Chief puts gun range on hold

Plans for a local firing range have hit a brick wall and will be put

on hold indefinitely, said Police Chief Ken Small, who made the

recommendation to the City Council on Monday.

“We’re looking at the city budget, and we’re not sure [the firing

range] scores high enough on the city’s priority list to do it,”

Small said Monday.

Small studied plans for a gun range at Gothard Street and Talbert

Avenue, where the police heliport and fire department training site

are, at the request of Councilman Gil Coerper. The facility could

have cost as much as $3.6 million.

Small suggested putting gun range plans on the back burner to

balance the realities of the cash-strapped city budget with the needs

of the police department.

“We’d like to put the project on hold for a while until the city’s

economic situation is more vibrant,” Small said.

The gun range would have offered pistol and rifle training for

police officers who commute to either Seal Beach or Norco to train.

Hours at Seal Beach are limited, and training is restricted to

stationary shooting positions. Traveling to Raahauge’s Range in Norco

takes 3 1/2 hours round trip.

Officials considered two different options for a range at the

heliport, but both were deemed inadequate. Lack of parking was a

concern, as was the site’s proximity to the fire department’s Gothard

station.

A committee formed in 2002 to study the options for training

facilities concluded that Surf City has no adequate location for a

gun range. Several properties in Huntington Beach have already been

researched as possible sites, including Golden West College, the

Orange County Dump Transfer Station and a property at Newland Street

and Pacific Coast Highway, but all were eliminated from

consideration.

The city has been without a firing range since 1997, when an

open-air range in Central Park was closed after it was deemed a

safety hazard.

Registrar of voters seeks poll workers for primary

Workers are needed to man the polls in Huntington Beach for the

March 2 primary election.

Poll workers must be U.S. citizens, 18 years of age and able to

read and speak English. Pay is $50 for 15 hours on election day and

an additional $20 for the required training.

If interested, call the Orange County Registrar of Voters at (714)

567-7580 or log on to the registrar’s website at

https://www.ocvote.org.

County water pipeline construction is complete

Construction of a 9,000-foot pipeline that will protect the city’s

primary water source from saltwater intrusion has been completed.

The Orange County Water District began work on the pipe that will

keep the county’s water safe until the Groundwater Replenishment

System, a $450-million joint project with the Orange County

Sanitation District, takes over.

Fresh water, pumped through the new pipeline, will be injected

into a line of underground wells, known as the saltwater barrier, a

high pressure system that pushes saltwater back toward the ocean,

preventing it from contaminating the groundwater supply.

The pipeline will deliver water to the saltwater barrier while the

Orange County Water District’s groundwater replenishment system is

under construction.

“What this is doing is providing us an interim way to provide

water to the seawater barrier,” said Jenny Wedge, Orange County Water

District spokeswoman.

The 9,000-foot pipeline will run from Ellis Avenue and Ward Street

in Fountain Valley to Adams Avenue near the Santa Ana River. It will

carry 4-million gallons of water per day to the seawater barrier

until the groundwater replenishment system takes over.

“Water continually gets fed in the barrier, so we don’t have a

concern of seawater contamination,” Wedge said.

The Groundwater Replenishment System will take treated sewage

water from the sanitation district and, using a microfiltration

system, reverse osmosis and an ultraviolet light disinfection

process, purify it to drinking water standards.

The system will produce 70-million gallons of water per day. Half

of this water will be sent to the saltwater barrier, the other half

will be used for drinking water.

District officials predict the system will be ready in 2007.