? Well, have I got a deal for you!

THE CHAMP ON TV
My old pal, Johnny "Ace" Palmer, World Champion Magician, recently sent me this information in an email.

THIS IS A GREAT ENTERTAINMENT OPPORTUNITY
We've known Johnny for years (he's a Huntington Beach resident, by the way) and have seen him perform his act many times - including at couple of my birthday parties - and think he's a terrific entertainer, so we wanted to share this opportunity to watch him on television with you.

MONDAY, CHANNEL 13, 8 P.M.
He will be appearing on Masters of Illusion on MyNetworkTV (KCOP Channel 13), Monday, March 2nd at 8:00 p.m. I know you'll enjoy his performance, along with those of many other magicians, so mark your calendars and set your TIVO.

Hi, everybody! It's us, Johnny Ace Palmer's baby chicks, Fluffy, Puffy, and Duffy, here to announce we're going to be on TV! This time, your easy chair is in the front row!

Next Monday, March 2,

on MyNetworkTV’s new series, Masters of Illusion, at

8 p.m. (PT/ET)

Johnny will be performing some of his classic illusions!

So mark it down in your calendar, and have a wonderful time watching us and many more magicians on

What? You're having a brain transplant that night and you'll miss it?

Relax—the above episode (Number 5) will be rebroadcast Monday, April 6, 2009!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And...

We'll be appearing at

Monday, March 23 through Sunday, March 29, 2009!

---------------------------------------------------

You can also see Johnny do strolling magic

every Sunday evening

at

in Santa Monica,

where he'll be celebrating 15 years as house magician this May!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information, you can...

Visit Johnny's site, call him directly at 714.373.TRIX [8749] or email him at johnny@johnnyacepalmer.com.

Visit the Magic Castle's site, ask for Mark Felicetti at 323.851.3313, Ext. 350, or email him at mfelicetti@magiccastle.com.

Visit Earth, Wind & Flour's site, ask for Dennis Klempner at 310.829.7829, or email him at earthwindflour@aol.com.

Visit the MyNetworkTV site.

Insomnia Cure and Buckets of Manure

BUSINESS AS USUAL
Well, neighbors, if you expected the new Parks & Recreation Commission to morph into a dynamic, action-oriented body of public servants, ready to take on all challenges, you're going to be very disappointed.

GALITSKI, AGAIN
Last night, in their monthly meeting, the five members of the commission decided to perpetuate mediocrity by re-electing Realtor Kurt Galitski as Chairman and Mike Brumbaugh as Vice Chair. Galitski, whose management style seems to be "winging it", demonstrated that he really hasn't learned much about how things are supposed to work up there during his past tour.

SNOOZE TIME
Granted, listening to tree removal requests can be tedious, but that's part of the job. And the new guys, Kim Pederson (who was there before many moons ago) and Jeff Mathews, Gary Monahan's campaign guy and contributor didn't, show us much. So, for you insomniacs around town, I guarantee you a quick and deep sleep if you tune into Channel 24 during the Parks & Recreation Commission meetings in the future.... zzzzzzzzz

***

THE MOUTH DELIVERS ANOTHER LOAD
Over at the CM Press, The Mouth From Mesa North delivered to his readers yet another steaming pile as he demonstrates both his bias and his ineptitude when he attempts to blame all our fiscal woes on immigrants - and does so very badly. In his entry #621 he attempts to embed fourteen links to articles supporting his racist rant. The problem is, only a couple of his links work! Even if you take the time to copy and paste them into your browser window most of them don't work.

IN NEED OF HELP - LOTS OF HELP
This poor, pathetic man just couldn't wait to get his vile rant into the ether, so rushed it and ended up with yet another entry full of lies, misinformation and unfounded allegations. Perhaps he should seek help from one of his kids when posting on his blog - they're probably much more tech-savvy. Actually, perhaps he should just seek help, period.

Smiles, Frowns, Faith and More...

NO JOKES, PLEASE!
Seldom do I pass on jokes, etc. because that practice becomes something akin to the blob - it grows exponentially as recipients simply must reciprocate and jam email inbox with all manner of garbage. I'm grateful to all my email correspondents for honoring my request to never, ever, under any circumstance, send me jokes, recipes, homilies, chain letters, charitable solicitations, etc.

