Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/category/involvement/community-opinion/)
COVID has impacted so many things in our community from school to business to how we interact with family and friends. In the midst of this pandemic, however, local government must continue to make progress on important initiatives like addressing the senior housing shortage.
Twenty-seven people died “without fixed abode,” homeless, in Orange County in August, last year there were 19. That’s 42% higher than last year, but somewhat better than in previous months when the mortality rate among the homeless was twice that of last year. Still, more options do seem to be available to the homeless than last year, even if those options would remain difficult for many of us to accept. Let’s all keep working to make things better.
Sue Sommers, who has worked at Atlantic Aviation for 27 years writes that Atlantic is known for its impeccable customer service. Its not just what we do, its who we are.
In giving Southern California Edison permission to proceed with removing the cooling pools at SONGS, the California Coastal Commission is green-lighting eliminating the only means whereby the highly radioactive contents of a failing thin-walled dry storage canister could be repackaged into another canister. Local nuclear safety advocates are outraged.
Fred Fourcher, Co Founder and Board Member of Southern California Pilots Association provides a different perspective from members of the aviation and local communities who are not paid lobbyists and want to see the County make the right decisions.
The Santa Ana City Council is abandoning the City’s commitment to affordable housing by gutting the Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO) at a time when rent-burdened residents struggle to pay rent. The City Council is granting millions of dollars in unnecessary handouts to developers instead of maximizing the public benefit of the City’s valuable land.
The City Council didn’t ask FMEF to do anything more than our other bargaining units had not only agreed to do but, in some cases, volunteered for. And this request of FMEF was only AFTER a series of meetings initially requested by the City on April 23rd to identify and work with our labor groups during this crisis.
Vietnam veteran Bobby MacDonald reflects on the recent Korean War Memorial groundbreaking in Fullerton.
As a longtime Orange County resident and business owner at John Wayne Airport (SNA), I welcome the attention our County is giving to general aviation at the airport. Since I started my business, West Coast Charters, we have been employing local residents and providing flight services to small, medium and large businesses throughout Orange County. SNA currently has two full-service Fixed Base Operations (FBOs) that house general aviation companies such as mine. FBOs act like landlords at the airport for general aviation businesses like mine. Instead of having aviation maintenance companies, flight schools, charter companies, aviation insurance agents, and other businesses scattered across the airfield, general aviation businesses operate under one-roof, a Fixed Base Operation. While the FBO structures at SNA are still functional, they are long overdue to be upgraded. Many of the existing structures date back to the 1960’s. But since the airport is owned by the County, any new construction and upgrades must be approved by the Board of Supervisors. To determine which FBO companies would be given permission to build, operate and manage the updated FBOs, the Board of Supervisors developed and released a Request for Proposals (RFP) on September 12, 2019. As part of the Board’s approval process, each of the proposals submitted was scored by an independent review panel of aviation experts chosen by the County. The scoring included: experience, background of financing and developing FBO’s, financial strength, quality of development, management experience and other important factors that will ensure the airport maintains its world-class reputation.
Throughout the County, employers and community members have shown appreciation for the sacrifices our public workers have made and continue to make. However, in Fullerton apparently no good deed goes unpunished.