Ben Baeder: August 2010 Archives

This probably happened years ago, but I noticed the city concreted in the tunnel at the bottom of the playground airplane at Palm View Park on Lark Ellen and Puente avenues in West Covina. I grew up in a cul de sac across the street. And I spent a lot of time playing in that thing.

In case you''re not old, the plane used to have a tunnel on the bottom that ran from front to back.
It always smelled like urine, so I only went in when my mom wasn't paying attention.

Some of my best memories took place at Palm View. I remember getting a remote-controlled car and launching it out of the tunnel into the sand for a couple hours until the car broke. I also remember the city park staff putting down black trash sacks on the hill by the clubhouse and turning on the sprinklers so we could go sliding on hot days.

During the course of our reporting on city finance, reporter Daniel Tedford found out an interesting quirk about Irwindale.
During their City Council meetings, the council convenes two other governing bodies: the city's redevelopment agency and it's housing authority.

The get paid $60 for the redevelopment agency and $100 for the housing authority.

Tedford found out they often convene the meetings even if there is nothing to talk about on the agenda.
I had to see it for myself, so I went to their council meeting last week.

After talking about a parking garage and getting a presentation from the city's chamber of commerce, the council opened the redevelopment agency. In a total of about 60 seconds, they opened the public comment period, approved the minutes and Manuel Garcia requested an update. Then the meeting was closed. The same thing happened with the housing authority.

Five people were in the audience: me, two of Councilman Mark Breceda's friends, a woman and a man with a very full mustache.

City Attorney Fred Gallante said the council is mandated to approve minutes from the previous housing authority and redevelopment agency meetings. No other city I know of does this.

Click this link if you want to see a City Council that exudes manliness.

I know we don't write much about Irwindale, but we should. A town with staches like these should have its own newspaper. I know only three of the council members have true mustaches, but I feel the goatees are awesome enough to warrant mention.