Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/sharon-quirk-silva/)
Irvine Mayor Christina Shea told residents at a private townhall meeting July 18 that the golf course site was a diversion so the state doesn’t force the veterans cemetery at the original site. But she said, on Wednesday, she was talking about diverting the residents’ anger over the original site.
Irvine City Council members could end a two-year battle over where to locate Orange County’s first veterans cemetery if they decide on a site Tuesday.
Orange County’s first veterans cemetery got $20 million in state funding when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the budget, but the cemetery has yet to find a site in Irvine after battles between the city and the state legislature.
The official location of the proposed Southern California Veterans Cemetery in Irvine remains unclear after the California Senate Veterans Affairs Committee moves legislation naming one site, while Irvine is looking at another one.
The State Legislature is eyeing the original site near the heart of the old Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, while city leaders, concerned about funding, also are eyeing a golf course site.
Smaller counties than OC have asked for and received tens of millions more in state and federal funds for preventative health and housing programs that studies have shown save taxpayer dollars overall, help homeless people get off the streets, and save lives.
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stopped in Orange County Saturday as part of their own campaigns and to stump for Democratic Congressional hopefuls, in a last-minute push by Democrats to energize voters ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
Orange County is on track to form a regional agency to build housing units aimed at helping curb the growing homeless crisis after Gov. Jerry Brown signed key legislation Tuesday.
Irvine City Councilman Jeff Lalloway said Monday he will ask the City Council to approve Orange County’s first veterans cemetery in its original site near the center of the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro after voters overwhelmingly rejected a land swap that would have moved it to strawberry fields near the 5 and 405 freeways.
Gov. Jerry Brown granted a 90-day extension Tuesday for the two emergency homeless shelters operated each night throughout the winter at the National Guard armories in Santa Ana and Fullerton.