Open space advocates celebrate more acreage

BARBARA DIAMOND

Dedication ceremonies for 70 new acres to be added to the Laguna

Coast Wilderness Park will be held at 11 a.m., Wednesday, at the end

of the Canyon Acres Drive.

“Our 17,000 acres of coastal canyon parkland is the second largest

system in Southern California,” Laguna Canyon foundation Executive

Director Mary Fegraus boasted at the November Laguna Canyon

Conservancy dinner. “We are competing with Santa Monica and that took

a state agency to do it. We have a very special park and you are the

reason.”

Fegraus was the guest speaker at the dinner, held at Tivoli

Terrace. She presented an update on the city’s most recent

acquisitions -- the Trinity and Wainwright properties in Laguna

Canyon.

The purchases were funded by the March 2000 bond passed by

California voters, which allotted $12.5 million to add land to the

wilderness park -- with the fifth Laguna Laurel parcel outstanding. .

Donald Bren’s unprecedented gift of the parcel freed up the

allotment for other purchases. Language in the act required the

acquisitions to be adjacent to the existing park and a matrix of

privately-owned property was developed.

The first addition was the last Rossmoor Partners acreage -- known

as Woods End, which is soon to be leased to the county for the park.

Trinity and Wainright, 70 acres of wildlife corridors above Big Bend

were the second, approved for acquisition in March. They will be

leased by the city to the county for the park within six month,

Fegraus said.

“Small purchases can be just as complicated as big purchases,”

said Scott Ferguson, a representative of the Trust for Public Lands,

a partner with the foundation, the city and the county in acquiring

open space. “Partnerships are wonderful, but they add five layers of

bureaucracy.”

Ferguson’s grandparents lived in Laguna Beach in the 1940s. His

parents moved here in the 1970s. One of the first people Ferguson met

was Laguna Greenbelt Inc. founder Jim Dilley.

“A lot has come out of the this little community,” Ferguson said.

There is more to come.

With the cooperation of state Senator Ross Johnson, the 2004 state

budget was reworded to expand the boundaries for grant funding and

extending the funding, which was due to expire.

“At this point we still have a little more than $9 million and

three years to [spend] it,” Fegraus said. “We can’t take the credit.

You did it. I see people here who gathered thousands and thousand of

signatures to put the bond measure on the ballot.”

One face was missing. Lida Lenney, who founded the conservancy,

had died less than a week earlier.

“I know Lida would be so happy to hear reports of our successes,”

Fegraus said.

Earlier, a moment of applause -- not silence -- was held Lenney’s

memory. Eleanor Henry’s table had a vacant seat -- one that no one

will ever fill, according to Henry.

Harry Huggins will prepare a memorial to Lenney for the December

meeting of the conservancy.

Everyone is welcome at the dinners, held on the first Monday of

the month at Tivoli Terrace except during Festival Season. Dinner is

$10 for conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers, payable at the door.

Space is limited. Reservations are required. Call (949) 494-6465

and leave name with correct spelling for nametag, telephone number

and number of reservations requested.

WINNERS CIRCLE

South Coast Medical Center will honor South County fire and police

services at the 23rd annual Winners Circle Charity Auction and Ball,

to be held Nov. 20 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Laguna Niguel.

The City Council unanimously voted to reserve a $2,500 table for

the fund-raiser. Mayor Cheryl Kinsman proposed the purchase to show

support for the hospital, which is considering moving out of town.

Capt. Paul Workman will represent Laguna’s police department. As

of Monday, no one had been designated to represent the fire

department.

The evening will include cocktails, silent auction, dinner, live

auction and dancing. Proceeds will benefit the medical center’s newly

approved Cancer Center. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this month.

Sadly, no Laguna Beach resident is on the ball committee. The

closest the city comes is Joe Orsak, former President of the Laguna

Beach Chamber of Commerce and President of the South Coast Medical

Center Foundation, which is, of course, in town.

Sponsorships and auction gifts are being accepted by the

foundation, which will honor all donors in the printed program.

Tickets for the event, including valet parking, are $175,

available through the foundation office.

For more information and to make donations or reservations, call

(949) 499-7229.

OOPS

Last week, Laguna Beach author Ted Taylor was quoted in this

column as saying that T. Jefferson Parker is the best crime writer in

Laguna Beach. Not so. Taylor said that Parker, who no longer lives in

Laguna, is best crime writer in America.

BITS AND PIECES

The Laguna American Legion Post Auxiliary sent 180 Veterans Day cards and 12 dozen cookies to patients and staff at the Landstuhl

Regional Medical Center in Germany. Toni Abbod, Jean Law and

auxiliary President Diane Connell also visited with 17 patients in

the spinal cord unit of the Veterans Hospital in Long Beach to thank

them for their service to the country ... Friendship Shelter’s 2004

nonevent -- don’t come, just send money -- raised $11,000. The theme this year was the Olympics and every donor gets a spot on the

winner’s podium. With the holiday season approaching, the shelter

would be thankful for donations of turkeys, ham, fruits, vegetables,

dairy products and all the other “fixins.” Everyday needs include

coffee, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and brushes, laundry soap,

napkins, paper and new or gently used bath towels, ditto twin-sized

sheets, blankets and comforters. Cash is always good, so is time. For

more information about volunteering or contributing, call Janet

Larkley at (949) 494-6928.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.