Business owners near Malibu Pier, eager to see the aging structure reopened, were cheered by signs of construction activity that began last month.

After the pier was closed in 1997, when it was deemed unsafe because of its rotting substructure, adjacent property owners say their businesses suffered. A significant portion of their customers, they say, were tourists and residents who fished from the pier and from the Aquarius, a day-fishing boat that for decades had occupied Malibu youngsters and seniors.

Now, the only people using the sagging structure are Los Angeles County Lifeguards, who still need to use the pier to launch their small motor boat to access the Baywatch anchored nearby.

According to Malibu Sector Superintendent Hayden Sohm, local contractor Darian Construction, the apparent low bidder, has more paperwork to do to qualify, and some governmental approvals are needed before the work can start. “We’re hoping that will be completed sometime this month,” he said. “If that goes well, construction will start later in August.”

Meanwhile, the underground storage tanks used for the old fuel dock are being removed through an EPA grant. “They removed one tank and then they discovered another, and there were no plans for the additional abandoned tank that needs to be removed,” Sohm said. “We have to encroach on Caltrans’ right of way. We have to get into the sidewalk.”

When construction gets under way, the parking lot on the east side of the pier will be used for the contractor’s staging and storage area. “It’s anticipated that will be closed to the public for the duration of the contract,” Sohm said. “The county Surfrider lot in front of the wall and the Malibu Lagoon day-use lot opposite Cross Creek will remain open, and we will open a pedestrian access way from the sidewalk to the beach.”

While this may cause some inconvenience to surfers and beach users, Lifeguard Capt. Nick Steers said, “The important thing is that the state is going to do a beautiful job.”

The city was negotiating with state and county officials to renovate and reopen the pier on a 30-year operating agreement but abandoned the projected $2.9 million plan after the state Parks and Recreation Department told the city’s consultant it had appropriated $900,000 for fiscal year 1998-99 for Phase One of the project.

State Parks Director Rusty Areias announced during a tour of the area in June the state had accepted a low bid of about $1 million for the first phase. Construction was scheduled to begin July 1 and be completed within one year, after which the pier could be reopened at least to foot traffic. The full restoration, including the Alice’s Restaurant site and the old bait shop at the seaward end of the pier, would take more than two years to complete and would bring the total bill to about $4.5 million, funding for which is still undecided but probably would have to include participation of the city of Malibu and Los Angeles County.

The city’s consultant decided the project was not economically viable, as rental space on the pier would be inadequate to support the maintenance costs. Some Malibu residents opposed expanded use of the site because increased tourism would add too much traffic to Pacific Coast Highway.

The Malibu skateboarders may soon see their dream of a state-of-the-art Malibu skateboard park become an actuality, thanks to the generosity of a Malibu landowner and the tenacity of a few kids, their parents and supporters.

Jack Schultz , an 82-year-old, major, Civic Center landowner, in business with his two adult daughters and who likes to see kids having a good time, will donate the use of the land for three years. The park will be known as Poppa Jack’s Skateboard Park.

The money is coming from the city of Malibu. After an intensive lobbying campaign by several teen-agers and adults, including Cutter McCloud, Reed Ferrar, Blake Mills and his dad, John Mills, the owner of Clout Surfboards, the City Council recently agreed to fund the skatepark construction. The winning bid came in from the Malibu Pacific Tennis Court Company of Westlake Village at $30,000 for the ramps and $7,500 for the paving, more than the original $16,000-$18,000 estimate but within acceptible limits to the the council.

Next, the contractor will meet with the skateboard group to help work out the design. Construction is estimated to take six weeks.

The City Council authorized ad sales inside the park to help offset expenses.

Malibu parents of students in second through eleventh grades received results of the Stanford-9 statewide achievement test on or about July 30. Neighboring Conejo Valley and Las Virgenes Unified School Districts mailed notifications June 12 and June 28, respectively.

In addition to scores from the standardized assessment given in April under the auspices of Harcourt Brace & Co., parents received a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District report that evaluates reading/language arts and mathematics. The Report of Multiple Measures includes Stanford-9 scores as well as district-developed assessments and teacher grades.

In a letter from Juli Di Chiro, director of Standards and Assessment, parents are advised how to interpret the multiple measures report.

“We believe that teacher grades are the most important element in determining student progress towards grade level standards,” writes Di Chiro. “Grades are the only element in this scale that reflect the student performance over the entire school year. They also include a wide variety of classroom activities, assignments, projects and tests. Therefore, teacher grades receive a greater weight than the other elements.”

In fact, teacher grades carry three times the weight. On the reverse side of the letter is a point rubric from one to five that indicates whether a student exceeds, masters, meets, falls below, or is significantly below grade level standards. Four factors determine the score. In mathematics, for example, Stanford problem-solving, Stanford math procedures and the district grade-level assessment are all given equal weight. However, on the fourth factor of teacher grades, if the child is given a “4” (masters GLS), then it is worth 12 toward the point total. Some parents have difficulty doing the math.

Although parents acknowledge that the Stanford-9 is only one indicator of a child’s progress, they do see it as a barometer. Many Cabrillo families were relieved to see Malibu results published July 22 in the Surfside News. With good reason. Cabrillo students significantly improved their spring 1998 performance.”Of course Cabrillo parents were upset last year,” says Cabrillo PTA co-president Tracy Murgatroyd. “But once explanations were given and they found out why scores were low, they calmed down.”

