Ladder appears to be history

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- A local gadfly hopes that one small step by the City

Council tonight will be one giant leap for his cause to get a ladder

removed from the south end of Balboa Island’s Grand Canal and,

ultimately, to improve access to his boat mooring.

Jim Hildreth has been called a nuisance by the mayor and vice mayor

for his regular appearances at council meetings dating back to 1999 when

officials decided to remove an illegal pier the Hildreth family had built

near their boat mooring. The pier was replaced with a ladder to give

Hildreth’s family access to the mooring, which is basically a pole

grounded to the beach and attached to a buoy.

Not good enough, said Hildreth, noting that the ladder violates

disabilities guidelines and poses a safety and liability threat.

“OK then, if he dislikes the ladder so much, let’s just look into

getting rid of the ladder,” Mayor Gary Adams said at a council meeting

last month.

That’s just what staff have done. They are recommending the ladder be

removed. Officials also plan to offer to move the mooring to someplace

where the distance between the sand and the top of the bulkhead is

shorter -- perhaps a 2-foot jump instead of what’s now about 4 feet,

Public Works Director Steve Badum said.

Hildreth said he won’t accept the solution.

“That mooring has been in the family for 25 years. There’s no reason

to move,” he said.

Hildreth has another idea, one that may feel like deja vu. He said he

will ask council members to allow him to build a platform with steps --

in essence, another pier in the same place as one torn down. He said

that, by working with the blessing of the homeowner nearest the mooring,

he can make everyone happy.

But the idea may not hold water, either.

“We can’t put a pier at the mouth of the canal there, it is a

navigational hazard to the canal,” City Councilman Tod Ridgeway said.

Hildreth has argued that a lease agreement dating back to 1976 gives

him rights to the mooring and reasonable access to any boat docked there.

He has also argued that the $78 bill he received annually from the city

entitled him to have a pier there.

Last year, however, the city did not accept his fee, telling him the

city’s billing system did not recognize his account. Before that, the

city had waived about $1,800 in fines against Hildreth for failing to

remove the original pier after they had ordered him to do so.