President Bob Oakley opened both October meetings with “Dad” jokes. He complimented the cooking crews and called on Programs Chair, C.W. Gruenig who introduced our guest speakers.
At the meeting October 2, OC Supervisor Lisa Bartlett provided updates on several County projects:
■ The Harbor Revitalization Project will be managed by the Dana Point Harbor Partners LLC, comprised of three companies: Burnham-Ward for retail/restaurants, Bellwether Financial for the marina, and R.D. Olsen for hotels. The project cost is estimated at $330 million and will take approximately five years to complete, with the parking garage to be constructed first.
■ The Niguel Shores Revetment awaits final approval with the Coastal Commission and is expected to appear on their November agenda.
■ Orange County Transportation will extend HOV lanes on I-5 south to the San Diego County Line, widen ¼ mile of Ortega, improve Oso Bridge, and work on a $697 million project to be completed in 2023 connecting I-605, I-405 and the Toll Road to significantly reduce current drive time.
■ The Homeless Population is a priority issue, with 7,500 homeless in OC and 75,000 in LA County. The County’s current annual costs range from $150K to $450K per individual for support services. To lower these costs, the plan is to provide free wrap-around services for housing, health and mental care at a projected annual cost of $45K to $50K per individual, saving the County taxpayers millions of dollars.
If individuals are unwilling to accept offered support services they could be arrested. To insure the local homeless population is not imported from other cities, a web-based National Homeless Management Information System is being developed to identify homeless persons by city, county and state.
■ Planned improvements at John Wayne Airport include longer distance non-stop flights, improved concessions, local restaurant options, and interactive screens.
Bartlett endorsed and introduced OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, Incumbent Republican Candidate for OC District Attorney. Rackauckas outlined his accomplishments over nineteen years, saying he has established task forces to combat human trafficking, review sober living homes and address the opioid crisis. His office is also suing Purdue Pharma for knowingly endangering patients by hiring doctors to convince other doctors to prescribe addictive pain management drugs. He noted that OC is the safest county in Southern California according to the 2017 FBI Crime Report.
On October 16, our guest speaker was Scott Rhinehart, Democratic Candidate for State Assembly 73rd District.
Scott owns a small real estate brokerage firm. He is one of nine children and his father was a miner, so he was raised in a Union family. Scott’s platform includes economic growth, single payer healthcare, clean energy, moving nuclear waste from San Onofre, opposing offshore drilling and supporting rent controls. He feels our biggest problems are not listening to each other and not working together to solve difficulties.
He is running to improve the 73rd District for his children and grandchildren. Scott took questions and debated with members to defend his positions.
The Men’s Club meets for breakfast and interesting programs twice a month on the first and third Tuesday. All men are welcome. Our next meeting is November 20 with elections in the Community Center on November 6. For information, contact club secretary Robert F. Saint-Aubin at rfsaint@me.com.
–Roy Dohner
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