Malibu parks advocates stir into action … and demand the city follow through on Bluffs Park promises.
Who gets the school buses? Divorce details emerge at the Santa Monica district headquarters.
Santa Monica rushes to chop up its airport runway as fast as possible.
This is Malibu’s only local daily news.
It’s the Friday edition … from Radio Malibu …. 97 point 5 K B U.
Good morning Malibu!
Malibu’s parents are stirring into action.
Tired of watching potential park sites disappear …. demands are being made that the city get off the dime and provide athletic facilities at Bluffs Park.
More than 200 names were added to a petition in the last two days … demanding that the city
council follow through on its tentative push for athletic fields on the flat portions of the Bluff Park expansion area.
That comes after the city purchased 35 acres of land at Trancas Fields … much of it flat … and then decided not to put any soccer fields on it.
The Malibu A-Y-S-O soccer program says roughly 12-hundred parents and 635 kids in Malibu are in its programs.
That’s 10 percent of the adults in this city … A Y S O parents.
And they are pushing back against the claim that youth sports are in decline in Malibu.
The A Y S O organizers say they have had double-digit growth in sign-ups, high spectator attendance at games, as well as greater turnout for training, practices, and referee’ing.
And they are most unhappy …. that Malibu has only one regulation soccer field dedicated to 60 plus teams.
They note that Malibu kids have had to travel to multiple locations … many miles away … to compete.
The current field arrangements don’t allow the younger divisions to learn by example because our teams are currently scattered across Malibu and over the hill … according to AYSO officials.
And they say it is imperative to have three or four new soccer fields at Bluffs Park … that kids are getting shortchanged.
And the A Y S O statement says it is not just soccer kids … but skateboarders… softball and baseball players …. swimmers who need an aquatic center ….and senior citizens who need parks facilities.
On the other side … people who want to keep all of the 83 acres vacant and undisturbed argue that the last city council election was a referendum on Bluffs Park.
And that the defeat of one city council candidate … Carl Randall …. head of the city Parks and Recreation Commission … was proof of a groundswell of political opposition to the park.
But the kids advocates were not active in that election … which only to some activists was framed as a referendum on Bluffs Park … Trancas Fields … or the theory that a city should provide park services to its residents.
As we’ve reported …. opponents of the park say putting fields … a swimming pool or parking on the flat … graded portion of the park site would violate several state environmental laws.
They say the undeveloped Bluffs Park area is the last undisturbed coastal sage headland in Malibu … an undeveloped jewel that deserves protection.
As for A Y S O … its organizers promise in the petition to be better informed voters in the next election.
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Divorce talks between Santa Monica and Malibu are over … with agreement all around.
The plan goes to the school board next Tuesday evening in Santa Monica.
The Agreement was hammered out in 38 meetings …. both sides anxious to let Malibu decide its own school policies while being fair to the kids in both Santa Monica and Malibu.
The committee came up with a method for dividing all of the school district bank accounts at the time of the split … either based on the relative number of students attending classes in
Santa Monica and the Malibu community … currently 84% to 16%.
Some revenue funds would be exempt from that split.
All school buildings and associated land would go to the district where they are located.
Santa Monica gets to keep the school buses that are based there … Malibu keeps the ones parked here.
If the new Santa Monica District ever elects to sell the District Headquarters … Malibu gets a cut of that.
A vacant lot on Malibu Canyon Road goes to the new Malibu USD.
The meeting to present all this to the school board is Tuesday night at 5:30 at the Santa Monica school board offices … at 16th at Olympic in Santa Monica.
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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … 97.5 K B U. ((( time ))))
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In news from down the coast … the Santa Monica City Council is trying to move as fast as possible to chop off the ends of the runway at Santa Monica Airport.
A group of airport architects is being brought in to show design concepts by this spring with a goal of construction by the fall.
The Santa Monica Daily press reports shortening the runway to 3,500 feet will cost 4 million dollars and reduce air traffic at the airport by 40 percent.
Nearly all corporate jets … would be unable to use the shorter runway.
City leaders not only want to see the usable runway shortened as quickly as possible ….
they wish to tear up the excess runway to keep it from ever going back into service … the Santa Monica Daily Press reports.
Pilots are already bailing out from the airport.
Flight operations at the Santa Monica Airport are down by 10 percent last January…. over the year before.
About 22 percent of those flights were jets.
The Santa Monica Airport is the closest general aviation facility to Malibu.
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Two events coming up at the Malibu Public Library ….
First …. the Friends of the Malibu Library Book Fair
The annual Friends of the Malibu Library Book Fair features hardbacks, paperbacks, music CDs, DVDs, children’s books, and audio books mostly priced at $1!
All sales go to the Friends of the Malibu Library, who support children’s programs, adult programs, teen programs, and new book purchasing at Malibu Library throughout the year. Saturday, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Sunday, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
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For kids …. there’s a robotics Workshop a week from Saturday.
This is a part of the LA Makerspace Robotics Series .
Teens and kids …. ages 8-14 … can learn about robots …. and build their own.
The class will create a robotic arm.
This is a 2-part workshop; both sessions are required.
Session one is a week from Saturday … March 11th.
Session two is two weeks after that … on March 25th.
More information is at the Malibu Library… 310-456-6438.
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Here’s the KBU Malibu Gaswatch price survey …
The cheapest gas in Malibu …. $2.96 at the Arco at Topanga at PCH.
$2.99 At the Point Dume Arco.
$3.36 at the Circle K at La Costa Beach.
And around $3.40 a gallon at the gas stations at the Malibu Civic Center and Latigo Beach.
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Traffic …
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Weather for the Malibu ….
It will be (((( sunny …. 71 )))) degrees today on the beach … (((( 77 )))) inland.
Winds will be strong.
Downcoast gusts will be up to ((( 20 )))) miles per hour this afternoon.
Sunset tonight is at (((( 5:51 )))).
After that … expect((( patchy dense fog in places )))) tonight … a low of (((( 51 )))) on the beach … down to (((( 46 )))) in the canyons.
Tomorrow should be (((( much cooler )))).
Right now … it’s (((( 61 )))) at Trancas.
(((( 58 )))) in upper Malibu Canyon.
And it’s (((( 57 ))) at Civic center Los Angeles.
In the ocean … it’s (((( 54 )))) degrees in the water at Zuma Beach.
The lifeguards say the waves today are (((( 1 to 3 )))) feet high ….
(((( Minor W-NW swell mix and minimal Southern Hemisphere energy.
Those are (((( poor to fair )))) surfing conditions …. according to the lifeguards.
((((( There’s a piddly high tide at 1:05 PM.
Low tide is at 6:37 tonight. ))))
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Our KBU Newswire is posted at midmorning at the Malibu Times dot com.
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