For the second year in a row, ONT officials are in cost-cutting mode and aim to slash 14.6 percent from the airport's day-to-day operating budget.

Los Angeles World Airport, ONT's owner and operator, is expected to approve the $67 million budget on June 7.

"We're cutting back where we can still cut back," ONT General Manager Jess Romo said.

The cuts at ONT will include about 40 staffers being shuffled to Los Angeles International Airport, which is also owned by LAWA. Romo said about 18 of those employees will likely opt for early retirement.

But that is hard to do when the keys to the city's biggest economic engine - LA/Ontario International Airport - are in the hands of someone else.

On Monday, the city took what Wapner calls a "major step" in getting back the keys.

The Los Angeles City Council asked staff members from the city of Ontario and Los Angeles World Airports - which operates ONT - to conduct a study on the feasibility of returning control of ONT to Ontario.

The staff members will report their findings by September to the Los Angeles Transportation as well as Budget and Finance committees.

LAWA Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey said she

Travelers walk past the information center at L.A./Ontario International Airport on Tuesday. Control of the airport could be transferred to its home city following a study requested by the Los Angeles City Council. The airport is currently operated by Los Angeles World Airports. (John Valenzuela/Staff Photographer)

"In these times of economic uncertainties, exploring the value of assets and the costs of maintaining them is perfectly reasonable," Lindsey said.

ONT lost nearly 26 percent of its air traffic volume in the past year and also had to deal with a $7 million shortfall to its 2009-10 budget.

In recent years, Wapner said he has noticed a lack of communication when it comes to ONT between LAWA and the city of Los Angeles.

Wapner has also said LAWA has not done enough to lower operating costs and drive more air traffic to ONT.

It is Feb. 5, 1942. The then-Chaffey Civic Auditorium is alive with activity.

It is here where a musical family, who would eventually be portrayed in one of the classic movies of all time, would perform the opening night of their War Bomb tour.

The von Trapps, famously portrayed in the movie "The Sound of Music," made their U.S. debut here in Ontario.

Now, 68 years later, students at Chaffey High School's theater program are paying homage to the Swiss family with their very own performance of "The Sound of Music."

Cheney, president and CEO of the Ontario-based California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, recently visited Haiti as part of the World Council of Credit Unions field engagement program.

The delegation of 14 studied Haiti's credit union movement while also discussing ways the global credit union system can help and meeting with credit union members.

"It's important that capital get flowing again," Cheney said. "People need money to rebuild their businesses and rebuild their homes."

The group toured three credit unions in Port-au-Prince and in the earthquake epicenter of Leogane on April 21.

"The spirit of the people is incredible given what they've been through," Cheney said.

Prior to the earthquake, more than 400,000 people were being served by Haiti's 175 credit unions, said Michael Muckian, spokesman for World Council of Credit Unions.

Unfortunately, because many of the credit unions were so small, not all will recover, Muckian said.

Many of the credit unions are now operating out of office-sized tents, donated by the the credit union council, because buildings the credit unions were in were reduced to rubble, Cheney said.

While in Haiti, Cheney saw people taking out loan applications and making cash transactions. Initially, the credit unions were having to do things manually, but they now have generators and are using computers.

"It's critical to start the process of rebuilding," Cheney said.

But in order for the Haitian credit unions to fully recover, it will require some technical assistance from many of the 8,000 credit unions in the United States, he added.

The World Council of Credit Unions, the global trade association and development agency for credit unions, has been working with Haiti's credit unions since July.

Following the earthquake, the council set up the Haitian Relief Fund to assist the credit unions.

For more information or to donate, contact Valerie Breunig at vbreunig@woccu.org or call 608-395-2055.

And in the wake of four fatal traffic accidents there - the latest being 15-year-old Jesse Valencia's death last week - city officials have promised to take action and make the infamous intersection safer.

"We can't continue to put the residents in danger. We have to do something to protect people," Councilman Alan Wapner said. "This is a problem and I've got to fix it."