A "PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT" FROM THE ORANGE JUICE! BLOG
That being said, our friend Terry Crowley over at the Orange Juice! Blog posted a clever piece - a "public service announcement" - that might bring a smile to your face. Here's the LINK. If you're in a particularly grumpy mood it might help brighten your day.

A NEW SOURCE FOR SMILES
I'm running out of reasons to continue to subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. I like to begin each day by reading many of the offerings on their "Comics And More" page. That is no longer necessary because I've discovered THIS SITE. I fear that the Los Angeles Times may be destined for the fate recently threatened by the Hearst Corporation for it's San Francisco Chronicle - closure. Apparently, the venerable Chronicle is bleeding bucks to the tune of $50 million last year and the flow of outward bound dollars has increased this year.

NEW LEADERS TO BE NAMED ON PARKS & REC. COMMISSION
Tonight, at it's first meeting since two new members were appointed by the City Council, the Parks and Recreation Commission will meet at their regularly scheduled time of 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. You can get a good idea of what this commission is responsible for by visiting THIS SITE. First up will be the election of a new Chairman and Vice Chair. It will be interesting to see what impact the two new guys, Jeff Mathews and Kim Pederson have on the proceedings.

START TIME TO BE CHANGED
Then the commission will hear a proposal to begin their meetings at 6:00 p.m. henceforth to, in the words provided in the staff report, "..reduce staff and operational costs and to increase community participation in meetings.." I'm not sure about those "operational costs" - perhaps it's staff overtime, but it seems to me that by starting a half-hour earlier would tend to reduce the opportunity for community involvement rather than increase it since most folks work outside the city. Of course, the City Council meetings begin at 6:00, so maybe this plan has merit. We'll see...

BILL LOBDELL'S NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
Today was the first day of public sale of former Daily Pilot Editor and Los Angeles Times Religion Reporter Bill Lobdell's new book, "Losing My Religion - How I lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America... and Found Unexpected Peace". I bought my copy today at Borders on Newport Blvd. and 19th Street. That will be the site of his first book signing event this Saturday, February 28th beginning at 2 p.m. See you there.. Here's a link to Lobdell's blog which includes a calendar of his events, including an appearance on KOCE Friday, February 27th at 6 p.m.

MORE ON DONN HALL
As mentioned in my last post, long time community activist and elected leader, Donn Hall, is in the hospital. The Daily Pilot has a piece on his illness HERE. We wish him and his family all the best.

The Winds Of Change

ALL HANDS ON DECK - FINALLY
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting tonight, though brief, was interesting nonetheless. It got off to a good start because all five members showed up for this meeting.(Note: original image - a tornado - apparently caused some readers consternation. So, I swapped it out for the unambiguous image now shown.)

RIGGY TAKES THE HELM
Right off the bat, as anticipated, Carpetbagger Jim Righeimer was elected, 3-2, as the Chairman. Fisler and Sam Clark voted no. Then, in a surprise to me, Steve Mensinger nominated Jim Fisler to retain his seat as Vice Chair, who was confirmed unanimously.

SELF-SERVING SERMON IGNORED
Before the considerations for Chairman were made - and while Fisler still had control of the dais - he provided a little self-serving sermon about the Planning Commission's role in city government and made his point that he thought the person elected as Chairman should have many years as a city resident, with years of experience on other commissions (he specifically mentioned the Parks and Recreation Commission) and committees. Obviously, he was talking about himself. Of course, the new guys just ignored him and chose Righeimer. One had to chuckle.

NOT YOSEMITE SAM, BUT...
There's a new sheriff in town now. It's clear that a "Righeimer" Planning Commission is going to be one that will enforce the rules or force changes to them. I suspect we'll see this group - at least the majority - cutting fewer applicants some slack in their applications. I expect to see fewer conditional use permits and variances issued. This was evident tonight when the proposed restaurants at the location at 19th Street an Harbor Blvd., where the Pasta Connection lived for four decades, were denied because of inadequate parking. Fisler was a happy guy because he's tried to get the previous commission to take a stronger stand on parking. Way, way too many strip malls and shopping venues in this city are severely under-parked.

