March
The city of Seal Beach set its course toward improving its Main Street by kicking off its “tree improvement” project. Following contentious debate, the City Council voted to spend $115,000 to plant trees along the city’s downtown business district. The project would include planters with flowers to serve as traffic calming devices.
Seal Beach decided in early March to keep its jail, despite financial forecasts by then Interim Police Chief Chief Robert Luman that its revenues would fall about $143, 891 behind its expenditures. However, Luman said the cost of the city not having a jail would be greater than the cost of having one. With its own jail, Seal Beach is able to process people arrested much more quickly than transporting them to the county jail and keeps police officers in the field for longer periods of time.
The city of Seal Beach also banned sex offenders from parks in March. The City Council passed a Child Safety Zone ordinance that would prohibi8t convicted sex offenders from entering public parks. It was determined that there were 10 registered sex offenders living in Seal Beach at the time.
Following a hiatus after Seal Beach resident Barbie Meyer retired from running the Miss Seal Beach Pageant, the event was back under the direction of Rosie Ritchie, a local realtor and a former Miss Seal Beach herself. The pageant was held in March and Joy Knepper was crowned the new Miss Seal Beach.
The Fresh and Easy grocery market opened in Seal Beach during March with a continent of protestors that had been following the opening of other Fresh and Easy Stores, claiming unfair labor practices from the company based in England.
Meanwhile, the Seal Beach City Council approved the controversial plans to plant 25 ficus trees on Main Street and pull out some other tress of different species. The main argument of opponents revolved around concerns that that the tree roots would damage sidewalks and sewer lines. Supporters said ficus trees are fine if properly maintained.
Seal Beach’s Old Town braced itself for another St. Patrick’s Day of bawdy revelry as the holiday was to occur on a weekend day, allowing many potential participants able to participate more enthusiastically in the alcohol-fueled tradition. However, unlike the rowdy days fo the 1970s and early 80s, the crowd was comparably subdued and volunteers from the local Lions Club offered free rides to partiers who might had imbibed beyond the legal driving limit.
