Seal Beach Victims Fund

Our City staff has been working around the clock to be sure all services that are needed at this very sad time are available to those who need them.

The Police Department has done a very efficient job from the arrest, through the investigation and in comforting the grieving.  The City Manager and her staff have put grief counselors into place, manned the phones and kept the City running during a most stressful time.  The website has been updated and gives the up-to-date information on what you can do should you need help or want to offer help.

This coming week there will be more chances to reach out to each other.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday Von’s Pavilion is offering to match all donations that are brought to the market in Seal Beach on PCH and Main and at the Los Alamitos store.  They have offered to match up to $25,000.  If contributing to the fund to help the victims is a way you would like to help, what better way than to double your gift by handing it in at Von’s?  The City, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Watson & Associates (shopping center owner at site of the incident), have jointly formed the “Seal Beach Victims’ Fund”.

While no doubt several other funds will be established to assist the victims’ families, we are encouraging those who would like to donate funds to contribute directly to the Seal Beach Victims’ Fund and deliver your donation to Von’s Saturday or Sunday (so your donation will be doubled) and to the Chamber of Commerce from Monday on.  Additional details regarding this fund can be found in a press release on the City’s website.

Von’s will match our donations up to $25,000.

http://www.sealbeachca.gov/tragedy.aspx

SEAL BEACH IS CRYING!

To see a headline that said “Seal Beach Massacre”  seemed to me to be an oxymoron. To the people that live here.  Our first thought – that has to be a misprint?

Unfortunately it wasn’t.  It seems that random acts of violence know no bounds.

It been said that the accused gunman was in a custody battle for his 7 year old son.  The first thing one thinks is….who will take care of the boy now?

And what of the sons and daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, mothers and fathers, and friends of: Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54, David Caouette, 64, Laura Lee Elody, 46, Randy Lee Fannin, 62, Michelle Daschbach Fast, 47, Michelle Marie Fournier, 48, Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65 and Christy Lynn Wilson, 47?

The only survivor, Hattie Stretz, 73, mother of Laura Elody, remains in critical condition at Long Beach Memorial.

That’s hundreds, maybe thousands of broken hearts that are left to heal.

Does man’s inhumanity to his fellow man and woman know no bounds?

When does angst become terror?  When does different thinking become so bizarre that it should require hospitalization or incarceration.

I have friends in Long Beach who today must be going through hell.  They’ve had someone threatening them for over two years and cannot get a restraining order…but as many know a restraining order means nothing if someone is on a suicide mission.  The man accused of the crime, Scott Dekraai, however, was wearing a bullet proof vest.  So we must assume it was not a suicide mission.

My son asked me what is happening in this world?  Is this the way it was when I was growing up?  My guess is that it probably is pretty much the same except that now there are so many more people in the world, so many more guns, so much more news coverage – – that people in the Congo yesterday were hearing about a place called Seal Beach for the first and only time they will in their life.

There is no way we can control anger through legislation.  Could we control or reduce it with medication? Probably if, and that’s a big ‘if’ we were allowed to treat the person with the problem.

All I know is that Seal Beach IS CRYING and I think we’ll be crying for quite a while.

Bolsa Chica Land Trust Prevails…Yahoo!

NEWS FLASH – About 9 p.m. last night, we received the following “News Flash”  from the Bolsa Chica Land Trust …California Coastal Commission Denied the Coastal Development Permit for the Shea Homes Project at Bolsa Chica.

The BCLT fight against building these homes on coastal wetland property began in 2000.  May sound like a long time but we must remember that the BCLT and the Amigos de Bolsa Chica struggled with other developers, including California Coastal Communities, for over 35 years to save the lower Bolsa Chica Wetlands…now one of the most significant ocean restoration projects in the United States.  Had the California Coastal Commission not denied this project Shea that would have been allowed to put 111 houses on the Upper Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

Thanks so much to all the Bolsa Chica Land Trust members, friends and supporters who showed up at the hearing. Your presence made a difference for our beloved Bolsa Chica!!

In denying the CDP for this project, commissioners mentioned that this land was part of a larger ecosystem, something the Land Trust has  argued since this project was first proposed about 10 years ago. Other commissioners mentioned the lack of enforcement regarding the un-permitted fill on the property. This is another issue the Land Trust has raised for years. This fill, the BCLT believes, covered then existing wetlands!

It is a very happy day for most of us who value all of Bolsa Chica!

(Editor’s Note)  It’s also a rallying cry for people all over the state to do all they can to protect the ocean front for our progeny. This denial means that if the Shea Company wants to build houses on this site they have to go back to the drawing boards. It was a close vote….6 to 5 but fortunately wiser heads prevailed.

The make up of the CCC is often changed when the Sacramento Administration changes.  Hard to believe but politics does dictate how much of our heritage can be saved.   Why Shea wants to build 111 houses, when the company that built homes on a small portion of the lower wetlands is in bankruptcy is surprising but there are always those that see asphalt as an improvement over land in its natural state.

Seal Beach supporters of  the existing land use plans for the DWP property should take note and perhaps consider a “Seal Beach Land Trust” to help save that jewel?