Xiomara Roos/ Special to The Malibu Times
Despite the mostly cloudy weather throughout the Fourth of July holiday, a crowd of nearly 300,000 people managed to visit Malibu beaches during the holiday weekend. The weather was most likely the culprit for such a small turnout, which revealed 100,000 less visitors than last year. Temperature highs reached 62 along the coast.
Lifeguard Captain Dan Atkins of the Zuma Beach headquarters said this weekend “was one of the most calmest, coldest, quietest holiday weekends in the past 30 years.”
There were no major incidents reported, with the exception of a handful of rescues. The rescues, Atkins said, “were due to absolute non-swimmers, since the tide was so low.”
There were the usual alcohol citations, but no major incidents occurred.
Monday produced a crowd of 104,600 people, making it the busiest day of the entire weekend, (down 57,000 people from last year). Two rescues transpired on the fourth of July. Sunday had a crowd of about 100,500, which proved significantly smaller than last year’s crowd of about 143,000. There was only one rescue on Sunday. On Saturday Malibu had 98,050 visitors, and two rescues were carried out.
Local fire officials said there were no incidents involving illegal fireworks.
Crowds gathered at Surfrider and Zuma beaches to watch the private fireworks displays set off from private barges off the coast from Malibu Colony and near Zuma Beach, and from a boat located out to sea from the Malibu Pier.
Other holiday events included the 6th annual Point Dume Fourth of July parade, where residents dressed up cars and themselves in patriotic display and walked for approximately 2 miles, ending up at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School. Residents, like 90-year-old Bill Armstrong who was driving a 1917 Pierce Arrow, believed to be only one of two that exist in the country, drove vintage cars, bicycles or walked the length of the parade.
The California Highway Patrol nor the local Sheriff’s Station had statistics readily available on Tuesday before The Malibu Times went to press.
K for outdoor movie equipment. Opening of farmer’s market is stalled as Cornucopia seeks permit.
By Jonathan Friedman
Assistant Editor
After much debate, the City Council on Monday approved the $23 million budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year, with $14.9 million allocated for general fund uses and the remaining total for capital projects.
The budget was not easily approved as the usually agreeable council spent significant time debating whether to approve the purchase of equipment to show outdoor movies in Malibu, while eliminating some of the money designated toward Malibu Coastal Vision.
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich proposed to her peers that the city invest $50,000 to purchase equipment to show outdoor movies. Wallace Theaters, owner of the New Malibu Theater (which was closed due to the Cross Creek Fire and may not reopen for more than a year), had proposed to show outdoor films on the weekends during the summer at Bluffs Park beginning this weekend. But that plan fell through when it was decided it was not financially feasible. Conley Ulich said the city should involve itself to make outdoor movie screening possible because of the importance of having things to do for Malibu youth, despite this investment meaning the city would have to make budget cuts elsewhere.
“Everyone’s belt is tight right now, but this is a need that we have to address,” Conley Ulich said.
The council voted to spend $30,000 on the theater equipment. David Lyons, the former vice president of concessions and marketing at Wallace Theaters who is currently working as a consultant for the company, said he would look into how Wallace could pay the remaining sum. A meeting was expected to take place on Tuesday with City Manager Katie Lichtig, Lyons and The Malibu Times publisher Karen Portugal York on a possible joint venture project to show outdoor movies. The proposal is to begin with showing non-first-run (newly released theatrical) films. Lyons said first-run film screening could be a future option.
Malibu Coastal Vision, the city-funded nonprofit group that is working to create a long-range vision plan for the city through community meetings and research, was hit the hardest from the council’s approval for the theater equipment, with $30,000 of the $90,000 it expected to receive next fiscal year being eliminated. The council decided to take away $15,000 that was designated for the Coastal Vision Web site and another $15,000 that was designated for a fundraising effort. However, the council does not control Coastal Vision’s budget, so it could rearrange its priorities and use money designated for other purposes to cover Web site and fundraising costs.
Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley, the biggest supporter on the council for Coastal Vision, opposed the cuts.
“To rob Peter to pay Paul is not the way to run a city,” Kearsley said.
Kearsley also opposed purchasing the theater equipment, saying, “Do we really want to get into the business of movies? I just can’t see it [working] in a city where the people have 52-inch screens and can slip a DVD in and invite their friends.”
Kearsley was the only one on the council who voted against cutting the money designated for the Coastal Vision Web site. Councilmember Jeff Jennings joined him in voting against cutting the money for the fundraising. Jennings said in an interview on Tuesday that he hopes Coastal Vision could raise money for its project, and taking away money from its fundraising efforts would be contrary to that goal.
In response to the council’s decision, Coastal Vision head Rich Davis wrote in a letter to The Malibu Times, “We are disappointed with the City Council’s decision to reduce our funding. We will need to rethink and possibly modify our process as a result, but we remain committed to ensuring that Malibuites shape the future of Malibu.”
The council also voted to increase the city’s contribution to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District from the proposed $139,834 to $294,834, the same amount it gave in the current fiscal year. With no money available from the general fund to pay for this, the council dipped into its $2.4 million fund set aside for construction of a city-owned City Hall. If there were a major disaster in the city, the money would be returned to Malibu.
Farmer’s Market stalled
During the meeting, Remy O’Neil from the Cornucopia Foundation, which runs the Malibu Farmers’ Market, asked that the process be accelerated for Cornucopia to obtain the necessary permit to operate the market. The market was supposed to have opened in April, but cannot until a solution to a zoning issue is found. It was discovered last year that the Civic Center property where Cornucopia holds its weekly market was not zoned for commercial use. Cornucopia has since applied for an amendment to the city’s zoning code to allow it to operate the market.
City planner Raneika Brooks-McClain said in an interview on Tuesday that the city has hired a consultant to work on a solution, but the process has taken a while because the Planning Division is understaffed. She said city staff is looking at granting Cornucopia a temporary use permit to open the market while the zoning amendment issue is researched. A temporary use permit would need to be reviewed by several county agencies and circulated around the public for at least 32 days. However, it cannot be appealed.
O’Neil said in an interview on Tuesday that she understands the city is looking into granting the temporary use permit, but she is frustrated that the process appears to be “going on and on.”
Chili Cook-Off issues
City Manager Lichtig announced that the city is looking into several grants and other sources to raise the $25 million needed to purchase the Chili Cook-Off property. She said a consultant would have a proposal prepared for the council next month to go over plans to finance the purchase of the property and a wastewater/storm water treatment project.