DONN HALL ILL
Mention was made tonight about the illness of former Mayor and most recent Planning Commission Chairman Donn Hall's illness. Hall is apparently in the hospital because Fisler mentioned it tonight during the meeting. During his decades of service to this city he proved to be a "man of the people", frequently getting his hackles up when he felt personal rights were being violated by "the system". We wish Donn Hall and his family well...

Council Meeting Musings and Budget Abusing

FUN ON THE DAIS
Watching the Costa Mesa City Council meeting last Tuesday was very interesting.

MENSINGER'S BACK - FINALLY
First, we watched their recent appointee to the Planning Commission, Steve Mensinger, receive the "Mayor's Award" as part of the group that has made the Costa Mesa Pop Warner Football program so successful. Certainly, that recognition of Mensinger and his cadre of associates was well-deserved. I'm glad Mensinger made it back from his exotic vacation so he can finally be installed on the commission next week. His absence from his very first meeting kept the commission from electing officers. Now that he's back I expect to see Vice Chair Jim Fisler unceremoniously shoved aside and Jim Righeimer chosen as Chairman and one of the two new guys - Mensinger or Colin McCarthy - named Vice Chair. See what a little campaign contribution can buy you...

SCHONES OUTBUILDING DENIED - AGAIN!
Then, later in the meeting, we saw the Schones family once again - for the umteenth time - stand before the council and plead their case to have their nearly half-century old, illegal secondary residence on the back of their property be permitted to remain. This issue has been heard and re-heard several times. The Planning Commission has denied their request more than once and the council has heard it numerous times. Still, they persist.

IT'S GOTTA GO!
Finally, the council has told them once and for all that they must demolish this unit and remove it from the site. They still have the option to "make it legal" by either moving it on the site so it conforms with the rules, or chop big hunks of it away to accomplish that conformity. According to the story in the Daily Pilot, the family now plans legal action - great! One more law suit!

BRENTWOOD PARK - NIMBYS WIN
Later the council heard the issue of what to do with Brentwood Park. Many speakers stood and told the council that they didn't want interlopers entering their park - that tennis courts, basketball hoops and other amenities would attract undesirables and disturb their peace and quiet. Only a couple people made the case for using this rare opportunity to provide all residents of this city with a new, more broadly usable facility - Jim Righeimer and Jeff Harlan. Harlan had recently written an opinion piece in the Daily Pilot outlining his views, which he reiterated from the speaker's podium. Righeimer was similarly forceful in his presentation, citing that the city will have almost $6 million invested in this park which amounts to a very expensive greenbelt for a dozen homes. He pointed out that, any way you measure it, this is a bad investment of city funds - particularly in these difficult times. And yet, the NIMBYs win again. As is their practice, the council refuses to take the long view on almost any issue before them.

BEVER, THE RESIDENT CLOWN
And, of course, the clown on the dais, Eric Bever, took advantage of his lofty position to fire a shot directly at Righeimer for daring to speak against the prevailing view. So infantile is his behavior on the dais that I fully expect him to show up one evening in a diaper, sucking on a milk bottle nipple.

BUDGET WOES THREATENS CITY SOLVENCY
Of course, the biggest news in town these days is the pending financial disaster. Presently our staff is able to juggle the good old fund balance to dredge up enough money to make it through this fiscal year. However, the year that begins July 1st is another matter. Although no hard numbers are yet available, it looks very much as though our biggest sources of revenue - Sales and Property Taxes - will be down dramatically. I covered this in an earlier post.

FIRE AND POLICE UNIONS DIG IN THEIR HEELS
Now the representatives of the two public safety unions have spoken out on this subject, indicating that they are not interested in re-opening their contracts for re-negotiation until they see hard evidence in the form of audited year end results. That means that they are not willing to discuss this issue until September or October.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
The problem here, of course, is that the new budget must be completed well before that time. If they are unwilling to at least begin talking with city management representatives very soon, they will box the management team and city council into a corner and the only way out will be lay-offs.