The “why” to which Murgatroyd refers is a lack of preparation. Unlike Webster and Point Dume Marine Science, Cabrillo students took the test cold. This year, children were given preparatory packets before the two-week spring break. “[Principal] Pat Cairns started preparing them from day one,” she says. “Mrs. Cairns’ expectations are high, so automatically the school will tend to achieve more.”

A question unable to be answered at press time affects all three Malibu public elementary schools. Third-graders at each campus scored considerably lower than second-, fourth- and fifth-graders in areas of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension and spelling. One thought is that decreased emphasis on phonics impeded these youngsters in kindergarten through second grades. Experts say that some children who were taught the whole-language approach still may be recovering from the experiment.

District officials, away this week on holiday, were unavailable for comment. Individual school offices re-open mid-August.

In what may be the first step toward an attempted wholesale dismantling of some commercial developments in the Civic Center, the City Council Monday accepted federal grant money to develop a flood mitigation plan that may call for the removal of existing buildings from flood-prone areas.

The $150,000 FEMA grant will pay for the technical assistance necessary to develop the mitigation plan, which will include identifying the flood-prone areas in the city and the appropriate methods for reducing the risk of damage from flooding.

The national flood mitigation program helps local communities target properties that repeatedly flood, in an effort to reduce economic losses and the number of insurance claims paid.

Malibu has the second-highest number of repetitive flood loss insurance claims in the state, FEMA officials said. Properties that have had two or more claims in any 10-year period are considered high-risk properties.

To reduce the risk of flood damage, FEMA encourages local communities to use their power of eminent domain to remove buildings from those high-risk properties.

“FEMA is very interested in helping local governments identify lands that should never have been developed in the first place and should never be developed in the future,” said Martha Whetstone, western regional director of FEMA.

The city was awarded the grant largely as a result of efforts by Gil and Joanne Segel and other members of the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy. Whetstone thanked the Segels Monday for alerting FEMA to the flooding in the Civic Center area. Officials from the agency then worked with city staff, under instruction from Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Van Horn, to complete the research and paperwork for the grant.

Whetstone said she understood that city officials were focusing on certain damage-prone properties in the Civic Center.

“FEMA is interested in helping Malibu find the best possible use for vulnerable land,” she said. “Very often, the wisest thing to do is to allow properties to revert to their open, natural state as wetlands.”

Michael Armstrong, director of the federal flood mitigation program in Washington, D.C., said the plan could pay an environmental dividend, as well, if some of the Civic Center lands were returned to their former wetland state. He identified the Malibu Country Mart as a candidate for study, and Whetstone referred to the Chili Cook-off site as a focus of city officials.

“You don’t want to look only at existing structures as part of the repetitive loss, but also at land … if the [Malibu Creek] water is doing something it shouldn’t,” said Armstrong.

He also said the city would be able to apply for additional funds from FEMA and other federal and state agencies once the initial plan is completed. FEMA staff will work with city staff to prepare the mitigation plan.

The City Council members made little comment to FEMA officials other than to thank them for the grant and the opportunity to be prepared in advance of a disaster.

But a large group of Coastal Land Conservancy supporters applauded each of the federal official’s comments.

Marcia Hanscom, a member of the conservancy’s board, called the grant “a new way of thinking.

“This is a huge opportunity for Malibu … a turning point in how we look at and interact with the natural forces here,” said Hanscom.

Seeking to give Paradise Cove mobilehome owners a say in resolving the criminal case against park owner The Kissel Co., officials recently agreed to postpone the trial until October. The case, set to go to trial July 20, arose out of 45 counts of environmental crimes stemming from a series of alleged sewage overflows since January 1997.

Deputy District Attorney Rob Miller, representing the People of the state of California, and Malibu Municipal Court Judge Lawrence Mira agreed to The Kissel Co.’s request to continue the trial until after the mobilehome owners vote on paying for the installation of a new septic system.

“I don’t want to be misinterpreted,” said Miller. “Remediation of the public health threat will not make the case go away. I don’t anticipate a dismissal in this case. I just don’t, for the moment, want to get in the way of an improvement of the septic system at the park if that, in fact, looks like it’s going to happen.”

A $1.8 million system proposed last month at a mediation meeting would cost the mobilehome owners $70 a month for 15 years. Fifty percent plus one of the spaces in the park must agree to the “pass-through” for the city to allow it, The Kissel Co. said in a July 7 letter, and the ballots must be returned to them by Aug. 1.

Countering a letter acting Paradise Cove Homeowner Association President Sheldon Michel sent last week urging a “No” vote until competitive bids can be obtained, Kissel attorney Richard Regnier said Michel was not speaking for a majority of the homeowners. There was no “sweetheart deal,” said Regnier. The proposed system was “state of the art” and could meet statewide septic system discharge standards set by the state Assembly Bill 885 (which was recently withdrawn by its sponsor) or other environmental standards.

In continuing the case to Oct. 12 for trial or settlement, Mira speculated it would be premature to have the vote taken before more bids are presented to the tenants. “If the pass-through is the critical issue, I don’t think we can rely on that decision being made in the very near future,” he said.

Resolution of the criminal action affects two civil lawsuits. In one, The Kissel Co. has sued the city of Malibu for failing to allow a rent increase. In the second, set for trial in November, certain mobilehome owners have sued The Kissel Co. for failing to maintain the park.