TALKS MUST BEGIN SOON!
I admire and respect the men and women who serve this city in public safety roles. I think they do an excellent job and I'm grateful that they are willing to, literally, put their lives on the line for us. However, it will be very interesting to see if they will take the short, me-first view and refuse to help with solutions that would spread the cost-cutting burden among many and, instead, sacrifice the jobs of some of their comrades. I hope their elected leaders change their minds and decide to meet with city management to begin working together on this very difficult subject. This situation is bad and the passage of time without action will only exacerbate it.

"Supplied To Anderson"

(Image borrowed from Daily Pilot)

VISIT THE BLOG
A couple weeks ago I added a link to Daily Pilot City Editor Paul Anderson's blog, "Supplied to Anderson", on this page. I did so not as a butt-kissing exercise so he will publish more of my submissions, as some may speculate. No, I added the link because I think Anderson has recently written some powerful entries and I wanted to provide a way for you to easily access them. Those of you who read the Daily Pilot online know that Anderson's blog is available there, along with those of Brady Rhoades and other staffers.

DON'T LET OBAMA IMAGE STOP YOU
I've ragged on Anderson about taking the image of Barack Obama off the header of his blog - it was installed when Anderson spent much of a week in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration last month. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. In the meantime, don't let that stop you from visiting Anderson's site daily - he's been publishing new, interesting stuff almost daily.

HOMELESS ADVENTURES
I'm looking forward, for example, to the series of entries he's promised us about his evening spent with some of the homeless people in our community. Heck, with the new round of layoffs the Los Angeles Times will implement beginning on Monday, Anderson may well be out there among them permanently!

SHOULD BE IN PRINT, TOO
I've told Anderson that some of his stuff should be re-printed as a regular feature in the print edition of the Daily Pilot. What do you think?

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR
Do yourself a favor and visit Anderson's site. If your mouse hand is sprained so you can't slide over to the side of this page to the link, simple click HERE. I think you'll find it time well-spent.

Sewers, Budgets And Our Equine Friends

I WATCHED IT MYSELF
Rather than just leap in and attempt to post comments regarding the Costa Mesa City Council Study Session on Tuesday, February 10th, based on the Daily Pilot story by Alan Blank or the infernal rant published on the CM Press, I decided to hold off and watch the taped replay of the event last night. I also taped it and re-visited some segments to be sure I understood the participants clearly. That tape replay will replay 9 more times between today and March 1st. You can find that replay schedule HERE.

VIEW THE MEETING YOURSELF, TOO
There were three items of interest to all Costa Mesans and, rather than quote issues verbatim and in lengthy detail, I'll let you visit the tape replays or the streaming video of the meeting, which is up and running now so you can form your own opinions.

ROOTS IN SEWER LATERALS
The first item on the agenda dealt with the current cooperative effort between the city and the Costa Mesa Sanitary District dealing with sewer laterals - that part of the sewer that runs from your house to the main line out in the street - being clogged and/or damaged by tree roots. Each of us is responsible for that stretch of pipe, even though it crosses under city-owned property, including sidewalks in most neighborhoods. We have to fix problems with it out to the point where it connects with the Sanitary District's pipe in the street.

MONAHAN CARRYING THE BALL
The city and sanitary district are working closely to find a way to assist homeowners with the costs and procedures involving tree removal and/or repair of the laterals. That's a good sign and is certainly being facilitated by Gary Monahan, who is currently double-dipping as both a councilman and member of the Sanitary District board.

MID-YEAR BUDGET REVIEW
The second item was the mid-year budget review which, as you might expect, resulted in some very interesting disclosures. Most of those were covered in Blank's Daily Pilot piece, HERE. If you want to read the CM Press rant you're on your own.

FUND BALANCE NOT ENOUGH FOR NEXT YEAR
My take on this segment of the meeting is that we're going to be able to balance the current budget for fiscal year 08/09 by dragging more money out of the "fund balance" to the tune of nearly $11 million. Based on previous conversations with Finance Department senior staffers, that will leave only about $10 million remaining that can be used to help with the 09/10 budget. I don't think anyone in the room Tuesday felt that would be enough...

ALL INCOME SOURCES DOWN SHARPLY
Major sources of municipal income - Sales Taxes, Property Taxes and Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) all will be down this year. We know the TOT is down around 10% this fiscal year, but the last two months are down 14% and 18% - a very sad, unhealthy trend for our friends in the hospitality business.

SALES TAX REVENUE STILL UNCLEAR
Sales Taxes are anticipated to be way down, but no reliable numbers are available right now. Marc Puckett, Finance Director, hedged his bets by saying that he'd know more early in March. However, he did say that it looked like a 10% drop would not be unexpected.

PROPERTY TAX, TOO
Property Tax revenues will soon become apparent - assuming the state and county don't do anything stupid - like withholding them.

BLENDED APPROACH NECESSARY
It seemed to me that the general consensus around the table was that balancing the 09/10 budget is going to require a blend of fund balance, new revenue sources and severe belt-tightening. Among the items discussed specifically was increasing the reimbursement the city currently gets for the ABLE (helicopter) program. Many other issues were kicked around but no firm recommendations were made that would result in substantiative savings.

RE-OPEN TALKS OR LAYOFFS?
One large item involved re-opening discussions with the four employee bargaining units. Under normal circumstances - which these certainly are not - the city would be required to wait for an audited report following the end of the fiscal year in June. That would take a couple months, which would take us to September before discussions could take place between the city and the employee unions. However, City Manager Allan Roeder postulated that there is enough significant data available right now to support approaching the unions to begin discussions.

DIPLOMACY NEEDED
The simple fact is that salaries and benefits make up the bulk of the city budget and that's where it needs to be trimmed. There are only a couple ways to do it - re-open discussions with the unions to scale back their packages or begin laying off employees. I didn't get the impression that anyone in the room Tuesday wanted the latter.

MANSOOR HAD HIS MIND MADE UP
Suffice it to say, all hands at the meeting understood that serious and severe changes will have to be made if the city is to remain fiscally sound. I will observe that Mayor Mansoor went on a little preaching snit, reading from what was obviously a prepared text. That's our guy - never let the facts presented to him get in the way of what he already thinks!

BLEAK TIMES AHEAD
The city - and all it's residents and employees - face some bleak times ahead. Within the next couple months we'll see just how smart and innovative our elected leaders are in dealing with this crisis - because that's exactly what it is.

RRIP AND TOT
And, I will remind you of their short-sightedness over the past year when the y1) insisted on perpetuating the RRIP program, which cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees - more than $1 million over the past couple years and, 2) their unwillingness to put the issue of increasing the TOT on the ballot for the voters to consider. Had that question been posed to the voters and they passed it, we would now be seeing an increase in revenue of approximately $1 million for each increase in percentage point. As mentioned many times before, Costa Mesa has the lowest TOT in the county - it's less than half that of most other cities.

EQUESTRIAN CENTER FUTURE?
The final item on the agenda was the presentation by Steve Beazley, CEO of the Orange County Fair and Exhibition Center, about the proposed use of the current Equestrian Center site for additional parking. Many speaker stood and told the council how valuable the Center is as a community resource - before Beazley arrived, unfortunately.

BEAZLEY - "IT DOESN'T PENCIL OUT"
My take on this issue is that it sure looks like Beazley has his mind made up - that the Equestrian Center just doesn't pencil out as a profit center. The Board makes only $65,000 per year net profit from that property, which is a mere pittance when you consider other potential uses. Beazley said that, by using it as a parking lot, the Board would realize over $200,000 per year.

BULLDOZE THE AMPHITHEATER?
Eric Bever posed an interesting alternative - level the current Amphitheater site and use it for parking. Surprisingly, Beazley didn't reject that out of hand....

WATCH THE TAPE AND PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAPS
So, watch the tape or streaming video of this meeting. It's very important for all of us to pay attention and provide our leaders with our views on this subject. Roeder said that he's told the city staff to come up with cost saving ideas - there are no bad ideas. Well, that applies to the residents of this city, too. Let your leaders know if you think you've got a good idea - we sure do need them now.